There’s an interesting by election in my ward on Newcastle City Council on Thursday. The Cons are doing better here on a local level and its a Lib Dem defence (following the unfortunate death of a councillor).
I’ll be voting LDs I think as Labour don’t need any more councillors on NCC.
There is a not a single Conservative councillor on Newcastle City Council, they could do with 1
Don’t think they deserve it to be honest but my fellow residents may disagree
17.6% of Newcastle voters voted Tory in May but they had no representation, so regardless of whether you hate the Tories or not it would be nice if they got at least 1 councillor to represent their views out of 78
Another convert to Proportional Representation!
You'll be up for a severe telling off by Ms Priti Patel!
I did vote for AV in 2011, I have never been a diehard FPTP supporter and certainly would not oppose PR locally at least for half the seats
Is this chart genuine doe anyone know please? If it is then in the future there will be no trust in anyone with A Levels from 2020 and 2021. This does a massive disservice to those genuinely deserving of A grades.
Yes, but see my earlier post about the issues in comparing. Certainly you should not use any grade from before 2015 as the exam system was different.
One thing it is worth remembering is that the exam system itself before Covid was not very reliable.
There’s an interesting by election in my ward on Newcastle City Council on Thursday. The Cons are doing better here on a local level and its a Lib Dem defence (following the unfortunate death of a councillor).
I’ll be voting LDs I think as Labour don’t need any more councillors on NCC.
There is a not a single Conservative councillor on Newcastle City Council, they could do with 1
Don’t think they deserve it to be honest but my fellow residents may disagree
17.6% of Newcastle voters voted Tory in May but they had no representation, so regardless of whether you hate the Tories or not it would be nice if they got at least 1 councillor to represent their views out of 78
Spot on, young HY. And that is why the Conservative Party is campaigning enthusiastically for PR. Or more exactly, it ought to be.
The present system of winner takes all is clearly indefensible.
If the story is as it's been reported he has every right to do so - the nursery has been caught bang to rights.
I think what some of Twitter is missing is that to test the admission processes, a number of children (not sure if real or fictional) children were entered who where not the children of prominent SNP politicians.
I’m sure the nursery will argue that they didn’t give a place to Yousaf because he was an arse, rather than because he was Asian.
IIRC the apparent problem wasn't that they were discriminating against "Asians". They were, apparently, discriminating against a sub-group of "Asians" - one defined by religion, largely......
I credit Tesla for making electric cars desirable to the general population, but in my view most current EVs, in particular Tesla, are massively overengineered.
EVs are the ideal vehicle for the suburbs, where 90% probably of all journeys are made. Electric motors have plenty of torque, which means you get decent performance on a low power motor up to about 50mph, which are the speeds you are going at in the suburbs. Electric motors are also smaller than the ICEs they replace. The way forward, I think is slightly smaller cars, matched to smaller motors and smaller batteries. Batteries are why EVs are more expensive than their ICE equivalents. By making them smaller, you make the car more affordable, lighter, quicker to charge and with more range per KWH, enough for a week's normal use.
Then you try to make the remaining 10% of journeys acceptable, but no more. This takes a change in mindset.
The engineering doesn't work that way. For a number of years, people tried to build electric cars to reduce the cost of the drive train. Primarily the battery size. The result were short ranged cars with such low performance that they were dangerous to drive on motorways.
The acceleration that modern EVs get is the side effect of a drive trained optimised for general usage - the brutal torque curve of electric motors is a natural feature. For decent range, you need regenerative breaking, for example. Which drives battery size up.
The "genius" in Tesla, was looking at the car conversion industry in LA, where for 200K+ you could have your Porsche made electric, and realising that the real costs in that were the one-off work and the battery. The other key insight is that batteries are dropping in price each year and increasing performance. At the same time.
I don't think that changes my point however. Starting with the battery, you work out how to get the most out of it, trading off performance against range. My point is that given most journeys are suburban, where you will get decent performance on a relatively low power set up, you should prioritise range over performance. Or to put it another way, you can get to a certain range with a smaller battery, with the benefits of a more affordable car and quicker charging times.
