Get 16% in your exams and get a C grade?

[adrian29uk]

Just heard on the news that some exams papers allowed students to get a c grade at 16% what a joke.

When I was at school 15 years ago a C grade was good grade to get it meant that you had tried but if they are just dishing out C grades like this no wonder everyone is doing so well.

What a joke.

 

[Uncle C]

Shouldn't worry too much, propsective employees and even Universities have stopped taking these results seriously long ago.
They are dished out like sweeties to keep the Goverment stats looking good.
Shame that parents and kids are being fooled.

Everyone knows that the human race hasn't got more intelligent over the last couple of decades.

 

[bhafc99]

When I was at school 18 years ago, around 1 in 11 candidates got an A grade at A-level. The top grade was difficult to achieve, and to get two or three As meant you were an exceptional student, markedly one of the best in your year. The percentage achieving each grade was controlled nationally by the examining boards, so that standards were consistent from year to year.

Nowadays just over 1 in 3 candidates gets an A. Practically everybody taking A-levels walks away with a bagful of A grades. They've become meaningless. A relative of mine recently didn't complete her Psychology A-level paper - she ran out of time and messed up. Still got an A though.

Any attempt to say this gets attacked by today's students as, "We worked hard, don't demean us." Well so did we in our day, and this ludicrous grade bonanza demeans OUR achievements. You may well be SLIGHTLY harder-working than a generation ago, and SLIGHTLY more intelligent, but no way are you 4 times better, which is what this 1-in-11 to 1-in-3 inflation implies.

 

[Josky]

It's a bit of a misnomer the way this is reported.

Modern day classes tend to be streamed in order to put children of different abilities into exams of varying levels of difficulty.

For example, when I was at school we had three levels Foundation, Intermediate and Higher streams. What exam paper you take depends on what stream you are placed in during your final year of school.

This in turn means that people in the higher stream will automatically score a C grade for example on the higher paper once they have achieved a certain percentage. It is made out that by the media that all pupils take these exams, but what stream you are put in depends on a child's marks and work over the previous years before the GCSE exams.

Pupils on the foundation papers or intermediate papers will not be able to score a C with just 16 percent. It is very misleading.

 

[ben andrews' girlfriend]

When I was at school 18 years ago, around 1 in 11 candidates got an A grade at A-level. The top grade was difficult to achieve, and to get two or three As meant you were an exceptional student, markedly one of the best in your year. The percentage achieving each grade was controlled nationally by the examining boards, so that standards were consistent from year to year.

Nowadays just over 1 in 3 candidates gets an A. Practically everybody taking A-levels walks away with a bagful of A grades. They've become meaningless. A relative of mine recently didn't complete her Psychology A-level paper - she ran out of time and messed up. Still got an A though.

Any attempt to say this gets attacked by today's students as, "We worked hard, don't demean us." Well so did we in our day, and this ludicrous grade bonanza demeans OUR achievements. You may well be SLIGHTLY harder-working than a generation ago, and SLIGHTLY more intelligent, but no way are you 4 times better, which is what this 1-in-11 to 1-in-3 inflation implies.

Well i didnt get an A - and i worked f***ing hard. Ask any of my friends.

1 in 3 people do NOT get an A in the subjects that actually mean something. I know about media Studies / Film Studies etc it is piss easy to get an a - but for people like me who took French , German, and English literature - it certainly isnt easy.

 

[bhafc99]

Well i didnt get an A - and i worked f***ing hard. Ask any of my friends.

1 in 3 people do NOT get an A in the subjects that actually mean something. I know about media Studies / Film Studies etc it is piss easy to get an a - but for people like me who took French , German, and English literature - it certainly isnt easy.

Anger is good! Embrace the anger!

That's exactly what I feel - I too worked f***ing hard, took three academic subjects, and got AAB. In 1986 that meant a lot, a hell of a lot.

Nowadays you get people who wouldn't have got anywhere near that in my day taking Film Studies, General Studies and Applied EastEnders, working moderately hard, not even completing the exam sometimes and getting AAA.

Are they more intelligent and hard-working than me? Are they f***!!!

 

[Grendel]

I got a C in my English Lit. A-Level a couple of years back. Considering that my attendance record was appalling (so much so that I was threatened with "termination of the course"), my coursework was non-existent and my revision consisted of going to the local boozer and having 8 pints of premium ale, I don't think it's a bad grade, but if I put in that much effort to get that C then it must be nigh-on impossible to fail.

 

[Schrödinger's Toad]

Nowadays just over 1 in 3 candidates gets an A. Practically everybody taking A-levels walks away with a bagful of A grades.

On both counts, do they really? I took mine just over three years ago, and got one A, but few of my friends did so - even those who worked their arses off only got Bs (I say "only", still perfectly good marks). I really think this is largely a myth ...

 

[Biscuit]

Well i didnt get an A - and i worked f***ing hard. Ask any of my friends.

1 in 3 people do NOT get an A in the subjects that actually mean something. I know about media Studies / Film Studies etc it is piss easy to get an a - but for people like me who took French , German, and English literature - it certainly isnt easy.

