Ch – ch – ch - changes

Welcome!

Welcome to everyone who is starting out in Advanced Level English this September. And for those who are returning for A2s, please be generous and share with the AS kids how www.crossref-it.info can help them cope with a new level of study!

English in the news

If the furore in the news and teaching profession is anything to go by, those just embarking on AS English may be the survivors of a tougher GCSE marking system than that faced in the last few years. And there are more changes to come.

Exam style

In recent years, many AS and A2 English syllabuses have had modular and/or coursework elements, echoing the format of many GCSE courses. However, from this September, GCSEs are being re-shaped to return to linear courses with exams at the end of Year 11 only.

Modular A Levels still exist – for now – but moves are being made to focus examination towards the end of each year. Some are even floating the idea of returning to one set of exams at the end of the two years, so that Year 12 students don’t lose curriculum time on study leave.

What works best?

There has to be a balance between offering courses that enable students to perform to the best of their ability, whilst also maintaining a standard that employers and educational institutions respect, and that compares with the exams students at a similar level are sitting in other countries.

• Modular or linear?
  Typically it takes a while for post GCSE students to ‘get’ the level of thinking and writing that is demanded by A Level – and that cognitive leap is only made part way through Year 12. Do you want marks taken from quite early on in your studies to count for your final grade?
  
  Alternatively, whilst you are likely to be at your peak performance for exams at the end of a two year programme of study, do you want everything to hang on a few days in early June when something as simple as a bad summer cold can mean your efforts mis-fire?
  
• The international market
  Some of you will just have taken IGCSEs and may be going on to do an I(nternational) B(accalaureate) instead of AS and A2 Levels. Do you think they were, or are, tougher than the national syllabuses most of your mates are familiar with?
  
  Because we have to be as good as all the non-UK students who will be part of the workforce, and also want a good chance of working abroad ourselves, the grades we get need to be equivalent to those of other 18 year olds, not seen as some ‘soft-option’.
  
  But that means that the majority may not achieve the higher grades we’ve got used to – which is where the distress about changes to the GCSE English grade boundaries hits…

 What’s your opinion?

It’s your education, and the changes the Education Dept. brings in may make all the difference to how you achieve in the future. We’d love to know what you think. Post on the Crossref-it.info Facebook page.

And meanwhile, enjoy your course!