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!! ??

[oddjobgirl]

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.

One of the biomedical engineering courses at City Uni requires only 40 UCAS points (I think that is just one E grade at A level) and a pass at GCSE maths. Lots of other available courses for E grades
www.city.ac.uk/study/clearing/subjects/electrobiomed.html

caroline but a degree in what?

gold course management?
Madonna?

I wasn't deemed able enough to take A levels never mind a degree and I accept that but I'd bet my life I'd be an eligible A Level candidate today

"Overall the A grade A2s for this year is at 40%" (oddjob)

No it's not, it's slightly over 25%. Not sure where you got 40% from, unless you (or a journalist) misheard someone saying it was one in four.

Also, for those saying media studies is an easy option compared to say maths - how about this statistic? (from BBC website)

"There were marked differences between subjects in the grades awarded: with 43.7% of maths A-levels given an A grade compared with 14% of those in media studies"
So is Maths actually easier, or is it that it's more likely chosen by brighter students?

And what do we make of the fact that over 33% of grades in NI were A? Are NI students brighter? better taught? or do they do different exams which are easier?

If someone told me that they were a biomedical engineer I would assume they were a bit of a boffin. Apparently not though!

actually there are Universities** they are called Oxbridge.

golF course

of course!

An engineering degree which only requires a pass at GCSE maths?

Gawd...

Nadine

with your knowledge and TV presence I'd suspect that you'd be the equivalent of a graduate with a joint honours degree in beaty product science and media studies.

Attila - aren't NI secondary schools selective? might that be a factor?

Attila - In NI they have better schools.

Didn't they still have the grammar school system in NI until recently ?

yes fedup - with knobs on - sorry, honours

I don't know - I'd be interested to find out if there's anyone who knows ....

Bear in mind that some of the universities courses that offer very low points are sometimes also based on interview as well. I know Oxbridge, for example, sometimes offer either unconditional offers (i.e. no requirement to pass exams) or low conditional offers (Ds and Es) as they already know which students they want based on intesive interview procedures.

I think all educations boards in NI (I think they are called Library Boards there for some reason) bar one have selective schools. I am sure this is a big factor.

in all honesty, most employers are perfectly able to distinguish which results are worthwhile and which are worthless. they can distinguish a "good" school from a lousy one. they can distinguish a decent university course from a pointless one and accord all these things the right amount of credit in the balance.
when I was involved in recruitment, I paid quite a lot of attention to A levels tbh.

I think that is probably not true of City University though Hula..

Seriously, DH's engineering degree was pretty much all maths. How the hell can you do an engineering degree with GCSE maths alone?

that's true harpsi and when dd was recruiting with a panel and they were inundated their first sift was on the state of the application forms!

Quite possibly yes.

My borther did an engineering degree - he got a first infact and it was very Maths heavy. Mind you my brother didn't go down the A Level route - he did it the long way. Left school at 16y (hated school due to bad experiences) went to college and did the old ONC, HND route, etc.

My old HoD used A levels as his selection criteria.

And DH looks at A levels, has a list of 'acceptable' universities and insists that they have done something other than just work and study at University...

I left school in 1988 and when I started secondary school, it was the start of the Teaching Union disputes that lasted most of the 1980s - some weeks I was only in school for a few hours as they re-arranged the teaching hours to accommodate the elder students, so the younger years were left to their own devices. I was one of the fools who took advantage of this much to my parents disappointment come August 1988. There were still people in my year who made it to damned good universities at 18 and they had much the same teaching as I did up to GCSE.

I was always impressed by people who studied while looking after children.
their results were always top of the tree anyway

Ah! Proper engineering .

My degree is engineering, and it was very maths heavy. The maths was the hardest part of the course.

Bubble, I left school in 2002!