I was looking at the proposals for exam reform

[reddidi]

... in England and although all the information is there, it is difficult to work out exactly what is going to affect which children. So in summary, if you are currently in:

YR, Y2, Y3, Y4 or Y6 - You will follow the new National Curriculum. You willl sit all new GCSEs which are likely to be graded 1 (lowest) to 8 (highest) and are unlikely to have different "foundation" and "higher" papers except in a couple of subjects. If you take A levels you will sit all the exams at the end of Y13; AS levels may still exist but will not count as the first half of an A level.

Y1 - as above, except that you should still learn the old National Curriculum for English, Maths and Science and the Key Stage 1 tests at the end of Y2 will be based on the old National Curriculum because that is what you are currently following.

Y5 - as above, except that you should still learn the old National Curriculum for English, Maths and Science and the Key Stage 2 tests at the end of Y6 will be based on the old National Curriculum because that is what you are currently following.

Y7 - You will follow the new National Curriculum. You will be the first year to sit all new GCSEs (the second year for Maths and English) which are likely to be graded 1 (lowest) to 8 (highest) and are unlikely to have different "foundation" and "higher" papers except in a couple of subjects. If you take A levels you will sit all the exams at the end of Y13; AS levels may still exist but will not count as the first half of an A level.

Y8 - You will follow the new National Curriculum. You will be the first year to sit the new GCSEs in Maths and English which are likely to be graded 1 (lowest) to 8 (highest) and English is unlikely to have different "foundation" and "higher" papers (but Maths is likely to, as now). For all other subjects you will sit the existing linear GCSEs graded E (lowest) to A* (highest), including the revised "broader and deeper" Geography GCSE and "more challenging" science GCSEs. If you take A levels you will sit all the exams for these at the end of Y13; AS levels may still exist but will not count as the first half of an A level.

Y9 - You will follow the new National Curriculum except in English, Maths and Science. You will sit linear GCSEs, the revised English Language GCSE with no Speaking and Listening component, the revised "broader and deeper" Geography GCSE and "more challenging" science GCSEs. If you take A levels you will be the first year to sit all the exams for these at the end of Y13, although in certain subjects* you will be the second year to do this; AS levels may still exist but will not count as the first half of an A level.

Y10 - You will follow the new National Curriculum except in English, Maths and Science. You will be the second year to sit linear GCSEs, the revised English Language GCSE with no Speaking and Listening component and the revised "broader and deeper" Geography GCSE, and the third year to sit the revised "more challenging" science GCSEs (although the second to sit them linearly). If you take A levels in certain subjects* you will be the first year to sit all the exams for these at the end of Y13; AS levels may still exist for these subjects but will not count as the first half of an A level. A and AS levels for other subjects will be unchanged except that there will be no January exams so resitting will only be possible in June.

Y11 - The National Curriculum only applies up to Y11 so you will not be affected by the change to this in September 2014. You are the first year to sit linear GCSEs, the revised English Language GCSE with no Speaking and Listening component and the revised "broader and deeper" Geography GCSE, and the second year to sit the revised "more challenging" science GCSEs (although the first to sit them linearly). A and AS levels will be unchanged except that there are no January exams so resitting will only be possible in June.

Y12 - You were the first year to sit the revised "more challenging" science GCSEs , but otherwise you escaped except that there are no January AS or A2 exams so resitting will only be possible in June.

Y13 - You almost escaped change, except that there are no January AS or A2 exams so resitting will only be possible in June.

• the A level subjects that are changing for first examination in June 2017 (current Y10) are English language and literature, the sciences, history, geography, psychology, art and design, sociology, business studies, economics and computing.

So that's really simple for children, teachers, parents and employers to follow isn't it?

Ah, sorry Oddboots for getting your hopes up but they won't. Students won't sit AS in all their subjects. At the moment students normally sit four subjects and drop one after AS, so 3 and an AS is now normal and I think sixth forms would be reluctant to lose that. So students may start four subjects and decide before March which they want to be their AS, get entered and only sit AS in that subject. That's my speculation.

