• The British Education System
    85 replies, posted
[QUOTE=Kamaitachi;40286732]I literally drew a flying space bus filled with cereal when talking about universal serial buses in my standard grade computing exam and I still passed credit...[/QUOTE] I finished the credit exam in about 50 minutes, I can't remember how much time we had but it was much more than that. Same with Higher, they give the Computing exam far to much time especially compared to other subjects where you don't get nearly enough sometimes.
Britian is split three ways. Scotland, Wales and England. Wales and England both use the same education system, with A-Levels and GCSE's. I don't know much apart from that. This is a comprehensive analysis of the Scottish education system (PRE Curriculum for Excellence) Scotland has a few tiers of exams. At the bottom is Standard Grade. This is pretty much compulsory, what you do before you should leave school. These are graded from 1-7, with 1-2 being "Credit", 3-4 being "General" and 5-6 being "Foundation". 7 is a fail/no award. There is then Highers. What most people progress on to after Standard Grade And further from there, Advanced Highers. Not widely taken, but popular for some subjects. Doing 4 is suicide. There is also Intermediate 1s and 2s. Int 1 is equivalent to a General Standard Grade, and Int 2 a Credit. You suffer 6 years of education up here. 4 are compulsory. First year - do fuck all Second year - do fuck all and choose your 8 [I]Standard Grades[/I] Third year - You begin them Fourth year - you finish them. first round of exams. You're about 16 by this point. You choose highers. Fifth year - You being your highers. Most people do 5. Some do 4 highers, 1 Int 2, many do a mix between Int 2 and Highers. Sixth year - You apply for university, choose to do 4 more highers, or three advanced, or a mix. I'm doing 3 highers and 1 advanced. Pretty chilled out, lot of people get uni offers etc. Higher is considered a big leap from Standard Grade. However, the leap is not that great in reality and many students succeed if they have Credit grades from the year before. A lot of people do badly because they think they can just relax for a year and then they end up doing no work like for their standard grades and failing. Hopefully I gave you all a rough idea of how it works, and didn't confuse you all too much.
[QUOTE=cueballv2themax;40290497]Britian is split three ways. Scotland, Wales and England. Wales and England both use the same education system, with A-Levels and GCSE's. I don't know much apart from that. This is a comprehensive analysis of the Scottish education system (PRE Curriculum for Excellence) Scotland has a few tiers of exams. At the bottom is Standard Grade. This is pretty much compulsory, what you do before you should leave school. These are graded from 1-7, with 1-2 being "Credit", 3-4 being "General" and 5-6 being "Foundation". 7 is a fail/no award. There is then Highers. What most people progress on to after Standard Grade And further from there, Advanced Highers. Not widely taken, but popular for some subjects. Doing 4 is suicide. There is also Intermediate 1s and 2s. Int 1 is equivalent to a General Standard Grade, and Int 2 a Credit. You suffer 6 years of education up here. 4 are compulsory. First year - do fuck all Second year - do fuck all and choose your 8 [I]Standard Grades[/I] Third year - You begin them Fourth year - you finish them. first round of exams. You're about 16 by this point. You choose highers. Fifth year - You being your highers. Most people do 5. Some do 4 highers, 1 Int 2, many do a mix between Int 2 and Highers. Sixth year - You apply for university, choose to do 4 more highers, or three advanced, or a mix. I'm doing 3 highers and 1 advanced. Pretty chilled out, lot of people get uni offers etc. Higher is considered a big leap from Standard Grade. However, the leap is not that great in reality and many students succeed if they have Credit grades from the year before. A lot of people do badly because they think they can just relax for a year and then they end up doing no work like for their standard grades and failing. Hopefully I gave you all a rough idea of how it works, and didn't confuse you all too much.[/QUOTE] And then you progress to first year of uni which is vastly easier than Higher or Adv Higher.
[QUOTE=alien_guy;40290581]And then you progress to first year of uni which is vastly easier than Higher or Adv Higher.[/QUOTE] great, canny wait to get mwi
The jump from high school to sixth form college was too much for me. I had aspirations to go to university, but I just couldn't handle the learning styles employed at college, not to mention the workload.
[QUOTE=cueballv2themax;40290750]great, canny wait to get mwi[/QUOTE] Also, I go in for an average of 2 hours a day with friday off (this semester).
[QUOTE=zerotwelve;40282585]English GCSE's and A-Levels need reworking a hell of a lot, AS/A2 General Studies is completely pointless and shouldn't be a requirement for entry to most Uni's, entry requirements to Colleges should not be as strict and rely more on the actual student rather than the statistics My problem with colleges is that all they care about is the statistics and making the institution itself look good, rather than actually caring about the people[/QUOTE] I can't say about English A-levels, but what's wrong with English GCSEs? I find them fine.
