I am currently undertaking the joyous process of being a guinea pig for the new fully
modular A Level syllabus. A basic outline of the main features of the new A1 (previously AS Levels) and A2 (previously A Levels) system:
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It is recommended that 5 subjects are selected for study in the Lower 6th (Year 12)
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After this first year of study 3 modules are taken in each subject and an AS Level is obtained in this.
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Then the student selects three of these five to continue to full A Level.
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At the end of the second year the student is examined with three more modules in each of the subjects. The grades from these modules are then combined with the ones taken after the first year to give a full A Level.
It is also possible to take modules in January, should the student so desire. This time of year is primarily used for retakes, of which you are only allowed one per paper now, although science subjects frequently enter their pupils for a single module in January.
Now while this seems to be a system offering more choice and flexibility, which I am in favour of, it has not worked like that:
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The syllabuses for the new system were released only just before the term started so teachers had had no time to prepare for the year.
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It is not practically possible to teach five subjects properly in one year. This means that Private schools, who have the option to choose how many the make their students do, have nearly all chosen four.
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Some subjects, such as history, are not at all tended towards modular examination.
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The exam boards have not even decided how many pieces of coursework they want in some subjects (Physics).
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Only the AS Module exams have been written so it is not currently possible to do a full A Level a year early. The exception is maths as they needed to create a full complement of modules to allow further mathematicians to do them this year. However the board will not allow these further mathematicians to certificate their full A Level this year as that is just not allowed. So, if a further mathematician gave up maths at the end of this year with six modules all with full marks they would not be allowed to certificate this A Level unless they retook at least two modules next year which would have to count!
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There will not be enough markers to mark all the exam scripts.
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No exam can be longer than 2 hours under the new modular system.
It may well be that these problems will be ironed out and the system will turn out to be a great success and I hope this is the case, not least because I have a younger brother and sister who will both be taking A Levels in the next few years. However I think that there are too many deep seated troubles with this system.
The A Level results are commonly graded on a points system and Universities will sometimes ask for a total of so many points to get in.
The Old Points System:
A=10
B=8
C=6
D=4
E=2
U=0
The New Points System:
A=120
B=100
C=80
D=60
E=40
U=0