Navigating the GCSE to A-Level Transition: Overcoming Challenges and Succeeding in Advanced Education
10/07/23
05/09/17
A Level Reforms:
A Parent and Pupil Guide
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On the 9th April 2014, Michael Gove announced that there would be major reforms to both GCSE’s and A Levels. Summer 2016 saw the first 6th form pupils sitting the new exams in certain subjects, however public understanding of the changes is still rather limited. Below we detail the changes to the A Level curriculum and examination schedule. (If you were looking for info on the GCSE changes, we’ve written about that too.
The big picture…
While the exact motivation for the A Level reforms is not totally clear (the buzzwords surrounding the changes are quite ubiquitously ‘more’ and ‘rigorous’) we can draw some of our own conclusions based on the major changes, the key points of which are as follows:
They say:
Where possible, all assessment will be by examination, with coursework used only where vitally necessary.
We say:
Too many schools were using coursework as a means to boost results, offering too much assistance to pupils in revising and improving their coursework.
They say:
There will no longer be January exams. Both AS and A Level will be examined at the end of the course only (after 1 year for AS, and after two years for A2). Furthermore, the AS level will now be ‘decoupled’ from the A Level. Ie, an AS level is no longer the halfway point to the A Level, but is in fact a standalone qualification.
We say:
With exams taking place in both January and June of year 12 and 13, pupils were spending too long revising for examinations, reducing the time available for teaching. Furthermore, pupils were becoming ever reliant on the ability to retake (potentially three times over), rather than putting full focus into a more ‘hit or miss’ style of examination. To obtain an A Level, there will also be greater emphasis for pupils to become fully knowledgeable in their subjects, rather than studying and retaining information for individual modules in a short-term piecemeal fashion.
They say:
An AS Level will now be worth 40% as many UCAS points as an A Level (down from 50% previously)
We say:
This is an effort to drive down the number of pupils taking the somewhat easier AS qualification, and to encourage pupils to take the significantly more challenging two year A Level course.
A complete timetable of changes
Changes to the A Levels are being brought in slowly over a number of years to allow adequate time for discussion and debate as to the subject content and level of material to be included in each.
For ease of reference, we’ve highlighted below those subjects in which we are most commonly employed as tutors.
| Taught from Sept ’15 First AS summer ’16 First A Level summer ’17 |
Taught from Sept ’16 First AS summer ’17 First A Level summer ’18 |
Taught from Sept ’17 First AS summer ’18 First A Level summer ’19 |
| Art and Design | Ancient Languages (classical Greek, Latin) | Accounting |
| Biology | Dance | Ancient History |
| Business | Drama and theatre | Archaeology |
| Chemistry | Geography | Classical civilisation |
| Computer science | Modern foreign languages (French, German, Spanish) | Design and technology |
| Economics | Music | Electronics |
| English language | Physical education | Environmental science |
| English language and literature | Religious studies | Film studies |
| English literature | — | Geology |
| History | — | Government and politics |
| Physics | — | History of art |
| Psychology | — | Law |
| Sociology | — | Mathematics (first A Level in summer 18)*, Further Mathematics |
| — | — | Media Studies |
| — | — | Music technology |
| — | — | Philosophy |
*As many of the pupils who sit both Maths and Further Maths tend to sit their full A Level Maths exam after a single year of study, it has been decided to bring the date of the first examination opportunity forward one year to summer 2018. The consequence of this is that there will be two different A Level Maths examinations taking place at the same time in summer ‘18; one for those pupils who commenced study of the new syllabus in Sep ‘17 and have completed the course in a single year of study and one for those who commenced studying the old syllabus in Sep ‘16 but took the more normal two years to complete the course.
The government’s Ofqal guidance on the reforms, subject by subject, can be found here. Although be warned, they are reasonably heavy reading, and a more comprehensive overview of the changes (and how it will affect you individually) is generally easier to grasp from documents published by the individual exam boards.
New Edexcel A Level Syllabi