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A-Level Students

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Gene

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There seem to be many questions here from "A-Level Students" recently posting from London. For those of us who are not Brittish, could someone explain what this term means. Such as: what is the normal age of the students, are they building a single year-end project for their studies or must they construct several projects throughout the term, does "A-Level" imply that they have been studing electronics for several terms/years, are they assigned projects or do they select their own??????
 
From age 11 children in the UK go to school until aged 16, they then face the choice of continuing with further education or engage in full time employment.

Further education involves attending a College on a daily basis subject to attaining the requisite standard of education from their previous school.

A level standard is the standard of education pursued at a college leading to qualification to go even further by attending university.

An A level course is usually supplemented by peripheral subjects like
General Studies.However the core subjects will be pertinant to the course being studied.

Take Electronic Engineering, core subjects are likey to be Electronic Priciples with Maths being a strong supporting subject.

One project, as a minimum, is likely to be undertaken and be presented at the end of the course, however continual assessment is part of the overall course and carries a high percentage when applied to awarding final achievement.

If anyone has anything further to add........
 
Facinating. I never knew the UK and US were so different.

So regular school is from age 11 to 16.
College is from 16 - when? (this is where the A-Level is, right?)

What is happening before age 11?
 
Just as Chippie says...

.... only that most schools will not allow a student to take A-Level electronics unless they have studied the subject during the 4th & 5th year of High School.

Gene, at the end of the 5th year the student is aged 16 and can legally leave school. This level of study is called GCSE standard, and they are the exams taken in the 5th year.

The A level standard is a 2 year deal - 6th & 7th year called lower and upper 6th.

At one time (prehistoric - when I was at school) the years results were just the results from your examination. No account was taken of your coursework.

Now it is very different.

The final exam gives a set percentage. The coursework gives a percentage and projects undertaken during the year can give up to 30% of the final result.

It's because of this that I try not to go too far with the advice on certain subjects. Great if we can help a student to gain a pass but it must be the students efforts that get the result - not ours.

I supply components at cost to my daughters school - gives more money to spend on books - and know the electronics tutor quite well. He keeps me up to date with the various projects.

Hope this helps.
 
I found this site to be enlightening: **broken link removed** It describes the various "grades", as we call them in the US.
 
Thanks to all - I learned something new today. In fact, Pilot's next-to-last paragraph was the reason for the question and why it was posted in this area of the forum.
 
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