A-Levels are big today, and in days to come. Here are ten reasons why clearing should not be so important.
1. They bring stress and anxiety to something that should liberate and relax – the process of knowing more.
2. They are a result of artificial exams taken in artificial conditions and marked according to artificial criteria.
3. “Nobody I know takes standardized tests for a living.”
4. All that cortisol, adrenaline, endorphines (or more cortisol) upon hearing results – form a feedback loop that makes you feel it’s OK to do more exams.
5. A-Levels mean you feel entitled to forget everything that happened before university…
6. …and allow you to feel excited about “something completely different” that awaits as you go on to study…
7. …when in fact these things should be one and the same.
8. A-Levels measure everyone in the same way – which is absurd in 2015, when even an app serving you banners knows more about your personality than an A-Level marking supervisor.
9. Now that you have your A-Level results, you can decide where and how to get into student debt. Ain’t that grand? (It’s a long read, something A-Levels didn’t prepare you for. Sorry about that.)
10. 80% of the things you had to learn just to pass the A-Levels will never come in handy again. You just had to learn them to get into uni. Where you’ll learn another 80% more things just useful for the purposes of passing an exam or pasting into an essay. The kicker: you don’t get to choose the remaining 20%, either.
Think of learning that would be the exact opposite of the 10 points above.
Then go and get it – for you, for your kids, for your students.
Wiktor (Vic) Kostrzewski (MA, DELTA) is an author, translator, editor and project manage based in London. When he works, he thinks about languages, education, books, EdTech and teachers. When he doesn’t work, he probably trains for his next triathlon or drinks his next coffee.
BRAVE Learning (formerly known as 16 Kinds) is a lifelong learning and productivity blog. If you enjoy these posts, please check out one of my books and courses.
My recent publications, and my archive, is now all available on my new project: PUNK LEARNING. Hope to see you there!