'New' A Levels - today's announcement

I did old style A levels and it was great - I just dossed for the lower sixth and then cranked it up a gear for the upper sixth and did fine (and I am girl too). The current system of AS levels followed by A2s means that you have a year to ease into A level study and the exam results help universities to sort the wheat from the chaff. University study is modular so why not A level? It also means that those kids who decide it isn't for them can leave with some qualifications (AS levels) rather than just totally failing like some of my friends did back in the day.

Thankfully my youngest leaves school this year and I am so glad that she isn't going to be exposed to all these changes (although we have this blasted £9.000 fee to contend with). I am sick to death of politicians, the media and self appointed 'experts' getting involved in what children should be learning.

It is said that the new A levels will enable kids time to 'read around' their subjects. Well I don't know if Mr Gove knows many 16 year old kids, but I think that very unlikely. I used to spend most of my time hanging about with my friends certainly not in the library reading around Physic, Chemistry or Maths A level.

There is so little credit given to kids for the hard work that they put in. My dds have both worked tirelessly for their results, whereas I did a bit of panic revision at the end of the 2 years - and I passed well enough to get into a decent university. The reason that both my children have done better than I did, is probably because I was a lazy so and so who most definitely 'could have tried harder'.

Believe me, students do actually fail A levels.

The difference is that now they get weeded out at the AS stage whereas in our day, a student could go along in blissful delusion for two years before finally realising they were not cut out for the course...

i have always told my kids that when i took exams it was actually possible to fail!

I certainly think that is different according to subject at degree level. In Eng Lit, the whole point, and what we want them to be able to do at the end of it all, is think through an argument, engage in proper research, spend hours in the library and produce something lengthy at the end. After all, that's exactly what you'd need to do at the next stage of MA and then Phd.

You could certainly write a clever essay the night before, if you were clever: but you couldn't toss off a load of research and reading the evening before it was due.

Okay, there used to always be December/January re-sits, you just had to resit the whole a'level or O'level. Even at Uni there were September resits, I had to resit my second year to pass all papers so I could proceed. (I have a friend who resit A'levels because of illness in the summer, I resit one O'level).

The big issue used to be that as O'levels were sat in may/June, there was a definite effect from hay-fever; there was a lot of debate on how unfair this was.

Finally if you don't allow any coursework, then in some subjects you have to have practical exams. Will these allow preparation time, as happens at present in for example DT? Or will it be a return to the horribly stressful practical exam's in science? Which were one of the aspects of my A'levels I hated most.

But then when both Oxford and Cambridge complain about one of Gove's bright ideas, you have to wonder if he will listen to anyone.
Maybe the exam boards can bring in iA'levels, like iGCSEs. I suspect so e schools may use iGCSEs rather than the new EBC at least while the new system sorts out its teething problems.

I think this is a real backwards step. In my subject, first year students cannot take january exams (they can only do this as a resit) because all the material is assessed after one year's study.

However, my concern about going back to two years and abandoning the AS is the lack of flexibility that there will be for students. When I did my A levels, I took A level French on a bit of a whim, and spent the next two years regretting that choice. I did badly with it, and regretted it so much, that years later I went back and did the A level I should have done all along and got an A.

If students are signed up for a 2 year A level, then they need to be very clear that that is the right A level for them. But, when I interview students for my college, so many of them do not know what it is they want to do for their A levels, let alone university. This is made worse now that connexions and most careers advice have gone in schools. I see so many students who come up not really knowing what they want to do with their life, without any guidance at all. At least under the current system, there is a bit of flexibility and that if students make the wrong choice, they can get the AS and change after a year... This won't be available under the new system.

Universities differ widely in their method of assessment squeezed. Some top end ones assess only on terminal exams in up to nine subjects all examined at the end of year three.

