Kids today, they get it easy. Not like when I were a lad.

[davywavy]

Every year at about this time, the papers are full of how the latest crop of school leavers and university entrants are getting qualification which are increasingly meaningless due to the examination system getting easier and the marking of those examinations becoming more lenient - you might recall the piece I mentioned a few weeks ago about University Admissions tutors complaining that work of a quality which would once have merited an "E" grade is now being routinely marked as a "C".
There's the counterpoint to this argument which is that exams are not getting easier, but that the quality of teaching has improved so much over the last 20 years that students are getting higher grades in the same intellectual environment due to improved standards.
Personally, I reckon it's somewhere between the two - what's undeniable is that the proportion of students taking 'hard' subjects like maths, physics and chemistry has fallen, and taking dossy, Mickey Mouse subjects like Psychology and Media Studies has risen - with a commensurate fall in academic thinking and rigour.
Moreover, it's undeniable that examination markers are being told to ignore spelling and grammar errors on papers. the consequnces of this are evident to anyone who has ever tried to recruit school leavers to do a job which requires correct spelling.

Yesterday, the Daily Mendicant printed details of an A-Level paper for the "Critical Thinking" course. Now, back when I were a girl and this was all trees, there was no such thing as an A-level in Critical Thinking and so naturally I was curious and went to have a look at it.
If you go and look, you'll see that it comprises mostly of what seem to be logic puzzles - and ones which (in the absence of answers) look pretty easy. I can't help but wish that examinations of Critical Thinking has been available when I was at school, because then my grades might not have been the lacklustre selection of grades with marks from somewhere in the second half of the Alphabet, but instead the healthy selection of A* marks which students seem to routinely get for signing their name these days.
I'm thinking of doing some more A-Levels next year as if it's possible this year to do qualifications in logic puzzles, I hope that by next year there'll be the opportunity for me to get good grades in A-Level Sudoku.

[Poll #802216]

Comments

[raggedhalo.livejournal.com]

dossy, Mickey Mouse subjects like Psychology

Exactly what was your degree in again, good sir?

*grin*

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Psychology. I took it because the female:male ratio was 11:1 and there were only 5 hours of lectures a week.

I can't blame people for taking it, but lets face it - it wasn't exactly intellectually rigourous :)

[raggedhalo.livejournal.com]

Given the vast amount of statistics involved in the Birmingham course (fully a third of the credits available, all of which were mandatory) my experience is somewhat different to your own, but I concede that a lot of the touchy-feely social psychology stuff is about as rigorous as a sausage.

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

Last week, the Independent rated a sample of universities... on their sex ratio!

They maintained a balanced approach by indicating where both men and women would have a better chance at meeting members of the opposite sex.

Oh, they included an assessment of the union bar in their sample, too.

[vulgarcriminal.livejournal.com]

Most of those questions are flawed.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

This is something which I thought of too - by making the test a multiple choice rather than something in which you have to explain your reasoning, it doesn't encourage critical thinking as much as it does teach people to think like the examiners and get the 'right' answers.

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

Glad it wasn't just me that thought that.

Anyway, multiple guess is no way to set a paper.

[queenortart.livejournal.com]

I studied the answers before pretty much universally wanting to write my own explanation for each question. Do they just do multiguess? This doesn't appear to require you to do anything other than tick a box...

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

I'm with Tiff. I could pick apart the questions on that paper quite easily, and it frustrates the hell out of me that it's a multiple guess paper so you don't even HAVE To think at all...

The irony of having multiple guess answers on a paper called "critical thinking" didn't escape me either, and I have to admit to some scepticism that this is an actual A-Level paper. GCSE, maybe, but not A-level. Please tell me it's made up?

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

It was printed in the Guardian yesterday as an example of a current A-Level paper to show that kids today have to work just as hard as they ever did.
That said, as it's in the Guardian, it may well have been just made up.

[riksowden.livejournal.com]

It is an A-level but not one i see very many of, i think its replacing the ignored 'General Studies' in some institutes as an 'extra' A-level.

On exams getting easier

[flywingedmonkey.livejournal.com]

I've talked to teachers about this- the real problem (I think) is that kids are no longer being taught "The Subject" but are being taught "To Pass The Exam". And they're being taight that very well apparently. Look at the figures.

But thats ALL that they're taught- they don't talk around ths subject or get a deeper knowledge of it: they learn what will get marks and what won't. And I think that's really sad.

JmC
Lies, damn lies and everything I say

Re: On exams getting easier

[vulgarcriminal.livejournal.com]

I wonder though, are their little heads just draining when they hit 16? One of my professional qualifications had a significant amount of brain dumps behind it. But, I remember how to use NDSUTIL and various other things that are important to my job. So, surely something is seeping in somewhere?

Re: On exams getting easier

[arcass.livejournal.com]

Yep that's very much the way it's going students are also discouraged from doing subjects that are "hard" as they might lower the pass rate of the insitution they attend.

