Mini Blog 1: Scrapping AS Levels will only Benefit the already able
Funnily enough I was the first year to take the AS level in 2001. At that time they were an unknown quantity to my college lecturers and whilst we were allowed to do resits, we were wary of them. When I came to teach AS Level English Literarute for the first time about five years ago I realized that whilst there was certainly a degree of challenge and depth in terms of the literature, the focus was too narrow thus making it too easy for bright students to get the top grades. The new AS and A2 level introduced in 2008 is much broader, focused on teaching students the skills of being an literature scholar and, importantly, being much more challenging than before with the inclusion of an unseen text in the exam alongside the ‘traditional’ 30 poems, but also in the coursework, because as well as a comparative essay between two 1980s texts about post-modern identity, students have to creatively respond to a text and write in the style of an author. I think once results come out in August, we will see a a significant decline in the number of top grades.
Of course, I only really know the way that my subject has changed, but I think that the AS exams are rigorous enough in the vast majority of cases and scrapping them scraps the idea that we are testing students on their knowledge and skills as a geographer or mathematician and brings back an examination system that tests an ability to cope with a pile of papers all at once. Indeed, the scrapping of the AS level won’t affect those at the top of the educational food-chain, the 7% who attend private or independent schools. But it will disadvantage, deter and de-motivate those at the opposite end.
In summary, the scrapping of the AS Level is simply a symbolic and tokenistic move to appease the misconception that exams are too easy and that the ‘old fashioned’ way is best. It simply hasn’t be thought through and is soundbite-headline-grabbing politics at its worst.
