Grade inflation

[PeanutButter]

2 hours ago, TheCountOfNowhere said:

House prices....Everyone is rich

Equality means everyone identifying as oppressed.

[Ah-so]

Daughter got her results today and confirmed her place at at Oxford (massive relief), so I don't think anyone will question the value of her A-levels. 

[Gbob]

2 hours ago, Roman Roady said:

...and right there is another thing about the UK. Isnt it time to let go of the whole German WW1 WW2 thing?

Hell no. 1966 and 2 world wars is all we have over the Germans. Don't take that away from us.

Still, agree with pretty much all her points though. 

Edited August 10, 2021 by Glenn

[scottbeard]

6 hours ago, MonsieurCopperCrutch said:

45% get grade A's?!?! 🤣

There is actually a tricky balance here - arguably if teaching gets better every year you'd EXPECT grades to improve every year, just as computers get faster, manufacturing gets more productive etc etc.

We should expect education to improve, and so we should expect grades to increase.

Except indications seem to be that it ISN'T education improving, just grades.  New graduates don't seem more able to me than graduates of 10 years ago (nor less able, to be fair, just the same).

And yet....schools are happy if grades inflate, exam boards are happy if grades inflate, because it can be passed off as education improving and the exam boards get re-hired.

Definitely room for improvement in this situation, and needs long term change.

[PeanutButter]

Congrats to all the proud parents here anyway. 

[Ah-so]

15 minutes ago, scottbeard said:

There is actually a tricky balance here - arguably if teaching gets better every year you'd EXPECT grades to improve every year, just as computers get faster, manufacturing gets more productive etc etc.

We should expect education to improve, and so we should expect grades to increase.

Except indications seem to be that it ISN'T education improving, just grades.  New graduates don't seem more able to me than graduates of 10 years ago (nor less able, to be fair, just the same).

And yet....schools are happy if grades inflate, exam boards are happy if grades inflate, because it can be passed off as education improving and the exam boards get re-hired.

Definitely room for improvement in this situation, and needs long term change.

I think when I did A levels about 10% got A. And is these exception times it has risen to 44% but it was 20% in 2019, but the A* now shows who is the best. It would be interesting to see how many got an A*. 

However, I interview graduates for the annual round at work at I am really impressed by the quality of undergraduate these days. They take it seriously and start planning for their career a lot sooner. Perhaps they seem a bit more earnest than they were in my day, but with different debt and house prices, they know they need to take things seriously. 

[Ah-so]

23 minutes ago, PeanutButter said:

Congrats to all the proud parents here anyway. 

Thank you!

[Si1]

The German lady makes good points but I have a few objections:

Germany's current wealth comes additionally from their mercantilist abuse of the southern states of the EU. I'm sure German trains are lovely. They should be because the Greeks and the Italians are paying for them. Also she is critical of British Capitalism, political system and employment practices. Well that's fine if you want Angela Merkel as your leader, well, forever, and bear in mind she will be communicating her academic progressive leftie views as held by about 80% of university academics in blissful ignorance of normal people. (as opposed to most working class Labour voters who are perfectly fine) 

[scottbeard]

29 minutes ago, Ah-so said:

I interview graduates for the annual round at work at I am really impressed by the quality of undergraduate these days. They take it seriously and start planning for their career a lot sooner. Perhaps they seem a bit more earnest than they were in my day, but with different debt and house prices, they know they need to take things seriously. 

Me too - but what I am impressed with is their intensity, not necessarily their education: i.e. they are more earnest than the grads of 2011 and 2001 but are they actually better at Maths or English?  The vast increase in A* A-Level grades says they ought to be, but they don't seem to be.

 

[PeanutButter]

There’s a black kid I see on morning walks who every day used to cycle around delivering papers. He’s now upgraded to an electric scooter. 

I would employ him in a heartbeat.

The key factor I think kids these days need is resilience. Are they building resilience at school? I doubt it.

[Ah-so]

3 minutes ago, scottbeard said:

Me too - but what I am impressed with is their intensity, not necessarily their education: i.e. they are more earnest than the grads of 2011 and 2001 but are they actually better at Maths or English?  The vast increase in A* A-Level grades says they ought to be, but they don't seem to be.

 

I doubt they are. I would love to see a year 2000 paper marked against recent paper recent paper, particularly for comparable papers, like maths where you could make a fair comparison. 

[Si1]

1 minute ago, PeanutButter said:

There’s a black kid I see on morning walks who every day used to cycle around delivering papers. He’s now upgraded to an electric scooter. 

I would employ him in a heartbeat.

The key factor I think kids these days need is resilience. Are they building resilience at school? I doubt it.

They only thing they care about is exam grades and Ofsted inspections. Discussed with an insider.