Re: On exams getting easier

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

The reason they are being taught to pass the exam - and it happens in primary as well as secondary schools - is the heavy emphasis now put on assessing schools and teachers by quantifiable results.

Hence teachers, and more so their management (ie headteachers and local authorities), have a great assessment to get kids through exams rather than educate them.

Rant over.

[arcass.livejournal.com]

There is no excuse for multiple choice in A-levels!
it is notoriously difficult to right good/meaningful multiple choice questions, it's simply easier to mark.

Cheap shot

[(Anonymous)]

This doesn't have ANY bearing on your topic, but this typo caused me to chortle:

Moreover, it's undeniable that examination markers are being told to ignore spelling and grammar errors on papers. the consequnces of this are evident to anyone who has ever tried to recruit school leavers to do a job which requires correct spelling.

Re: Cheap shot

[kcontheroad.livejournal.com]

Oh, I posted that. Forgot to log in.

Re: Cheap shot

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Fortunately I'm the employer, not the employee so i kin rite lik i pleez.

And the answer is...

[mrmmarc.livejournal.com]

As someone has mentioned above.
What is wrong with the ecuation system (entirely) and why are standards dropping in exams yadda yadda, blah blah!

Simple.
Parents. AND.... parental choice.

You see parents want to choose the school little Bobby/Timmy/Sabastian/Luke goes to.
So they need to judge which school is "best" before making their choice (and moving house; lying; having their sporg baptised in religion of choice; actiung like a bunch of twats).

How do we judge what school is best?
I know- lets create a LEAGUE TABLE!

And that's the problem. League tables do not aid, at all, in any way, WHATSOEVER, the ecuation of children. Nope. Not at all. WHich is why they were thrown out in Northern Ireland. Why they are being gotten rid off in Wales and Scotland.
In fact they are the reason behind ALL THE PROBLEMS...
Don't believe me? Consider...

A school is judged on its grades- the higher grades, the better the school. So WHY make kids do 'tough' subjects... give up A Level Critical thinking and GCSE Seduko and watch those grades rise.

The results become the end all be all- so WHY teach children a subject- it is far more important to teach them to PASS THE EXAM!

If the all Holy results fall, the schools rep falls. Falling rep means less parents want to send their kiddies. Less kiddies less monies. Less monies etc.

DO you think teachers WANT to teach like this?
The people who KNOW exactly how much standards have fallen are teachers. We want this system torn apart We want to teach intellectually demanding lessons. We do not want to teach Critical Thinking- we want to teach 'Higher Thinking' and make their nrains bleed!
The most important cutting edge work being done in teaching night bow involves improving cognative thinking; is about turning diagnostics into a teaching tool; about educating the kids into being REAL critical thinkers (imagine training a class to mark their own work as critically as their teacher would).

Why is this not happening?
League tables- a manifestation of too much power being invested in parents.
That brutal- that honest- that true.

If you get ill- you go see a doctor.
If you want to fly- you go see a pilot.
If your car is broken- you go see a mechanic.
You want to educate your kids- you go listen to politicians, business men, journalists ANYONE but the professional who need four years worth of trining before they can even CALL themselves a teacher... and then be granted the God given authority to do whyatever the hell ya want!

The education of children is too important to leave in the hands of well meaning morons who have no formal training.

Re: And the answer is...

[(Anonymous)]

"imagine training a class to mark their own work as critically as their teacher would."

Best way of revising I know, Marc ... I did Physics A level alongside a couple of highly competitive twins, & as the exam drew nearer, and we had "revision" periods in class, the 3 of us developed the idea of setting mock physics tests for one another, all trying to be as cunning and misleading as possible. It was fantastic training for the exam. We all got A's - or what would, nowadays, presumably be known as a "Knight's Grand Cross A Grade with Oak Leaf Cluster."

H

[medusa-nw.livejournal.com]

What a bizarre test. You could easily say none of the answers are right. Why on earth would you have multiple choice in Critical Thinking? Are they just too lazy to mark papers that have essays?

Can't comment on whether A-levels are easier now than they were before, I didn't go to school in this country.

[elbly.livejournal.com]

This does have a fair bit to do with MM subjects... I was with a head teacher today when she received the fantastic news that her school had gone from 37% 5A-C's last year to 51% this year! Which is just staggering and fantastic for her school's league tables... however... what wasn't so exciting for her was that the pass rate in the three criticle subjects (English, Maths and Science) hadn't improved much at all.

Says a lot nes pa?

[gwaunquest.livejournal.com]

I haven't read any of the other comments I'm just posting this.
When I was a teenangster taking my 'O' levels I was told the following by a teacher. What grade you get doesn't depend on how many questions you get right. The papers are marked and if there are lots of people getting 60 out of 100 the examination board will raise the pass mark for the grades. One year you will need 60 out of 100 to get 60 percent and a C pass, next year you may need 70 out of 100. It strikes me that what has happened is the boards have been prohibited from doing that so that now we see a genuine result rate. However having sat through GCSEs and A levels with my two daughters I can honestly say that the exams are now so different comparison is irrelevant.