The CBB
http://www.the-cbb.co.uk/

Educational standards at the CS
http://www.the-cbb.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=7522
Author:  julieanne1811 [ Thu Mar 18, 2010 11:32 am ]
Post subject:  Educational standards at the CS
Reading the posts on the 'prefects' thread has made me wonder about something: lots of people are saying that they wouldn't have made a good prefect because they would have been too busy doing their own won for their A Levels.

Elinor derided Marylin Evans because she put her own work before that of the School (how shameful! Surely she should have had the honour of the School in her heart and should have put the School first, even before her own desire to do well in her exams so that she could go to a good university, get a good degree and then a good job ... shocking that she thought more of herself than the School ...), although that raises the question of their choice of her as Head Girl.

As all the other HGs are able, with no trouble at all, to put the School first and still do their own work to a high standard (since we never hear of a HG whose work suffers in terms of quality, because they are putting their HG duties first), the fact that Marylin has been unable to do this and so lets her HG duties go suggests to me that they should have known beforehand that she 'only' had the ability to do one thing, and that she would choose her own work over that of the School ...

Anyway, this has made me think (several things):

1. The old 'where exams easier in the past?

If they were, then that would allow these prefects etc. time to give most of their energy to their prefectoral role.

2. Or were the Prefects some kind of 'super-human' person?

If the standards were the same as now, these girls seem to be able to fulfill their roles to the utmost degree, while having the time allowed for study severely limited, and yet still reaching a standard that allowed them their choice of university.

How many HGs and/or Prefects did go to university? Less in earlier years, I think? And where did they go? One doesn't often hear of any of them going to a polytechnic, or even a minor university. Loyts seem to go to Oxford (Elinor's preferred, I notice - lots of other GO lit authors use Cambridge)

And - what about the limiting of their prep time? While doing my exams I worked and worked and worked. I let social life go by -after all, it was only for a limited time that I had to work so hard, and I could socialise afterwards.
While last-minute cramming is harmful if you haven't done the work to begin with, it's not (IMHO) harmful in itself. I am a very s - l - o - w thinker (although once I get somehting in my brain it tends to stay), so I would have been horribly stressed if I wasn't allowed to study hard in my own time, coming up to taking exams.

Limiting prep time further down the School could be a problem too. What about if a Junior hadn't grasped something and didn't have the time allowed for her to get her head around the problem? That would mean that she had a 'gap' in her understanding which would only get worse as her education continued, since there doesn't seem time given to 'revisiting' any areas of teaching. I would be one of those who hadn't been given enough time to understand something (maths comes to mind) and so when the subject moved on I would be missing some of the 'bricks' which are needed to support the further learning. Being allowed to spend more time on something would avoid this, so I wonder what some of the girls did?

So, are the CS girls all absolutely brilliant? After all, they managed to reach high standards with limited studying time, while at the same time giving their energies to work far removed from study. Perhaps what we're not told is that all the girls who went there were actually Einstein-like in their intelligence, and therefore did not need extra time in order to do well.

Perhaps ... Marylin Evans sneaked in somehow and they didn't realise that she was 'thick' (compared to their usual) and she was really removed because she would have bought disgrace to the School ...
Author:  Alison H [ Thu Mar 18, 2010 12:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
I know that I'm always saying this, but the whole set-up with exams and university entrance at the CS, at least by the later books, is completely unrealistic. By then, anyone applying to a British university, which most of them do, would have had to (depending on the university) apply to the university, be made a conditional offer based on their exam results and or sit an exam, and in some cases attend an interview as well. We never see anyone doing this. No-one is ever turned down by the university of their choice. We never hear very much about people taking exams, or about their results, even though, in any school, public exams and results are a really big deal. I feel so sorry for Josette Russell when she gets scarlet fever and is worried about missing revision time and just told that she should be ready by now (a term early!).

I can accept that in the 1920s and 1930s, when only a small proportion of the population went on to university, it would have been much easier to get in, but even then a certain level of qualifications from school would normally have been needed. It's a very unrealistic aspect of the books, IMHO.

I do think that EBD missed an awful lot of potential storylines because of this. Enid Blyton's school stories include, for example, Alicia missing the School Cert exams because of illness, people having to repeat an academic year because they failed their public exams, people making themselves ill with stress/overwork and people being caught cheating.

People like Gisela and Bette have no plans to go on to further education, but by the British books most people do and by the Swiss books pretty much everyone does. I definitely sympathise with Marilyn Evans on this!

At our school, the Head Girl didn't have anything like the responsibility that CS Head Girls do, but the outgoing HG would "retire" at Easter so that she could concentrate on her A-levels.

In the early books, it's accepted that educational standards at the CS aren't very high, although this seems to be part of a "the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton" notion that British schools gave people a rounded education rather than just concentrating on academic stuff. & people like the von Eschenaus probably weren't bothered about their daughters being brilliant scholars, and might even have thought that girls shouldn't be too well-educated. Even in the middle part of the series, Miss Bubb is criticised because she does want to concentrate on exam results. Yet by the Swiss books, the CS suddenly seems to have brilliantly high standards: new girls usually find that standards ther are higher than at their old schools. Maybe it's all part and parcel of how things do become too "perfect" in the later books.

Sorry, that was a very long waffle!
Author:  Cosimo's Jackal [ Thu Mar 18, 2010 12:48 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
Alison H wrote:
I know that I'm always saying this, but the whole set-up with exams and university entrance at the CS, at least by the later books, is completely unrealistic.... by the Swiss books, the CS suddenly seems to have brilliantly high standards: new girls usually find that standards ther are higher than at their old schools. Maybe it's all part and parcel of how things do become too "perfect" in the later books.


I think that hits the nail on the head. The early CS has no pretensions to high academic standards - and, bar the odd 'real student' like Simone (God knows how she got into the Sorbonne!) or Mary Burnett, it doesn't really need them. Its first teachers are without formal qualification (as far as we know) and in Madge's case without experience. Its early USP is its healthy lifestyle and internationalism, and many of its girls don't plan a profession at all, or don't plan a profession that will require academically-demanding further education.

