h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

No, no, no ... far too much of our culture is being based around things being measured and quantified (ie science). Let's get all touchy feely and let common sense and feelings help us make our decisions. Up with pottery!

BBS

yeah but we still need some boffins to do the complicated stuff. like work the internet and put sky tv sattelites in space.

Watta Watta

I realise people will always need plates.........but we need morfe scientists in dis country...........not only in medicine, but also in Engineering..........God the Chinese will soon make everything soon we use

Wattaray Bro

knowledge is good in itself.

Whether you making plates of space ships..

Bring on education...surely...

Watta Watta watta

Knowledge is xcellent + I think education is great. However, we need exams + qualifications to distinguish da truly gifted from the masses.........otherwise how would u know who to go to if u were having a heart attack............eh, maybe da plumber could sort it


Wattaray Bro

Not much said here for a while.

The country are saying GCSEs + A-Levels are getting easier. I did mine years ago, but thought they were tough enough.

watt say u

i say the old people who didn't do so well should lay off the young who are doing well now. they're just jealous. i just got my results and i know the grades i got were because i worked for them.

ALL A'S AND A*'S!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Congratulations!

I remember when I did mine in 1999 (wow thats's quite a long time ago now...), and they said then that exams were getting easier.

I don't think exams are getting easier. Its the teaching thats changed. These days, the emphasis is about passing exams, rather than learning things.

It does get a bit fraustrating when everyone tells you that actually, exams are getting easier, particularly when you've worked so incredibly hard.

yeah i know. you can't compare the a levels now to the ones 6 years ago of whenever, because the system's changed, as have the teaching methods and the attitude of the students. yes, people are leaning more towards the passing than the learning but that's not the fault of the students and it's no reason to take away their achievements by saying 'they're easier now, you're not as clever as you thought.'

Nope. Its unfair on the person taking the exams! For instance, say the person does not do that brilliant. Its not a nice feeling to be told that exams are getting easier, but hey you didn't do so well, so therefore you're an absolute idiot.

I didn't do so well in my A-levels (3Bs and a C), but I still got into one of the top 3 universities in the UK. But my self-esteem took a severe beating, as I felt totally useless. Exams are getting easier, and all I could manage was a C.

exactly. saying they're getting easier is a matter of opinion and a generalisation. just because more people are passing what about those that aren't?

another thing is that there are different subjects available now. when i do a levels i want to do sciences maths and english which have been around for a long time, but the new things like media studies are probably less difficult than them so that's why more people take them and why more people pass.

Yup. I remember comparing my A-level results with some other people at my school. (This was just before the AS modular exams begun), so normally people took 3 Alevels. I chose to take Physics, Mathematics, Economics and English lit. I knew some people who got 3 Bs, but took them in media studies, drama studies and comms studies.

exactly. when I do a levels I want to do the challenging ones like sciences etc. and if I get a good grade and someone who hasn't taken an exam in 13 years comes and says 'they're getting easier' then I'll be able to say 'well actually I worked really hard for these grades so don't take them away from me. go and find a media studies student instead'. (although that may be quite hard on media studies students. i don't know, they don't do it at my school)

Whether exams are getting easier or not, there's certainly a feeling among employers and university lecturers that students are arriving knowing less. And that is where the issue occurs.

If the post-ed people are being told more students have passed exams, but they seem to know less the instant conclusion is that the exam must be easier.

As someone stated earlier ... students are taught to pass exams and meet criteria these days. They have no interest in learning to sate curiosity and IMHO that is a very sad state of affairs.

BBS

Its not so much that. I remember during my time, we always used to try to think outside the box. One of my friends came up with a solution to an exam question, which was unique. He wrote the answer in his mock exam, but was given no marks for it.
Reason: It wasn't the solution expected by the examiners. He argued with the teacher, but was pretty much told that he should only use the material taught, and that he shouldn't go beyond it.

"If the post-ed people are being told more students have passed exams, but they seem to know less the instant conclusion is that the exam must be easier."

either that or the teaching methods are being aimed more at teaching students to pass rather that actually teaching them.

All the people saying they're getting easier should just imagine the alternative. If the pass rate was going down instead of up then people would be complaining about the poor standard of the schooling system and saying the exams are getting harder etc. etc. Either way someone's going say it's bad.

Congrats.

I got all As, at GCSE + A-Level too. Didn't have A* in those old days. Still think there is a place for vocational traing though.

Dr. Wattaray

thanks.

well done in yours as wel Joyika.

Are people arriving at university, or entering the work force knowing less? Or is it because, with ever increasing numbers of people going to university: the average skill-set of people joining the workforce at 16 is going down, and so too is the skill-set of people entering university?

Yeah I agree, we need more tradesmen really in this country. The honest ones who charge a fair price are few and far between. So much so that I have enrolled in several DIY courses so that I don't have to pay the ridiculous fees these so called 'plumbers' and 'builders' charge for a few minutes of their time.

I swear a 30yr old plumber in my area earns more per hour than a 50 yr old Consultant Physician in the NHS. I agree they both do valuable jobs, but surely the more experienced one should earn more

JOyika