<p>You can apply to a UK school with APs and SATIIs you don't actually need to take A-levels, and given the difficulty differential you might be better or not taking them.</p>
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Only about half of students do well enough in GCSEs, the exams UK students take age 16, to continue to A-levels. It's nowhere near all students even at the best schools.</p>
<p>C is the average grade in the UK. If a student gets EE they can still get into university, albeit not a highly ranked one. Someone who got CCC in their A-levels, an average grade, would still get into a decent university. </p>
<p>The other issue is that UK schools are put into league tables based on the grades their students get. If a student fails, they pull their school down the league table. Hence if it looks likely that a student will fail, they are often encouraged to leave by the school. So they never take the final exam and affect the school ranking.
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<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>
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Ptf, A-Levels are a joke, the Brits are trying to get rid of them and replacing them with either IB or SAT's, perhaps AP. "Gumball"
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<p>cupcake, what do you of this?</p>
<p>
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Let me at 'im!
[/quote]
this is from Tayla on The Student Room UK
This was in reponse to "Gumball's" post.</p>
<p>What do you think she said?</p>
<p>
[quote]
Only about half of students do well enough in GCSEs, the exams UK students take age 16, to continue to A-levels. It's nowhere near all students even at the best schools.</p>
<p>C is the average grade in the UK. If a student gets EE they can still get into university, albeit not a highly ranked one. Someone who got CCC in their A-levels, an average grade, would still get into a decent university. </p>
<p>The other issue is that UK schools are put into league tables based on the grades their students get. If a student fails, they pull their school down the league table. Hence if it looks likely that a student will fail, they are often encouraged to leave by the school. So they never take the final exam and affect the school ranking.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>The UK has the narrowest post-16 curriculum in the world. Students take 9+ subjects at GCSE level (age 16. Though the "coursework", which is classwork which counts towards a grade, is from the preceeding two years. Ages 14-16). If they get at least 5 grade Cs (and about 50% don't. The grades go from A*-G but employers equate a C as equivalent of a pass at O-level, which was the exam system GCSEs replaced in Britain. In some Asian countries O-levels still exist) they can stay on in school to do A-levels. But most people only take 3-4 subjects at A-level. Plus people tend to choose all arts or all sciences (I did Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Pure Maths and General Studies. The last isn't actually accepted by any decent university but lots of schools make their pupils take it so the school gets a higher pass rate) so you end up with a very polarised group of students at age 18. Those who are very good at maths and science but have not studied literature, languages, art, music etc for two years. Then you have the arts students who have forgotten how to multiply. Of course these students tend to do quite well at a UK university because the education there is very specialised. But if they took US SATI I am sure there would be a distinct difference between these two groups, one doing well on the maths area and badly in the verbal, and vice versa for the other group. </p>
<p>There has been an attempt to rectify this polarity with the introduction of AS-levels. These are equivalent to half an A-level. The idea is that students take 4-5 AS levels in year 12 and then continue 3 subjects in year 13 which are converted into A-levels (the second half of A-levels is now called A2). But this hasn't really worked. Most people just take an extra subject similar to those they will do for A2.</p>
<p>A-level isn't just an exam like SATs by the way. It was originally in the 1950s, but now he final grade is based on "coursework" submitted over two years, as well as As and A2 exams.</p>
<p>There is also the problem with what happens to the 50% who don't get good GCSE grades. Traditionally in the past they would have done an appreticeship in a trade such as building, bricklaying, electrician etc etc. My older cousin did one of these at British Steel (now called Corus) through which he eventually gained a degree in engineering. He now earns a lot of money running machines in a coca-cola factory. But due to the decline of the manufacturing industry such placements are few and far between. A whole raft of vocational qualifications have been invented such as GNVQ,, BTEC, HND etc etc. there are so many and they change so quickly that employers don't know what they are and the system doesn't work very well. So now the UK is employing a lot of German and Polish plumbers to fill the skills gap. All the bus drivers in Oxford appear to be Lithuanian.</p>