[QUOTE=Simples;40291013]I can't say about English A-levels, but what's wrong with English GCSEs? I find them fine.[/QUOTE] controlled assessments
[QUOTE=zerotwelve;40291178]controlled assessments[/QUOTE] Ohhh those... yeah they suck. I think the actual exams are fine though.
there's nothing wrong with doing coursework, it's the fact that they aren't at all "controlled" I literally copied from an online article in most of my controlled assessments, people were talking, I had my iPod on, it's just silly that such a large portion of your grade is open to cheating
I'm not someone who can perform in exams but can show great understanding. All in all, I'm failing because the British education system doesn't suit for everyone. No GCSE's for me, apprenticeship next and then the army for further training and another apprenticeship.
[QUOTE=cueballv2themax;40290497]Britian is split three ways. Scotland, Wales and England. Wales and England both use the same education system, with A-Levels and GCSE's. I don't know much apart from that. This is a comprehensive analysis of the Scottish education system (PRE Curriculum for Excellence) Scotland has a few tiers of exams. At the bottom is Standard Grade. This is pretty much compulsory, what you do before you should leave school. These are graded from 1-7, with 1-2 being "Credit", 3-4 being "General" and 5-6 being "Foundation". 7 is a fail/no award. There is then Highers. What most people progress on to after Standard Grade And further from there, Advanced Highers. Not widely taken, but popular for some subjects. Doing 4 is suicide. There is also Intermediate 1s and 2s. Int 1 is equivalent to a General Standard Grade, and Int 2 a Credit. You suffer 6 years of education up here. 4 are compulsory. First year - do fuck all Second year - do fuck all and choose your 8 [I]Standard Grades[/I] Third year - You begin them Fourth year - you finish them. first round of exams. You're about 16 by this point. You choose highers. Fifth year - You being your highers. Most people do 5. Some do 4 highers, 1 Int 2, many do a mix between Int 2 and Highers. Sixth year - You apply for university, choose to do 4 more highers, or three advanced, or a mix. I'm doing 3 highers and 1 advanced. Pretty chilled out, lot of people get uni offers etc. Higher is considered a big leap from Standard Grade. However, the leap is not that great in reality and many students succeed if they have Credit grades from the year before. A lot of people do badly because they think they can just relax for a year and then they end up doing no work like for their standard grades and failing. Hopefully I gave you all a rough idea of how it works, and didn't confuse you all too much.[/QUOTE] I tried to do 4 Adv Highers. I cried and dropped one and still barely got through my other three.
[QUOTE=AK'z;40287499]Depends entirely on what you did.[/QUOTE] A-level: Physics, Maths, Further Maths, Chemistry Uni: Maths Maybe it's just the technical/maths/no-essay style of subjects I've done
[QUOTE=Drakehawke;40291448]A-level: Physics, Maths, Further Maths, Chemistry Uni: Maths Maybe it's just the technical/maths/no-essay style of subjects I've done[/QUOTE] Isnt further maths just normal maths rolled into 1 year? I havent discussed A levels for 4 years apologies if im wrong. I did Geography, IT, English language and statistics was funny.
The relative difficulty as you progress is just bizarre. I found School painful right up until A-levels then as soon as i went to University it was like a Holiday, I'm doing a Masters by research now and it's still less work than I had to do at secondary school. This may just be because you specialise more as you go on. One of the reasons I had such a hard time at secondary school may have been the fact i went to a really snooty grammar school where everything was expected of you and If you didn't understand anything you were branded an idiot. (I hated school).
[QUOTE=Kenneth;40291925]The relative difficulty as you progress is just bizarre. I found School painful right up until A-levels then as soon as i went to University it was like a Holiday, I'm doing a Masters by research now and it's still less work than I had to do at secondary school. This may just be because you specialise more as you go on. One of the reasons I had such a hard time at secondary school may have been the fact i went to a really snooty grammar school where everything was expected of you and If you didn't understand anything you were branded an idiot. (I hated school).[/QUOTE] Try a taught masters a fucking nightmare.
I'm guessing this is probably the same for most places, but there's so much pressure placed on grades, and it's all repeating to other people what you've been told (there's no interpretation or alternative thinking in a lot of it). A lot of people end up having to choose between grades, or their physical and mental well-being, and the majority of us come out of it not knowing important skills, like how to do mortgages or taxes or anything about loans and it's pretty stupid.
[QUOTE=Boss;40291782]Isnt further maths just normal maths rolled into 1 year? I havent discussed A levels for 4 years apologies if im wrong. I did Geography, IT, English language and statistics was funny.[/QUOTE] Maths AS/A2 involve modules such as Pure (or Core), Mechanics, Statistics and Decision. You can choose (or your school chooses for you) which modules to take. Further maths allows you to take "Further Pure" modules as well as additional Mechanics, Statistics etc.
