Advantages of still doing an AS in subjects which have changed to linear exam??

It will be interesting to see the effect on grades of the three approaches of the three schools.

I am assuming that each school has taken its decision based on what will keep grades up in their view.

Though of course, there is an element of cost too. I can't help but wonder what savings in teaching time the school that only allows three A levels is making .

Surely the risk of abandoning AS needs to be measured against the risk of losing time taking AS exams when other schools will have more teaching time over 2 years? I know which choice I would make in the circumstances!

At our selective independent school (girls) AS exams are being abandoned. The girls will be examined internally at the end of year 12 and those results will be used for predictions. As the school also runs IB they are more used to public examination all taking place at the end of two years. It's a pretty good school I would say - I've been very happy with it to date - it's not a decision they have taken lightly.

Perhaps it varies then. It seems a bit risky in the very first year to give up on AS levels.

Deo my friend's twins are at a selective girls school and a selective boys school (both private).

The girls school is giving de coupled AS the boot, the boys school is continuing with AS in all subjects.

Incidentally, the nearest outstanding state school is also not proceeding with decoupled AS but will also offer only three A levels per student in year 12 (with the exception of FM).

I certainly thought most academic private schools were doing AS this year but I might be wrong. Ours are.
Of course it means less teaching time - you get the worst of all worlds - no intermediate exams which count to A2 but no nice lower sixth year with no exams in it which I had in my day years ago. Yet it seems risky not to do them and I don't think my boys doing pretty academic subjects have found a syllabus problem with doing both so far. Also it can only help the CV (unless you do badly) and for children who don't work until an exam is in prospect - i.e. plenty of boys (they are at a boys' school) it helps keep work going on and also if you didn't try very hard to GCSE but now see university in prospect you might pull your finger out for AS to make up.

What I don't like is the inconsistency of approach.

I have a fellow twins mum from my TAMBA days with twins in different schools in the same town. One will be doing AS in all four, one won't.

Ridiculous!

consensus even!

I didn't say concensus DaMoves, but it seems pretty clear to me which way the wind is blowing, and my information comes from not very different sources from yours, I imagine.

molio if you look at which schools will go ahead with AS and which won't, I don't think you can say yet that there is a consensus.

Similarly, speaking to lots of academics in the most selective universities, I don't think there's a consensus there either.

Universities seem to cope quite well in assessing applications from students who are not doing A-levels and have alternative qualifications with no externally assessed exams in Y12 (or even Y11). Predictions then become very important, of course. But I think that universities will cope fine without AS grades.

My dd's school have said students will need to decide in January which subject they will do the AS in and then drop for Y13. They will be doing mocks in December, so that will give them some information to base their decisions on.

One of the teachers told me that the school management thought long and hard before deciding on this system. There were pros and cons to all the permutations.

The ASs and A2s in linear subjects aren't co-teachable OP so he'd be branching out on his own.

OP and Molio.

I've got a finger in both pies Ralph :(

It will be interesting - to some extent I'm happier about ds being a guinea pig for the new GCSEs and having a couple of years for the A level changes to embed than if he were year 12 this year.

The jury isn't especially out DaMoves. I think the jury's view is that there's no point doing the AS any more given the syllabuses and that some unis who seem wedded to the old ASs may have to jog on :)

That's an issue certainly OP, in respect of university applications.

I suspect that for the vast majority of courses, offers will be made on a combo of GCSE results and predicted grades for A2. Then the applicant either gets the grade or they don't.

However, for those courses where there is stiff competition for an interview, let alone an offer, will a good score in AS be a tipping factor?

The thinking behind continuing with AS even where those have been decoupled includes;

• keep students focussed.
• give the schools a proper idea of ability/engagement.
• good scores in AS will help university applications, particularly important for highly competitive courses.

I think the jury's out on whether these views have basis and if schools will continue with de coupled AS.

It's the other way around here: the private schools are not bothering with AS levels (obviously some still are AS /A2) as they say the whole point of the changes is to give extra teaching time rather than wasting time on loads of study leave in lower sixth, but the state schools (that I know of) are still doing them.

Must be to do with trying to game the league tables - they will have more points per student if they've done AS and then full A level?

Our DC's school has a policy of entering all students for AS, as they say that unis have told them that they want to see the results. I only have their word for this. I do think that it may help those students (like my DD) who are doing 4 AS and don't know which to drop for A2. On the other hand it means more pressure to perform, which we could do without.

I think all the good private schools are entering children for 4 AS levels still , certainly my sons' school is.

However as the universities know many state schools will not be able to afford to that the universities will try to make sure things are looked at fairly when assessing for entry so I would not worry too much about it either way.

(People are correct that for this year some subjects are the new system and some the old which is a separate issue).

Our school is not entering any children for AS exams, and all are to be expected to enter for 4 full A levels, dropping one part way through if they want to.