Are a levels harder than they were 20 years ago?

[llamajohn]

I took my a-levels in 2002. They weren't hard. Heck I didn't even complete my coursework in one (NEA now?) and still got an A. I did very little work in maths and got a A. Did the bare minimum in third choice, Chemistry and got a B.
My attendance was around 70%.

I'm guessing those days are gone??

what’s your job now?

Looking at past papers overall I would say easier now. Both DH and I work or worked in higher education. He came home and once and relayed how in a lecture he said of course all of you will have covered X equation in your A level maths and they had not.

I never had to work that hard, people have a natural level of intelligence and then what happens to them plus their attitude shapes them.

@llamajohn I had a very similar experience. I took my A-Levels in 2004, the first year I did literally nothing, didn't even turn up to a few exams and missed a lot of lessons! The second year I had to buckle down somewhat to make up work from the previous year but still didn't give it too much of my time and came out with two As and a B. At the time I thought it would be the one thing that would impact my career the most and in reality it hasn't actually contributed to it whatsoever!

Yes. They were very hard in late 1980s, much easier through early 2000s, and hard again since 2017 ISH when the spec changed.

Data scientist. Why?

Ah, I was one of the lucky ones then :D

Was it around then they got rid of AS/A2?

I think they are easier. When I sat mine only the nerdy kids got As and they worked really hard and deserved them. The average grades of my friends and I were B's, C's and D's and we were all considered to be relatively intelligent kids. Now everyone gets an A. Same as GCSEs really.

Looking at my DD's subjects, the curriculum seems very full (barely time to cover everything), and a high level of sophistication needed for top grades. So yes I think harder than mine were. She also battled some serious headwinds such as no teacher for almost half of the course in one subject.

I bumbled through my A levels and did well enough for LSE. I would need much better grades now, and in fact none of my siblings would have got into their course on their 1990s A level grades. It's a pretty stressful process for kids now.

They were harder 40 years ago. Straight As were incredibly rare then, wasn't even required for entry to medicine. Now 4 x A* often doesn't get you in. Of course, it could be that DC are working harder, not that they are easier but I don't think so. I think teachers also teach more to the test / curriculum these days (due to league tables), also increasing grades.

AS are still around now! Most schools choose not to but not all! Daft IMO.

Well no, that's not true about a quarter get 3 As/A*, so not everyone....

In 2002 it was just under 21% A, and 2023 it's just under 25% A*/A. So I think whilst the percentage has increased... they aren't getting mriez not really... but does this mean they're easier as 4% increase in top grades?

The A* at A-levels has hovered around 8% (ignoring 2020-2023)

www.statista.com/statistics/282973/a-level-results-in-the-uk/

I'm not sure about 20 years ago, but I think they are easier than they were 30 years ago as there seems to be a lot more top grades now. It could partly be because of all the access to revision materials that is available now.

I dunno, I thought there was a problem with kids doing really poorly at AS level?

I agree with someone above, they got easier when the AS/A2 specifications were written. Now they’re back to A (AS does exist but doesn’t count towards A level in England but does in Wales I think) and are significantly more content heavy. That’s not exactly the same as harder, but I think an overall ‘harder’ experience.

why not

I did them in the early 2000s and they were harder than degrees even back then. They are hard in order to separate the students who won't tolerate university from the ones who will.

I think A levels where AS levels were still part of the mark scheme were easier because they were modular and in reality the students took 3 or 4 half A levels in year 12 and 3 or 4 half A levels in year 13.

When AS levels went the students went back to having to remember all the content over two years.

DD worked her socks off to achieve all As at A level (biology, chemistry and geography) and graduated with a good first in a STEM degree from an RG universit, and said that her A levels were harder than her degree.

I really dislike it when people say that A levels are easy. Either they are incredibly brainy or they have no idea about the content of today's A levels. It minimises the hard work and stress that today's young people go through.

I would be interested to hear what teachers think.

I took mine in 1988 and they were really hard then, a lot harder than my first year at university.

In England they have been decoupled from A levels and don't count towards them. I believe that AS levels are still taken in Wales, but I don't know if they count towards the final mark.

I took mine in 1986. Physics chemistry biology. Did fuck all for most of it and worked really hard for the last 4 months and got 3 As.

No they aren't. Not according to my retired teacher relative anyway, who marks GCSE and A level exam papers.

I don't know but I took mine in 1999 and don't recognise your comment about them being easy. Everyone I know worked very hard for their grade As. Even many of my friends who went to Oxbridge got something like AAAB rather than straight As. I look back at some of my work and think how did I memorise all that?!

I did mine in 90's very few seemed to get straight A's you could also get into some medical Schools with BBB.
The really clever as In naturally bright were those getting the A"s in my normal state 6th form. I knew of people who went to Oxbridge with less than A graded.
I found my A levels harder than my degree!

I did mine in the early 1990s and my kids are doing them now, I think they're fairly similar really.

The grading boundaries are very different I assume, I agree when I was at school in the dark ages less than a handful of students got all A grades (bog standard comprehensive) , they were the super brainy ,stand out children.