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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to make universities accept an A level at grade E from a normal state school is as hard to get as B/A at selective schools!! ??

185 replies

oddjobgirl · 16/08/2007 22:28

Not my DS - but I've had a crowd of A2 students in my home. One who got what he was expecting and the others massively under. I've just watched the news - what a difference. Some of the young peoples here worked hard, competed with dis-interested class mates who dropped out, teachers over worked, exhausted, off sick for months on end... it's not a level playing field.

OP posts:
Fireflyfairy2 · 17/08/2007 11:31

One module of mine is psychology.. it's bloody hard & I hope you're saving already, the flippin' text books cost a fotune!! For last year alone, my 3 books cost me over £100! That's only for one year!

Fireflyfairy2 · 17/08/2007 11:34

Actually slayerette, now you mention it.. media studies was mentioned also. In fact media studies isn't a lost art (Nor is English imho!!) We had the BBC in last week giving the media studies & the journalism students lots of work experience.

The producer was telling us that they have quite a few opportunities for people with media degrees as they know how to use the edit software & are educated in uploading their own recordings onto the www.

hunkermunker · 17/08/2007 11:35

Surely if you work really hard and get an E, you must consider that university might not be the place for you?

peanutbear · 17/08/2007 11:35

I dont want to upset you but my sister and I both went to comprehensive school and a shitty one at that

I got 3 A levels in the sciences but it ws very hard work

I also have a friend who hs 2 children who went to college to do her A level and yesterday got 3 A's And she hd a job children and studied

Hulababy · 17/08/2007 11:36

Bubble - my sister, who got 3As and 2BS, left after 4 years ago. My other lad I spoke of got his result this week. I have also followed results in the schools I taught at until a couple of years ago. Rest of friends, self, etc are from about 10 years+ and yes, things have changed. But even then my school was definitely not a great one.

Hulababy · 17/08/2007 11:37

By hunkermunker on Fri 17-Aug-07 11:35:26
Surely if you work really hard and get an E, you must consider that university might not be the place for you?

I agree. Unles there is a specific reason (illness, acute stress at time of exams, etc) then if they truely orked hard andstill got an E, then a univeristy degree course is just going to be too taxing, surely?

aloha · 17/08/2007 11:39

Well I went to a crappy comprehensive (ex secondary modern in a town where there was a still a grammar school, albeit no 11+) and still managed the odd A grade A level. And that was in 1981, when they were actually worth something!
An E grade is nothing like an A grade, whereever you come from.

hunkermunker · 17/08/2007 11:39

Going to university isn't a right.

Not everybody will cope there.

Creating more and more spurious degrees so that more and more people have a chance to go - that's wrong. Home & Away Studies with extra modules in making toast, BA Hons.

FFS.

What we should be doing is making sure that the people who are capable of going aren't denied the opportunity through poor teaching and lousy home life, and creating opportunities for those who aren't as academic so they have the chance to shine in their own sphere.

Fireflyfairy2 · 17/08/2007 11:40

There was a guy on the news yesterday who fought cancer/leukemia last year & got A grades.

harpsichordcarrier · 17/08/2007 11:40

yep I agree. there is a world of difference between an E and an A.

NadineBaggott · 17/08/2007 11:42

sorry not read the thread but that is just ridiculous why not do away with A levels altogether? Just let anyone who wants to go to Uni go?

hunkermunker · 17/08/2007 11:43

Exactly, Nad

(Seen your latest ad, btw - you made me think of something Quite Interesting wrt formula advertising as you banged on about pentapeptides )

NadineBaggott · 17/08/2007 11:44

It's bizarre isn't it all the hoo-ha about grammar schools being selective and they should be ditched blah! blah! but University is not deemed to be elitist everyone wants to there.

NadineBaggott · 17/08/2007 11:45

really hunker?

I must read those scripts more closely - I'll be watching out for my next performance!

fedupwasherwoman · 17/08/2007 11:46

YABU and a bit deluded tbh.

