A levels devalued

Cakeguts

A levels have been devalued again today. Soon they won't be worth anything along with even more of the degrees. How will employers get the staff they need and how will they be able to find out which people will make good hard working employees if all degrees and A levels can be passed with next to no effort?

Norman_Castle

Hopefully employers will judge people on who they are and not the qualifications they wave. Some of the most capable and hard working people I know are unqualified. I've met enough hopeless graduates to have little regard for degrees.

the_flying_pig

i guess the takeaway point is to go to the most prestigious university that your grades permit - within a very short space of time, your A level grades will be meaningless, whereas the reputations of institutions are presumably reasonably durable.

worried_jim

A media studies A Level can't be devalued as there was none to begin with.

campbell19925

"The proportion of students in England gaining C grades or above in A-levels fell back this year, driven by a relatively weaker performance among girls, as schools and students continue to grapple with the introduction of new, more intensive exams."

So not sure what you mean, it seems they are getting harder?

Cakeguts

campbell19925 wrote: »

"The proportion of students in England gaining C grades or above in A-levels fell back this year, driven by a relatively weaker performance among girls, as schools and students continue to grapple with the introduction of new, more intensive exams."

So not sure what you mean, it seems they are getting harder?

I am not sure how this works against the fact that more students have got As and A*s. Something like a quarter of all entries now get an A or an A*. Frankly I have never seen the point of an exam where so many people get top grades. Either the marking is very generous or the exam has got considerably easier. I would vote for easier.



There must be a really stupid person driving the grade inflation because the actual A level grades make no difference to university entrance because the universities could always change their entry requirements to make places available to people with lower grades if for example only the top 1% of marks got an A*. If more people got D and Es the universities would offer more places to people with Ds and Es they wouldn't leave empty places especially if the people getting Ds and Es were the same people who are getting A* now. There are actually more universities where a D or an E would be suitable than there are where a top grade is essential. It makes more sense to have more lower grades than high grades because their are more universities with places for people who wouldn't have passed A levels when I took mine than there are for people who would have.



The biggest problem with making A levels easier and easier is that the top students are having to start their university course from a lower and lower level of education. I am not sure that 10 year undergraduate medicine courses so that students can catch up are of advantage to anyone? For the 80 or so universities that basically anyone can get into the A level grade doesn't mean anything so a D or an E would be good enough.



The worst part of it though are the people who are not going to want to go to university. They can no longer tell if they are a top A level student or an average one because they all get the same grade. You can no longer get a reward for hard work, intelligence and flair because people without any of these talents can get the same grade.


A levels are basically the opposite of football. In football you can only get into a top team if you are good. You can now get a top A level grade by being average.

michaels

Apparently the lowest proportion of passes and top marks was lowest in 1988/9. Any one who got good marks in that year must be pretty smart....

PasturesNew

Norman_Castle wrote: »

Hopefully employers will judge people on who they are and not the qualifications they wave. Some of the most capable and hard working people I know are unqualified. I've met enough hopeless graduates to have little regard for degrees.

Unfortunately, many jobs say in adverts "degree", as the norm - even if it's not required for the job. It's on their standard advert - and the first sift of the CVs has two piles: Has a degree; doesn't have a degree. Without one you go straight into the bin and they laugh as they do it saying "idiot didn't even read the advert".



No ... idiot wrote the WRONG advert... clever person spotted that and applied anyway ....

But then you get to the stage where you know you're in the bin so you don't bother wasting your time/money/effort even applying as you know you'd be surrounded by idiots in the workplace who can't actually think things through ... but just follow templates

"Computer says No."

PasturesNew

Cakeguts wrote: »

The biggest problem with making A levels easier and easier is that the top students are having to start their university course from a lower and lower level of education. I am not sure that 10 year undergraduate medicine courses so that students can catch up are of advantage to anyone? For the 80 or so universities that basically anyone can get into the A level grade doesn't mean anything so a D or an E would be good enough.

.

For specialist subjects, maybe those who KNOW that's what they're going to want to do could be filtered off at 16 into a "Medical/Specialist Subjects A Levels College" ...

That might need to be "part boarding", due to geography, but it's worth the investment for serious single-minded types as "we need more of those sorts".

caronoel

I know at my employers, big global professional services company, we now only hire grads with 1st class honours from Russell Group Universities. It used to be 2:1 from most decent universities when I left college in the late 90s, but the bar has got a lot higher due to grade inflation.


I saw an advert on the tube a number of years back for some ex-poly advertising that more than 90% of their grads got a 2:1 or a 1st. What value is that?

michaels

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2540628/A-levels-now-two-grades-easier-than-20-years-ago.html

From 2007, based on preformance in aptitude tests pupils were getting between 2 and 3.5 grades higher in a levels than they would have done in 1988. Of course this may be down to better teaching and application rather than easier exams.