On A Level results:

Allison Pearson has a go.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/a ... in_check=N


Bit rich coming from a woman who can't spell her own name.

Do they write this stuff or simply cut and paste it from last year?

HA HA what a wanker



Couldn't have put it better myself, nice one Garry

They all want to be Littlejohn...


As for the 'crash course' in 'what used to be' A-level Maths?
Most breeze through it on my Physics course , only those who don't have a full A-level in Maths (like me) or gained it a long time ago and have since forgotton with it struggle. It's about identifying stugglers. And Jesus Christ A-level Maths is hard.



A hearty FUCK YOU, Pearson, I gained two B's and a D last year.
Was that embarrassingly bad? Not a bit of it, I gained a place studying Physics in a leading institution for the subject

In fairness the Physics (and maybe Maths, I'm not sure) A-Level has been toned down. We were able to use old GCSE textbook quite often and our teacher was pretty certain about it, although he did say that in his time the papers were so hard that people didn't learn properly, they just memorised all the hard bits and instantly forgot them after the exam.

People forget the whilst the material may be less difficult, the learning curve has changed across the whole of the education system - people will still find A-Levels difficult because they still have to learn a heap of stuff in a short space of time.

(And actually, now that I think of it, they did make the Maths course slightly easier a year after I'd started by splitting 3 modules into 4 - too late to help my year though, grrr)

On the subject of degree-level Physics, I do use A-level standard textbooks quite a bit to be honest, and my Maths tutor does say he finds himself referring to it if he needs to teach things he doens't come across in his research.

I don't know how much eaiser.harder each subject is just the idea that my grades were 'embarrassingly bad' really fucked me off.

Grr...

So she's basically saying if you get an A, you're thick cos they make it easy, and if you get below an A then you're really thick cos getting an A is easy?

Is she also trying to imply that if you don't get an A, you're a druggie??


I only just made it through college (as in, shit happened at the end, but I still got good grades) - and I dropped out of uni (unavoidable personal reasons, not intelligence ones) so I'd like to say to everyone getting their results tomorrow, and indeed those who have gotten results in the past, that I think just the fact you made it through the course is something to be immensly proud of, and whatever grade you get is something to be cherished, no matter what these "omg everything's so shit" people say.

I don't use the word cunt often, but in her case i'll make an exception.

Allison, you are a cunt.

Having been to a "bog standard comprehensive", having done my A-levels in subjects the mail approves of (maths, biology, chemistry), devoting hours to study, and spending my wages on more books, no immediate family having been to university, i've now been offered a place to read medicine. That's right Ali, graduate and I'll be more socially respected, more useful than you, you piece of shit on the bottom of my shoe. To be told what I achieved is worthless is insulting, and if A-levels are really easy, why don't you go and earn 10 A grades by next week.

Once again, Allison, you are a cunt.


Good luck to anyone else who is recieving A-levels this week of GCSE next week.

Polly Filler

good on ya Jonboy!

_________________
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro" HST

Out of curiosity, is it a big purple one?

Nope, it's black IIRC, I suppose it depends on the syllabus and where you are in the country.

Today's poll:

Are A-levels too easy?
Yes 69%

I wonder who voted.

Listen! A Grumpy Old Man is speaking:

In moments of bona fide intolerance, I sometimes find myself wanting to send my A Levels back in the manner of John Lennon. During the war (Falklands/Malvinas) we had to rely upon books and lessons. We had none of this interweb cheatin'. We only had slates to write on and computers were ZX81s. But I digress.....

Ignoring the barking mad protagonists of Mail Land, there is a feeling by those of us who did exams many years ago, that there are questions to be answered. It would be enouraging to believe that pupils are getting smarter (or better prepared) each year, but this would not account for an across the board increase EVERY year. Even 20 yars ago there were blips in results (particularly where question-spotting was gambled - I got 15% in a Law mock exam. I then took a degree in it and qualified as a Solicitor.

I hate it that every year we have this facade of putting the efforts of students down. It must be boring and disheartening. However, the exams are no longer the gold standard. I think we will see a move towards more Baccalaureate or German Abitur exam. I was never hot at Science so this would have sorted me out!

Anyhoo, congrats to anyone passing but please don't point at me in the street because I only got an E in History!

"Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. Gradgrind in Hard Times

Please enlighten me, who was this Gradgrind?

Beh. Ordinary school that are state run are running at the same rate of passes as last year. However, higher achieving public schools and independent authorities artifically distort this figure and skew it upwards.