Lauren, what exactly is a terminal exam at the end of two years meant to test? A narrow slice of knowledge written under pressure in which those who write fast and think fast pass and those who don't, don't. Then at university, we want them to think slowly and carefully, weigh up options, read widely, balance out opinions, write thousands of words in dissertations, sit vivas and give presentations and so on and so on.....because in the workplace, they'll need to write reports over periods of time, make balanced, well considered decisions, give presentations and interact with other people. A levels don't prepare anyone for any kind of future in this world. Why are we so hung up on them?

I also think the appropriateness of final exams as opposed to continual assessment varies according to subject.

Completely agree with Muminwestlondon. From the perspective of a similar ranking school too. You can't achieve an A* at A2 without being very able as well as prepared to put in the work.

LaQueen, being spoon fed and re-taking modules is certainly not the case in my DD's school. In fact the teachers made the point at the beginning of Sixth Form that the girls have to work out answers for themselves.

The exams are not "easy". Her school is one of the top performing according to the league tables out today; if that was the case everyone would get A in everything, those that get A or A have to work bloody hard as well as being very able. It was easier in my day (25 years ago) when it was pretty much a memory test!

I can't help but think this is going backwards. Most Unis teach modular courses with coursework, plus I've never had to sit "an exam" at work, but I've had to write loads of reports

The main problem seems to be with Jan exams breaking up the year and people milking the system by resitting multiple times. Which is strange, because I was one of the first to sit the new system and I was told "only 1 retake allowed (per module), if you want to retake again then you have to resit the entire qualification" (and hence retake the year!). When did it change? They're already scrapping January exams, maybe they should impose rules against multiple resits?

I think my problem is that it doesn't seem based on much except that M Gove remembers it being like that in his day, and as such obviously right. I don't see that an end of year exam promotes deep learning, particularly - and though there may be some things which could be looked at again with A levels, this seems so swingeing, and so without clear rationale, that it is suspicious.

The HMC don't like it. Teachers don't like it. Cambridge don't like it. This is enough to make me think he ought to at least have a little rethink.

How silly.

I would have hated coursework.

I suppose the driving test is unfair to women too. Much better for us poor dears to take it in nice bitesize sections because we can't cope with stress of an examination. As it is it's a conspiracy to keep women off the road.

These seem sensible proposals.

I'm struggling with the conspiracy theory.

Actually if you look back at the old O Levels and A Levels girls out performed boys on a regular basis.

Pre national curriculum girls did not always get the same opportunities to take certain subjects but when they did they got better results.

Go back to the 1950s and you will find girls had to get a higher mark on their 11+ to get into grammar school.

When coursework was scrapped for maths GCSE, boys started outperforming girls which they hadn't done before.

I think it's well established that girls perform better on coursework tasks in general than boys.

I'm old enough to have sat terminal exams for my A levels, but I've been teaching modular exams for many years and to be honest I'll be glad to see the back of them. With the system at the moment you spend too long preparing for exams to the detriment of other skills within the subject.
I would have hated to have done module exams and much preferred just one big stressful time rather than stretching the stress over 2 years!
I feel lucky that I sat my exams when I did. Also with some subjects, they just don't get it in the early stages so modular exams always seemed pointless. For example, many weaker students struggle with chemistry in AS but sometime in year 13 it starts to fit together and clicks so chemistry would definitely benefit from being terminal exams (IMO).
No reason why there wouldn't be coursework in linear A levels. I did coursework or practical exams in all my A levels back in the 80's.

I am worried that these changes will reduce choice and flexibility. At the moment students choose AS levels and then decide which to continue after the heatr's study. they do not always choose the subjects they thought they would and like to continue some that they found more interesting than expected.

These changes seemed to be preventing that.

BTW did he actually say no coursework?

Most of the coverage I have seen suggests terminal assessment, but not necessarily that will always just be exams.....

Actually most employers and universities are not critical of the modular system (which is used at most uni's anyway), and we do not want to lose AS (unless we go to post A level applications).

The content of some A levels is an issue, and, unless there is good reason, resits should be limited, but both of these things could change without ditching the modular structure.