Daughter got 3 A Levels, taking a year out, then off to Stoke Uni, in time for us to be playing them in the Championship. Know of one other Addick whose daughter has passed 3 A levels today.
[cite]Posted By: Chunes[/cite]They're really not as easy as the media would have everyone believe. One of the hardest things I've ever done. Well done to all.
I take your word for that ..............but I see very little evidence of this super dooper intelligence when I bump into the little cheerubs in the street, or on the bus, or when they come to work for me. All I have evidence of is a bunch of cretins who can't speak the queens, can't add up without a calculator and can't spell for toffee. Apart from that, I look forward to the A level results being smashed again next year for the £20 millionth year running.
Oh and well done to those who got the grades they were after...........
I have no doubt that there are kids who have studied incredibly hard for the results that have got and good on them. Unfortunately I think the exams may not have got necessarily easier - just easier to pass resulting in unis etc having to use other criteria to vet the people they take in.
My son got ABC grades for his three which means he'll be off to Southampton in October. Very proud of him and relieved at the same time that he now has the opportunity to go and get the qualifications that will hopefully allow him to follow a career of his own choice. Something that I was never clever enough to work out at his age !
[cite]Posted By: WSS[/cite]I have no doubt that there are kids who have studied incredibly hard for the results that have got and good on them. Unfortunately I think the exams may not have got necessarily easier - just easier to pass resulting in unis etc having to use other criteria to vet the people they take in.
And come on, 26 years of continuous improvement?
Yup, one in four or five getting As.
Like you say, I don't think anyone's working less hard, I just think they're getting devalued by the constant increases.
[cite]Posted By: WSS[/cite]I have no doubt that there are kids who have studied incredibly hard for the results that have got and good on them. Unfortunately I think the exams may not have got necessarily easier - just easier to pass resulting in unis etc having to use other criteria to vet the people they take in.
And come on, 26 years of continuous improvement?
fair enough comment, but would add that there is definately more emphasis at school these days to do well at exams and to get a University education, which is not a bad thing in my book. In our day, you really only went to Uni if you wanted to study for a particular career, Engineering/Medicine etc. otherwise you just left at the end of 6th form and took your chances with your O/A levels on your CV. These days nearly all employers are looking for a degree qualification for any decent job.
Got lots of excuses why I completely bolloxed my A-Levels up in 1980ish......some valid of course, others less so. Would like to know what my grades (o-level I think) would of been equivilent to today, considering the general perceived downgrading of education in this country and how my life would of gone in a different direction if i had of gone on to be a soap dodger at one of our leading universities. Instead I went straight into the grind of the work place.
Well done to all you passers. As with life, the wronguns willl drop out eventually and the workers, well good luck to you !
They have got easier, or the grades have been softened, but well done to those that achieved their required grades for uni. Just don't bother wasting your time on soft courses and concentrate on the more work focused degrees. No one wants to employ someone who studies media studies or similar so don't waste the opportunity you now have as with near 40% going to uni now (guess it keeps the dole figures down) it is widely recognised as less important to have been to uni than to have a degree in a relevant subject.
[quote]They're really not as easy as the media would have everyone believe. One of the hardest things I've ever done. Well done to all.
I take your word for that ..............but I see very little evidence of this super dooper intelligence when I bump into the little cheerubs in the street, or on the bus, or when they come to work for me. All I have evidence of is a bunch of cretins who can't speak the queens, can't add up without a calculator and can't spell for toffee. Apart from that, I look forward to the A level results being smashed again next year for the £20 millionth year running.
Oh and well done to those who got the grades they were after...........[/quote] Cheerubs? Spell check needed -:)
[cite]Posted By: Chunes[/cite]They're really not as easy as the media would have everyone believe. One of the hardest things I've ever done. Well done to all.
I take your word for that ..............but I see very little evidence of this super dooper intelligence when I bump into the little cheerubs in the street, or on the bus, or when they come to work for me.
How'd you know what the people on the street or bus got for their A levels?
My youngest daughter got what she needed (including an A in the subject she is studying) and will be off to uni next month.
We've had some ups and downs in our family one way and the other but she has stayed focused and I am extremely proud of her whatever snide comments the media choose to make about grade inflation, exams getting easier etc. In a way all that makes it harder because employers and universities simply ask for higher grades.
They can only do what is asked of them. If they manage that they deserve to take the credit and congratulations.
Failed to get into Leeds Uni, got BBC, seriously depressed, however, did apply for law at Greenwich, and if accepted will be satisfied and will buy a season ticket.
[cite]Posted By: Chunes[/cite]They're really not as easy as the media would have everyone believe. One of the hardest things I've ever done. Well done to all.
I take your word for that ..............but I see very little evidence of this super dooper intelligence when I bump into the little cheerubs in the street, or on the bus, or when they come to work for me. All I have evidence of is a bunch of cretins who can't speak the queens, can't add up without a calculator and can't spell for toffee. Apart from that, I look forward to the A level results being smashed again next year for the £20 millionth year running.
Oh and well done to those who got the grades they were after...........
