Return of the O-Level: Gove shake-up is biggest revolution in education for 30 years

[Cool--]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-30-years.html

*gulp* Gove must be really bored. GCSEs were the perfect difficulty in my opinion/experience, but looks like we are going back in time. O-Levels were never 'Gold Standard', education has improved massively since GCSEs were implemented (teaching got better, children got smarter, most importantly.)

Thread moved by Jordan (Forum Super Moderator): From 'Education & Employment' to here as more suited

[Mathew]

This is going to be very interesting and I'm looking forward to seeing how it pans out in the future.

[Futz]

This scares me as it will further downgrade my GCSE's and A-levels

[FlyingJesus]

children got smarter, most importantly.

Well no, exams got easier so it LOOKED like children got smarter

This could all be speculation based on an email Gove sent to his mum saying "O levels were pretty good back in the day" considering it's from the Daily Mail, but assuming it's all true, I don't understand why there are plans to have completely standardised tests across the entire country but then remove the National Curriculum... surely that just opens up opportunities to have a load of teaching about irrelevant topics which may well be interesting and true but of no scholarly merit for the students

[lawrawrrr]

Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh. All I ever hear is 'WHEN I WAS YOUR AGE WE DID O LEVELS AND THEY WERE MUCH HARDER'.

If they did bring them back (which I fully support btw - they're more preparing for r/l or a levels), they'd have to be at about the same standard as current GCSEs or all results would suddenly drop. I'm not actually sure how they'd handle that transition really...

[Cool--]

Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh. All I ever hear is 'WHEN I WAS YOUR AGE WE DID O LEVELS AND THEY WERE MUCH HARDER'.

If they did bring them back (which I fully support btw - they're more preparing for r/l or a levels), they'd have to be at about the same standard as current GCSEs or all results would suddenly drop. I'm not actually sure how they'd handle that transition really...

Wouldn't it be easier just to improve on the current GSCEs?

[lawrawrrr]

Wouldn't it be easier just to improve on the current GSCEs?

They're already under criticism for changing them so often, they really need a complete overhaul. I think they're next to useless to be honest, at least at my school, we were taught to get to the GCSEs and pass the GCSEs, not actually taught for knowledge.

[Shar]

Less intelligent pupils will sit simpler exams, similar to the old CSEs

not liking the sound of that, not very friendly. Why go back in time when they can try and improve the current GCSEs. Also some students do better at A levels than GCSEs as they get to pick subjects they actually enjoy.

[-Danube-]

I think GCSEs should be alot harder, myself and most people that i know did little to no extra work during our GCSEs, just turned up to our lessons and we all did outstanding. Some people may think this is great but really getting great GCSEs results with little work really shoots yourself in the foot for A Level. When i started A Levels i thought i could just go to the lessons and do the exams and i'd get some decent grades like at GCSE, but i did the first lot of a level exams and i did terrible. This gave me a kick up the bum to basically burry my head into revision a few weeks before my exams. The gap between GCSE and A Level needs to be bridged, the difference in difficulty is massive and GCSE are no where near enough to prepare you for A Level.

I'm only really talking in terms of Science based A Levels and GCSEs as this is only what i did at A Level so i can't really judge the change in difficulty for different GCSEs to A Level.

[Nemo]

I think certain GCSEs should be made harder (physics for example) because the gap from GCSE to A level is ******* ridiculous.