When they have been setting up the new A-levels it was decided that the AS content should be teachable alongside A-level content, so we wouldn't need to run separate AS and A-level classes.

That being the case then it would surprise me if some schools (particularly the private ones) didn't enter every student for the AS exams in all their subjects anyway as a way of having an advantage when it comes to getting university offers. Even if the same content would be examined again it would give a better indication than a predicted grade. I'm not sure what the disadvantages would be, there must be some but I can't see them.

noble I wonder if we might return to the old system of teachers providing predicted gardes to the universities based on the AS level exams?

That's how it worked in ye olden times...I remember accosting my english teacher when he was having a shifty fag to ask him what he was intending to predict .

oddboots from speaking to DS school, I think that will probably be the plan.

The teachers think it's a good idea to force the students to take things seriously at the half way mark. And taking an AS that will feed into university applications is a good way of doing it.

The real problem for uni entrance I think will be all the exams have "different value" attached to the different grades and different " tougher/broader" type exams, yet they are all very close in time....

Given a gap year/sickness/thinking/deferred place year year ( or even 2) you have maybe exams results done under 3 different sets of conditions applying for the same thing. And maybe with/without AS as well...

That says to me, for competitive courses eg medicine, you have to peak high and early. Never mind 7-8A to be in the running for top courses/unis it's going to be that number of level 1s - which I assume are only the top so many of those now falling in the A band.

Why don't they just go back to the old O level way of grading? Ie percentages in each grade. Yes the boundaries vary a little depending on the brightness of the cohort - but if your top 5% say then that's a 1, next 10% a 2 etc. much easier to compare than the current mash up!

Why don't they just go back to the old O level way of grading? Ie percentages in each grade

Because it is is unfair and doesn;t work.

If the top 5% get A, next 10% get B, but end with a bottom % which has a fixed % failure rate. So some people will always be failed, regardless of how hard they work.

It is also easily distorted by the number of entries, so an A in English and Maths which everyone takes, might give a fairly accurate position, but what about Astronomy or Urdu which is a selected population. This means an A in English could be the same standard as a C in another subject.

I have one in year 10 (and one in year 8) who will have to choose A Level subjects this summer, without actually knowing the topics on each syllabus as the Exam Boards won't have got their heads around this till next academic year at the earliest.

And can we assume that the first year of the A Level syllabus will be identical to the AS syllabus for each subject? Or will kids have to choose NOW which will be their AS Level subject with no option for changing their minds if they get on really well with the subject and turning into an A Level?

This sounds like such a confusing mess which will be affecting employment and university admissions for years to come. It is also worth bearing in mind that these changes come after several changes to higher education (e.g. higher fees, lack of number controls on students with ABB+ and adjustment). I feel that this already makes university admissions harder to navigate/predict, and having an all new exam system come along a few years later, along with the changes to AS will not help.

I also wonder how many of these changes will go ahead should the conservatives not be in government after the next general election.

The changes have been rushed through deliberately to beat the next election. New maths and English GCSEs and a lot of the new A-levels (not maths or MFL) are for first teaching September 2015. If Labour won in May, there simply wouldn't be enough time to stop the changes, especially as schools break up in July so things need to be in place for September by then.

It's a cynical move purely motivated by politics to rush these changes and it ensures that the first few years will be an utter shambles. The exams won't even be piloted so the first cohort to sit them for real will be the first lot to sit them at all.

The only good(ish) news on the horizon is the ending of student number controls for home students in English unis. Getting rid of the ABB/non-ABB divide will be helpful.

It will mean the possibility of more flexibility for offers and during Clearing and we will need it

reddidi - thank you so much for answering my questions.

Your info is hugely helpful but sadly as the parent of a yr8 leaves me in despair.

We have parents evening next week and I would bet my bottom dollar that half the teachers there won't have a clue what is going on.