First off good luck to everyone who got their results today
I hope you got what you wanted
I know exactly what you're saying. Results go up and people complain, results go down and people complain. I do genuinely believe that students are getting smarter, as like you say, teaching methods are continually improving (although whether that's seen in every school is debatable, but that's a different debate). However I do think that there are issues with current exams and the way they are marked which leads to the image that they are easier which in turn leads to any improvement by us just being ignored and put down to exams being easier.
Just as much work has to be put towards getting the grades you want/need at both A level and GCSE, and should you achieve them then it is most certainly something to be proud of, and this is ignored by the media, and they don't acknowledge the work and revision that goes towards the results.
However I'll explain what I feel is wrong with the exams. It's easier to prepare for as it's easier to predict what's coming up so long as the syllabus hasn't changed. There's a limit to the number of questions that can be asked with a syllabus, and in my A level maths paper, I can say that 8 out of the 9 questions I could find a near enough replica of by looking at past exam papers of the past 3 or 4 years. Same goes for my Physics and Chemistry exams. Obviously the longer this goes on, the easier it becomes to predict what will come up. Unfortunately this occasionally leads to an exam board going to the other extreme where an exam board throws in some question hardly covered on the syllabus (see biology last year I think)
Also, speaking specifically for science now, the ISA's are a joke. As is the "how science works" questions. The ISA's can be taken over and over until you get the mark you want really, and in my college at leats, the amount of teacher help we got made it nigh on impossible to come out with anything less than an A in the ISA. When you consider this counts towards 25% of my marks in Chemistry, and the fact its almost impossible to prove the amount of aid we got from the teacher, you can imagine this raises everyone's marks quite considerably.
In regards to "how science works" type questions that have recently had alot of emphasis on. I don't mind when the questions are related to everyday life as that makes sense. However, in nearly every exam in physics and chemistry I had, a question would come up like: "Give one argument for, and one argument against the government funding an expedition to the moon." I mean, really? In a physics exam? General studies maybe but not physics. Questions like this are obviously alot easier than the sort that is expected and leads to the A levels being devalued
The final points I'd make is in regards to the way grades are distributed. Grade boundaries are messed about with so a certain percentage get each mark roughly. This means that it may be easier to get an A one year than it is another. I know for a fact that this worked in my favour in Chemistry. The grade boundaries were shifted right down in Chemistry this year, so I jumped up from a C to a B. Obviously I'm not complaining about that but it raises a fewquestions about whether the way it is done is fair. Although this would suggets that the Chemistry exam was in fact harder but I put that down this year to a new syllabus meaning no past papers to look at, making it harder to predict what would come up.
The point I'm making is that with the way that everything is taught (you work towards how to answer exam style quetions rather than learn the topic) and the way that the grade boundaries are altered leads to people putting less values on GCSE's and results. If they feel that exams can be predicted then they can conclude that a GCSE in say physics doesn't neccesarily show a knowledge of it but an ability to regurgitate past examples. I'm not saying this is true, as I'm sure the majority of students who get A's and B's are very able at their subject, but it's difficult to distinguish between these and the minority who just jump through the hoops and learn which boxes to tick, what key words to include regardless of their understanding of them. If they know that its impossible for less than a certain percentage of people to fail then they have no way of knowing exactly to what standard those which pass are working at.
Obviously this is unfair because it works the other was aswell. Only a certain pecentage can gain an A* and so on but the media doesn't report this and because it can go both ways it does make potential employers uneasy, who wants to employ someone with an A in the "easiest set of exams" over someone with an A in the previous years? This is why the current way of awarding grades is unfair on students.
That turned into a bit of a rant, which isn't structured as well as I had orginally planned (got an A at GCSE English as well...bloody exams getting easier :001_rolleyes
So to conclude, unfortunately with the media it's almost a case of "if it rains then the road is wet. The road is ret so it must have been raining!" They know that if exams are made easier, and grade boundaries possible to be changed then results go up. They then conclude that because exam results have gone up, then exams must be easier.
Be proud of your results! Whatever you got if you worked hard for them then ignore whatever the media is going on about, you deserved them!
Today's Toppers
Lose lose for teenagers