Well I didn't get an A and I was working myself into the ground..

and I took Film Studies and Media Studies.. and untill you've taken the courses for two years yourself I think you'd better not say they were 'piss easy'. I worked extremely hard and got a B in both subjects..

but I suppose I must just be thick for not achieving A's in those to subjects.. Oh and I took English Lt at AS and got a C.

Just because more people are passing doesn't make the exams easier. Maybe the starndard on teaching has improved. Maybe almost everyone now has access to a computer.. the internet.. and all the resources that these things provide?

And leave off film. Its an extremly interesting course.. German and Soviet Cinema of the 1920's isn't exactly a giveaway, you have to work hard and learn. I hope I'll be able to get a job in the industry with my measly B.

 

[ben andrews' girlfriend]

Well I didn't get an A and I was working myself into the ground..

and I took Film Studies and Media Studies.. and untill you've taken the courses for two years yourself I think you'd better not say they were 'piss easy'. I worked extremely hard and got a B in both subjects..

but I suppose I must just be thick for not achieving A's in those to subjects.. Oh and I took English Lt at AS and got a C.

Just because more people are passing doesn't make the exams easier. Maybe the starndard on teaching has improved. Maybe almost everyone now has access to a computer.. the internet.. and all the resources that these things provide?

And leave off film. Its an extremly interesting course.. German and Soviet Cinema of the 1920's isn't exactly a giveaway, you have to work hard and learn. I hope I'll be able to get a job in the industry with my measly B.

Ok, sorry

BTW you cant get a c for 16% in a level (you need 60%) , however i seem to remember that you can in GCSE higher maths papers

 

[JonC]

Just heard on the news that some exams papers allowed students to get a c grade at 16% what a joke.

When I was at school 15 years ago a C grade was good grade to get it meant that you had tried but if they are just dishing out C grades like this no wonder everyone is doing so well.

What a joke.

That's a load of bollocks. You can get a C with 16% if you take the highest possible paper, and have scored 100% in your coursework up until that point. Papers report things how they like though.

 

[Josky]

Ok, sorry

BTW you cant get a c for 16% in a level (you need 60%) , however i seem to remember that you can in GCSE higher maths papers

Precisely what I was trying to remember earlier. It's amazing how misleading the media can be when portraying the whole business of exams.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

Well I didn't get an A and I was working myself into the ground..

and I took Film Studies and Media Studies.. and untill you've taken the courses for two years yourself I think you'd better not say they were 'piss easy'. I worked extremely hard and got a B in both subjects..

 

[withdeanwombat]

I worked bloody hard for my A levels,and passed with 3 grade Bs.

In 1966 this was some achievement,and A levels really meant something.

Now they're handed out like confetti,and the students who are no doubt working every bit as hard as I did are being duped into thinking that they are all brilliant.

I expect that the brilliance now is equal to the brilliance then.But exceptional students can achieve no better than others because the standards have dropped.

Everyone gets an A.

No wonder Uni's and employers no longer trust them!

And soon,nobody will be able to fail exams.There will just be deferred success.

Bit like England really.Australia 72-0.

 

[ben andrews' girlfriend]

Everyone gets an A.

Everyone?

I didnt. I must be stupid


*goes and watches Teletubbies*

 

[bigc]

no they dont.jeez.

and 16% DOESNT get you a C in an A/S.

bag...its just...i dunno...its the irrational jealously of the past generations, they always believe it was "harder in their day"

 

[Scotty Mac]

I know about media Studies / Film Studies etc it is piss easy to get an a - but for people like me who took French , German, and English literature - it certainly isnt easy.

media studies is NOT easy to get an a in! i got a c, and that was scraped, despite getting b in politics and b in english language - in which i was 5 marks off an a

 

[Drumstick]

I worked really hard and struggeled but got my c's in my gcse's and like Biscuit said earlier its not that there getting easier! It that there are more resourses internet,much bigger and better libarys and better teachers. Some one said that they got a c and went down the pub type thing, well what does that tell you... that results may have been easier back then 18 or so years ago if you can gets c by gonig to the pub.

Rant over it just annoys me how hard people work and because there getting better and better they get told there results are useless and no good.

 

[butters(___!___)buttocks]

well I left school around 16 years old with one O level and got a job. Worked hard and didn't become a 60's hippy student layabout and now have a damn good life style. Those were the days when there was a massive shortage of middle management as so many of that generation were snuffed out in the war giving nobodies like me a good opportunity to work hard and move up the ladder faster than if Hitler hadn't decided he wanted to see Warsaw.

Now when I employ youngsters I don't look for grades in secondary education but look at Uni degrees and personality (not necessarily in that order).

Just took on a 23 y.o with degree in actuarial science from Swansea who wrote to the company out of the blue. Taking him on and sending him straight to our Sydney office for a year's training in catastrophe modelling. What an opprtunity !

But all the O and A level pass mark / lower standards crap is just to make the education system look good.

As for Maggie. I'd have her back any time !!!

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

16 percent for a c? yeah right

and that is all bollocks about it being easy to get an A grade. mind you i didnt turn up and got a B