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"another education rant from a scared sixth-former"

In a few years, the A Level pass rate will be 100%. Universities will have to trawl through thousands of University-length essays in order to discern which students should be accepted, because a grade of all As just isn't good enough to guarantee a place anymore. Despite this, students and teachers all say that the bad press A Levels get is demoralising to the people working so hard to get the good grades...can't they just admit that it's getting easier? Modules mean that one bad day for a test won't wreck your grade, which is something I definitely agree with; but spouting this fact every single time doesn't change the figures we hear every August. A pass in A Levels is a grade from A to E. How can an E grade be considered a success? Everybody says that dismissing sets of grades like four As is an insult to students, but that simply isn't true. It's not the students' fault, they can only pass what they are sitting. But when you can get the perfect, maximum score and still have to jump through another hoop to get your desired University placement something is wrong with the system. Chris Woodhead mixes his stance on education with his stance on politics, but his ideas seem to be the ones that a lot of the public would like to see implemented. Indeed, perhaps the best suggestion is to simply go back to the old GCE and O Level system that worked just fine for the last generation.

And then there's University itself. I listened to a good program on the radio last night where the subject of learning for the sake of learning came up a lot. University is clearly an incredible experience that millions find improves their life - people walk out after a degree as a different person. But this option is becoming less viable every year, as more obstacles are put in the way of potential graduates. My year will be the first to get the new tuition fees. The sliding scale system basically makes it pointless to get a degree, because any improved wages you might earn are simply skimmed to pay for the degree itself. As the years of quota-filling catches up with the country, we will end up with over half of people going to University, but nobody able to screw in a lightbulb or fix a tap. Nowadays it is easier to walk into a highly paid job after a vocational course in plumbing than it is to get any sort of job with a good degree. People are coming out with these qualifications but without basic skills, such as the ability to fill out an application form. So what's the point of getting a degree anymore, when it is becoming devalued and even unhelpful?

I'm getting very worried about my 'grand plan' of getting to University, finishing with good results and getting a job I enjoy. And to make matters worse, I might be expected to write several thousand words of an essay to submit in my application, along with three years' worth of work. Perhaps I should go into mechanics.

I've been working as a junior-computer programmer over the past 5 weeks, and I did a bit of work experience with them just before the summer holidays. I've got various computing related skills and I maintain my own website.

I think universitys are looking for people who are willing to learn and have the skills to go out and get some experience of working life, related to the course. Grades are just one asset of getting in, you have to display what kind of person you are before they'll consider you

Tomoose wrote:
> Cyclone wrote:
> My friend got 4 As at A2, and yet she also didn't do so well on her
> entry examinations for the uni - hence they are 'thinking' about it.
> True, they are very old institutions and perhaps a little, erm,
> 'immovable', but you can be poor and still get in, or be Asian and
> get in - have you ever been to Cambridge and seen all the different
> people?
>
> So what was the reason for not letting in someone from my school, who
> got full marks in all his A-levels?
>
>

Entry exams, as I said?

The fact they get so many high scoring applicants?

Paradox: wrote:
> Of course if you're moving to work abroad then the language is the
> MOST useful tool you'll have - if you cant communicate with people
> you cant even ask for a job!

you could use drawings to convey the message - like in cartoons. mental note - separate fact from fiction

Cyclone wrote:
> My friend got 4 As at A2, and yet she also didn't do so well on her
> entry examinations for the uni - hence they are 'thinking' about it.
> True, they are very old institutions and perhaps a little, erm,
> 'immovable', but you can be poor and still get in, or be Asian and
> get in - have you ever been to Cambridge and seen all the different
> people?

So what was the reason for not letting in someone from my school, who got full marks in all his A-levels?

On another note i've got to make a big decision whether to drop a subject (Physics). I do well in it, but hate doing it, but am considering what it will do to my chances of getting into a top Uni...

Doing a language will almost garantee you a jb in a school. It's one of the subjects where theres a shortage of teachers. Same goes for maths...

Tomoose wrote:
> Whitestripes DX wrote:
> Basically, if you're really posh you'll get into Cambridge, and if
> you
> come from a really poor background and get straight A's you'll get
> into Cambridge.
>
> If you're an ordinary middle class kid from the suburbs you don't
> stand a chance, they don't get to tick any 'look how we've enabled
> the underprivliged to have a better life' boxes with them.
>
> So why was it reported that two brothers who both got straight A's
> and didnt come from a wealthy background, were both rejected from
> Cambridge, oh and did I mention they were Asian? My mate stands a
> better chance than me, he has really wealthy parents, and after all
> Oxbridge is that type of culture.

My friend got 4 As at A2, and yet she also didn't do so well on her entry examinations for the uni - hence they are 'thinking' about it. True, they are very old institutions and perhaps a little, erm, 'immovable', but you can be poor and still get in, or be Asian and get in - have you ever been to Cambridge and seen all the different people?

well you can it'd just be something along the lines of

*dast you haven a jobben for me?* why'd you'd be speaking german in a Japanese company i don't know though :-D

Of course if you're moving to work abroad then the language is the MOST useful tool you'll have - if you cant communicate with people you cant even ask for a job!

I understand your point about foreign languages not directly helping that much due to the limited field of jobs for it, i.e translator, but if like me who will be going to Japan soon you are able to speak the language then you will be far more likely to get a job there then those people who just go over there without learning the language.

Whitestripes DX wrote:
> Basically, if you're really posh you'll get into Cambridge, and if you
> come from a really poor background and get straight A's you'll get
> into Cambridge.
>
> If you're an ordinary middle class kid from the suburbs you don't
> stand a chance, they don't get to tick any 'look how we've enabled
> the underprivliged to have a better life' boxes with them.

So why was it reported that two brothers who both got straight A's and didnt come from a wealthy background, were both rejected from Cambridge, oh and did I mention they were Asian? My mate stands a better chance than me, he has really wealthy parents, and after all Oxbridge is that type of culture.