Re: AO levels

[Geoff Clare <gwc@root.co.uk>]

dlangs%sunstroke@sdsu.EDU (Derek Langsford) writes:

>At last we have a few good explanations for what O' and A' levels are/were.

>To confuse the rest of the world again there were also things called
>AO levels.  I have two (in addition to my 10 O's and 4 A's but I'll stop
>bragging there :)

>AO levels were taken one year after O' levels and one year before A' levels.
>Perhaps I should add "normally" (i.e. at age 17).

>They were exams at an intermediate level that one would take to pad
>one's CV, if you already had an O and were studying for the A,
>or to get a qualification in a previously unexamined subject in which 
>you were not going to take the A level. e.g. I have an O and A in math(s)
>and padded it with an AO; my other AO is in geology but I have neither an O'
>or A' level in this subject.

Another situation in which many people took A/O's was when one or two
O levels were taken a year early (at age 15).  Rather than dropping
those subjects for a year, it was spent studying for A/O levels, which
were then taken at the same time as O levels in the remaining subjects.
I did this with mathematics (along with about a quarter of all the
students at my school), and I knew of other similar schools that did the
same with English.  I believe Kate went to the same kind of school (i.e.
a `grammar' school).

So maybe Kate has one or two A/O levels in her `10 O levels', i.e. only
8 subjects.

By the way `A/O level' stood for `Alternative Ordinary level'.  They
were not really half way between O and A as the name 'A/O' might suggest.
They covered additional material beyond the O level syllabus, to the same
standard as O level.

>At A'level grades A, B, C, D, and E are all considered passing grades with
>an E pass starting at about 45%.  

Not that D and E passes will do you any good.  Universities usually
insist on reasonable grades before they will take you (e.g. a common
offer is "a B and two C's").  In case the word "offer" confuses anyone,
I should explain that Universities interview prospective students
before they take their A levels, and "offer" to take them provided
they achieve the stated grades.

I realise I am getting into areas not really relevant to Kate, but for
completeness I will mention that there are also things called S levels,
which are taken at the same time as A levels (usually just consisting of
one extra 3-hour exam paper).  Pass grades are 1 and 2 (1 being higher).
Normally one or two S levels can be taken in subjects a student is
particularly good at, so as to go one better than a plain A grade.
-- 
Geoff Clare <gwc@root.co.uk>  (Dumb American mailers: ...!uunet!root.co.uk!gwc)
UniSoft Limited, London, England.   Tel: +44 71 729 3773   Fax: +44 71 729 3273