Over the course of the series, without the regime really appearing to change significantly (still no cramming, very limited prep time, classes are still cancelled for expeditions, winter sports and the reading of the nativity play etc), EBD moves with the times to the extent of sending many CS girls to top UK universities BUT in so doing doesn't want to shift the emphasis any further onto schoolwork. So we're left with a deeply unrealistic situation where, with apparently minimal effort -- and while still giving their all to their prefectly duties -- CS seniors sort of waft into their desired university courses.

It is a lost opportunity for many good storylines - I'd love to have read a plot about someone like Margot trying to deal with the demands made on her as games prefect while cramming for medicine entrance exams etc and worrying about her vocation. It would have been a lot less black and white than Marilyn Evans, who's so clearly seen as 'wrong' to put her work first. Or it would have been very interesting if the Miss Bubb storyline earlier was handled differently - if some mistresses said, 'Well, she's a nasty piece of work, but maybe she has a point about academic standards for girls in the modern world? How should the CS try to up its game academically without compromising its healthy regime? 'Retiring' prefects before A-levels? Choosing prefects from people who are not facing final exams?'
Author:  Loryat [ Thu Mar 18, 2010 3:43 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
I always find the educational insights fascinating and wish EBD had put more of this in. And Alison H, the Margot storyline would have been brilliant! (Maybe that's why Margot's so badtempered in games practices...) But by the time the CS seems to be sending the vast majority of its pupils onto uni, the quality of the books had definitely declined so I'm not surprised that EBD carried on with the same old storylines. Plus, most of the Swiss books centre around the middles who wouldn't be taking exams.

Since we get so few 'exam' storlines, I wonder if EBD maybe didn't enjoy writing about them? Maybe she thought it had been done to death in the genre?

Also, for most of the Swiss books university applications would mostly have been done by the St Mildred's pupils and we don't see much of them so maybe that explains it? (Yes, I am finding excuses for EBD. :oops: ) In fact, maybe that's why she created St Mildred's in the first place, so that she could shove the older girls out of the way!

Anyway, it always seemed to me that the CS girls did loads of work. When I was in 6th Year depending on which subjects you took nearly everyone had at least one 'free column' and some people had two, which meant that 20-40% of your school time was 'free' (and most of us did not use this time for working). Given that at the CS they were actually living at the school, I can believe that the prefects would be able to carry out their duties including prep and still do a lot more work than we ever did.
Author:  fraujackson [ Thu Mar 18, 2010 6:03 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
When I was a child I always liked the fact that CS girls were permitted to be both popular and academic (admittedly I'd not read Marylin Evans at that time !) without any especial onus on ability at games being the main or only yardstick to measure either popularity or Being A Good GO Girl (cf Malory Towers where you were only allowed success or suffered to be intelligent if you were also brilliant at games - 'straight' academics are dismissed as swots.) The possible difficulties re: university interviews and fitting all your work in round prefect duties never occurred to me then.

Re: CS standards being higher than new girls are used to: of whom is this said ? I remember people like Rickie Fry, Tom Gay and Ted being advanced in some subjects, due to their having been privately taught; and Ros Lilley (?) is behind because of having gone to a 'government' (?) school. I'm just trying to think of individual circumstances, and whether the 'standards' comment is less generalised than we might think. Certainly, we're meant to understand CS (at least by the Swiss phase) as being a bastion of academic achievement, but I'm not sure that EBD was striking such a sharp constrast between CS and other GO-type schools as we might think.

Alison H's comment about middle-class parents perhaps not wanting their daughters to be too well-educated is interesting. My best friend's mother and mother-in-law both cultivate a kind of 'cultured ignorance' even today: it's definitely seen as unladylike and certainly really rather common to be well read or too well-informed :shock: (I looked into this and it seems to stem from the idea that brainy girls were scholarship girls - therefore their families probably didn't really have enough money to send them to the school, so academic achievement got to be associated with being ever-so-slightly non-U...) There's nothing of that kind of overt nonsense at CS (witness OOAO's mad swotting in her first term) thank goodness !!
Author:  Loryat [ Thu Mar 18, 2010 6:29 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
fraujackson wrote:
When I was a child I always liked the fact that CS girls were permitted to be both popular and academic (admittedly I'd not read Marylin Evans at that time !) without any especial onus on ability at games being the main or only yardstick to measure either popularity or Being A Good GO Girl (cf Malory Towers where you were only allowed success or suffered to be intelligent if you were also brilliant at games - 'straight' academics are dismissed as swots.)

Me too! Though most GO books are more favourable to 'clever' girls than Malory Towers or St Clare's, but they were the only ones I read then. Also, it seemed more acceptable in CS to not be into games.

Quote:
Re: CS standards being higher than new girls are used to: of whom is this said ? I remember people like Rickie Fry, Tom Gay and Ted being advanced in some subjects, due to their having been privately taught; and Ros Lilley (?) is behind because of having gone to a 'government' (?) school. I'm just trying to think of individual circumstances, and whether the 'standards' comment is less generalised than we might think. Certainly, we're meant to understand CS (at least by the Swiss phase) as being a bastion of academic achievement, but I'm not sure that EBD was striking such a sharp constrast between CS and other GO-type schools as we might think.

I think Tom and Ted are advanced in some subjects because they've been privately taught classics/went to a school that did a lot of French. But is Richenda not a bit behind because of the 'footling' school that she's been to? And Ros is behind, I've always assumed, because she is at a 'secondary modern' rather than a 'grammar' school, because she was sick when they sat the entrance exam.

IIRC, usually new girls who've been at good schools find that the CS standard is quite as high as their previous school - if not higher. And they've got to study in three languages! :shock:
Author:  JB [ Thu Mar 18, 2010 7:22 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
I think EBD’s belief was that everyone should be able to take exams in their stride without doing any work outside of limited lesson and prep hours and they will never be disappointed in their exam results. Or – just had a thought – perhaps St Mildreds was where they went for resits after failing miserably at the first attempt, which could also explain why EBD struggled with the finishing school concept.

