To all those who have taken and passed their GCSE's and A' levels this year.
It makes me fume when, in the same breath, the BBC news person says "20% got A or A*, well done to them - now Minister - doesn't this mean the exams have been dumbed down?"
FFS - how whould HE like it if, after working hard for 2 or more years someone dismissed it with,"well done, but they must have made it easier for you".
I'm not arguing whether the exams are easier - that is easy enough to prove with current and past papers. What I'm furious about is the way the acheivement is dismissed so casually.
Well said that lady!
:thumbup:
I have an idea that the GCSE/A'level graded results are more a way of streaming those continuing and going on in further education, I only know four people who are directly responsible for employing people, and two of them I know employ on a "pass" rather than the grade of pass. Obviously going hand in hand together with the application and the interview.
I say really well done for all those who survived and thrived through their education to gain their results :thumbup:
A friend of Mrs777's Daughter took her maths GCSE this year ( a year early ), and can take it again in November, and again next May.
She then takes the highest grade as her GCSE result.
So three bites at the same is just one reason why grades are so high?
As I have said in the past the ones that would have got A's and A*'s and B's regardless will always be there but....the ones that would have got C's and D's before now get higher grades because they are allowed to take them more than once.
I still do not understand how D and E grades are classed as passes, any employer can see straight through that one.
But I salute those kids who did work their butts off to get excellent grades, of which there are many, and because of the " dumbing down " they maybe do not get the real recognition they really deserve nowadays.
Hopefully they will stay on at school for their A levels and do just as well.
The 4 minute mile;
It was first achieved in 1954 by Roger Bannister in 3'59.4". The 'four minute barrier' has since been broken by many male athletes, and is now the standard of all professional middle distance runners. In the last 50 years the mile record has been lowered by almost 17 seconds.
As far as im aware the mile has not got shorter??
Mount Everest;
On June 2nd, 1953 Queen Elizabeth II was crowned as monarch of the Commonwealth. Just days before, however, a humble bee keeper from New Zealand had managed to replace news of the Coronation on the front pages of the British newspapers. On May 29th, 1953 that man - Edmund Percival Hillary - and his companion, Tensing Norgay, achieved the seeming impossible – they climbed Mount Everest.
many more have since managed this climb..
As far as im aware it hasnt got lower??
why take away from the achievements these kids have gained? ffs they deserve a award for getting through school let alone with a qualification.
well done to everyone who has something to celebrate
xxx fem xx
first of all massive congratulations to anyone that has succesfully passed exams of any sort. Like many above it does really pee me off people saying they are easier. They are the same people who if the pass rate is not as good would be the first to slate the state of teaching and lack of funding for schools etc etc.
The fact is teachers are well trained and well funded. The pupils understand more the value of the exams and potential importance it can have in future.
They work hard for the exams and I congratulate schools, teachers and pupils alike.
Have to agree that for a's and GCSE's it's become an annual chant "there getting easier", talk about kicking folks in the teeth.
Our sons worked his socks off for the last couple of years and been under intense pressure to gain 7 A's and 3 A*'s. Think he'd disagree about it being easier.
IMO, exams are no harder today than they were 20 years ago, but only in comparison to the average intelligence of today's youth. What is much easier these days is the access to information. 20 years ago, in order to gain extra knowledge or understanding of a subject we had to visit a library or museum etc. These days all the kids have to do is point a porky finger at the PC's "on" button and off they go. Also, spell-checking and grammar are done for them (for those that actually bother) via the click of a mouse.
My brother employs over 300 people, and has had the same written test that all prospective employees have to take. It involves basic elements of maths, physics, English language and grammar and has remained unchanged for 15 years. In 1982, the average score was 81%. Last year the average score was 37%. Make of that what you will.
Dean....I have already stated how I feel about a lot of the kids achievemnets.
Of course there are many kids who I take my hat off to and say WELL DONE. But when kids get three D's and three E's and they are ranked as passes, that to me just adds up to manipulating figures for pass rates.
Something is seriously wrong every year they change the goalposts, as they will now with the GCSE's. I think they are now thinking of going back to the old O level sort of thing.
What I do think is that the GCSE exams as they are now, will be changed big time in the next couple of years.
People have already said that exams must get harder if they are to be deemed worthy of meaning.
Yes well done to the kids and of course any child can only do an exam that is put in front of them but...do you really believe that exams are at the same level of difficulty that they were 20 or 30 years ago? There is apparently 33% of kids that leave school that cannot attain the 3 R's properly, yet manage fantastic grades.
Maybe I am just too cynical by thinking the Governemnt look purely at figures and graphs, but then maybe I am wrong and the exams are much harder than they used to be, and that the pupils and the teachers are much better nowadays than they used to be.
The next couple of years will tell us when they change the format of the exams and the way in which they are laid out. Already course work in a lot of subjects will be stopped as too many kids are copying their coursework from the internet.
That is a good idea about coursework not being included into exam results, just the good old fashioned two or three hour exam, in a classroom, answering questions on the work you have learnt over the past couple of years.
Did you know that some kids can take an English exam paper where the highest grade you can achieve is a C grade, and other pupils can take a different exam paper which is harder? So you get one set of pupils taking one exam paper which is easier, and another group of kids take the harder paper.
Why do all the pupils not take the same exam? I will not be cynical and say it could possibly help the pass rates.
Kenty, thats similar to the old system of CSE's and GCE's where a CSE level 1 was equivalent to GCE level C.
It showed that the knowledge gained was comparable.
All stemmed from streaming where you were put into the top classes to do your GCE's and middle to lower for CSE's
Nowadays I believe teachers are much more adept at teaching kids to be able to prepare for exams and that has maybe leant towards a greater pass rate. I know when I was at school in the 70's and early 80's very little knowledge was given to us about how to revise except for giving us some sample questions at the end of term to help us in what we would expect to see.
All the employers I have discussed this with (not many granted) are very clear. Anything less than a C is a fail.
What we need is a way of differentiating the 20% of kids all squashed into A and A*. A few more questions on teh paper - harder ones - wuld do it, you may need to extend the exams - but it's better than facing an employer or college with hundreds of kids with effectively the same result.
In at least one company I have worked for, grade was the first filter, handwriting was the next and spelling/grammar was the next. Not because it was critical to the job, but it was the only way to get through the hordes of applicants before they all gave up waiting and found jobs elsewhere. And could be done without really reading the content of the applications. They knew they were missing out on potentially excellent employees - and getting a good grade and having nice handwriting and good English does not relate to being a good employee.
x
Highly amusing, I'm sure. I forgot to mention that the minimum qualification to even get to the interview and assessment stage is 3 a-levels including 2 science-based.