Yes. To my mind, the most interesting electric car in Europe right now is another Chinese model, Dacia Spring. For its offer, rather than its specification, which is very mediocre. You have a car that costs barely more than a petrol small car, before subsidies, and which is perfectly practical around town. You can quickly charge it once a week at a public charging point or overnight at home from a 13A socket. What you won't be doing with this car is going on long journeys.
It's a version 1 that needs improvement in some areas and not all owners will want something quite this austere. But the approach looks the way forward IMO.
If the story is as it's been reported he has every right to do so - the nursery has been caught bang to rights.
I think what some of Twitter is missing is that to test the admission processes, a number of children (not sure if real or fictional) children were entered who where not the children of prominent SNP politicians.
As I said if the story is real - the nursery doesn't have a case to answer.
Asian Muslim name - no place available typical white scottish name - when would you like to start...
What are the servicing costs involved with electric cars?
The Taycan is about the same as any other Porsche at the dealer at about 1,200 quid. You only have to have it done every two years though.
Forgive my ignorance but do electric cars have gears? If not, and if I were to be convinced that gearless cars will be standard soon, then why is my daughter* bothering to learn to drive in a manual?
(*She narrowly failed a practice theory test this week (85% pass mark required!) and one of the questions she got wrong was about a situation involving a milk float. She doesn't know what a milk float is. Why would she FFS - she's 17 and never seen one in her life.)
All electric? No, mad Porsche aside. My eldest learned in an auto as what is the point now of learning a stick shift? Once you have a motor as transmission you do not want to go back to a gearbox.
Yes, I'm sure this is right, but most learner drivers still learn in a manual because they (rightly or wrongly) think that renting a car when abroad is likely to be a manual and if you pass your test in an automatic you are only licensed (and able!) to drive an automatic.
Everyone should learn in a manual, you're just restricting yourself if you don't.
That's what I say to my 17-year-old every time he whinges about having to learn to use gears. However, the argument holds less and less water as sales of automatics increase, driven partly by EV sales. Last year was, I think, the first year in which more automatics than manuals were sold in the UK. In a couple of decades, manuals will be something of a rarity, and my lad will probably forget how to drive one.
Grandson 2 is learning on a manual, as his father holds that it gives flexibility. However, his uncle, who rents cars all over the place, says that we're about the only place that still has quite a lot of manuals. I think the last car I rented abroad (Spain, about 7 years ago) was a manual.
Is this chart genuine doe anyone know please? If it is then in the future there will be no trust in anyone with A Levels from 2020 and 2021. This does a massive disservice to those genuinely deserving of A grades.
Because of the disruption of their last 15 months this year's A level leavers will be the worst educated but with the best grades.
Is this chart genuine doe anyone know please? If it is then in the future there will be no trust in anyone with A Levels from 2020 and 2021. This does a massive disservice to those genuinely deserving of A grades.
Because of the disruption of their last 15 months this year's A level leavers will be the worst educated but with the best grades.
Which doesn't sound like a good combination.
The ones with top grades will, however, also be those with the best IT skills and the best independent learning skills, including time management, self motivation and resilience.
I credit Tesla for making electric cars desirable to the general population, but in my view most current EVs, in particular Tesla, are massively overengineered.
EVs are the ideal vehicle for the suburbs, where 90% probably of all journeys are made. Electric motors have plenty of torque, which means you get decent performance on a low power motor up to about 50mph, which are the speeds you are going at in the suburbs. Electric motors are also smaller than the ICEs they replace. The way forward, I think is slightly smaller cars, matched to smaller motors and smaller batteries. Batteries are why EVs are more expensive than their ICE equivalents. By making them smaller, you make the car more affordable, lighter, quicker to charge and with more range per KWH, enough for a week's normal use.
Then you try to make the remaining 10% of journeys acceptable, but no more. This takes a change in mindset.