More seriously, her own experience in a boarding school was during the 1920s when fewer girls would have gone on to higher education and exams would have been seen as less important. After that she worked as a governess and in her own, small school.

It is an unrealistic aspect of the books. In Coming of Age we’re told that this is the first time the Swiss branch has been allowed to be an exam centre so earlier pupils would presumably have needed to sit university entrance exams.

I, too, would have loved to see a storyline with exam failure or a girl who couldn’t cope with work and prefect duties.

Alison H wrote:

Quote:
I know that I'm always saying this, but the whole set-up with exams and university entrance at the CS, at least by the later books, is completely unrealistic.... by the Swiss books, the CS suddenly seems to have brilliantly high standards: new girls usually find that standards ther are higher than at their old schools. Maybe it's all part and parcel of how things do become too "perfect" in the later books.



And new girls such as Adrienne and Erica, struggle at first because they’ve never been to school before but within weeks they’re top of their form. I find that annoying.
Author:  Cat C [ Thu Mar 18, 2010 7:43 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
Quote:
I think EBD’s belief was that everyone should be able to take exams in their stride without doing any work outside of limited lesson and prep hours and they will never be disappointed in their exam results.


I think she also believes that readers will take for granted (as I did) that all teaching staff were excellent, and so of course everyone covered and understood the entire syllabus even given days off for winter sports and what have you. And being a girly swot, I can certainly remember tests/exams I passed with flying colours despite having done no revision just because I remembered what I needed to know from when I was taught it in class. (Works much better for science and maths than, say, languages, when vocab comes in handy!)

From an authorial POV, she does always say that the school makes up for lost time when the weather is just too awful for anyone to leave the house, and probably this wouldn't have been terribly rivetting reading had she described it actually happening...
Author:  sealpuppy [ Thu Mar 18, 2010 7:49 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
In earlier GO books the exams are held at registered centres which often gives rise to calamity: missed train/bus, doing a good deed, etc, and thus missing the exam. So presumably the CS becoming a recognised centre did away with some poor member of staff having to shepherd a gang of nervous girls down to Interlaken or somewhere.

I'd have loved to be at either the Tyrol or Swiss schools, particularly because of the games. I loathed hockey, etc (wet, horrible, cold and boring) and would have welcomed being snowed in. Also, I had done a lot of country dancing at my junior school and would have been blissfully happy with the dancing they did indoors in bad weather. I might even have managed to ski, under the kind and patient tuition of Mademoiselle.

What I love about the school is that even in the later books when exams and curriculum are much more regulated, there's still an emphasis on helping girls find out what they're good at, which would have been great.
Author:  Cosimo's Jackal [ Thu Mar 18, 2010 7:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
Cat C wrote:
she does always say that the school makes up for lost time when the weather is just too awful for anyone to leave the house, and probably this wouldn't have been terribly rivetting reading had she described it actually happening...


Whatever about not being riveting, I do find myself wondering how they managed to make up for lost time in bad weather, without tipping over into a kind of short-term mild overwork regime the CS evdently disapproved of, if the periods that would have been used for walks and games were often given over to extra lessons! Although it would explain neatly why the Middles in particular always get so antsy and bad-tempered in bad weather! Not just cabin fever, but extra Latin!

I've also always wondered whether the after-lunch rest still takes place during bad weather periods when the girls can't possibly need it...? Unless it's more to do with digestion than tiredness...? Or maybe it's the idea of getting out deck-chairs in a blizzard, but I find it weirdly funny... :D
Author:  Cat C [ Thu Mar 18, 2010 8:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
Oooh yes, just remembered the other thing I meant to post about university entrance:

Even these days, applicants who live overseas are not required to attend an interview. I wonder if going to school in Switzerland would be a cunning way to circumvent this part of the application process? Also (according to someone I know who had a summer job at an exam board) when British public exams are taken abroad there's far more scope for shady practice (ie cheating) than when they take place in the UK.

This really does have the makings of a clever plot by Hilda / Madge to demand extortionate fees for a school which could shoe-horn any girl into the university of her choice, without having any dullards unduly stressed by actual academic work / exams.
Author:  Mel [ Thu Mar 18, 2010 11:03 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
I love the breezy way they 'don't bother with' exams in the first year in Switzerland. However if parents wish their daughters to take A level/Higher, they may stay for an extra year. Cut to CS trustees rubbing their hands together gleefully...
Author:  Sarah_G-G [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 1:39 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
JB wrote:
I think EBD’s belief was that everyone should be able to take exams in their stride without doing any work outside of limited lesson and prep hours and they will never be disappointed in their exam results.


Yes, I *think* it's Miss Annersley who says at some point in the series: "Any balanced, well-educated person should be able to take exams in her easy stride." :!: :lol: Sorry, I've no idea which book that's from, it's just one of my favourite quotes ever! My msn name always changed to that quote whenever I was doing exams... :oops: I think it might be from one of the later Swiss books when someone like Josette or Len is panicking about not having done enough revision. I suspect EBD liked the idea that if you worked well and steadily in class you didn't really need to revise, plus girls at the CS were praised for working steadily rather than having sudden fits of hard work. Actually I've just realised that that's probably what Margot is always rebuked for- studying really hard for exams (i.e. properly revising/ cramming to get good marks in exams) but not really bothering the rest of the time. Whereas Len presumably doesn't "need" to work any harder at exam time because she always works steadily. I would guess that given the focus on health and the idea that girls need to be well-balanced, the CS/ EBD didn't see it as healthy to spend two months a year working feverishly and getting stressed over essays and exams, which is why the ideal is to work hard all year, memorise as you go and then fly through exams because you are a calm, collected, well-educated individual! :lol: Naturally everyone does well in exams, because by 6th form everyone is a Proper Chalet School Girl!
Author:  Tor [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 1:45 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
one of my dad's favourite stories about his youth is how, as a child, he thought revising for exams was cheating and that purposely storing things in his head was as sly as writing it on his arm... :roll: :roll: :lol: :lol:
Author:  Alison H [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 1:48 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
Cat C wrote:
Oooh yes, just remembered the other thing I meant to post about university entrance:

Even these days, applicants who live overseas are not required to attend an interview. I wonder if going to school in Switzerland would be a cunning way to circumvent this part of the application process?


