Geez, I am glad to have never messed with any of that. I am glad to be way past that. Our son is going to own his own business too, so he won’t have to go through that. Love education but, all those tests sound like a horrible pain.
The subjects that you pick - Biology, Physics, Theatre Studies, History, Maths, French, whatever…
As I grasp it, most people take 4 subjects at AS level (i.e. for a year) and then drop one of them for the second year.
Well, I’d assume that nothing has changed since I took them, in which case it depends from subject to subject. For History I had to do one 5,000 word essay (I did mine on parliamentary reform in the 19th century) in my second year and sit two 3-hour exams (one on British, one on European history). That’s literally all the work that was assessed. Bloody ridiculous if you ask me. For Literature I had to do two three-hour exams (one hour per text) and three essays of between 2000 and 3000 words, again one per text. So we studied a grand total of nine books (I can still name them all) in two years. I considered that a disgrace.
No, or at least, not from my experience. Maybe they do in the sciences.
Not really. There has been lengthy discussion of an IB-esque post GCSE qualification.
I’ve got a lot of problems with the British education system, too many to list here. Slackers end up unemployed - what Britain does have is a hugely elaborate, and relatively generous, benefits system. The bureacracy involved is an absolute farce (probably intentional, to try to put people off making claims) but nonetheless, most of the totally useless people in Britain don’t starve.
[size=75]… i hate england… =.=[/size]
Zow, much more difficult than any U.S. high school exams except the AP and IB tests. I doubt if many U.S. students would pass this testing. Remember, I do agree with you regarding U.S. high school education. It sucks big time. Our Proficiency Exams are basically at the 10th grade level, and would be 8th grade in the 60’s. You should scan a few, along with the GED exams for a few good laughs, then a few tears as 143,000+ in California alone cannot pass these idiot exams. Pathetic. I exclude special ed. students from the idiot remark.
To think our future has to compete with those in China, India, and other countries.
How sad, I love my country, and do view your country as our motherland. Try to figure out what is wrong, then try and fix it. If this is not possible, the U.S, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, will probably welcome you.
At the moment I am furious with the U.S. government as well, but just continually play the thorn in the side of my representatives and hammer away at Wbya. The little guy is making a difference, especially regarding illegal immigration. The squeaky wheel receive the oil cliche.
With regards,
aspacia
I suppose England is having trouble with his “tortured but brilliant mind”…
That’s because you live in Manchester, which is primarily grey. Go to Blackpool. See the lights.
Aspacia,
Bear in mind that while A-levels are technically open to anyone, regardless of academic ability, that many don’t take them but either leave school and go into work, or study for other, usually more vocational, qualifications.
Absolutely. Year on year, the A-level results go up, and year on year the government claims that this is a sign of academic standards improving. A point to note - for most subjects, the examining bodies set the benchmarks. Put simply, if they want an extra 0.2% of kids to get grade As this year when compared to last year, they just alter the assessment benchmarks so that, say, a mark of 76%+ gets you an A as opposed to 77%+ the year before. So, the rising grades haven’t a bloody thing to do with academic standards, but have everything to do with how examining bodies (who of course want to give out more high grades because they’re part of the whole daisy chain) assess the results. Again, I consider this disgraceful. And deceitful on the part of the government.
Plenty of people in this country fail easy exams, mainly because they’ve never had the self-discipline to actually learn how to pay attention for the whole 2 or 3 hour period (or whatever length). For a generation for whom TV has been their closest friend, a friend that delivers information in usually no more than 30 second bursts, trying to focus for 3 hours is tough, if you are intellectually lazy.
Naturally. There are some people who are just a bit thick, that’s true. And there are some with severe mental difficulties of various kinds. But most academic failures have no one to blame but themselves.
I don’t worry too much. If smarter people come to the UK from China, India, Japan, Korea, Eastern Europe, wherever, and this is to the detriment of the laziest people in the UK, I see that as being beneficial to this nation’s long-term future. The more smart people you have in your country, the better.
SIATD wrote:
Businesses are setting up shop overseas, not importing that many skilled workers. The U.S. has tariffs, but the tariffs for our exports is 10% higher, hence the huge trade imbalance.