Easy A-level exams need radical reform

A-level examinations are much easier than they were 20 years ago, the director of admissions at Cambridge University warns today.

Students can now get top marks without having a single original thought, according to Dr Geoff Parks. He believes moves to make A-levels more "accessible" to "middle-ground" students have worked too successfully.

Radical reform is needed to restore the "challenging" A-level students took a generation ago, Dr Parks will tell a conference of private school head teachers on Thursday.

His warning is set to revive fears that A-levels have been dumbed down as governments have tried to make capital out of improving exam results.

Dr Parks, who stressed his views were not necessarily those of Cambridge as an institution, will tell the annual Brighton College conference that A-level science papers are a series of nods and winks to candidates, pointing to the right answers. Questions in arts subjects were also more "predictable" and hinted heavily which responses would score points.

Dr Parks admitted that some of the changes had been beneficial. Assessment had become more reliable and tested a wider range of knowledge.

But Dr Parks bemoaned the fact that many sixth formers, whether state or privately educated, who applied to Cambridge and were expected to get three As or more, did not have the problem-solving and analytical skills of their predecessors a generation ago.

"What has been lost is the opportunity for the most able to develop and demonstrate many of the things we are looking for. The scope for originality and creativity has gone. The opportunity to show real insight has gone," he said.

He likened the challenge of the modern A-level to assembling a flat-packed piece of furniture with instructions. The old A-level required students to put it together with no instructions, Dr Parks said.

"A-levels have lost the ability to differentiate the exceptional from the good." The proof was the recent creation of an A-level in "critical thinking", Dr Parks said. "That by its very existence admits that other A-levels do not test critical thinking and that is absurd."

Dr Parks said he would prefer the government to swap A-levels for the diploma proposed by former chief schools inspector Sir Mike Tomlinson. Sir Mike's proposals, including tougher questions and an extended project or dissertation, would have enabled the brightest students to demonstrate the "originality and creativity, the insight, clarity of though and analytical ability, the extended argumentation and problem-solving skills" that universities required.

Education Secretary Ruth Kelly has admitted that questions for the brightest are needed. But she wants these to be optional. Dr Parks said that was a bad idea because bright pupils from poor schools may not risk answering them.

Dr Parks said his solution was to make the harder questions compulsory and reform the grading scale.