They are alot harder than people assume. You can't make judgements unless you've taken A-Levels in recent years. People need to accept that perhaps the teaching has improved in this country. I've Just graduated with a 2:1 aswell!
How do people seriously have the nerve to say exams have got easier, especially this year with 30,000 places being cut in universities it makes it all the more competitive and the pressure on the students is far worse than in previous years. Yes there is the arguement of re-takes, but this can make it harder as some people in my school were having to 20+ exams in the space of under 2 weeks.
They're really not as easy as the media would have everyone believe. One of the hardest things I've ever done. Well done to all.
I take your word for that ..............but I see very little evidence of this super dooper intelligence when I bump into the little cheerubs in the street, or on the bus, or when they come to work for me. All I have evidence of is a bunch of cretins who can't speak the queens, can't add up without a calculator and can't spell for toffee. Apart from that, I look forward to the A level results being smashed again next year for the £20 millionth year running.
Oh and well done to those who got the grades they were after...........
Cheerubs? Spell check needed -:)
I am O level educated - no A*** 's for me - so I am allowed the odd spelling error. :-)
Chunes - I would ask them on the bus but I would have to shout too loud to try to get and make myself heard over the music. The ones who we employ through agencies all come with A*'s and some are as thick as dogshit.
A-Level results have improved for 28 years on the trot. The knee jerk reaction is to say the exams have got easier, but the picture is not as simple as that. For a start the perception that those youngsters are cretins despite their levels of education have been there all my life. people have always complained...in the old days it was along the lines of 'sheesh, got a qualification in Geography, but doesn't even know the name of the main river in Rome, or the capital of Chile'. However education has moved away from those times when the regurgitation of facts was the mark of 'intelligence'. History for example no longer starts with cavemen, and follows a line of received information to 1945, which is then memorised. These days History is taught in a more complex manner, for example posing questions about what you can summise from source materials.
There is a now well established culture that students use reasoning, and deduction, co-operation and imagination, knowledge of how systems work and how to research, problem solving and a panoply of other, often practical skills. General knowledge is still highly respected, but more so if you have an idea how to apply that knowledge. Examining facts used to be a much more straightforward process than examining some of the things I have listed above.
Schools never used to be under the pressure to teach to exams, things such as league tables have changed that, and schools and teachers have become more savvy about going for exam scores, and with intense focus on results it may be that teachers are doing a better job getting students through exams, rather than exams getting easier.
Grade boundaries, especially at GCSE and also at A-level have also got higher, some subjects such as Art demand 97% for an A* at GCSE, whereas Mathematics is in the seventies in terms of percentage. So as results have improved the benchmark is set higher and higher. If somebody gets an A-level, even at grade E they have a substantial achievement whatever the subject. A grade 'A' in Dance for example means you are a pretty formidable student and have done really really well.
There has been an huge shift in the cultural life of younger folk too, where the internet, and electronic communications is second nature, and even sometimes drives a divide between generations, certainly I call on Seth Jnr often to suss out a computer problem, perhaps I am the cretin in his eyes!
Finally, it sticks in the gut of some people that Teachers, you know those lefty liberal useless holidaying parasitic do nothings, might actually be doing a good job. Dealing with large groups of teenagers, and getting something worthwhile out of them is a difficult and highly skilled job, many try and many give up, even parents with one or two teenagers of their own have been known to give up.
28 years of improvements suggests to me that Teachers, schools and of course loads of great students have been getting on with it well, and that the kind of youngster that provides the fodder for the various types of gawp TV are in the minority.
Well I guess academic excellence doesn't always transfer into being a viable employee.
Come on now. People who do A levels are generally not the ones who are playing crappy r&b off their phones on the 51. That's some serious pigeon holeing.
They're really not as easy as the media would have everyone believe. One of the hardest things I've ever done. Well done to all.
I take your word for that ..............but I see very little evidence of this super dooper intelligence when I bump into the little cheerubs in the street, or on the bus, or when they come to work for me. All I have evidence of is a bunch of cretins who can't speak the queens, can't add up without a calculator and can't spell for toffee. Apart from that, I look forward to the A level results being smashed again next year for the £20 millionth year running.
Oh and well done to those who got the grades they were after...........
Cheerubs? Spell check needed -:)
I am O level educated - no A*** 's for me - so I am allowed the odd spelling error. :-)
Chunes - I would ask them on the bus but I would have to shout too loud to try to get and make myself heard over the music. The ones who we employ through agencies all come with A*'s and some are as thick as dogshit.
They'll be in good company if they're working for you then!
They're really not as easy as the media would have everyone believe. One of the hardest things I've ever done. Well done to all.
I take your word for that ..............but I see very little evidence of this super dooper intelligence when I bump into the little cheerubs in the street, or on the bus, or when they come to work for me. All I have evidence of is a bunch of cretins who can't speak the queens, can't add up without a calculator and can't spell for toffee. Apart from that, I look forward to the A level results being smashed again next year for the £20 millionth year running.
Oh and well done to those who got the grades they were after...........