The engineering doesn't work that way. For a number of years, people tried to build electric cars to reduce the cost of the drive train. Primarily the battery size. The result were short ranged cars with such low performance that they were dangerous to drive on motorways.
The acceleration that modern EVs get is the side effect of a drive trained optimised for general usage - the brutal torque curve of electric motors is a natural feature. For decent range, you need regenerative breaking, for example. Which drives battery size up.
The "genius" in Tesla, was looking at the car conversion industry in LA, where for 200K+ you could have your Porsche made electric, and realising that the real costs in that were the one-off work and the battery. The other key insight is that batteries are dropping in price each year and increasing performance. At the same time.
I don't think that changes my point however. Starting with the battery, you work out how to get the most out of it, trading off performance against range. My point is that given most journeys are suburban, where you will get decent performance on a relatively low power set up, you should prioritise range over performance. Or to put it another way, you can get to a certain range with a smaller battery, with the benefits of a more affordable car and quicker charging times.
Yes. To my mind, the most interesting electric car in Europe right now is another Chinese model, Dacia Spring. For its offer, rather than its specification, which is very mediocre. You have a car that costs barely more than a petrol small car, before subsidies, and which is perfectly practical around town. You can quickly charge it once a week at a public charging point or overnight at home from a 13A socket. What you won't be doing with this car is going on long journeys.
It's a version 1 that needs improvement in some areas and not all owners will want something quite this austere. But the approach looks the way forward IMO.
Is this chart genuine doe anyone know please? If it is then in the future there will be no trust in anyone with A Levels from 2020 and 2021. This does a massive disservice to those genuinely deserving of A grades.
Alternatively maybe going to school is a bad idea. Keep an open mind, see how the kids get on.
There’s an interesting by election in my ward on Newcastle City Council on Thursday. The Cons are doing better here on a local level and its a Lib Dem defence (following the unfortunate death of a councillor).
I’ll be voting LDs I think as Labour don’t need any more councillors on NCC.
There is a not a single Conservative councillor on Newcastle City Council, they could do with 1
Don’t think they deserve it to be honest but my fellow residents may disagree
17.6% of Newcastle voters voted Tory in May but they had no representation, so regardless of whether you hate the Tories or not it would be nice if they got at least 1 councillor to represent their views out of 78
Another convert to Proportional Representation!
You'll be up for a severe telling off by Ms Priti Patel!
I did vote for AV in 2011, I have never been a diehard FPTP supporter and certainly would not oppose PR locally at least for half the seats
On topic, I’ll be buying an electric vehicle (or a hybrid at the very least) as soon as my 2007 Fiesta packs up and the law money starts rolling in
Why? What is the main reason? I'm curious to know when you can buy, for example, a small petrol for £12k when a small electric of equivalent size is (I think) £25k plus.
Why not?
- I already have an electric charger at home (it was put in by the builders). - Most of my journeys are under 50 miles and when I do go longer I usually stop for a drink. - Having my car’s tank “full” every morning is also very appealing. - Having less moving parts is appealing from a maintenance perspective.
Obviously finances will ultimately dictate and I don’t like spending a lot of money on cars but I also don’t like paying excessive VED or congestion/emission charges.
"Having my car’s tank “full” every morning is also very appealing"
Is this chart genuine doe anyone know please? If it is then in the future there will be no trust in anyone with A Levels from 2020 and 2021. This does a massive disservice to those genuinely deserving of A grades.
Alternatively maybe going to school is a bad idea. Keep an open mind, see how the kids get on.
They do say that absence makes the heart grow fonder... Perhaps partial absence of the kids this year has made teachers think more highly of them and their potential ability
I credit Tesla for making electric cars desirable to the general population, but in my view most current EVs, in particular Tesla, are massively overengineered.