I think that these days most places interview you, unless you live abroad, but in my day some did and some didn't. I got offers from everywhere that just went off the application form and rejections from everywhere that interviewed me, and convinced myself that it was because universities were prejudiced against ugly fat kids (rather than just because I didn't answer the questions very well!) - maybe CS people actually did have interviews and that's why they always got straight in, because they were all so pretty :lol: .

The idea that if you work hard during the year then you'll just sail through the exams and won't get into a panic in the last few weeks is very attractive ... as someone who was a bit of a saddo swot at school but still ended up in a huge stress-out in the lead-up to the exams, could I ask if EBD's theory's ever actually worked for anyone :D ?
Author:  julieanne1811 [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 2:24 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
Sarah_G-G wrote:
Yes, I *think* it's Miss Annersley who says at some point in the series: "Any balanced, well-educated person should be able to take exams in her easy stride."


Huh. Don't think much of Miss A for that one - taking them in your sride is one thing. Remembering the stuff is anothere. You can work hard (call it cramming if you like!) and still be taking it in your stride. Or you can fall apart and not work at all. Miss A and I disagree on that point ...
Author:  Loryat [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 2:26 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
It never worked for me because I am a Margot in terms of work ethic - doing as little work as possible throughout the term, realising my essay is due and pulling an all-nighter. But I would argue that that is just what works for me - I need the impetus of the imminent deadline. Or maybe I'm just lazy, but I prefer to think of it the other way. :D

Every year I resolved to work hard all year round, but this resolution always lasted about five minutes. :oops:

Cosimo's Jackal wrote:
Or it would have been very interesting if the Miss Bubb storyline earlier was handled differently - if some mistresses said, 'Well, she's a nasty piece of work, but maybe she has a point about academic standards for girls in the modern world? How should the CS try to up its game academically without compromising its healthy regime? 'Retiring' prefects before A-levels? Choosing prefects from people who are not facing final exams?'

Was that what the Special Sixth was partly about? I know that they were never prefects but it also seemed like they had already sat their exams. :?

Of course Miss Bubb was wrong as CS girls do brilliantly without her style of school! Witness Biddy and Elizabeth's marks in Highland Twins!
Author:  Tor [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 2:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
well, there were certainly subjects that I knew I knew well enough not to bother revising much for, if that makes sense...

I knew my English Lit books and plays inside out, and my history left-right-and-centre, so I made do with a quick night-before refresher for them. And, of course, these had a large 'interpretation' component to their scoring, which made revision less of an issue.

BUT

this was out of necessity, as I knew I needed to spend all my time learning french and german vocab, and effectively teaching myself maths. So I was prepared to sacrifice my top subjects a little for the sake of my weaker ones. I also never bothered revising chemistry or biology much, as I'd had most of the rote learning drilled into me since age 11 (we did the same plant diagram every bloody year, it seemed... and sure enough, it turned up on the exam :D ), and I really 'got' the basic underlying principles enough to be able to think on my feet. LOVE the periodic table! LOVE genetics! LOVE chemical equations!

But it should be stressed, I revised like a mentalist for Physics, Maths, French and German.

Quote:
It never worked for me because I am a Margot in terms of work ethic - doing as little work as possible throughout the term, realising my essay is due and pulling an all-nighter. But I would argue that that is just what works for me - I need the impetus of the imminent deadline. Or maybe I'm just lazy, but I prefer to think of it the other way. :D


Oh god, me too! I promised myself I would work steadily for my PhD, and do you know what... it was the stupidest thing I ever did. Because I discovered I am actually a perfectionist, and it was only by leaving things til the night before that I could stay sane as the deadline over-rode my desire to do a perfect job of it. Now I work over 12 hours a day, seven days a week (and that's taking out the time I waste on here!), and have done for the last 3 years. I have more data than I know what to do with, and I've made things complicated by actually trying to draw it all together. All because of that stupid promise to myself. If I'd stuck with my usual approach, I'd have finished and probably passed well enough. Hey-ho!
Author:  Alison H [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 2:40 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
It would've done my head in being told that I couldn't swot up if I felt that I needed to. I wonder if anyone ever complained to the school that they'd failed their exams (although, of course, no-one ever failed) because they'd been stopped from doing enough revision and'd been forced to miss out on lesson time to go on rambles or discuss the Sale ...
Author:  Loryat [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 2:51 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
Tor wrote:
So I was prepared to sacrifice my top subjects a little for the sake of my weaker ones.

Me too. I spent about 70% of my Higher revision time on maths, 20% on physics, and the remaining 10% on English, history and art. I wonder how I would have fared had I been studying under a CS system where it seems that prep time for each subject is allotted (though perhaps not for seniors)? Probably I'd have failed maths, science etc and been written off as a hopeless moron!

Alison H wrote:
It would've done my head in being told that I couldn't swot up if I felt that I needed to. I wonder if anyone ever complained to the school that they'd failed their exams (although, of course, no-one ever failed) because they'd been stopped from doing enough revision and'd been forced to miss out on lesson time to go on rambles or discuss the Sale ...

That's true. Naturally all CS pupils are prepared for their exams about five terms before they take them but if I hadn't been able to do last minute revision on the morning of all my exams, well, I don't think I'd have been able to even walk into the exam hall. I generally woke up under the impression that I knew nothing but perhaps if I'd been at the CS, with years of steady work behind me, this wouldn't have been a problem. :D
Author:  Tor [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 3:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
Quote:
Probably I'd have failed maths, science etc and been written off as a hopeless moron!


