Re: A level results

In article <cCUlhtvFIYkV-pn2-bZ7tMWswmjEH@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Ian Johnston <ian.groups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
My initial reaction is, once again, that the proportion of A's in
maths is implausibly high.

Um. I assume you are not implying that the A-level examiners
are cheating?

If the AS/A2 system selects stronger candidates for A2 maths, what
other subjects are these strong pupils taking? It doesn't seem to be
physics or chemistry, which I would expect to show a similar
high-score bias if the selection effect was valid.

Doesn't quite follow. Could be, for example, that the Physics
and Chemistry students, esp the latter, are "contaminated" by a lot of
them not doing Maths and "therefore" not doing so well. Eg, if 2/3 of
the Physics people are doing Maths and get A's to the same extent in
both subjects, and 1/3 aren't and so get no A's, then you get about the
"right number" of A's in Physics.

Anyway, I am sure
that there are more degree courses for which maths is essential than
either science, giving even less scope for weaker pupils to drop out.

Element of cart-before-horse here. Your version seems to have
sixth-formers deciding "Oh, I want to do ElecEng, *therefore* I must do
Maths and Physics, even if I'm no good at them", whereas the reality
surely is more commonly "Oh, I did best at M&P at GCSE, so I'll do them
for A-level" and only later "Oh, I'm enjoying doing this stuff at A-level,
I wonder what HE courses follow on?". This is Bad News for HE courses,
such as most science/engineering, that vaguely expect coherent A-levels,
and correspondingly Good for HE courses, the majority, that don't greatly
care what you've done.

We [the country, not me in particular!] tell students that
it's fine to do Maths, French, Sport and Music for AS, pick any three
for A2, and then wonder why science/engineering courses have vacancies
..... We can't have it both ways -- either we tell sixth formers that
they must choose one of Science, Languages, Classics, ... or we give them
more freedom to pick'n'mix.

In other words, I have seen two explanations for the high number of
A-awards in maths:
1) More able children take maths.

I think it's more that they won't take maths unless they're
good at it. Maths is a somewhat polarising subject.

If this is so, what other subjects
to these children take?

Economics, Law, Biology, IT, ..., Textiles, Drama, ....
They're bright -- they do what they want to do and are good at!

Why is no similar effect seen in physics or
chemistry, [...]

Pass.

A final observation. In the Scottish system, [...]

I don't pretend to know all the ins-and-outs of the Scottish
system, but in "generalist" systems it is common for Maths, English
[in the UK!], a second language, a science, ... to be compulsory,
at least to [roughly] AS level. You may be seeing the effects of
the resulting dilution. If Scotland has not yet embraced all the
joys of Textiles, Sport, ..., that lack of diversity may also be
driving students towards greater commonality and therefore towards
more standard subjects that they're less good at.

My sympathies to all admissions tutors in numerate subjects.

Assuming you include Maths as "numerate", thanks.

--
Andy Walker, School of MathSci., Univ. of Nott'm, UK.
anw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
.

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