[Education Observer]

A British government official has remarked recently that the A levels are getting easier.
Sir Peter Williams was appointed by new Prime Minister Gordon Brown to review the teaching of maths in primary schools.
He said that A-level test standards had been slipping for a long period of time.
The distinguished academic and businessman said that over 20 years, there is no doubt that A -level standards have fallen.
Citing maths as an example, he said that A-level students faced equations today that require less depth of knowledge and understanding than in the past.
Sir Peter Williams is the Chancellor of Leicester Uniuversity . His comments are significant because the British government has always maintain that improving exam results are due to better teaching and student effort, not the tests becoming easier.
A recent study at Durham University has suggested a dramatic decline in maths standards. For close to 20 years, about 50,000 students have taken a same general ability test before taking the A-level exam as part of the Durham's study. Researchers have found that for most subjects, pupils of the same ability ( based on the Durham's test ) achieved two grades higher in their A-levels in 2006 than in 1988.

[edugator]

I could not agree more - look at the thousands of students in Singapore scoring all those As easily. The exams are definitely becoming easier.