montyracing2
At the Start
I have a fair bit of unease about ‘equal opportunity’ having guided all my three children to excellent grades at A-Level and to university courses
It is difficult to assess how much my support/influence was worth but parts of the route left me decidedly uneasy. I appreciate that schools and colleges do so much but they are striving to support 100’s of students and those aiming very high need that much more.
This leader post will start with GRADES.
We read a lot about easier A-Levels etc but the questions (in Maths, Chemistry and Biology) are no easier than in my day 30 years ago, if anything they demand more pertinent knowledge.
As an ex-project manager, I baulk at A* grades. It would seem Universities want these to differentiate 'the best from the clever. They could do so already by simply demanding 3As or better within two years of study (4% of students’ gain 3As).
Currently universities prefer to offer AAB. This ensures that they can aim their places at who they really want. Their reasoning: that potential AAA students can be assumed to get AAB or better and therefore they can make a fairly restricted number of offers to those students they want without the need to allow for ‘failures’.
Ignoring my other concern of prejudicial selection and just think about A to A*. This would be a likely differential of 10% i.e. mid 80s to mid 90’s. Having first hand experience of coursework marking, revision support, IT support, tutoring etc my conclusion is that this move to A* favours the better supported student and not necessarily the cleverest.
There is an inferred criticism of the system within this argument, but my concern is for :
- Schools/colleges who are stuggling with these issues and are unable/unwilling to take the appropriate measures,
- the gifted but poorly supported student,
- the British educated student competing with overseas students who bring with them extra income for the university.
My next post will be about external testing for medicine, law etc.
MR2
It is difficult to assess how much my support/influence was worth but parts of the route left me decidedly uneasy. I appreciate that schools and colleges do so much but they are striving to support 100’s of students and those aiming very high need that much more.
This leader post will start with GRADES.
We read a lot about easier A-Levels etc but the questions (in Maths, Chemistry and Biology) are no easier than in my day 30 years ago, if anything they demand more pertinent knowledge.
As an ex-project manager, I baulk at A* grades. It would seem Universities want these to differentiate 'the best from the clever. They could do so already by simply demanding 3As or better within two years of study (4% of students’ gain 3As).
Currently universities prefer to offer AAB. This ensures that they can aim their places at who they really want. Their reasoning: that potential AAA students can be assumed to get AAB or better and therefore they can make a fairly restricted number of offers to those students they want without the need to allow for ‘failures’.
Ignoring my other concern of prejudicial selection and just think about A to A*. This would be a likely differential of 10% i.e. mid 80s to mid 90’s. Having first hand experience of coursework marking, revision support, IT support, tutoring etc my conclusion is that this move to A* favours the better supported student and not necessarily the cleverest.
There is an inferred criticism of the system within this argument, but my concern is for :
- Schools/colleges who are stuggling with these issues and are unable/unwilling to take the appropriate measures,
- the gifted but poorly supported student,
- the British educated student competing with overseas students who bring with them extra income for the university.
My next post will be about external testing for medicine, law etc.
MR2
