AS/A2 results in UK in only 11 hours!

[Cobra]

If you're from the UK, and waiting for AS/A2 results then shout!

Tell us all what you got tommorow, too!

11 hours to go.......... Bricking it good-style now!

Imagine, Edexcel picking names out of a hat.......

CobraDMX

[Craig Tucker]

94% pass rate with 1 in 5 getting an A, and they say the standards hav'nt been lowered.

I work in a university and you should see some of the dumbasses who leave with a degree.

When 100% of the people who take an exam pass (and thats the way it's going), whats the point of taking the exam in the first place. You need failures to give any credability to the achievements of the people who pass.

Craig

[ember]

When I started my University course way back over 10 years ago, we had no remedial classes. By the end of my postgrad years, most science courses had a foundation year. And this because standards are improving?
At school, when I looked at past Maths papers, not only were the questions less structured than the year prior to my taking them, but they also included topics left off our syllabus. I expect this has continued over the past 10 years.

[Cobra]

What is considered a pass? With pass rates like that, and considering some of the results I saw today, I believe that these massive pass rates they are boasting about are generated by considering a D or E a "pass".

Standards slipping? I am not really in a position to challenge nor support these theories but I assure you that these exams are hard enough as it is. Personally, I worked really hard for my results and I deserve them. So, two fingers to anyone who says they're crap (I got Bs for chemistry and ICT, and As for biology and business).

Perhaps standards are rising, not on the exam level but on the student level, where we are more motivated to do well. Teachers, also, may well be improving - I know my teachers are all committed to doing the best they can, under quite difficult circumstances. Where's their thanks?

But of course, standards of exams are slipping...

CobraDMX

[ember]

That's the problem with the pass rate: I think it was 50% to get a "C" the year I took GCSEs. Last year it was 18%. I'm not sure how AS/A2 compare, but it seems a likely explanation for the inflated pass rates.

It's insulting to everyone who ever worked for A-levels. It's insulting to those who worked for them this year (and the effort needed to take so many AS) but it is also an insult to those who took them in the past because, to escape the inevitable inference that "A-levels are losing content/exams more structured/less testing IQ" etc. you must infer that previous generations of teachers were inept, or the students much less motivated/intelligent. I can assure you this wasn't true. I expect the efforts of students have been pretty constant over the decades, but these results (on the basis of constant standards) seem to show otherwise.

Changing standards is also a problem when employers have to compare people of 5-10 years age difference based on A-level results. Is a B grade 10 years ago worth an A grade now?