Free All in a Don's Day by Mary Beard Page A

might be completely hopeless at Media Studies.
    5. The brightest kids are those ones who manage to clock up As in six or seven subjects at A level .
    No way. This is the A level equivalent of stamp collecting. No one ever needs more than four A levels – and if that leaves them any free time, it would be the best thing intellectually to read novels, go to the movies … and grow up.
    6. It is the job of the best universities to take into account that many disadvantaged state schools tend to underestimate their pupils’ A level grades when they make predictions .
    That, at least, is what John Dunford, head of the Association of School and College Leaders, has been reported as saying. No it isn’t – or only in part. It would be more to the point if he got his Association to do something to rectify the problem at school level.
    7. Things will be put right if we reintroduce the old-style essay-writing exam .
    Not entirely. Exams are only as good as the examiners. The new-style ‘clear-criteria’ exam can be marked by the relatively inexperienced (that’s in part why they were invented). In the old days you could have a more open-ended essay style of question, because you had relatively few candidates anda cadre of experienced examiners. Where will you find enough experienced examiners to take this on …?
    8. The International Baccalaureate is much better than A levels .
    No. The grass on the other side always looks greener, but if we were to go over to this
en bloc
, you’d find just as many complaints. The breadth will be good for some but not for others. There is no quick fix.
    9. It is better for the country if more kids take Science and Maths at A levels (according to Schools Minister Iain Wright) .
    No – not necessarily. Or only if they want to, and that is where their talents lie. In the long term (and even in the short term, I suspect) kids well educated in any subject are good for the country’s success and economy. Forcing them to do science only produces unwilling and bad scientists.
    10. Geniuses pass their A levels at a preternaturally young age. (There were a pair of eight-year-old twins this year, I believe, who got a B and a C in Advanced Maths.)
    No, no, no. Maybe they are clever, but the reason they have had this exam inflicted on them is that they have preternaturally pushy parents.
Comments
    The whole business of marking, per se, seems desperately flawed. And yet how to get along without it? Like the opposite sex, there′s no living with it and no living without it – only it′s also impossible to fall in love with.
    PL
    I disagree with all this. The clear criteria thing is obviously what is needed – no woolly fluff. Fax fax fax and stubby forefingers.
    â€²Teachers′ are the labourers of the system, brute sluggers hacking off the coal – it′s the sorters and refiners and pit-owners who give the process value – and make the coal useful for the productive sector so it can produce the things we need.
    All this open-ended sludge and ′whole man′ crap is just the exception that proves the rule that where there′s muck there′s money.
    XJY
    And one thing to
believe
about A levels: 50% of A levels taken in private schools are awarded a grade A compared to 20% in state comprehensives. And Mary believes that Cambridge does not need to do anything about this.
    STATE
    State – it is not Cambridge′s job to set to rights the shortcomings of the state school system. If they take that on as a matter of course, and keep making allowances, there is no incentive for improvement. I, as someone with grandchildren in the state system, just wish that the powers that be could differentiate between ′equality′ and ′equality of opportunity′, and not try to reduce everybody to the lowest common denominator. The result is that somebody else has to pick up the pieces, and teach the basic skills at 18 that