[Ah-so]

1 minute ago, PeanutButter said:

There’s a black kid I see on morning walks who every day used to cycle around delivering papers. He’s now upgraded to an electric scooter. 

I would employ him in a heartbeat.

The key factor I think kids these days need is resilience. Are they building resilience at school? I doubt it.

Not sure that buying an electric scooter makes you more employable. 

Most of those I see on electric scooters look like the people I would least employ. 

 

[Si1]

This grade inflation is very Boris. He's no eye on the future consequences. Just whatever placates the middle classes from year to year.

[PeanutButter]

Just now, Si1 said:

They only thing they care about is exam grades and Ofsted inspections. Discussed with an insider.

As I suspected. 

[Si1]

2 minutes ago, Ah-so said:

Not sure that buying an electric scooter makes you more employable. 

Most of those I see on electric scooters look like the people I would least employ. 

 

Electric scooters are illegal on public routes of any type. People don't realise this.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-57908240

 

Edited August 10, 2021 by Si1

[shlomo]

1 hour ago, Ah-so said:

Daughter got her results today and confirmed her place at at Oxford (massive relief), so I don't think anyone will question the value of her A-levels. 

Congratulations

[PeanutButter]

3 minutes ago, Ah-so said:

Not sure that buying an electric scooter makes you more employable. 

Most of those I see on electric scooters look like the people I would least employ. 

 

It shows he has the ability to get up at sparrow’s fart every day, commit to performing a task, and has rewarded himself with a tool to make the job more efficient. 

I like those traits and prefer to rely on my own observations than solely on test results. Ideally, a candidate has both areas covered. 

We’ve had underprivileged grads walk out of our jobs, we’ve had well connected public school grads walk out of our jobs. Personality is very important. 

[Ah-so]

2 minutes ago, PeanutButter said:

It shows he has the ability to get up at sparrow’s fart every day, commit to performing a task, and has rewarded himself with a tool to make the job more efficient. 

I like those traits and prefer to rely on my own observations than solely on test results. Ideally, a candidate has both areas covered. 

We’ve had underprivileged grads walk out of our jobs, we’ve had well connected public school grads walk out of our jobs. Personality is very important. 

Fair enough - it definitely shows motivation

[Ah-so]

6 minutes ago, shlomo said:

Congratulations

Thank you - and to your child too. 

[winkie]

Wish all young people well in their lives whatever grades they got wherever the next journey takes them......some of the life skills and attributes that will help them along the way.....no exam results for them.

Honesty, Empathy, Gratitude, Authenticity, Humility, Resilience, Health and Insight.

May they meet the right people that can help them throughout their lives going forwards, and may they inturn help  others.

 

[Gigantic Purple Slug]

The problem is that exam grades exist to be discriminatory.

To allow an outside observer to get some idea of ability without having to perform their own independent tests.

What grade inflation does is remove the ability to use the exams in a discriminatory way, if all results are the same.

Therefore, people will just ignore the exams and find other ways of selecting the best candidates.

For example, entrance exams, interview tests, psychoanalysis.

If exams don't subdivide people based on ability, its questionable whether they are worth taking at all. Because if they don't do that, what other purpose can they possibly serve ?

For me exams really should be grade based and nationally consistent with an equal % in each grade. Sure some years the exams will be harder or easier, but the sheer number of students should allow the stats to take effect.

Ultimately these new, nearly everyone gets an A or B exams are totally pointless. So I'd prefer the government didn't waste my money implementing them.

Edited August 10, 2021 by Gigantic Purple Slug

[captainb]

3 hours ago, Ah-so said:

Daughter got her results today and confirmed her place at at Oxford (massive relief), so I don't think anyone will question the value of her A-levels. 

Congratulations to your daughter.

 

[hughjass]

The German girls video was pretty decent, especially about the litterand petty vandalism, also sunday opening . Before we had it sunday was so quiet now its one of the worst days in terms of traffic. The point about the 2 world wars and 1 world  cup might become irrelevant in about 20 years when all the boomers have passed on. I think that was a big factor in the Brexit vote. 

[reddog]

4 hours ago, Si1 said:

The German lady makes good points but I have a few objections:

Germany's current wealth comes additionally from their mercantilist abuse of the southern states of the EU. I'm sure German trains are lovely. They should be because the Greeks and the Italians are paying for them. Also she is critical of British Capitalism, political system and employment practices. Well that's fine if you want Angela Merkel as your leader, well, forever, and bear in mind she will be communicating her academic progressive leftie views as held by about 80% of university academics in blissful ignorance of normal people. (as opposed to most working class Labour voters who are perfectly fine) 

I didn't agree with the bit about democracy, Germany is likely going to end up with an unworkable coalition in their general election this year, has been going that way for years.  They will then end up with a Green party chancellor that almost everyone is against.

 

Having said that I would like to see some Swiss style direct democracy in the UK.