I think this is exactly what happens at the CS, actually. They do write people off as hopeless morons on the basis that they don't do well given the study regime. I think EBD was a bit of a fatalist, and certainly wasn't big on ambitions beyond ones station; I think swotting - particularly at an unsustainable level - to achieve a good result would seem to her like flying in the face of the talents god has given you, or something.

If you weren't any good at lessons, you were expected to accept it happily as your own low-level of ability/intelligence. The only example of a pupil who isn't written off in this way is Margot, I think...?
Author:  RoseCloke [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 3:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
Alison H wrote:
The idea that if you work hard during the year then you'll just sail through the exams and won't get into a panic in the last few weeks is very attractive ... as someone who was a bit of a saddo swot at school but still ended up in a huge stress-out in the lead-up to the exams, could I ask if EBD's theory's ever actually worked for anyone :D ?


At the risk of sounding like someone everyone loves to hate... it mostly works for me :oops:

I have a very visual memory and for the exams where I've worked hard all year (comprehensive notes in class, proper reading for seminars, taken time to slowly draw up revision diagrams in a non-panicky way, i.e. only worked on them the same amount that I would do on classwork) I've actually done far better than when I've crammed - if I get stuck, I just imagine the events around the circumstances and get there eventually :D When it comes to interviews I turn into a nervous wreck (shaking, sweats, stammering, mind blanking - I failed the only interview I sat for university) but for some reason I don't get exam stress.

However, I am convinced that this is mostly due to being classified as 'special needs' (I have a wrist problem, so extended handwriting is extremely painful and illegible). I failed my first AS exams because I couldn't finish the papers and since then I've had a lot more support, including isolation and a computer (the former comes as part of the latter - even at uni there were only normally five other people in the computer room with me). Because there are so few people, rules regarding food are slightly more relaxed (and so is the atmosphere - people do tend to feed on each other's emotions) - in my second try at AS Physics I actually ate my lunch whilst I did the paper :lol:

The CS work ethic never struck me as odd - certainly they seem to have a more rounded education than the one I experienced in school; think of all the trips and the opportunities to speak languages. Their hobbies work for the Sale, the drama, music and sports would also have stood them in good stead. Great emphasis is also placed on being able to 'reason' - certainly the way they teach history (both Biddy O'Ryan and Joey when she does extra coaching) is noted by other characters as modern and innovative and, having studied historiography this year, I think EBD was right. In a sense, unless you're studying something very specific (hence, the Special Sixth), I think the skills picked up at the CS would have been enough.
Author:  Cosimo's Jackal [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 3:24 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
And even Margot suffers from simply having a different approach to academic work to the one the CS authorities approve of! Because, when you think of it in terms of the way a lot of UK schools are now judged - in terms of their exam performance above all - all that cavilling about Margot's flashes of brilliance being somehow much less valuable than her steady, slogging sisters is a bit arbitrary. If her 'flashes' of hard work happen just before an exam or a deadline, surely it's just her way of achieving a good result when it matters, isn't it?

The CS may prefer a school full of docile, steady sloggers who compete in the weekly form rankings and mind desperately about winning the end of year form prizes or whatever, but from a purely external point of view, the weekly form places won't make the slightest difference to whether or not Margot is accepted into Oxford to read medicine or to how the CS ranks in terms of A-level/Oxbridge entrance success! The cruel thing about exams (back in the CS day, anyway, before more continuous assessment) is that they're about how you perform on the day only. If Margot can pull her finger out and cram when she feels its necessary to get a result that matters to her, then that strikes me as an equally valid approach to school work. Being able to cram will certainly stand her in good stead at Oxford, anyway!
Author:  cestina [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 3:28 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
Cosimo's Jackal wrote:
The cruel thing about exams (back in the CS day, anyway, before more continuous assessment) is that they're about how you perform on the day only.


Cruel? That's the only thing that got me through exams..... :shock:
Author:  Tor [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 3:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
Quote:
all that cavilling about Margot's flashes of brilliance being somehow much less valuable than her steady, slogging sisters is a bit arbitrary


I've often felt that Margot's flashes of brilliance, or rather her lack of work at other times, was actually a rather damning piece of evidence about the 'true' nature of CS lessons :lol: :lol:

She sounds like you typical super-bright child, not being stretched pr interested by her lessons. I'm sure that wasn't how EBD saw it, or meant it to be seen though.
Author:  Cosimo's Jackal [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 3:35 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
cestina wrote:
Cosimo's Jackal wrote:
The cruel thing about exams (back in the CS day, anyway, before more continuous assessment) is that they're about how you perform on the day only.


Cruel? That's the only thing that got me through exams..... :shock:


Oh, me too - I was actually very good at exams throughout school and university, despite regularly getting nervous. What I meant is that exams don't care how steadily you've worked for the past several years. If Margot has crammed and performs brilliantly well over a three-hour A-level paper (as she sounds perfectly capable of) it doesn't make any difference that Len has worked hard and steadily at that subject for her entire school life, while Margot played pranks with Emerence or looked out the window - Margot will do just as well, if not better.

I don't think EBD gets that - she seems to think that the hard slog will somehow 'stand to' Len in an exam paper, as though the examiner somehow gets to take it into consideration, when all he/she gets to see is the end result...
Author:  Loryat [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 3:50 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
Ah, but Margot's flashes of brilliance are not supported by a steady foundation, to the extent that she struggles with her French GCE even though she speaks French fluently! :shock: Whereas Len has all the information at her fingertips.

Tor wrote:
She sounds like you typical super-bright child, not being stretched pr interested by her lessons. I'm sure that wasn't how EBD saw it, or meant it to be seen though.

I'd have thought she was stretched enough by being in a class with girls about two years older than her :D . Maybe she should have been in Mary-Lou's form! Joey wouldn't have been happy!
Author:  RoseCloke [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 3:58 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
Loryat wrote:
I'd have thought she was stretched enough by being in a class with girls about two years older than her :D . Maybe she should have been in Mary-Lou's form! Joey wouldn't have been happy!


