A level results out

Yakub Qureshi

August 15, 2007

MORE than 15,000 students across Greater Manchester received A-level results today.

Thousands of letters were delivered to students' homes but many also looked up their results online.

Estimates suggest that one in four students got A grades this year - fuelling concern that qualifications are becoming easier. Exam results have continuously improved for the last 24 years, with 97 per cent of students passing A-levels last year.

Teachers at Loreto Sixth Form College, in Hulme, said they expected 'record grades' this year.

Students who score 90 per cent or over will be given the new top grade A* to combat concerns that exams are too easy .

It follows fresh speculation that exams could be replaced by diplomas.

The government may revisit plans to end the divide between academic and vocational education, made by former chief inspector of schools Mike Tomlinson in 2004.

See next Wednesday's MEN for an A-levels supplement with all local results.

Results will be posted on these pages as we receive them.

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edwards (16/08/2007 at 07:55)

heard on the news that 25% will obtain an A grade!!dont tell me the exams arent easier. I went to a grammar school only 20 years ago and even one person getting one A grade was sufficient to warrant front page news in the local paper. Only the extremely intelligent could even aspire to dreaming of an A Grade. Take a walk on any high street in any town and convince me we are breeding more and more intelligent teenagers...in any event, if so many people are obtaining high grades there seems to be little point in the exams anyway, surely the whole point of a top grade is to make it extremely difficult to obtain and therefore seen as something of a distinction as oppose to something of a given right.

Jo14, Stockport (16/08/2007 at 08:42)

Exams are getting easier?

I do wish they'd change the record!

edwards (16/08/2007 at 09:35)

yes change the record and while you're there change the exams too. Your statement suggests you are lacking some degree of historical knowledge in this argument.

Forward with Frank (16/08/2007 at 10:14)

Edwards, I fully agree with you.

Most peole got 'c' grade, with the odd grade 'b' and very few got grade 'a'.

I went to public school and our results were better than most. I achieve a 'c', 'b', 'b' and an 'a' an I was certainly in the top 10%.

Is that person on here that claims that they aren't getting easier that the average comprehensive is now as good as a fee paying public school was eighteen years ago?

R J Shackleton (16/08/2007 at 10:56)

Much easier than were. Anyone with half a brain can get a grade 'a' a-level these days.

If these peopel are so clever why do I have such trouble recruiting anyone with any intelligence?

They all seem to go for subjects that are of no use to anyone in the real world, hence why we recruit from overseas.

Joey, Ashton under Lyne, (16/08/2007 at 11:04)

How dare people say that they are getting easier. My grandson just told me that he had 3 A's - One in English, one in Science and two in Maths.

Forward with Frank (16/08/2007 at 11:38)

Like it Joey.

The teachers have done so well in educating these puplils, despite no discipline in school that they are moaning about, so as a reward lets give them six paid weeks off work over the summer. There is a nice campsite next to Heathrow where they can all meet their fellow teachers.

Ms D, Manchester (16/08/2007 at 11:44)

Joey,
Congratulations to your grandson.
What is wrong with people ? We criticise kids for hanging about on the streets up to no good and now we criticise the good kids who go to college by saying their exams are easier. It's time to praise these teens for taking the right route in life, whether they are taking traditional or the so called "soft" subjects. If every teenager were like these, we wouldn't have half the problems we do.

Forward with Frank (16/08/2007 at 11:49)

Ms D, I suggest that you read Joey's email again.

ace, manchester (16/08/2007 at 12:08)

Congratulations on everybody who passed their exams,but this morning i heard on the radio that the exams have been dumbed down? I took a exam i tried to pass twenty years ago,And twenty years ago i gave up .but i passed with flying colours this time ?I did no research on the subject or any reading up on the subject infact the exam was so easy this time it was multi choice and that easy i could have passed by just guessing? So now going back to the question of the A exam being dumbed down makes me think that education could be dumbed down compared to twenty years ago.Sorry but i did this exam twice once twenty years ago and again six months ago? makes you wonder............

-00-~-00-, Blackley (16/08/2007 at 12:42)

Can we settle once and for all the debate as to whether A-levels are getting easier? Durham University's Curriculum, Evaluation and Management Centre (part of the School of Education) last month published a report commissioned by the Office for National Statistics on this very topic. The government has largely suppressed its findings, because they are a bit inconvenient, shall we say? It is, however, available to download in full at http://www.cemcentre.org/documents/CEM%20Extra/SpecialInterests/Exams/ONS%20report%20on%20changes%20at%20GCSE%20&%20A-level.pdf It's quite a long document, and I wouldn't suggest reading through it in full, unless you really have nothing better to do with your time, but I think fig.5 on page 6 neatly summarises the findings: an A-level maths student awarded a U grade in 1988 could now expect between a B and a C grade for the same performance. (For every other subject examined, the same upward trend is present, to a greater or lesser extent.) I hope this ends the debate about standards. But I doubt it, as long as people interpret an attack on examination standards as an attack on hard-working students, too. Let's congratulate the students for their hard work, while treating the current crop of grades actually awarded to them with the suspicion they deserve.

edwards (16/08/2007 at 13:27)

I am pleased to see that the majority opinion is that the exams must be easier and clearly they just must be. No exam board worth it's salt would have a top grade set so as to allow a 25% grade A pass rate. I do feel sorry for the kids taking these exams, they are being kidded and so are their parents. It is no coincidence that all this discussion about dumbing down started at roughly the same time that the dreaded 'league tables' appeared, allowing comparison between schools. 20 years ago you didnt even know what results other students in your school obtained and now you can find out results from across the country. I blame the general fear of labelling children or kids as 'failures'. And I would again ask what is an exam worth if so many students achieve an A grade pass? Does anybody actually fail an exam these days?? Lots did in my school.

