GCSEs are getting easier
So are A levels.
(magic the cat will someone please think of the kittens, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 15:23, 20 replies)

yeah, but that's actually true
I went back to college in 2005 after 15 years to resit my A-level maths and physics. I dug out my original A-level textbooks o prepare and found that half of the topics had been ditched and some of the new A-level topics were covered at school in GCSE when I was 15.

I also did A-level further maths and that's where the harder tmaths topics had been promoted to, and the harder FM sections had disappeared.
end-rant

If it was up to me, education would be run by a politically neutral or maybe cross-party committee who won't steadily erode standards so more people get higher grades.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 15:33, closed)

Totally agree
I read an A level politics paper a few years ago, that was below GCSE standard back when they first came out.

A system that allows barely literate arse scratchers come out with an A* in English, is a disgrace.

I'm not saying they're all barely literate by the way, it's just that a qualification in english should not go to someone who pronounces the word "ask" as "ARKS".

3 fecking letters, it's not difficult.

Rant over.
(magic the cat will someone please think of the kittens, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 15:46, closed)

You're not saying THEY'RE all barely-literate
ITYM
(Vice Admiral Sir Charles Cockbrush KCB MBE DSO, who is finding it increasingly difficult to log into b3ta.com wants to duck your aunt and kick your puppy, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 16:03, closed)

Thank you
for the "SP - see me" in red pen.

I've made it all better now.

I won't do it again.
(magic the cat will someone please think of the kittens, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 16:20, closed)

I once had a prolonged argument
with my daughter's teacher at a parents' evening once when she was at primary school. I asked her why she hadn't corrected the spelling mistakes in my daughter's book. Her argument was that it was a science lesson not an English lesson.

And recently, her year-9 English teacher told me how she's well behaved, sat at the back of the class...

'sitting at the back' I corrected her. Her face was a picture.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 16:23, closed)

That
sums it all up really.
(magic the cat will someone please think of the kittens, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 16:27, closed)

(ninja-edit) Though
it didn't help my case by missing out the letter 'p' from the word spelling. It was a typo though, honest. I'm using an Advent laptop so most of the keys are shagged.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 16:32, closed)

If it
isn't true, then the people who took 'O' levels in 1982 (the last year in which the results DIDN'T go up) must have been barely able to write their name.

A girl I know from school has just retaken her Maths and Biology GCSE (although why you would bother nearly 25 years after you left school is beyond me). By her own admission she did fuck all revision and got two 'B' grades. At school she was 'ungraded' for Maths and got an 'F' for Biology.

Now you could argue that whilst attending the university of life she picked up a lot of stuff that helped her - but that seems unlikely to me.
(dchurch bah, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 15:46, closed)

Incidently
This is from the Facebook status of the son of a friend who recently got something called an 'A star' in English:

"Everyone has to get down [town removed but there was no capital letter] and try the new milkstake shop its amazing ive just had skittles and jelly tots one theres loads marmite , chill anything u can think of try it"

I rest my case.
(dchurch bah, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 15:49, closed)

My mate
received an assignment written in text-speak. He handed it back and told him to do it again.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 16:33, closed)

Yup
My cousin picked her grades up and despite thinking she was shite for two years got a load of As.

As for uni now, they can't even write their names.

It's all about targets
(bluehamster, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 16:09, closed)

A-Levels and GCSEs getting easier?
No.

Students getting brighter?

Fuck no.

Teachers focusing on teaching students how to pass exams, rather than teaching them actual knowledge?

Oh yeah!
(MrC. Having the most boring username on b3ta since 2004, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 16:17, closed)

My mate bucks the trend
He teaches A level Music Technology at a sixth-form college. He overteaches them, teaching them the subject not how to pass the exam. Those that go on to study the subject at uni have contacted him to thank him as he has taught them stuff that they're covering at degree level.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 16:26, closed)

My Physics teachers were the same
They sat us down and said "This stuff is harder than anything you'll have to do in the exam, but we think you should know it". I'm now going into my second year of a physics degree.
( MatJ LOOK, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 16:32, closed)

People like that should run education
and not politicians
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 16:34, closed)

Here
here
(magic the cat will someone please think of the kittens, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 16:36, closed)

Where
Where?
(Vice Admiral Sir Charles Cockbrush KCB MBE DSO, who is finding it increasingly difficult to log into b3ta.com wants to duck your aunt and kick your puppy, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 16:59, closed)

There
There on the stair, right there.

A little mouse with clogs on
(magic the cat will someone please think of the kittens, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 17:09, closed)

Education
is too important to leave the running of which up to politicians, in my humble opinion.
(dchurch bah, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 20:47, closed)

Wilberforce or
that other one
?
( Batshitmentalist is sane for once, Sun 30 Aug 2009, 22:33, closed)