Saturday 25 May 2013

The General Paper: Gateway to Students' Achievements

By Lowell Hendler


Countries like Wales, Northern Ireland, Cameroon, and some Caribbean Island countries that has embraced The British General Papers examination popularly known as The Advanced Level General Certificate of Education, can have their indigenous students seek for admission in British schools. Private schools in Scotland have taken the leading introducing The Advanced Level General Certificate of Education into the country; it is taken under the name of Scottish Qualifications Certificate Higher and Advanced Higher. Admission of students into Universities in Great Britain, Wales, and Northern Ireland will be practically impossible without the British Advanced Level for Education certificate which a student can receive after two years of studying in the relevant subjects needed for admission.

Before the British Advanced Level General Certificate of Education was introduced the Higher School Certificate used to be the required certification. The problem with the Higher School Certificate is that weakness of students in one area of subject prepared for and failure in that subject alone will automatically deny them admission even if they have very good grades in other subjects, hence in 1953, the examination was reviewed. The A level is far easier and yield far better results because the students are not made to sit for a rigorous examination that covers all kinds of subjects the students does not have interest in.

Another adjustment came to the British A Level examination in 1963, this time in the area of grading of the examination, and putting comments, this was necessitated by increasing number of countries that have come to adopt the examination admission to their schools meaning more students will be taking the examination. This brought about the use of letters as part of the grading system to make it more detailed. In the 1980s a new changes came upon The Advanced Level General Certificate of Education 2 year's course system to become a modular course system. since University policies and programs have gone through their own standardization to properly position their students for life after the school, the pre-year 2000 A Level was no longer okay for admission into Universities so has to be reviewed and standardized too.

As-level and A2 level examination a new version of the A-level examination were conducted for foreign students in year 2001 and 2002 respectively. With a new curriculum introduced in year 2000 the module for the course was divided into four and spread over two years for the study. A vocation version also was introduced called The GCE Applied A-level and it was taken from the VCE A-level examination. Some of the subjects were also improved to incorporate practical approach to the study, for example, A-level Applied Business used be in the theory form alone, now the practical approach had been introduced for better understanding.

Many Universities have given a positive response to Critical Thinking, one of the subjects students have to take for the Advanced Level General Certificate of Education course. The number of A-level subject a student can take is not subject to limitation, students are permitted to select according to their ability. Compared to other examinations meant for the same purpose the critics of the A-level examination argued that the number of subjects incorporated in the module, particularly for the year is too little.

The issue of the one-sided nature of the subjects that students can combine for the Advanced Level General Certificate of Education examination is not taken lightly by the critics of the examination, a typical student can take mathematics, physics, and chemistry which are all science related subjects, such a students will only have the knowledge of science and grow in that line only, he will be totally ignorant of things happening in other discipline. British and other countries Universities that accept The Advanced Level General Certificate of Education results for admission do give students the opportunity to use the notification of waiting for the final examination results to apply for admission, should the student pass the exam , he can make use of the result.




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