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Linear A-Levels are the worst thing since sliced bread
After last week’s lack of column, I thought I’d do a piece this week on the reason why. Linear A-Levels. That’s why.
Now, if you don’t know what linear A-Levels actually are, that’s fine. They are the exams in which everything we learned in Year 12 can be brought up alongside everything we learn in Year 13 this summer. Basically, they’re ridiculous memory tests.
Last week I had to sit five mock exams (I study three A-Levels) and had to recall last year’s content in almost all of them. Thankfully, some teachers told us to revise certain topics, but some did not. And we worked out that for a couple of hours of our life, we had to know 24 topics. Bear this in mind: we were given three weeks, two of which were the Christmas ‘holidays’. In the summer, we’ve had months to prepare, so that’s fine. But the issue is we’re more worried about remembering minuscule details for so many topics across two years that the exams become a test of memory, rather than skills testing and looking at how a student can apply their knowledge.
If you want to point the finger at someone, his name is Michael Gove. He was Education Secretary under David Cameron and introduced a number of pointless and pathetic ‘radical reforms’ to education, including linear A-Levels. There is nothing radical about taking an education system back in time. And there’s nothing reforming about building a nation of people who can remember things. We need thinkers, we need innovators and we need people who are clever. There is a difference.
See you next week.