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??

Or maybe the grade boundaries are lower and students have better revision resources? Have you recently looked at the A level content of the same subjects you took at A level?

I agree that 18 year olds are probably no brighter than 18 year olds of yesteryear, but please do not do young people the disservice of diminishing their achievements

A similar thing happened with a boy at our school. This was about six years earlier than yourself. (I was only good enough to go to a university in London)

How much all of the following played into things I don't know, but I suspect that this was a very early example of a "contextual offer".

No it was fairly standard. That's the way Oxbridge offers worked back then. They made offers based on your performance in their entrance exams and interview rather than your actual A Level results (though they would have been pretty unimpressed if you'd rocked up actually havings got Es).

I took my A levels in 2006 and I've been a teacher for 15 years so I have a reasonable perspective I think.

I think some things are easier and some are are more difficult. We received very little help with coursework (or indeed with our writing at all) and were left to get on with it - people got what they "deserved" - ie the clever did well. My students now are much better supported if they can't do things well on their own the first time.

Linear A levels have removed second chances. I never took a single resit but most people who came out with the same grades as me did - this is harder now. I also didnt have the opportunity to get As - I didnt do much work in the second half of Year 13 as I hardly needed anything to get my university place. Now I would have been wanting 4 A stars.

The internet has made it much easier for students to access relevant materials for their course/do independent research but has also ruined their concentration/brains.

So I think they find it harder due to societal changes rather than the exams actually being more difficult. But the exams do give them less capacity to fail in a way which they can redeem/have another go at.

Students now seem to be much more anxious about exams than my cohort were, but I think it's their generalised anxiety and the education system/state of the world more generally rather than the exams. Some of my students seem completely overwhelmed but also clearly do very little actual work and most of the time they think they are studying is spent on their phone.

But students are better taught the marking points. The intelligence hasn't changed an iota.

I took mine in 2004 and got 2 Cs and an A. I don’t think they were particularly easy. I don’t think they’re easier or harder now from what I’ve seen

I did mine on 1989 and got AAB, which was considered very good. My brother got AAAA the following year and made the local paper!

Just to say for those commenting on exams from the 1980s - they DEFINITELY were more difficult then. We looked into this a lot when I did my teacher training. Before the introduction of modular a levels they were a lot harder.

My dad showed me his exam papers in the subject I teach from the 1960s which he (amazingly) still has. They were very similar to my university exams which I took in 2009 (although tbh it's oxford so the exams hardly change). He was really clever, at a Grammar school and got ABC, and ended up at Oxford.

Cambridge I think
i would have to check, but never heard of joint northern

I did essay based A levels in the early 90’s and was never taught how to structure an essay, how to construct an argument or anything like that.
I completed two under graduate degrees, one in 90’s and the second a few years ago.

In the second degree I was taught about essay writing and I had access to so much research because of the internet. It was easy to search for things through Google Scholar rather than looking through multiple journals and books.
I don’t necessarily think the exams have got easier but the tools available to modern make it look easier.

Local papers didn't report A level results in 1974. It went under the radar. Only 15% got to study after the age of 16 in Cornwall then. And most would have opted for / got C&G qualification regardless.

I think that you can't compare really. A level exams test what has been taught and how the individual applies what they have been taught. That teaching has changed... for the better I think, there is a lot more focus on the application, on real world problems, rather than on facts and knowledge that can be got from Google. Hot harder, not easier, but different.

Much easier now.

Have you got evidence to back this up? Are you a teacher?

Before the introduction of modular a levels they were a lot harder.

Well, yes they would be. A levels are no longer modular. They haven't been for years. They are linear.

Sat mine in '92 and remember them being super hard. The transition from GCSE to A level came as a bit of a shock, frankly. Standard admission grades to a decent uni - eg Russell Group - back then was BBC, which I think is quite telling.

My DH sat his in 1992. Worked really hard and got ABCC. Got into a decent uni with that which surprises me if that was crap back in the day.

I feel the pressure is much greater now. A couple of subjects my DD and friends are looking at need a mix of Astars and As. The same subjects at the same unis when I was her age needed BBB. It's so much more pressure being told a single B will scupper your firm offer. I could believe an A is "easier" these days but overall I think they have sixth form much harder than I did.

And I do think Maths is a slightly special case - it's always come easily to some.

DD is set so much work as "pre-work" - they are expected to learn the material before the lesson. One of her teachers does the whole course this way. It does impact on her motivation to keep turning up at lessons when they are only ever going over what she's already learned.

Think you are mixing 2 posts.

I don't agree @BlackStrayCat that the exams are easier now. They are written so that the well drilled can trot out an acceptable correct answer and get a B but the candidates who advance beyond an account and give an opinion, with a reasoned substantiated rationale underpinning their view, will score higher, even if the examiner disagrees with their opinion.At least, I hope it still works that way.

Yes, I was. I should have tagged @Sandpitnotmoshpit for the second quote. My apologies.

Yes, RG was BBC then. ABB. I got BBB.

No 4xA*

The modular a levels of the 2000’s were definitely easier. Each exam was worth about 18% of your total grade and the easier AS content could be retaken without the mark standing if it was worse than your original, lots of people resat a low A to get a better A to cut down the need to work as hard in year 2. I used to get 95% on each biology module just by cramming the night before - there were these amazing Collins short 50 page guides. Few hours cramming one of those a you would be good for an A.

I took my A levels in 1990 and I found them pretty straightforward (mix of humanities and sciences). My first degree was much, much, harder.

Two different points; the grade boundaries have shifted so that more students get top grades. The exam style has, over the nearly 30 years I've been teaching, changed to have slightly easier questions (hence all the 'kids today don't know XYZ') but on a much wider range of topics. Which is easier overall? Take your pick!

It is difficult to compare really, I agree it can seem harder, but DD has the internet/zoom/presentations online/resources we could only dream of or line up to photocopy in a library. She knows FAR more than me but that does not equal intelligence. Again, IMO.

Its why plagerism scans exist now. It is so easy to not have original thought (IMO)

Anyway, in the late 80s grades were lower. A very low % of students went to uni and you got a grant!

Actually (and I am much much older than most of the posters here because I did my A levels in 1974, when Oxbridge's top colleges were not mixed) I think the main issue is that the stakes are so much higher now. In 1974 it really didn't matter if I went to university. I would have been snapped up in law or accountancy for articles at 18, and trained on the job. Which is fine, but it never puts you on the track to the higher level work that is done in the City, where the money is made. That was always the preserve of graduates.

Even then @BlackStrayCat there were varied offers. Bristol and York both wanted BBB in 1974, but Cardiff offered me a place on EE.