Changing from CIE to Edexcel exam board for AS and A Level · Name Patrick Brannac Page 1 of 12...
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Patrick Brannac www.SmashingScience.org Page 1 of 12
Changing from CIE to Edexcel exam board for AS and A Level
Summary • One of the CIE Chemistry AS Level papers, Paper 3, is a practical exam. They have made a list of chemicals
which are essential to carry out this exam. Some of them are dangerous. There may be other considerations for selecting an exam board other than CIE.
• This report looks at alternative syllabi to CIE
Contents Changing from CIE to Edexcel exam board for AS and A Level .......................................................................................1
Summary .....................................................................................................................................................................1
CIE Paper 3 – The practical exam paper ......................................................................................................................2
Health and safety realities ...........................................................................................................................................2
What is an exam board? ..................................................................................................................................................2
What are the options for A level exam boards? ..............................................................................................................2
Why choose Edexcel? ......................................................................................................................................................2
Which exam boards do the top schools in the UK, and around the world, use for A Level Chemistry? .........................4
What those who work in universities and in university admissions say: ........................................................................5
What students say: ..........................................................................................................................................................6
For more information ......................................................................................................................................................6
Appendix – Information about other top private schools ...............................................................................................7
Westminster school .....................................................................................................................................................7
Appendix - Harrow School ...........................................................................................................................................8
Appendix preferred A Level subjects (From Harrow) ................................................................................................... 10
Additional information ................................................................................................................................................. 11
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CIE Paper 3 – The practical exam paper The only way to offer CIE AS Chemistry is to have the equipment and chemicals essential to carry out a range of
experiments in a practical examination called Paper 3. They do not want the schools to know in advance which
experiments they will be examining in a given year, so they have created a list of chemicals we must have to be able
to do any of the experiments that our students ought to understand and be able to carry out. This list includes
explosive and toxic chemicals.
Health and safety realities You could use facilities in an established school which already has the necessary paperwork and safety measures to
handle all of the chemicals instead. Any school that would agree to such a deal would be an extraordinarily
dangerous place to be in. A senior high school chemistry lab should have access to dangerous, including lethal
chemicals, the idea that you would let kids from another school, who might easily have no experience working in
such an environment to try it all out there, is from a scientific and educational perspective, beyond reckless. How
many other extremely dangerous things are they letting happen in their school?
What is an exam board? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Examination_board
What are the options for A level exam boards? In the UK there are only 7 exam boards that award A Levels that are allowed to be offered by schools paid for by
the government (these exam boards will also be used by all private schools as well, as all universities get much of
their funding either directly or indirectly through the government):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Examination_boards_in_the_United_Kingdom
Of those, only 3 are specifically for England:
UK version International version
AQA AQA
Edexcel Edexcel
OCR CIE
All of the above are regulated and accredited by a government agency, OFQUAL, to make sure that the
qualifications they award, e.g. AS Level Chemistry, are comparable to each other. This is not just to help
universities, how well a school’s students perform in exams like the GCSE and A Level can increase funding, if
they too often perform badly, then the government will close that school.
The intentions for the international versions of these exam boards are exactly the same as the UK version,
to provide internationally recognised standardised qualifications that will allow students studying them to gain
access to, and also succeed at the best universities in the world. They work closely with universities and colleges,
especially the best ones, to ensure that their qualification meets the expected standards.
The British Council, which is part of the UK Government, offers a variety of qualifications, but only Edexcel
and CIE for A Level:
https://www.britishcouncil.cn/en/exams/school
Why choose Edexcel? For the reasons listed above, if you cannot be certain that you can provide the necessary chemicals for CIE AS
Chemistry Paper 3, this is a reasonable alternative.
Both AQA and Edexcel would allow sufficient control over which practicals you do to allow new schools
working with tough regulations to organise their own practical scheme of work that fits with what is locally
possible, but Edexcel has the advantage of mapping more closely and easily to the CIE syllabus.
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If you look at the comments section that I have included in the appendix “What those who work in
universities and in university admissions say” there is little interest or understanding about the differences between
exam boards. There is substantial difference with regards to subject choices, so much so that The Russell Group of
UK’s top 24 universities has even created a list of “Facilitator Subjects”:
https://russellgroup.ac.uk/for-students/school-and-college-in-the-uk/subject-choices-at-school-and-college/
There is no mention on their website about differences in exam boards.
I have also emailed my former university, Imperial College admissions officer for Chemistry, and he has very
helpfully suggested that his department does not take into consideration exam boars when selecting students to
progress to the interview stages, nor does he think any other departments in at Imperial, or any other university
would either.
For the best advice on this talk directly the admissions department of the university you are interested in
applying for. They will be the best people to talk to find out what actually matters. It is especially important that
you ask about if an A grade in their most preferred A Level exam board is ever better than an A* grade in the same
subject in their least preferred exam board.
