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A-level pupils 'need fewer marks to get an A'
Tim Ross, Education Correspondent30 Mar 2009
TEENAGERS taking first-year A-level exams this summer will need fewer marks to score top grades than last year under government reforms, a watchdog predicted today.
Ministers ordered tougher questions and a new A* grade to be introduced to the so-called "gold standard" exams amid concern too many pupils were scoring As.
But the qualifications regulator, Ofqual, said pupils must not be penalised with lower results because they are taking more challenging courses.
The regulator said it was crucial to maintain standards of difficulty from one year to the next. So grade boundaries may need to be lowered if this year's candidates struggle with the new AS-levels, Ofqual said.
The decision is likely to provoke criticism from those who believe A-levels have become too easy. Highly academic universities complain that it has become impossible to select the brightest candidates on the basis of their A-levels when one in four exams is awarded an A.
If grade boundaries are lowered, however, the proportion of As awarded is unlikely to decrease.
A-levels have been modular since 2000, with teenagers taking AS-level exams after their first year and "A2" exams at the end of the course. Pupils will take the reformed AS-levels for the first time this summer and sit their final A2 exams, in which the A* will be introduced, next year. In a letter to schools, Ofqual chair Kathleen Tattersall said the new exams "bring unique challenges" for candidates and their teachers with unfamiliar types of questions.
But exam boards are working to ensure that pupils are not at a disadvantage because they are taking their AS-levels this year, Ms Tattersall said.
Examiners will use a "range of technical and statistical evidence, including students' prior attainment in GCSEs" to make sure pupils receive appropriate grades, she added.
Reader views (4)
Name ? Oh the hard ones first eh !
- Wills, Soton, 31/03/2009 06:25
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Having taught for 38 years, 7 in the UK I can honestly and emphatically say exam results in the UK are a total farce. I was shocked when in both private schools we were told by the Head to make sure our students obtained top marks in the coursework by any means. What this meant is we marked and sent back the course work until it was as good as possible. We might as well have written the material ourselves. When in came to exams we spend at least a month or more going over old exams and coaching students how to answer questions. This was totally opposite as to what I was taught in teacher education where curriculum and the pursuit of knowledge and life long learning were the goals. In the UK it is all about marks not about learning. I can honestly UK education has some of the worst practices of any country I have taught in. It says something about where UK society is headed.
- Alan Howard, Stanton st. Bernard, Wiltshire, 30/03/2009 23:24
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of course we should have lowered grade boundaries but only for the first two or so years while a resource bank of past papers etc is built up. Th Jan mods in history definitely proved that their are still many creases to be ironed out in these new specs. Not only has history a change of spec but also a change in the person who writes the paper, so teachers ae unable to suss his way of thinking and adpt their teaching to him. it has also been said in the letter that the exam board will be taking the GCSE results of candidates into account when working out who gets an A and who doesn't. So there we have it and that is all from my history teacher. Who rocks!
- Nate, London, 30/03/2009 22:47
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Dont worry, they will all get As shortly. The NuLabour social scientists will see to that.
- Dave Davies, Basingstoke, Hants, 30/03/2009 16:37
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