That was something that always confused me - I could never understand why, if you never failed a class, the ages of the classes were so arbitrary. Is this a feature of the age? Was it common to be in a class solely for your ability/potential? I know many of my international friends had to 'pass' every year, but I've never heard of any child being moved up two years because they were precociously bright (apart from the occasional genii).
Author:  Tor [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 4:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
Quote:
'd have thought she was stretched enough by being in a class with girls about two years older than her


or the standard was just really, really low... :D

Obviously, the eventual acceptance of girls into Oxford/other top universities implies that it wasn't *but* I remember thinking that Biddy's grades at school cert weren't that good... or at least not stellar (didn't she get mostly passes, and a merit... I'd have had her pegged as someone who would have had to have aced them for uni. Perhaps EBD didn't want to instill exam anxiety).

But maybe in those days you didn't have to be that good if you didn't need a scholarship.... they kept most of the poor people out, after all so competition would have been lower

Even today I am mildly shocked by the relatively low A-C pass rate in some independent schools. With all that money, and small classes etc, you'd think that be able to ensure 100% A grades, if exams are as easy as some people would have us believe.
Author:  Cosimo's Jackal [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 4:05 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
Loryat wrote:
Ah, but Margot's flashes of brilliance are not supported by a steady foundation, to the extent that she struggles with her French GCE even though she speaks French fluently! :shock: Whereas Len has all the information at her fingertips.


You see, I just see that as EBD unable to let go of the notion that Len and Con's working methods are quantifiably 'better' than Margot's cramming ones, and so determined to tip the scales against Margot in an exam situation! How interesting would it have been if Margot beat both her sisters hollow in the GCE, despite continuing in her usual intermittent working methods?

(EBD would never have written that subplot in one of AF's Kingscote books where Nicola beats the entire form, including much cleverer and more hard-working girls, in the end of year exams, because they fail to read the instructions on the papers, and have their marks slashed accordingly, as a warning against similar O-level errors! Absolutely unfair when seen one way, but also, how the world works.)

Did Biddy have a CS scholarship to Oxford? I assume her admission would have come from an entrance exam at that period, but whatever about standards, there were so few women's colleges at Oxford then, the competition must actually have been fairly fierce for the few places in each subject!
Author:  Loryat [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 4:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
Didn't Biddy get a distinction for something? Though not history, surprisingly. :D

ETA Was a distinction the equivalent of an A and merit the equivalent of a B? Or were they quite exceptional?

In Evelyn Finds Herself, I think she gets half credits and half passes - or maybe more credits? And she gets a scholarship and goes on to become a doctor!
Author:  Tor [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 4:30 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
I just checked - Biddy did get a distinction in French. Otherwise, she's mentioned as passing the rest (with my assumption being that EBD via Elizabeth Arnett would have mentioned other distinctions and credits, had Biddy achieved them).

I think there must have been less emphasis on the results of your public exams, and more on the university entrance exam. Can anyone enlighten me? Could everyone who wanted to take the entrance exam, or was there a preliminary sift based on school certificate results?
Author:  Thursday Next [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 5:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
Tor wrote:
I think there must have been less emphasis on the results of your public exams, and more on the university entrance exam. Can anyone enlighten me? Could everyone who wanted to take the entrance exam, or was there a preliminary sift based on school certificate results?


I do remember someone in my form at school who was accepted by Oxford having taken the entrance exam. He was then offered the place as long as he got 2 e's in his A levels as this was the minimum university entrance so obviously the entrance exam and interview were far more important to them than A levels. That would have been 1970.
Author:  Cat C [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 5:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
Tor wrote:
Quote:
Even today I am mildly shocked by the relatively low A-C pass rate in some independent schools. With all that money, and small classes etc, you'd think that be able to ensure 100% A grades, if exams are as easy as some people would have us believe.


I've recently had the experience of supervising prep for girls at an independent school that is not top-drawer in terms of academics (I mean not awful either but...) - some of the things I saw were shocking. 14/15 year-olds not being able to read numbers from simple tables on 'maths' papers etc. Was never quite sure how much I should correct for the fact I went to highly academic school and got an A grade in GCSE maths a year early mind you.
Author:  Alison H [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 5:29 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
Oxford was still doing 2 E offers for people who passed the entrance exam and the interview when I was at school (early '90s), but Cambridge'd moved on to ordinary A-level offers by then and Oxford did the same a few years later. I'm pretty sure that anyone who wanted to take the exam could do. Maybe you had to pay a fee to take it and that was why :lol: : I can't remember that bit!

I may be wrong, but I think only Oxford and Cambridge were still using their own entrance exams even in the '50s.

Given that Jack and Joey tell Roger Richardson that he needs to "put his name down" for university :shock: , I'm not convinced that EBD realised that you needed to pass exams at all to get into university, which is very odd considering that she was a teacher. There's also a comment about how LSE "won't have a place" for Josette until next term (in the middle of the academic year!) which suggests that EBD thought it was like waiting for a vacancy at a school :? .
Author:  julieanne1811 [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 5:47 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
Margaret Biggs (Melling books) sends her girls to Cambridge and there's the rather odd situation of girls changing their minds at the last minute and deciding to go after they had made the decision not to ... There's never any mention of exams needed or even interviews - it all seems to be a decision solely on the side of the girls herself.

Even more odd, because her books are more modern than a lot of others.
Author:  Catrin [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 6:09 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
I knew someone when I was at Oxford who had a 2 Es offer. Naturally he had got five A's anyway. I matriculated in 2002.

Re the exams system, some subjects (in my time!) required an exam and an interview, and some didn't. Physics and maths had maths exams, language students had oral tests, and some of the extended writing type subjects (like history, English) had to submit essays. Those of us who did subjects where they'd take anyone (Chemistry) didn't have to take exams at all - luckily :D

ETA: Just read Alison's post more clearly - anyone who wanted to could apply, but you had to be invited for interview in order to take the exam for your subject.
Author:  trig [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 6:24 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
Quote:
Tor wrote:Quote:Even today I am mildly shocked by the relatively low A-C pass rate in some independent schools. With all that money, and small classes etc, you'd think that be able to ensure 100% A grades, if exams are as easy as some people would have us believe.

