Re: Testing job applicants

[dg@pearl.tao.co.uk (David Given)]

In article <dek9r7.sd01.ln@predator>,
	hmv@port.ac.uk (Mike Meredith at home) writes:
> In article <37da20ae.15732201@news.netcomuk.co.uk>,
> 	z80@ds1.com (Peter) writes:
>> Here in the UK, exam pass percentages are improving all the time.
>> There is no prize for guessing how this is done: falling standards.
> 
> Or it could be that young people today are under far greater
> pressure to succeed than in your day.
> 
> Or it could be that the slow increase in average intelligence has
> lead to greater exam successes.
> 
> Don't go round insulting those who have achieved good exam
> results recently (I'm not one of them) without better evidence for 
> falling standards.

Okay, my parents have been teachers, at the same school, for a long time.
Over thirty years. Over that time they have seen subjects being dropped
from syllabuses, subjects being thinned out, the amount of detail that
things are gone into decrease, and so on. If I look at an A-level paper
from twenty years ago, in a subject I got an A for seven years ago, I
think I'd be hard pressed just to pass it.

*They* think that standards are dropping.

The school's in Scotland, and uses both the English exam system (A-levels
and GCSE's) and the Scottish system (Highers). Highers have always been
seen as being easier than A-levels, but recently, the gap has been closing
fast, and not because the Highers are getting more difficult (they're
getting easier, but much more slowly than the A-levels). Universities
already have to do catch-up courses to get first year students up to a
decent level.

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