Category: A Levels

Making the grade

Making the grade

Teenagers who have taken A Level and GCSE exams will now be waiting nervously for their results. They have endured curtailed schooling through the lockdowns and more recently because of teacher strikes. But when they get their results what will they mean? The problem with exam grading pre-existed the Covid pandemic and in fact, can…

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Exam results more unreliable than ever

Exam results more unreliable than ever

The fall-out from the exams debacle during the pandemic lockdowns continues, with news that English students face stricter grading in their exams this year than students from devolved parts of the UK. Ofqual, England’s exam regulator, has decided to return to 2019 grading levels, but Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland’s regulators won’t. It means that…

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A Levels – A for absurd

A Levels – A for absurd

We are now in the middle of exam results season and I’m afraid it’s a big FAIL for A Levels. The system is failing us all; students, universities and employers. This year A Levels had a pass rate of 98.4 per cent – just 1.6 per cent failing. A whopping 36.4 per cent of grades…

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The clue is in the name – ‘A’ Level should mean ‘advanced’

The clue is in the name – ‘A’ Level should mean ‘advanced’

Once again A’ Level results were collected by worried sixth formers and once again they performed better than any year group that had gone before them. It seems we are trapped in an unending spiral of grade inflation, and if it continues on its current trajectory, it won’t be long before every student is an A-grade student.…

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