Physics just got easier
According to Tim Oates, director of Cambridge Assessment, which owns and manages OCR one of the leading exam setting bodies, the physics syllabus has been made easier. The reason for this, apparently, was to make it easier to attract girls and less bright pupils to study physics at A level.
(I find it pretty offensive to females to regard them as less intelligent. I’m sure that some of the girls I know from Oxford University studying maths would feel the same, as would my PhD wife).
What happens when less bright pupils get to university? According to Alison Wolf who headed a government-ordered review into vocational education, universities are having to provide catch-up classes because too may teenagers with top A-level grades are not ready to cope with the rigours of a degree.
So, that’s a good reason to make A levels easier then?