Brou-ha-ha in Merry Olde recently because an A level math(s) test got leaked to maybe 400 students. The examiners set the test anyway for however many thousands. Whether it's fair to have set it as was instead of rewriting it (my answer: no) isn't what I'm asking. What I want to know is, what are these examinations? I know As are more important or harder than Os, and that you have to pass a certain number in certain subjects to be able to go to university, and I *think* that they replaced the eleven-plus (another mystery to me) sometime in past several decades.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2001

Answers

I did a google search but had no idea how to phrase the question, plus google ignores A and O as search terms. news.bbc.uk mentioned "edexel" which might be the company (surely a government organization?) that writes the exams, but I can't find mention of them--lots of dead links. Before my brain leaked out of my ears I decided to ask all you skillful folk.

In Penelope Fitzgerald's The Bookshop, which is set in the late '50s or early '60s (whenever Lolita was published), the bookshop proprietor has an 11-year-old girl help her after school in the shop. She fails her eleven-plus and, we are to understand, is fated to a life of labor and toil because, way back then, that's as far as state education went. If she had passed, she could have gone to (secondary? whatever they call it) school.

In more recent British novels you get lines like "I was dreadfully thick [read: stupid] and only got four O levels" [and consequently didn't go to college] (Rosamunde Pilcher, September). Or you pass your A levels in however many subjects and go read classical literature in Cambridge (this happens in Margaret Drabble's The Radiant Way). And are there separate exams for the really elite students, called Oxbridges, that determine your threshold of eligibility for Oxford and Cambridge? I've read about "Oxbridge" exams in Radiant Way and elsewhere.

There are references to "Owls" in Harry Potter, which are clearly a pun on O-levels--even in the USAnized books--and refer to how you progress at Hogwarts School of Wizardry.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2001

O = ordinary
A = advanced

There's some more info here .

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2001

In a very rough sort of way, think of A levels as equivalents of US AP exams. The nifty bit is that you don't actually have to take any classes- you can just take the exams (tho' for most, as about as smart as sitting for the AP exam without taking the class).

At the risk of starting a transatlantic tift (not that W hasn't cleared the way for me), I think A levels are one of the few things the British school system does *right*.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2001

Yeah but isn't it true that in Britain
There are certain teachers
Who would hurt the children in any way they could
By pouring their derision
Upon anything they did
Exposing every weakness
However carefully hidden by the kids?

I also heard dark sarcasm was employed.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

The poetry forum
is on
Vodkatea,
Dave.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

Reply from a Brit, let me know if I go into too much detail.

O levels no longer exist, they were replaced about 10 years ago with their equivalent GCSEs. You site these when you are 16 and 8 is a decent amount to get.

If you do well with these and fancy going to college you spend 2 more years studying A levels, taking the exams when you are 18. 3 or 4 subjects is usual. YOu apply for college whilst studying A levels and you are given an offer based on achieving certain grades. Oxford Uni, but no longer Cambridge, has an entrance exam that you can take instead of relying on your A level results.

Finally, the 11 plus died out years ago. You took it when you were 11 and if you did well you could go to the grammar school, if you didn't you went to a comprehensive. Grammar schools only exist in name these days but as I understand you didn't stand much chance of going on to university if you didn't go to one.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

Thanks, Emma. I knew the eleven-plus was obsolete and understood the As and Os to have replaced them. But thanks for explaining that the 11+ determined grammar or comprehensive: I had thought it meant the end of public, and I mean state-funded, education.* I was talking about this with another Yank yesterday and he wondered whether A and O stood for alpha and omega, the top and the bottom of the academic scale.

* Does this difference between British and U.S. English still exist? In the U.S., we call a public school one that anyone can go to, at government (local, state, and federal) expense, funded by taxes; and a private school one that parents pay for individually for their children. I understood that in British English the terms are reversed. Does this still stand?

So, in short, you can take GCSEs at 16 and be done with formal schooling, or you study for your A levels to go on to university.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

Yep, the terms are reversed - a public school in the UK is somewhere like Eton. However, just to confuse the issue, the UK also has private schools which are fee paying too. Not too sure what the difference is between a public & private school though, although it's possible it's class related.

You do not have to go to grammar school to get into university. You just have to have A levels. It doesn't matter where you got them (well, as long as it wasn't the internet or something)

Three A levels at grade A, or (at a push) two at A and one at B used to be required to get you into Oxford or Cambridge. Not sure what they're asking these days.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 2001

I believe that A levels aren't as exam-based as they once were. Coursework is an important part of most A levels now. And the result has been that grades have improved dramatically. Grade As are much easier to achieve than they once were because most students tend to do better in class than in exams.

When I did A levels and O levels it all came down to how you performed on the day of the exam. It was very stressful and had more to do with how much you could cram into your head in time for the exam than anything else.

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2001