<p>Until 1992 there were only about 40 universities in the UK. there 50+ "polytechnic" colleges were converted into universities. Polytechnics had previous specialised in vocational degrees such as nursing and social work. To a large extent these new universities still do (this is why there are so many foreign students at "Oxford Brookes" the new univeristy in Oxford. People in their own countries think they go to Oxford Uni. But they don't). However, there have been lots of problems recently with low standards in some of these universities. See article below. </p>
<p>The universities get money for each student they teach, so they don't want any to fail. I wouldn't recommend studying a traditional academic subject at one of these universities.</p>
<p>To encourage students to stay on for A-levels many new subjects have been invented such as media studies and pschology. There have been many reports about these because students are giving up hard subjects such as Physics and Chemistry and taking these new subjects in which it appears to be a lot easier to get higher grades. So then these students go on to get degrees in media studies. So every year there are thousands of media studies graduates who believe they will walk into glamourous jobs in the "media". They would have been better advised to enter Big Brother! There are very few jobs in this industry and most of them require work experience, not a degree. I am picking on media studies because that is the most loathed subject in the press. I am sure there are some media studies degree courses out there which are wonderful and some amazing graduates. however, my dad is an employer and he says he wouldn't interview a media studies candidate because from the title of the degree he cannot tell what sort of skills this person might have. they might be great, or they might have spent the last 3 years watching TV. He would always take a graduate of a traditional subject, such as English, if possible.</p>
<p>It's also connected with Tony Blair's mission to leave a legacy to the country too. When he was first elected in 1997 his campaign slogan was "Education, education, education!". He's already the one who brought London the Olympics. He wants to be remembered and education is his favourite subject. He brought in school league tables, attainment tests for 7, 11 and 14 year olds (UK school children have taken about 100 national exams by the age of 18). So Tony wants to create some kind of national diploma instead of GCSEs/A-levels. Hopefully this will plug the skills gap and reduced the number of NEETs (Not in Education, Employment or Training) But nothing has happened yet. it's all very different from America because education is nationalised here (Scotland is a bit different)</p>
<p>I have just realised this post is far too long. Anyway, some UK private schools offer IB but it's not very common. There is also a problem of not enough teachers.</p>
<p>To everyone who has posted someone please respond to what or parts of what cupcake said.
Even what cupcake said not explain why the A-levels are not more widely used in the US and why so many more schools use IB.</p>
<p>From my understanding A-Levels are strictly a british thing, AP an american thing, and IB an international thing.</p>
<p>Look at CIE's and Edexcel's Websites.
<a href="http://www.cie.org.uk/CIE/WebSite/home.jsp%5B/url%5D">http://www.cie.org.uk/CIE/WebSite/home.jsp</a>
<a href="http://www.edexcel-international.org/home/%5B/url%5D">http://www.edexcel-international.org/home/</a></p>
<p>I don't think I really answered the question looking back. I think you would be INSANE to do A-levels if you have been educated in the US system because</p>
<p>1)UK universities do not require overseas students to have A-levels
2)A-level continues on from GCSE which you won't have studied
3)They are not just tests but include "coursework" which is class work done over 2 years. How are you going to do that on top of normal schoolwork and how are you going to get it marked?
4)Most US schools have little idea what A-levels are and do not care what grades you get in them, so it would be a wasted effort.</p>
<p>Yes, I do think they are harder than AP and SAT. But that's because UK students are only doing 3-4 A-level subjects usually. US students do many more subjects so each one is not in so much depth. There are some "Asian A-levels" that are apparently much harder but I know nothing about these. I certainly do not think A-levels are so hard students need to be up all night studying for months on end. That is ridiculous! I got 5 As and never had to work late really.</p>
<p>Thank you If Americian cities chose to get IGCSEs and A- levels that would be good because it would bring our writing skills up. The inernational eams do require the coursework as do the exams taken in the UK do. Just because in the UK most people do no more then 4 Full A-levels does not mean that it is impossibale to do more. This would be a way of improving our education system. I never said that people would have to stay up all night to study for A-levels.</p>
<p>"Because students in America perfer a social life, which is drastically limited if A levels were the standard exams."
ROFL. [sarcasm]collegeboard also has an illegal monopoly on all things relating to school, college, graduate school and standardized testing, as a matter a fact: they are being sued right now for violation of the Clayton Antitrust Act[/sarcasm]</p>
<p>Bomber125 I think that you are worng about the social life . thank you for the other informantion.</p>