On Fri, 04 Nov 2005 00:45:04 GMT, Geoffrey
wrote:


But what you do not realise is that the A grade of today is just as
good (if not better) as the A grade of your (and my) year. The A level
(and GCSE) students today work HARDER! They are expected to get As and
anything less than a B (or a C at GCSE) is discounted as worthless.

But what is the point of A levels ?

Like it or not, exams have always been used as an indicator of how
academically gifted a person is and the current system fails to allow
that.

In the past if a student got three As then it was a pretty good bet
that they were, academically speaking, in the top few percent and
therefore would benefit from access to one of the limited university
places available and/or contribute most to a future employer.

Nowadays it is not possible to say the same. It's a fact of life that
some people are not as academically gifted as others and giving them a
false hope by awarding them the same grade as someone who is much more
gifted than them is both cruel and stupid.

Everybody has some things they are good at and some they are bad at
and I think the current education system spends too much time trying
to pretend all students are good at everything and not enough time
*finding out* what they're really good at and encouraging that.

How do you think that makes the B and C graders feel?


About the same as those who got an 'O' grade or failed their 'A'
levels in the past I imagine.

Cheers,

John