Ms D, Manchester (16/08/2007 at 14:05)

Forward with Frank - yes, I did read Joey's reply but the point of my post was about teens in general. Slagged off for hanging about the streets causing trouble (quite rightly) but slagged off for passing exams which some claim to be easier as well. Looks like none of them can do right anymore.

Andy., Bury (16/08/2007 at 14:08)

As usual Ace highlights the real story. Standards must have improved judging by the literacy of the kids I see today set against Ace's posts.

edwards (16/08/2007 at 14:38)

i am not slagging off anybody for passing exams-good luck to them. my argument is that the education system is letting them down, surely nobody in their right mind can possibly believe that our education system has improved to such a degree in 20 years as to go from a couple of students getting one A grade, (and the brightest of the brightest at that) to 25% of all exam takers achieving an A grades. What is this saying about pupils from previous years, some of whom dropped out as they found the workload too much? We are failing all our students if we throw around top grades like confetti. I am just waiting for the story of the students achieving 5 A* grades, I am sure there is at least one out there...

Sean (16/08/2007 at 16:08)

firstly congratulations to all those who passed their exams. It seems these days an accepted thing for critics to slander the a-level system and to put hard working students down when they really have achieved something to be proud of. As a university student i have recently experienced the A-Level system and i can assure it is by no means as 'easy' as people like to paint it.
I spent months revising for my exams and hours of cramming gained me my results, i assure you if I had walked into it blindly it would not have even been possible to pass subjects such as Spanish and History.

At the end of the day University education is not any easier and for those venturing into higher education a levels provide a good foundation.

Many of you talking about 'back in my day' is all well and good when uni education was not so much a ready option and some would say more elitist. However nowadays Uni is accessible and the destination of many students so a-evels need provide such a widespread syllabus and cover all the complex basis.

still busy (16/08/2007 at 17:27)

Wonder how many (if any) A levels the 'BB 'twins' gained in order to get to University. They couldn't name 4 trees (except a Christmas tree) and one of them couldn't even pronounce 'anchor man' when reading the news to the others

Elaine, Bolton (16/08/2007 at 21:50)

Congratulations to all students on thier exam results today but especially to my nephew Dagmar Makara who achieved 4 grade A's and a grade B.
Well done Dags your family is so proud of you xxx

edwards (17/08/2007 at 07:41)

dear sean, you need some perspective, you yourself are implying that 'in my day' we didnt do any revision, in fact 'in my day' that's all we did, no MP3, no internet, only 3 or later 4 TV channels so look elsewhere for a reason for allegedly 'improved' results. You talk as if we are all talking about the 1940's, I'm talking about the late 1980's which, as you are so intelligent, you should realise is not that long ago. And anyway, what will you say in 20 years time when results are much much better than they are today when everybody will be getting straight A's?

J. Arthur (17/08/2007 at 08:57)

It doesn't do anyone any good if hey are all getting false 'A's. It will just breed mediocrity. The bar has been lowered as far as 'A' levels are concerned.

I have see some of the work that they do and I was flabbergasted as to how basic it was.I did my 'A' levels twenty years ago and it was only the creme de la creme who got 'A's and the more often than not went to Oxford or Cambridge.

If our students have been the most intelligent ever for the past 25 years I look forward to this country's world dominance very soon.

It seems that junk food and binge drinking from an early age does in fact improves one's brainpower after all.

Michelle Manchester, Manchester (17/08/2007 at 09:52)

I'm 20, so i got my A-Level results 2 years ago, i worked really hard for two years constantly because of so much coursework and then studying for the exams, my results were three B's, if exams these days are so easy should anyone who doesnt get an A feel bad about it? i dont think so! Any one who gets an A is that little bit brighter and worked that little extra harder, dont make them feel there results are worthless!

edwards (17/08/2007 at 10:12)

no, let them find that out for themselves......once they're back from their 'gap' year which of course is a necessity after so much 'hard' work...

ace, manchester (17/08/2007 at 10:45)

Did anybody see those kids who went back to the 1960s schooling ? they were lost and moaned that the work was very difficult? and couldnt do mental arithmatic? and some found understanding some of the work given them....?i would just like to put some of these kids through the 11 plus and see if they could pass a basic test from the 1960s?

graeme, manchester (17/08/2007 at 10:54)

I guess it doesn't really matter if exams are getting easier or not. Maybe if I took my A levels now instead of 20 years ago, I may have found them easier - maybe not. For me, the important point is that if more and more people are getting top grades, then we need something which is going to separate out the brightest. What's the point of all the hard work, if everyone passes, gets good grades, goes on to university (and still can't spell or do basic maths at end!!). I do feel a bit sorry for the really bright, talented and hard working ones who don't have that acknowledged because they're bundled in with more and more other people.. some of whom believe that 2 hours a night is hard work!

Happyblue, Failsworth (17/08/2007 at 11:25)

some people,get a life,stop slagging students off,they work hard,so leave them alone.

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