I've recently had the experience of supervising prep for girls at an independent school that is not top-drawer in terms of academics (I mean not awful either but...) - some of the things I saw were shocking. 14/15 year-olds not being able to read numbers from simple tables on 'maths' papers etc. Was never quite sure how much I should correct for the fact I went to highly academic school and got an A grade in GCSE maths a year early mind you.




I covered the same material in my A level maths and Physics (1989) as my Dad did in his (1965). Although some of the material I did at O level - calculus and logarithms - is now at A Level the GCSE has a load more stuff like statistics which we never covered at all. My students get very dispirited by the constant griping in the press at dumbing down of A levels. Just let those writing these articles try answering a further maths paper at A level and then see who's dumb. Sorry for the rant, but this always annoys me.

And as for the independent schools not getting perfect GCSE scores - some students are never going to be able to get an A* in certain subjects, however much money their parents pay! I certainly would never even pass an Art exam and probably not History or anything else in which you needed to write long bits of writing.
Author:  Tor [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 6:33 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
Quote:
Just let those writing these articles try answering a further maths paper at A level and then see who's dumb. Sorry for the rant, but this always annoys me.


I quite agree. It annoys me too. But it seems to me that a particularly loud component of those decrying the current exam standard themselves hark from schools that don't have an academic record that is consistent with 'easy' exams. It's their inconsistency I find annoying. If it was easy to get an A grade (or indeed a C grade), then it *would* just be a case of good teaching and dedicated attention, which one might expect to be paying for at upwards of 20k a year.

I think they are just the type of people who didn't get A's themselves, and can't bear the idea that the younger generation might be better educated than them. So they undermine the current cohort to make themselves feel smarter.

ETA: however, the curricula have been slimmed down a bit; but students take way more subjects and there are only so many hours in the day etc
Author:  sealpuppy [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 6:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
My younger daughter got into UCL in 1995 with an A and a D, to study Linguistics. They insisted on interviews for all students and seem to have made the decision based on that; at anyrate they offered the place conditional only on actually passing the exams. I don't suppose that happens these days!
Author:  RoseCloke [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 7:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
I applied to UCL and had to sit a test (can't remember if there was an interview, which is shameful as it was only five years ago :oops: ). Apart from Cambridge it was the only place to test me separately.

I did find the Cambridge test a bit weird. It was an essay question (fair enough - I applied for Philosophy) but we got a strict and rather sneering lecture beforehand about how we shouldn't help one another with the test - we were all in the same room - as we were competing against each other for places. We'd all been getting on well up until that point. It rather soured the atmosphere; everyone started giving everyone else shifty looks. Unless that was the whole point of the lecture :|

Did people really need academic qualifications as much as they do now? My cousin failed all his O levels about twenty years ago, spent a week in bed, before getting kicked out of it by his mum and ended up in a senior position in a City firm.

Would CS girls be able to submit old school work as part of their university applications? That was another thing I think I had to provide, as well as testimonials from teachers.
Author:  trig [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 7:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
My Y13 students have recently got their offers for university places and to study maths or economics at the best places (Cambridge, Warwick and Bristol for maths - EBD would be shocked but Oxford isn't well thought of) it's A* A* A - and A* is new for A level this year - 90% on each paper. This is no breeze - the papers are usually out of 72 so you can't afford to make more than about 6 or 7 errors and it's so easy to misread small parts of the question when nervous. I expect I wouldn't get it every time.

I've always seen EBD's promoting the steady hard work as opposed to flashes of brilliance as aimed at her young readers. Or alternatively wish-fulfillment. For in reality in my subject the best results are usually got from students who do enough to understand all through the year then revise madly for a week beforehand. Sure, if you worked steadily you would gain a B but there's some spark of insight or genius needed for the A* and I only ever got that from a night with caffeine and proplus!
Author:  LauraMcC [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 8:12 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
I could never cram - I refuse to do any extra work on the day of an exam, even if the exam is in the afternoon, and pulling all nighters would never agree with me. But then, I'm the annoying person who's supremely confident during revision week, convinced that I know everything about the subject and don't need to revise much, and then i sit the paper and realise how little I know. I wish that I could panic a bit more - I might improve my marks a bit! :oops:

About exams being easier nowadays - I know that I've always found the most recent past papers to be easier than the later (1990s era) ones, but I'm never sure if it's just that I tend to do the earlier ones first, and improve as I work more, or whether it's just that teaching methods have changed over the years, or what. Grade boundaries have gone down, haven't they? - but then higher grades are needed to get into uni, so I suppose that it's all the same, really.
Author:  Cel [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 8:29 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
Cosimo's Jackal wrote:
You see, I just see that as EBD unable to let go of the notion that Len and Con's working methods are quantifiably 'better' than Margot's cramming ones, and so determined to tip the scales against Margot in an exam situation! How interesting would it have been if Margot beat both her sisters hollow in the GCE, despite continuing in her usual intermittent working methods?


I think EB makes a similar point in the last Malory Towers book, when she's comparing Alicia and Betty's prospects at university to those of Darrell and Sally. She maintains that because the latter two have learned to work steadily over the years, they'll manage much better in the relative freedom of college life, whereas Alicica and Betty, who got by on their natural brilliance without ever doing much work, will be seduced by society life etc. and will let their work go to the wall.
I wonder was EBD making the same point about Len v. Margot? As she never seems to pay much regard to formal exams at all, maybe what she was really saying was that Len's discipline would carry her through college, whereas Margot might flounder without a mistress constantly on her back to study, and therefore might not do as well as she could.
Author:  Tor [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 8:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
Proabably, but I disagree with the central thesis. In my experience, its the Margots and Alicias of this world who thrive at uni *because* they are already able to achieve amidst the distractions of other activites (be they playing up in class... or out of it :wink: )
Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 9:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
As someone who works steadily (apparently, though I can't see how!) I have experience of the Alicias and Margots quite a lot! There's someone I know (flatmate of a friend) on our course, who hasn't attended a single lecture for one module, nor much in the way of seminars/lectures for the other module. In our Jan exams, she failed one and scraped a pass by something like 3% on another. She is far, far more intelligent than me, but she hadn't worked at all for the exams.