When I was a student at university no-one knew anything about exam boards (most lecturers, in fact had
very little understanding of what an A level was; their primary role was research, and especially, to get grants for
that research). Similarly, when I was studying for my PGCE at Cambridge, no emphasis or information was ever
given relating to which exam board you should or should not use, or if there was any difference between them.
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Which exam boards do the top schools in the UK, and around the world, use for A Level Chemistry? For a list of the top schools (in terms of academic performance) in the UK for:
• iGCSE results, click here
• For A Level results, click here This list ignores IB schools and school that do not offer A Levels. Some schools like Harrow and Eton, are not the top performing, but are the most prestigious (e.g. in the Eaton Group). Some are just really old.
School iGCSE Exam Board
A Level Exam board
Website
Shanghai Concord Bilingual School
CIE Edexcel http://www.concordschool.com.cn/
Cardiff Sixth Form College, Wales, UK
N/A WJEC (Welsh exam board)
https://www.ccoex.com/en/page/departments
Concord, UK AQA OCR http://concordcollegeuk.com/academic/academic-departments/chemistry/
Concordia Shanghai, China
N/A (AS AP syllabus)
N/A (AS AP syllabus)
https://www.concordiashanghai.org/academics/high-school/science
Dulwich College, UK Don’t say Don’t say https://www.dulwich.org.uk/senior-school/academic/subjects/science
Dulwich Shanghai, China Don’t say N/A (IB) https://oss-assets.dulwich.org/blocks/file/SS%20Parent%20Handbook_Final_LR-20180903-101849-656.pdf
Eton College, UK Don’t say Don’t say https://www.etoncollege.com/c_block.aspx
Harrow School, UK OCR OCR Chem A https://www.harrowschool.org.uk/MainFolder/Sixth-Form-Booklet----2017-19.pdf
Kings school, Canterbury, UK (oldest continuous school in the world)
Don’t say Don’t say https://www.kings-school.co.uk/academic/subjects/the-sciences/#slide3
North London Collegiate School, UK
Edexcel Don’t say https://www.nlcs.org.uk/senior-school-sixth-form/subjects/chemistry
Raffles Institute, Singapore
Don’t say Don’t say http://www.ri.edu.sg/ (highest number of students entering Oxbridge and Ivy League in Asia)
St Paul’s School, UK Edexcel 4CH1
OCR A https://www.stpaulsschool.org.uk/st-pauls/academic/chemistry
Tangling Trust, Singapore
Don’t say Edexcel https://www.tts.edu.sg/seniors/curriculum https://www.tts.edu.sg/uploaded/documents/sixth_form/2018-20_A_Levels_Options_Booklet.pdf
The Perse School, UK Don’t say Pre-U (CIE) https://www.perse.co.uk/prep/academic/curriculum/ https://www.perse.co.uk/upper/academic/subjects/chemistry/
Westminster school, UK. Don’t say
Mix of Edexcel A Level and PreU
https://www.westminster.org.uk/academic-life/results-and-leavers/ https://www.westminster.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Sixth-Form-Courses-2019.pdf (Highest academically achieving school in the country.)
Most of the best schools in the UK, and around the world, do not place much emphasis (sometimes none) on the exam boards they take. The very best high schools often offer a range of exam boards; each science in Concord UK, for instance, uses a different exam board.
Universities, including Oxbridge are required, at least officially, to consider them as all equal. This is an important point to understand, because the exam board is chosen by the teachers and the school, not the students, so it would be unfair to offer students advantages simply because of the school they were attending rather than the quality of their achievements. British universities have legal responsibilities, and a great deal of social pressures, to avoid the appearance of favouring students from more affluent backgrounds.
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What those who work in universities and in university admissions say:
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What students say: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=547887
For more information This website is by the UK government and explains what they think exam boards are and why a grade in one is the
same as the same grade in the same subject in another. It also explains changes to the A Level that happened in
2018:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/guide-to-as-and-a-level-results-for-england-2018
Below are data that the government uses to allocate additional funding for higher performing state schools in the
UK. If a school performs better than expected, it will be given more money to encourage it to continue and to think
about expanding its intake. The UK state school sector is a massive industry with globally competitive amounts of
money invested by the government. All formally qualified teachers in the UK will have had to train at a state school,
even if later they then work after qualifying for a private school.
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Appendix – Information about other top private schools
Westminster school https://www.westminster.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Sixth-Form-Courses-2019.pdf
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Appendix - Harrow School https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrow_School
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Appendix preferred A Level subjects (From Harrow) https://www.harrowschool.org.uk/MainFolder/Sixth-Form-Booklet----2017-19.pdf
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Additional information
https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-international-advanced-levels/about/faqs.html
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