At our school, 20+ years ago, grades A-C were considered a "pass" and anything else was a "fail"

These days it seems no-one is allowed to "fail" anything , they just get a lower grade and even then it must always be someone elses fault if they didn't get what they wanted.

It isn't a level playing field but some universities do apply their own levelling in the form of offering lower grade requirements to state school pupils dependent on their opinion of the student's actual abilities.

IMHO some of "the youth of today", (love that phrase) don't actually know what hard accademic work is, they submit coursework getting stuff from the internet and collaborating with their mates and this is marked by their own teachers. I do feel they sound like they've been badly let down by the school though and this issue should be taken to the local papers if the school do not take steps to address the issue. I'm interested that you say that one pupil got what he was expecting, so presumably he managed despite the poor quality schooling on offer and this does somewhat undermine your theory.

hunkermunker · 17/08/2007 11:47

I think grammar schools are a wonderful idea.

I'm all for streaming by ability though.

I got an E in art and I know full well that the difference between me and the A grade students is I didn't do any work. I blagged all my other exams, but apparently for art, you needed to work all year and produce coursework or somesuch nonsense

hunkermunker · 17/08/2007 11:47

Yes, NB, I'll start a thread later

LazyLineLegilimens · 17/08/2007 11:50

I agree with Hunker. The mistake that we seem to have made is assuming that everyone should go to university. Not everyone is suited to higher education and yes, if you tried your hardest at A level and you come away with an E, then it is not likely that you will succeed at degree level.

hunkermunker · 17/08/2007 11:53

There's no way I could've done an art degree.

I did philosophy and science instead

Caroline1852 · 17/08/2007 11:53

IMHO the Uni degree has been downgraded in line with the A level and GCSE to cater for the new intake. Instead of messing with GCSEs, A levels and Unis (we used to have Polytechnics but they are all Unis now) why not create a new breed of Uni? A Super Uni, or a University * since everyone seems to love adding a star. Then we will be back to where we were some years ago when only the truly academic went to Uni.

meandmyflyingmachine · 17/08/2007 11:55

As a state school teacher I rather resent the OP actually.

And I think that if you are getting an E, you are not ready for University. There may be other reasons than just not being bright enough. But you are not ready now.

When I was doing my PhD, I know a bloke who had bombed his A levels - because he didn't work. He freely admitted that if he had gone to University on the back of those, he would have done no work there either. Instead he took some time out, then did a foundation course, a degree, a PhD and then on to a research career.

Had he gone through clearing with some duff A levels, then I doubt he would have had the same success.

Caroline1852 · 17/08/2007 11:55

Lazyline - the point is though, that people get three Es at A level and emerge from Uni three years later with a 2:1 or even a first: perhaps they are just slow starters ?

LazyLineLegilimens · 17/08/2007 11:57

Well, Caroline, that's fair enough if you can find a university that will take you. But it seems off to me to complain that getting into one is hard when you have got E's at A Level.

amidaiwish · 17/08/2007 12:02

well you only need 2 E's to get into oxford.

but you do have to pass their exam and interview beforehand!

fedupwasherwoman · 17/08/2007 12:07

I know someone who went to a university which is a regular fixture in the bottom 5 as far as university league table is concerned and he had NO A levels, is definately not accademic and still got a 2:1. He puts this down to the fact that he did a "common sense subject", always submitted his fully reserached coursework and on time, attended almost all of his scheduled lectures each term but most of all he was a mature student who wanted to get a degree for a specific reason so he had motivation that he just didn't at 16 when he originally left school.

The degree subject itself is a bit of a joke, some of the stuff is just common sense that you'd find it unbelievable that anyone should think it needed "teaching" in the first place but he just needed to have graduate status to apply for certain civil service jobs and it worked. He now has the type of employment that suits him, relatively secure with little to really tax his brain too much.