On the other hand, I didn't do brilliantly, so I think that you do need some natural talent as well!

I can see what EBD was saying, because if you learn to work steadily then you don't get phased by deadlines and things, and essays and the like get done in plenty of time to correct any mistakes. Doing it the night before never appealed to me!
Author:  Fiona Mc [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 10:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
I think a lot of it depends on the person. I'm a slogger and will spend hours/days/weeks on an essay or studying for exams, whereas my husband will write his essay the day before and still do well for the most part. A lot of his doing well comes down to how relaxed he feels. I tend to agree with EBD about working steadily as I in High School most found that those he worked hard throughout all years coped with HSC/VCE (GCSE/A levels) better than those who didn't. My Year 11 maths teacher said to us in our first lesson, 'welcome to the real world, you've now left disneylad.' Her philosophy being that most can do well at school without much work until now.

I think that's where EBD was correct or did have something about the girls working throughout their school years and not suddenly increasing how much they worked in the final year. From when they were young CS girls seem to do an inordinately large amount of prep. In Three Go Mary Lou's form all do at least an hour for prep a night which for me at the age of 10, wouldn't have been done on a regular basis. That's probably why the girls were able well in school later on as they had done so much work earlier on. In Fifth and Sixth form EBD does have them doing 2 1/2 hours of prep a day which is quite a bit if you do it every day.

Re: people jumping forms that used to happen here back in the 70's as my oldest brother did two school years in one year. They don't tend to do it any more as these kids tend to struggle more on a social level once they hit high school and this generation of kids all tend to start school later rather than earlier. If I had of been Joey I would have put my foot down about the triplets leaping up the school years because I think both Len and Margot especially, missed out on so much for it, Len as she never got to be a kid and Margot because she was forced to grow up faster than she was ready to.

The one thing that does baffle me about EBD's promotion to the next year is it seems to depend on the placing in the forms rather than how well you did. Margot was 13th one year and kept down. We don't actually see how well that was. Was it 13th and a B average or 13th and a barely scraped pass?
Author:  Alison H [ Fri Mar 19, 2010 11:29 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
They're obsessed with those form lists! In Three Go, they even seem to be like football league tables - the top so many at the end of term get promoted. People seem to get really stressed over them, e.g. when Len does one poor piece of work because her mind's on the plans for the coming of age celebration she gets really upset with herself about how it'll affect her place in that week's form list.

I think that the modern idea that any sort of competition can upset children is OTT, but all that worrying about how every single piece of work will affect your place in this list must have got rather stressful too. & I feel really sorry for Margot when Kathie tells her that she should try to come nearer to Len and Con - telling someone they need to work harder is one thing, but comparing them to their sisters doesn't seem very fair.
Author:  Fiona Mc [ Sat Mar 20, 2010 3:35 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
Alison H wrote:
I feel really sorry for Margot when Kathie tells her that she should try to come nearer to Len and Con - telling someone they need to work harder is one thing, but comparing them to their sisters doesn't seem very fair.


That happens all the time with families especially with a multiple birth. My younger sister was a B grade maths student and was compared unfavourably with her twin brother who was an A grade maths student. She was told that she wasn't as good as her brother, which although true wasn't tactful or nice especially as a B was nothing to complain about. My mum's reaction to all this was to ensure that all the twins in the family were in seperate classes so they couldn't be compared so easily. It was only harder or impossible to do in Year 11 or 12 when you're trying to combine timetables with subjects. I actually think the triplets would have been better off being seperated more rather kept together as much as what they were. I think Len should have been sent to Carnbach as she's the one who always struck me as needing it the most
Author:  Loryat [ Mon Mar 22, 2010 3:19 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Educational standards at the CS
There were triplets in my year who now I think of it are quite like the Maynards! (But boys).

They were about the youngest in the year but all very clever. In fact one of them got the highest mark in Scotland for some of his exams. :shock: Another one was a bit of a rebel and ended up leaving school after 4th Year.

I think in Scotland, particularly in the arts/languages category, there is a ridiculously big gap between Standard Grades and Highers and you sit them a year apart. Maths and Physics I had to work harder for anyway at so maybe I just noticed the difference less, but it was definitely possible to do very little work for your Standard Grade English in particular and get a 1. We had a folio, a talk grade and a final exam. The folio was basically all the essays (or the best ones) that you'd written over the past two years. Come the time of the folio hand in, we'd all get out our essays, work them up a bit if necessary, and submit them. Then in the exam you had a close reading paper and a writing paper. It was actually impossible to revise for this exam so all in all I did less work for English than any of my other subjects and it was probably my best mark.

Then for Higher, you're suddenly expected to do a 1800 word essay on a text you've chosen and analysed yourself plus some creative/personal writing, and the exam consists of close reading, textual analysis and an essay paper where you have to write essays on the spot about the texts you've studied in class over the year. Basically the gap is insane and you're required to do a lot more work, especially work on your own. Having said this I managed to get an A without having to do very much work (most of my attention had to go to Maths), but it was definitely a rude awakening. And in the Highers in general, I think people who worked all year round did do better than those who just crammed at the last minute (me). With Standard Grades, I doubt it made much difference.

I think they've changed elements of the Higher course now but I don't think it's any easier. Of course, what they should do is change the Standard Grade.

Of course, when you're at school you're expected to do a certain amount of assignments/assessments which means unless you're a total genius you have to do some work throughout the term. But at uni, or at least at the course I studied, the work was mainly to be done in huge chunks eg a termly essay and an exam. Now Margot, being clever, might still do very well even only on last minute cramming, but she'd probably do better if she worked steadily all year round.
All times are UTC + 1 hour
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group
http://www.phpbb.com/