Today's results have one significant headline. Media Studies is one of the few subjects showing a significant increase in entries in a year when the overall entries are down to the lowest figure since 2003.
There are some 6,000 less 16 year-olds according to the Joint Council for Qualifications. Add to this some students taking exams early and others shifting to vocational qualifications and this is given as the cause of decreases in some national curriculum subjects. Media Studies rose by 5.1% to 69,823 (1.1% of all entries). This quite an achievement for a non–NC subject. It represents a faster increase than seen in the A Level figures. Interestingly, ICT saw a significant decrease of 6.2%.
My main concern with the overall figures is the steep decline in French, German and Spanish which will have repercussions at A Level and therefore for media work in foreign language cinema post-16.
The results show A* grades for Media running at 3.7% (5.1% for girls only) and with 16.3% for Grade A, this means a rather higher percentage getting the top grades than for Media and Film at A Level.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
A Level Results August 2008
The headline news is that candidate numbers for 'Media/Film/TV Studies' (shouldn't we be agitating to get rid of this grab-all category?) are up again, but that the rate of increase is falling.
Results were announced across the UK for:
45,766 AS students in 'Media, Film and TV Studies'
32,749 A2 students in 'Media, Film and TV Studies'
5,616 AS/A2 Comms students
1,577 Applied Media AS/A2 students
Total candidate numbers for AS and A2 in Media, Film and Comms Studies: 85,708.
That's roughly 4% of all A Level entries, possibly a slight fall as a % this year, even though Media AS entries increased by 3% and A Level by 2.7%.
'A' Grades for Media fell as a %, even though they rose in many other subjects (and the rise of 'A' Grades to 25% of all awards has been the major angle of news stories so far). Are the exam boards reacting to the pressure from those who claim the subject is 'soft'?
Results were announced across the UK for:
45,766 AS students in 'Media, Film and TV Studies'
32,749 A2 students in 'Media, Film and TV Studies'
5,616 AS/A2 Comms students
1,577 Applied Media AS/A2 students
Total candidate numbers for AS and A2 in Media, Film and Comms Studies: 85,708.
That's roughly 4% of all A Level entries, possibly a slight fall as a % this year, even though Media AS entries increased by 3% and A Level by 2.7%.
'A' Grades for Media fell as a %, even though they rose in many other subjects (and the rise of 'A' Grades to 25% of all awards has been the major angle of news stories so far). Are the exam boards reacting to the pressure from those who claim the subject is 'soft'?
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