A levels

[Cordy]

Hello everyone,
I was looking at some education websites from England, and I keep on coming across the “A levels”. What is this?

 

[Unimatrix]

edit

 

[Cordy]

How long do A-levels take to complete? How long does a degree take to complete?

Here in Canada, one graduates high school at approximately 18 years of age, and then enters the work force or college. A degree usually takes 4 years here (although some schools have 3 year degrees).

 

[sunshinejennii]

Well usually A-levels (Advanced Levels) take 2years to complete but as I discovered today sometimes modules need retaking! You dont do one A-level at a time though generally.

I have just completed 5 AS Levels (half one A-level) and that was full time education. As of September I will continue 3 of these and after another year have 3 whole A-levels and 2 halves!!!


Most degrees are 3years full time, some are 4, especially if they have a year in the industry, Medical degress take 5years, to train as an architect takes 8 years!! Also after completeing a degree (or undergraduate degree) you can do another year or two (postgraduate) and further your study. An example of this is a friend of mine who did her degree in geography for 3years and then took a one year postgraduate course in order to become a secondary school (11-16) teacher.

 

[Bilbo Baggins]

the english school system can be very confusing, even to many english people.
At the ages of 14-16 all English students are required to take G.C.S.E exams (general certificate of secondary education) after these exams are over pupils have 3 choices
1)to leave school and seek employment
2)to leave school and undertake further education in a college environment
3)to stay at school and undertake further education in the form of "A" levels.
Previously the "A" level was only tested at the end of the 2 year course, however about 3 years ago the government decided to split the "A" level into 2 parts. The first year (AS) and the second year (A2). Doing both of these years gives a person the same qualification as doing the old "A" level. IMHO this was just a ploy by the government in order to make our students seem more qualified as people can gain a half "A" level qualification just by doing the first year AS. Hope that helps
Blessings
BB

 

[Cordy]

Thank you for the help, folks.

 

[jhollas]

I just thought I should mention that, largely, the A-Level system as it stands is unpopular, with students, staff and examiners.
There are plans to replace it with a kind of British Baccalaureate (check spelling!), which personally I believe is a much better system. It's also better for the Universities as well, as with the current system, it's very difficult for them to identify exceptional candidates.

 

[Perceivence]

What's the problem with the A Levels?

Why is it difficult for them to identify exceptional candidates? Is it that they just give a grade (A, B, C etc) without any specifics as to what composes that grade?

 

[jhollas]

The modular system of the A-Levels, while in some ways beneficial to the candidates as it allows resits, is actually a complete shambles. For example, in Physics, we had to learn things from an A2 module, before we could completely understand an AS module, and the same sort of thing happens for a lot of other subjects.
Because Universities claim that A-Levels are getting easier and easier, and the government are consistently lowering their standards to enable more and more people to go to University (Because the Labour government is useless!), Unis now want to see the actual marks of the candidates, as well as if they have done any resits, in order to be able to distinguish between candidates that have the same grades.

 

[Perceivence]

Oh...I see.