Cheerubs? Spell check needed -:)
I am O level educated - no A*** 's for me - so I am allowed the odd spelling error. :-)
Chunes - I would ask them on the bus but I would have to shout too loud to try to get and make myself heard over the music. The ones who we employ through agencies all come with A*'s and some are as thick as dogshit.
They'll be in good company if they're working for you then!
Russ - I need good quality staff to carry me mate...........
Comments
My daughter got her 3 'A' level grades for Bournemouth Uni.
Oh, I'm quite comfortable in that position, Kap.
They always turn to you when straight common sense is required. ;-)
I take your word for that ..............but I see very little evidence of this super dooper intelligence when I bump into the little cheerubs in the street, or on the bus, or when they come to work for me. All I have evidence of is a bunch of cretins who can't speak the queens, can't add up without a calculator and can't spell for toffee. Apart from that, I look forward to the A level results being smashed again next year for the £20 millionth year running.
Oh and well done to those who got the grades they were after...........
And come on, 26 years of continuous improvement?
Like you say, I don't think anyone's working less hard, I just think they're getting devalued by the constant increases.
fair enough comment, but would add that there is definately more emphasis at school these days to do well at exams and to get a University education, which is not a bad thing in my book. In our day, you really only went to Uni if you wanted to study for a particular career, Engineering/Medicine etc. otherwise you just left at the end of 6th form and took your chances with your O/A levels on your CV. These days nearly all employers are looking for a degree qualification for any decent job.
Well done to all you passers. As with life, the wronguns willl drop out eventually and the workers, well good luck to you !
I take your word for that ..............but I see very little evidence of this super dooper intelligence when I bump into the little cheerubs in the street, or on the bus, or when they come to work for me. All I have evidence of is a bunch of cretins who can't speak the queens, can't add up without a calculator and can't spell for toffee. Apart from that, I look forward to the A level results being smashed again next year for the £20 millionth year running.
Oh and well done to those who got the grades they were after...........[/quote]
Cheerubs? Spell check needed -:)
How'd you know what the people on the street or bus got for their A levels?
We've had some ups and downs in our family one way and the other but she has stayed focused and I am extremely proud of her whatever snide comments the media choose to make about grade inflation, exams getting easier etc. In a way all that makes it harder because employers and universities simply ask for higher grades.
They can only do what is asked of them. If they manage that they deserve to take the credit and congratulations.
Jealous, uni years are a bit spesh, enjoy them, it is as good as it gets, come 25 you are finished.
They are alot harder than people assume. You can't make judgements unless you've taken A-Levels in recent years. People need to accept that perhaps the teaching has improved in this country. I've Just graduated with a 2:1 aswell!
Jealous, uni years are a bit spesh, enjoy them, it is as good as it gets, come 25 you are finished.[/quote]
Thats right, day one....... they teach you to speak the queens English
Anyway, well done to all who succeded
I am O level educated - no A*** 's for me - so I am allowed the odd spelling error. :-)
Chunes - I would ask them on the bus but I would have to shout too loud to try to get and make myself heard over the music. The ones who we employ through agencies all come with A*'s and some are as thick as dogshit.
There is a now well established culture that students use reasoning, and deduction, co-operation and imagination, knowledge of how systems work and how to research, problem solving and a panoply of other, often practical skills. General knowledge is still highly respected, but more so if you have an idea how to apply that knowledge. Examining facts used to be a much more straightforward process than examining some of the things I have listed above.
Schools never used to be under the pressure to teach to exams, things such as league tables have changed that, and schools and teachers have become more savvy about going for exam scores, and with intense focus on results it may be that teachers are doing a better job getting students through exams, rather than exams getting easier.
Grade boundaries, especially at GCSE and also at A-level have also got higher, some subjects such as Art demand 97% for an A* at GCSE, whereas Mathematics is in the seventies in terms of percentage. So as results have improved the benchmark is set higher and higher. If somebody gets an A-level, even at grade E they have a substantial achievement whatever the subject. A grade 'A' in Dance for example means you are a pretty formidable student and have done really really well.
There has been an huge shift in the cultural life of younger folk too, where the internet, and electronic communications is second nature, and even sometimes drives a divide between generations, certainly I call on Seth Jnr often to suss out a computer problem, perhaps I am the cretin in his eyes!
Finally, it sticks in the gut of some people that Teachers, you know those lefty liberal useless holidaying parasitic do nothings, might actually be doing a good job. Dealing with large groups of teenagers, and getting something worthwhile out of them is a difficult and highly skilled job, many try and many give up, even parents with one or two teenagers of their own have been known to give up.
28 years of improvements suggests to me that Teachers, schools and of course loads of great students have been getting on with it well, and that the kind of youngster that provides the fodder for the various types of gawp TV are in the minority.
Come on now. People who do A levels are generally not the ones who are playing crappy r&b off their phones on the 51. That's some serious pigeon holeing.
They'll be in good company if they're working for you then!
Russ - I need good quality staff to carry me mate...........
Well done to those mentioned!