[QUOTE=Krutonmi;40292037]I'm guessing this is probably the same for most places, but there's so much pressure placed on grades, and it's all repeating to other people what you've been told (there's no interpretation or alternative thinking in a lot of it). A lot of people end up having to choose between grades, or their physical and mental well-being, and the majority of us come out of it not knowing important skills, like how to do mortgages or taxes or anything about loans and it's pretty stupid.[/QUOTE] My Sixth Form is almost entirely focused on getting you into Uni. I don't think I want to go and I'm only three quarters of the way through AS... However, for life skills/shit to put on a personal statement, they also want us to do work experience. WE'RE IN 8:45 - 15:50 EVERY DAY (until 1:45 on Wednesday) SIXTH FORM. How do they expect us to do this without our grades/selves suffering? They're backwards. I should have gone to the other college. They're barely bloody in.
[QUOTE=Rixe;40294914]My Sixth Form is almost entirely focused on getting you into Uni. I don't think I want to go and I'm only three quarters of the way through AS... However, for life skills/shit to put on a personal statement, they also want us to do work experience. WE'RE IN 8:45 - 15:50 EVERY DAY (until 1:45 on Wednesday) SIXTH FORM. How do they expect us to do this without our grades/selves suffering? They're backwards. I should have gone to the other college. They're barely bloody in.[/QUOTE] Damnit woman, you really should have come here. Then you get to see me. But more importantly you won't feel like you are suffering. Then again I'm not doing every course known to man at this college so I don't know how the other half lives.
[QUOTE=Boss;40292018]Try a taught masters a fucking nightmare.[/QUOTE] I teach Masters students Edit: Or rather, I have in the past. I teach undergrads now
History at AS level is less-so about your knowledge and understanding and more-so about your ability to write an argument which considers both sides of the coin, and even if it's a good well-written argument, you [I]have [/I]to stick to the mark scheme for [I]everything [/I]or else you get poor marks. Fair enough, History is all about arguing, but there's little leniency for a well-composed and detailed argument if it isn't within the "set style" you're supposed to write it in. The head of History in my school doesn't know how to teach it, but that's just her. Also a lot of questions are worded poorly and as said before, can be rather ambiguous.
[QUOTE=Kenneth;40297050]I teach Masters students Edit: Or rather, I have in the past. I teach undergrads now[/QUOTE] Cool what you teach?
When I had the Masters group it was Parallel Computing Architectures (Clusters and Grids). And at the moment it's Digital Audio Signal Processing, which is a module on a Music Technology BSc
[QUOTE=Kenneth;40305802]When I had the Masters group it was Parallel Computing Architectures (Clusters and Grids). And at the moment it's Digital Audio Signal Processing, which is a module on a Music Technology BSc[/QUOTE] Nice our teacher has offered us the chance to teach next year if we want I might take him up on it and do a module even if its just a cv buffer.
[QUOTE=Boss;40305828]Nice our teacher has offered us the chance to teach next year if we want I might take him up on it and do a module even if its just a cv buffer.[/QUOTE] The deal we got was that fees are waived in exchange for 6 hours a week of teaching, which is pretty sweet. We also got given massive bursaries for some infrastructure work we're doing so its all worked out pretty well and has meant I've been able to go straight into a masters form my undergrad. (Were this not the case theres a high likely hood id be homeless by now!) I understand that we've been really lucky in this respect though, and i know how difficult it is for people to get into higher education when the money is tight (I started the year with literally £0).
idk I heard in that in the USA your grades are based on what you do in class instead of having a final exam, is that true? If so I prefer the British system because I like to fuck about in class knowing it doesn't count towards my grades. EDIT: yeah I think I might've heard wrong, ignore this post if I had
[QUOTE=Sobotnik;40281905]Some subjects (like computing) are practically useless in school.[/QUOTE] I did C# in my computing
[QUOTE=Kenneth;40306729]The deal we got was that fees are waived in exchange for 6 hours a week of teaching, which is pretty sweet. We also got given massive bursaries for some infrastructure work we're doing so its all worked out pretty well and has meant I've been able to go straight into a masters form my undergrad. (Were this not the case theres a high likely hood id be homeless by now!) I understand that we've been really lucky in this respect though, and i know how difficult it is for people to get into higher education when the money is tight (I started the year with literally £0).[/QUOTE] I was offered free rent at home if I stayed and did my undergrad, took the bare basics and the bursary the uni gave me. Horded the money / worked for two years part time and paid my masters off up front but ive literally been broke for the entire year I had to quit my job to make time for this course its crazy. Just not sure now what to do, Im certainly going to find work related to my field but its like do I start a Phd part time or move onto professional training / qualifications. I have a fair few options thanks to this MSc but its still like ahh shit ive actually gotta make my mind up as no matter what I pick its going to be longer than just one year.
A level maths is so much easier than gcse its unreal
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.