What happened to A-Levels?

It's a while since I completed my A-Levels, but the one thing that has always stuck out in my mind was how tough the exams were. My A-level physics exams was the toughest of my life, even more so than degree exams. Getting an A grade in it was one of the happiest days of my life.

The year was 1991, and 18 long years have passed. Since that day, each year has shown an increase in the number of A-level A grades. Amongst the talk of increasing intelligence, do I believe that it is tenable that each year has got better? No, I do not. I don't doubt that students nowadays are working as hard as I did back then and deserve their success, but what use is having everyone achieving high grade pass rates? It certainly doesn't help Universities and Companies which are looking for a differentiating factor! That's why secondary assessment methods are needed.

I think, although I cannot be sure, that before the introduction of league tables the grades were awarded proportionally, so that the top 10% got A grades, next 20% B grades etc. Obviously this would not be easy to show improvements in education standards for a school but would show only relative changes between schools. I think league tables have skewed results and diminished the grades of GCSEs and A-Levels.

I think we should return to proportional rather than absolute grading schemes and return the A-Level as the Blue Riband of the educational establishment. We should shun any easing of the exams, and stop the 'everyone will get a grade/no one shall fail' mentality. It's such lily-livered attitudes which means that every child gets a prize when they rip off a wrapping in pass the parcel! Life is slightly tough, and should remain so.

Squiffy.