While I congratulate the ever increasing number of high pass rates in these UK school exams why is it that when I get trainees to mentor they have lots of "junk" exam passes at high pass grade yet few have a decent pass in Maths or English and fewer still can either write clearly or perform maths without a computer/calculator or even write in their own language but use some weird text and a form of grammar that was unheard of 20 years ago.

To me a D or E are hardly a pass, they are a "just scraped in" mark at less than 50% of the answers correct........................... I have 3 Scottish O- levels at D pass but at least I got A* for English Language and Literature and B for Maths and B for Physics.

I am coming to the conclusion that our government doesn't consider reading/speaking and writing and doing "sums" worthwhile subjects and prefer to concentrate qualifications on sewing/knitting/ general studies and subjects that are not a whole lot of value in later life. What ever will happen to our engineering and scientific prowess if all school kids take the easy to pass subjects and dismiss the really valuable subjects as "too hard"
I'm not saying that English and Maths should be made easier subjects, what I am saying is that something is going very wrong in the nation's education system in the name of boosting exam pass rate statistics.

Crumbs we don't even teach kids how to use spell and grammar checkers properly!

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Tim,

you're not an old fart for having those views, but in NuLabour Britain you would be perceived as one.

I think the best way to describe this subject and Britain in General over the last 12 years, is Dumbing Down.

Where everyone passes their exams, making them worthless as a measure of any level of knowledge or aptitude of a subject. The same with no competitive sports in schools, because it's not fair on the losers!

WTF? That's great training for the Scary Big Wide World after school, where there is definately losers.

I passed my A levels 21 years ago, when they worth something. Or alternatively I'm thick compared to today's school leavers. Take your pick.

But if you're an Old Fart, so Am I. If that's any consolation.

I heard somebody talking about "age adjusting" of exam marks from the days when you passed your A levels, I took mine 33 years ago - I reckon that now with age adjusting my D passes would probably be worth at least a 1st Class degree with Honours.................................
I never went to Uni, I went to a Nautical College, gained an ONC in Nautical Science (???) and then did my professional exams. I don't have a degree and in today's world if I were just leaving school I would probably be unemployable................... yet I have have reached the top of my profession. 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

Heard the same age adjusting logic as well, and my lowly Cs would be level with your D's and the 1st class honours. So we're in good company.
And remember the good old GCE before they merged it with CSE, think I was one of the last years to study GCE. And we always took English Lit a year early at 15.
I never went to Uni either, don't think you can beat workplace experience, combined with industry qualifications, as opposed to the 'French Literature History' Grads I have come across in Finance. How are they going to apply that learning to anything?

I find now that most new recruits are Grads by default, as so many more people goint o Uni now. However their abilities seem very limited.

Think the only way to really differentiate between Grads now are by University studied at. So many polytechnics(Remember those?) became 'Universities' a few years back, that the quality has been somewhat diluted.

Just to quantify the above, I'm no Oxbridge Snob.

Glasgow Nautical College is now The University of the Gorbals - Maritime Campus....................................... and you can get a degree in nursing or dress design or knitting, but not a Nautical Science degree there, you have to go to a "proper" university for that and there is only one university that does that course - Southampton University!! 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

To my mind the govt is run by ex barristers and the odd wannabe like Postman Pat Alan Johnson. As they are academic they feel that everyone should be and if they aren't its because they are too poor so give them some money. Instead of accepting some are academic and should be sent to uni and some aren't so they should do an apprenticeship or the like we are left with a load of dumbed down kids that have either been swindled by the system because they are actually clever but aren't allowed to really shine as everyone gets grade A or their heads are full of unachievable ideas that they are exceptional when in actual fact they are normal kids.

The UK needs trades and people with manufacturing skills, it doesn't need shop assistants that have poor degrees in media studies. Porsche Cayenne S Diesel 66 Plate

Same sh*t over here: More and more pass their German A-Levels (we call them "Abitur") after 12 or 13 years of school. Most of them are just rubbish in everything! At the same time the average grades become better and better but the guys can't even do the easiest calculations without computer or write propper German, they have a 1,something grade (which is like A, I think) and are useless in really everything!

I once had a CV on the table from a guy who was studying at a university and he had 5 mistakes on this one page, including (no joke) one in his own adress!  RRS TDV6 HSE, 2006, bonatti grey, ebony interior, rear diff, s/c grille and vents, stormers, privacy, tasmods, iphone integration

Pass rates going up! Apparently this year was the worst year for exam results in my school for a good number of years! Especially the prelims! Maverick off disco3!
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pretty indifferent to it myself - I congratulate them all - it must be very uplifting to get good results.

Kaine you can't be as old as us then!

Congrats to them, they can only acheive what they're being asked to.

But remeber, when we were at school if you forgot your PE kit you still had to do PE, but in your Underpants. Nice playing rugby in the middle of winter.

Try forcing a kid to do that today, you'd be on some kind of register.

So us olduns must be better.

The kids taking these exams can only achieve what is put in front of them - well done to those children who have good results!

As for those who got bad results - well done as you have qualified to live off the state for the rest of your life.  2005 Zambezi TDV6 - Gone but not forgotten
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If it makes the kids feel good about doing well in their exams, then great - but I am yet to be convinced that this is all down to hard work. As I see it, today's teenager is a different beast to when I did my GCSEs in 1988. 

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My wife used to be a teacher of Spanish and French to A level. She is currently an Examiner for several of the GCSE and A Level exam boards. So she speaks with some knowledge amd experience.

It is her opinion that exams results today are rediculously poor. There is no comparison to the amount of effort that young people put in 25 - 30 years ago to pass their exams. Standards have slipped to pathetic levels by the interference of the government. As is the case with everything else they meddle with.

It is a fact that when we did our exams, no matter what the subject, if you couldn't spell and write neatly you lost marks. Well examiners these days are told not to penalise students for spelling. I've seen the exam papers for several years now and the standard of hand writing and spelling is very poor.

But on a slightly different note. My 19 year old niece did her A levels recently and because she had some time off due to illness during the year the College has refused to give her the results of the exams until she hands over £60. What the hell is that about  TDV6 - gone
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Can they do that???!!  

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I don't see how they can. I could understand it if she signed some kind of contract and as a result of breaching it then £60.
But no I think it's worth fighting especially as she hasn't got £60 to give to them. I don't understand how they can ransom someones future studies or job prospects by witholding the results she is entitled to.

I've given her mother some advice and we wait to hear. TDV6 - gone
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