Mock Exams

[Medway Blue]

Me & the Mrs were discussing academia the other day & we reckon getting A Levels (or "Higher" in her case) when we were 18 was harder and more intense than people walking out of uni with 2:2's is today.

Hence, why I fancy going back to uni to retrain when finances allow :p

I struggle to agree with this mate :p I seriously think the standard of teaching has improved since you were doing your A levels. I'm doing a history degree in Ipswich and I'm really struggling with work at the moment. 6 2500 word essays set in November, due in by first week in Feb, all needing your own research and reading, and 2 exams when I get back in mid-Feb. Madness.

Same goes for A Level. Adults today say how much harder O and A levels were in their day - I say the standard of teaching then just wasn't as good. My A Levels were pretty difficult, and I don't think that adults would find it any easier were they to take any of the exams that we do nowadays. They'd just be taught and prepared better for them.

 

[Medway Blue]

I did German, History and English Lang. and Lit. at A Level. German was one difficult piece of ****e.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Just to add another contribution, I work in a Junior school, and the children are doing stuff in their maths lessons ready for SATs that we did in senior school.

 

[MK Shrimper]

Same goes for A Level. Adults today say how much harder O and A levels were in their day - I say the standard of teaching then just wasn't as good. My A Levels were pretty difficult, and I don't think that adults would find it any easier were they to take any of the exams that we do nowadays. They'd just be taught and prepared better for them.

I completely disagree. We had no computers (well a BBC Micro & Commodore 64, but they didn't count) that was linked to the internet. Therefore we had to do research in library's from books.

We weren't even allowed to take in calculators to maths exams. Long division / multiplication. Log tables....

I would imagine 90% of GCSE students would balk at trying to divide 1432/88 without a calcualtor.....

 

[OldBlueLady]

And slide rules....!

I remember spending hours up Southend library doing research, using the micro fiche - we used to think that was technology at its best! I also did typing up to advanced level using the old manual typewriters, when I think back to how you used to have to bash at the keys compared to the touch sensitive keyboards now and the ease with which you correct there's no comparison. Essays all had to be handwritten and invariably would come back with "handwriting", "spelling" or "punctuation" scrawled across in big, red letters. You're not supposed to use red pens for marking now, stands out too much and demoralises the students!

 

[Interpol Shrimper]

I struggle to agree with this mate :p I seriously think the standard of teaching has improved since you were doing your A levels. I'm doing a history degree in Ipswich and I'm really struggling with work at the moment. 6 2500 word essays set in November, due in by first week in Feb, all needing your own research and reading, and 2 exams when I get back in mid-Feb. Madness.

Same goes for A Level. Adults today say how much harder O and A levels were in their day - I say the standard of teaching then just wasn't as good. My A Levels were pretty difficult, and I don't think that adults would find it any easier were they to take any of the exams that we do nowadays. They'd just be taught and prepared better for them.

I guess judging by some of the responses I'm not alone in my initial thinking.
Plus, got to agree with Firestorm's point of view re the current Maths A Level, a lot of what is mentioned was part of my Maths GCSE in the late 80s, plus the applied problems stuff, I used to do that kind of thing at Primary School! :eek:

I'm not lessening what you're going through in your history course either though. Do I take it you're at the Rope Walk "campus" in Ipswich?

Also, with regards to standards of teaching, I live next door to a history teacher, she's home by 4.15 every day (& also often sneaks back when she has a free lesson), we used to laugh at the lack of hours teachers did when I was at school but it was in no way as lax as that! :p