Quote:Personally, I think that grades should be given in terms of how an individual is doing in the class and how the class compares with previous classes. And I think it is unfair of any one person to try to reverse grad inflation all by himself -- all that does is punish students for their misfortune of drawing a fool for a prof.
so, by that logic:
I should get some concessionary marks on my A-level maths?
My 'lead' maths teacher, and head of maths in the school left at easter... and my other maths teacher has been on long term sickness leave since 2 months before that...
That's right, In the 6 weeks leading up to my final exams, I'm being taught by NEITHER of my maths teachers.
The school has shuffled timetables to put a member of senior staff who used to be head of maths to teach us for 1/2 our lessons (pure maths, and to be fair, I think she's doing better than my original teacher), but the other 1/2 (mechanics) are being covered by a supply teacher who hasn't done mechanics before (she's a statstician). She has to try and teach us after teaching herself from the same textbook that we do. This textbook has poor explainations, weak examples, no structure, and ~ 25% of the answers in the back are wrong. We're presently in the situaution of the blind leading the blind.
Anyway, think that'll earn me some free marks?
Quote:Frankly, the system sucks, but there's no drive, no funding, and not even any good ideas of how to replace it. Instead there's a bunch of half-assed programs (No Child Left Behind being a great example) that substitutes platitudes for performance and memorization for education.
A similar situation is developing in Britain.
Mr Bliar would like 75% (or some other impossible number) of people to go to university. So exams have to get easier to get more people to pass them, which means that those of use who could pass them without them being easier still get qualifications that are now discredited by industry.
And, we have thse fantastic AS-Levels. Which means that we now get to do important external exams for 3 years in a row, and at least 2 months of the lower-sixth is spent revising for exams instead of just doing the course. So you have less time to do the subject properly, and now get to 'learn to the exam'... yay! If you're like me, and actually want to know WHY something works (and find it hard to remember if you don't) you're at a serious disadvantage, since there now isn't really time to go over it.
But, this has another downside. With the massive influx of people applying for courses, there's more competition than ever for places.
Oh, and of course they can't afford to teach all these new students. So Mr. Bliar is introducing top-up fees to help pay for it... one of his manifesto pledges was that he WOULDN'T do that.
Ok, that's enough of my rants about the UK education system... I ought to work and actually try to pass these exams.
-Bob :P
edit: typos