30th June 2011 9:00
By Blue Tutors
Last year, for the first time in UK, A level students could achieve an A* grade, the new highest grade which was previously an A. This new grade was introduced to try and differentiate between the very able students, and those who are slightly more exceptional. Universities had been complaining for a long time about the difficulty in identifying the top students, because so many were now achieving A grades.
So has the new A* grade been a success? Is it fit for its intended purpose? With a little more perspective than last year, and with an insight into the grade from a tutoring point of view, we still have mixed feelings, but the grade certainly hasn’t fallen into the trap that was most concerning at its conception.
The worry was always that a new top grade would just shift every other grade boundary down. Rather than 5 grades at A level, with each grade being awarded to 20% of students, we thought that we would now have 6 grades, with each grade being awarded to 17% of students. Of course this would mean many more students getting an A or A* than had previously achieved an A, and that isn’t why the new grade was created.
In actual fact, looking at the way that most examining boards have incorporated the grade, it seems like we have achieved what was set out to be done. The criteria to achieve an A grade is approximately the same for most subjects (achieving over 80%). We can predict that this will still lead to more students getting an A or higher, because that number has risen year upon year for more than 2 decades. However, the A* grade has not lowered the A grade boundary, which we see as extremely positive. To achieve an A* students have to meet the criteria needed for an A, but also perform outstandingly well in the conceptually harder parts of their final A level year, averaging over 90% in those courses.
The only drawback we can see for this is the shock it has created for a lot of students currently taking their exams, and our tutors have identified an apparent increased in students’ anxiety this year as they try to get into a top university before the tuition fee increase. Students who would previously have comfortably got an A, now find themselves sweating over the possibility of just missing out on the A* grade needed.
It could be argued that if a student doesn’t achieve an A* then they are not an A* student, but the worry for students is that suddenly silly mistakes, rather than a lack of understanding, could mean the difference between Oxbridge and not having a university place. Especially in the science subjects, students previously had 20% to play with, but now that error margin has been halved, and misreading a question, or pressing the wrong button on a calculator could mean missing out on an A*.
So in conclusion, Blue Tutors would rather see the exams getting harder, so that it’s easier to identify the A* students through their conceptual understanding, rather than a slightly more basic understanding, and expecting them not to be error-prone.