The Perils of Success

Like thousands of other A Level students across the country, I am nervously waiting for my exam results. I can't predict what grades will appear when I open the dreaded brown envelope on the 20th of August, but one thing is for certain. Whatever my grades, however well I've done, I can safely predict that the exam results themselves will be derided by journalists and commentators up and down the country.

A Levels, or Advanced Levels, are a form of qualification normally taken by students between the ages of 16 and 19. They typically take two years to complete. For many young people waiting for these exam results to be published, the grades they achieve will determine the next few years of their lives. Most university places depend on these results. However, just as it is traditional to see pictures of students celebrating their results, the annual A Level controversy has become as much a part of Results Day as the grades themselves.

It has been so frequently said, I hardly need to say it again. But, as we all know, the A Level pass rate has been rising consistently for the past 20 years. This has lead to constant criticism of the exams, with many commentators saying that they are ‘too easy’, ‘dumbed down’, or even so simple that they could be sat by trained monkeys, according to the headline on yesterday’s Metro. "'Dumbed down' A-level under fire as pass rates soar" reads the encouraging headline from today’s Guardian. Such criticism is neither helpful nor necessary; it only shakes the confidence of those who can now do little to alter their exam results.

It may have escaped the notice of some, but students do not set the exams. They merely sit them. They have no choice but to answer the questions printed on the page. Whether the perceived 'easiness' or 'dumbing down’ of these exams is true or not, it is not the fault of the students. Whether newspapers mean to directly criticise the students themselves or not, it can be highly upsetting for those of us who have actually sat the exams. Two years of hard work have been invested in these results. Yet when we hear A Levels criticised for being so incredibly easy, the sweet taste of success quickly becomes sour. It is a knock to anyone’s self-confidence. Spare a thought for the hard-working teenagers who put in hours of effort and revision and achieve a string of A grades. Even those who achieve the very top grades find their attainment disregarded or demeaned. Is this fair? Is this necessary? To my mind, it is not.

The persistent criticisms of A Levels and the students taking them have come to sound like a broken record. I cannot help but think that young people today cannot do anything right. The UK has slipped lower and lower down the world rankings in English, Maths and Science, as the Conservative Shadow Secretary for Education Michael Gove pointed out recently on the Andrew Marr Show. Much was made of this year’s dip in the number of KS3 students passing the English SAT test. Not to mention the constant demonisation of today’s youth in the tabloids and other media owing to our alcohol consumption and penchant for knife crime. Our failures are exalted and our successes, as will be made painfully clear on Thursday, are also the brunt of much controversy. It would seem that young people are in a situation of being damned if they do, and damned if they don’t.

Examinations, and everything about them, have become one of the most divisive political issues of recent years. Next year sees the introduction of the A* grade at A Level, which is meant to be a solution for the present crisis. The Advanced Extension Award, an additional qualification intended to stretch the top 10% of candidates, is now being withdrawn. In my view, this decision appears somewhat paradoxical. But no matter. Perhaps many are hoping that the introduction of the A* grade will finally be enough to silence the critics. For my part, as a student of A Levels, the endless ridicule of the soaring pass rate leaves me uncomfortable. The alternatives are even more distressing. I cannot help but wonder - would they be happier if we all failed?

On Thursday I will open that life-changing envelope, and my future will be determined by the grades printed on the flimsy pieces of paper inside. Going through the rigmarole of exams and results is traumatic enough, and believe it or not, most students find A Levels to be incredibly hard work. So perhaps it would be nice for newspapers and commentators to hold back on the criticism for once. But that, it seems, would be too much to ask.