Hey. I'm going through my A levels right now and as such there are many people and places- parents, for one example- who are only too happy to tell me that exams/courses in general are a lot easier nowadays. This makes me feel stupid, and wonder why I even bother doing well. Plus, I seem to remember my parents struggling with my homework when i was 12, which definitley suggests it's a lot easier than when they were young So, if your going through exams, are people saying this to you too? If your older, then did your parents tell you that too, or do you agree?
My parents never told me that when I was younger and I definitely don't think it's true. I'm an education major (graduating in December) and I've learned so much about just how much the education system in the US has changed over the past 50, even 20 years. It's definitely changed for the better. In turn, this has made courses much more demanding for students. I think adults just like to "reminisce" about how they had things so much harder than their kids...it makes them feel special and powerful
Interestingly, I've never been told any of that. Actually, I was always told that things have gotten much harder over the years and that it has become increasingly difficult to make a life for yourself than it was for other generations in America. Things have become much more demanding on students over the years. I remember back when I was in seventh grade learning algebra, my teacher admitted to us that there were things we were learning then that she hadn't even come across in her lifetime until she started to take college courses! I think a lot of it has to do with the growing economy and the flow of Americans not being literate or even able to get real careers, among other things. We're always warned of the exams etc. etc. but as I've taken so many it seems that once you've come to the age to know the stuff it's not always (as hard) as everyone makes them out to be, but who knows.
My father went to grade 6 then had to quit to help support his family. My mother went to grade 8 and went to work. This was just at the end of the depression. So what I got was 'Study harder so you can do more than we did" "My father was a self employed business man and did quite well for himself and his family. But he always put himself down because he couldn't read. I never told my kids that things were tougher. We had more homework and we were in school longer but things didn't change as quick as they do now. I had a hard time keeping up back then so I sure wouldn't want to tackle it now. I think I would be the drop out now.
I got the same thing; then resolved to show him a past exam with the ultimatum "either do one question, or shut up". Exams are alot harder, people just assume that because more people are doing well, the exams must be getting easier, and not that the quality of education is getting better.
To be fair, you probably wouldn't know how to do a sixth-grader's math homework by the time you're thirty either. I think exams used to be harder because they mainly required memorization of the weirdest and most useless thing ever. I remember when I was in third grade I had to know, among other things, which districts in the country produced tin. Not sure how A-levels are like, but in the U.S. they have been trying to teach students how to think rather than what to know, which I do think makes exams relatively easier since students don't have to read the textbook and remember every word. There is more emphasis on the learning process than on the actual knowledge, which in my opinion is the reason many Americans today are embarrassingly ignorant. That being said, I don't think exams today can be either harder or easier. Your parents grew up in a very different environment from yours; it's simply impossible for your parents to judge the difficulty of your exams and for you to judge the difficulty of their exams.
on the contrary my Mom Dad tell me the opposite....what we studied in Class 9, they studied in Class 12...what we're studying in Class 10 they studied at uni....but that doesn't mean there's no stress, with the Grade A examinations next year-the boards-there's a lot o' pressure to do well-parental, peer and school-all o a sudden my study hours are up to 16 and entertainment down to 2 with sleep up to 6
Scribe, the opposite is true. It's just that politicians and journalists don't want to admit that kids are working harder and doing better these days- they'd much prefer to brand the youth a complete failure- so they say the exams are getting easier. It's untrue, and is very hurtful to people who have tried very hard to achieve the grades they have.
Our A levels are similar to your last 2 years in high school. What kind of exams do you sit for that? (Just curious, my knowledge of american school systems is based primarily from low grade sitcoms)
I do agree that the things we are taught is completley different. My approach to the exams this year has not been to learn everything I've been given, but to know what the moderators are looking for, and give it to them. Because that's how we are taught now, but I still think it takes skill to look at it that way. Then again i think the entire examination system is rubbish. I can't wait to go to uni- no exams for me, only modules! Then again, knowing me, in a years time i'll be bitterly complaining about how crap modules are as a term of assessment.