EVs are the ideal vehicle for the suburbs, where 90% probably of all journeys are made. Electric motors have plenty of torque, which means you get decent performance on a low power motor up to about 50mph, which are the speeds you are going at in the suburbs. Electric motors are also smaller than the ICEs they replace. The way forward, I think is slightly smaller cars, matched to smaller motors and smaller batteries. Batteries are why EVs are more expensive than their ICE equivalents. By making them smaller, you make the car more affordable, lighter, quicker to charge and with more range per KWH, enough for a week's normal use.
Then you try to make the remaining 10% of journeys acceptable, but no more. This takes a change in mindset.
The engineering doesn't work that way. For a number of years, people tried to build electric cars to reduce the cost of the drive train. Primarily the battery size. The result were short ranged cars with such low performance that they were dangerous to drive on motorways.
The acceleration that modern EVs get is the side effect of a drive trained optimised for general usage - the brutal torque curve of electric motors is a natural feature. For decent range, you need regenerative breaking, for example. Which drives battery size up.
The "genius" in Tesla, was looking at the car conversion industry in LA, where for 200K+ you could have your Porsche made electric, and realising that the real costs in that were the one-off work and the battery. The other key insight is that batteries are dropping in price each year and increasing performance. At the same time.
I don't think that changes my point however. Starting with the battery, you work out how to get the most out of it, trading off performance against range. My point is that given most journeys are suburban, where you will get decent performance on a relatively low power set up, you should prioritise range over performance. Or to put it another way, you can get to a certain range with a smaller battery, with the benefits of a more affordable car and quicker charging times.
Yes. To my mind, the most interesting electric car in Europe right now is another Chinese model, Dacia Spring. For its offer, rather than its specification, which is very mediocre. You have a car that costs barely more than a petrol small car, before subsidies, and which is perfectly practical around town. You can quickly charge it once a week at a public charging point or overnight at home from a 13A socket. What you won't be doing with this car is going on long journeys.
It's a version 1 that needs improvement in some areas and not all owners will want something quite this austere. But the approach looks the way forward IMO.
If the story is as it's been reported he has every right to do so - the nursery has been caught bang to rights.
I think what some of Twitter is missing is that to test the admission processes, a number of children (not sure if real or fictional) children were entered who where not the children of prominent SNP politicians.
As I said if the story is real - the nursery doesn't have a case to answer.
Asian Muslim name - no place available typical white scottish name - when would you like to start...
I credit Tesla for making electric cars desirable to the general population, but in my view most current EVs, in particular Tesla, are massively overengineered.
EVs are the ideal vehicle for the suburbs, where 90% probably of all journeys are made. Electric motors have plenty of torque, which means you get decent performance on a low power motor up to about 50mph, which are the speeds you are going at in the suburbs. Electric motors are also smaller than the ICEs they replace. The way forward, I think is slightly smaller cars, matched to smaller motors and smaller batteries. Batteries are why EVs are more expensive than their ICE equivalents. By making them smaller, you make the car more affordable, lighter, quicker to charge and with more range per KWH, enough for a week's normal use.
Then you try to make the remaining 10% of journeys acceptable, but no more. This takes a change in mindset.
The engineering doesn't work that way. For a number of years, people tried to build electric cars to reduce the cost of the drive train. Primarily the battery size. The result were short ranged cars with such low performance that they were dangerous to drive on motorways.
The acceleration that modern EVs get is the side effect of a drive trained optimised for general usage - the brutal torque curve of electric motors is a natural feature. For decent range, you need regenerative breaking, for example. Which drives battery size up.
The "genius" in Tesla, was looking at the car conversion industry in LA, where for 200K+ you could have your Porsche made electric, and realising that the real costs in that were the one-off work and the battery. The other key insight is that batteries are dropping in price each year and increasing performance. At the same time.
I don't think that changes my point however. Starting with the battery, you work out how to get the most out of it, trading off performance against range. My point is that given most journeys are suburban, where you will get decent performance on a relatively low power set up, you should prioritise range over performance. Or to put it another way, you can get to a certain range with a smaller battery, with the benefits of a more affordable car and quicker charging times.
Yes. To my mind, the most interesting electric car in Europe right now is another Chinese model, Dacia Spring. For its offer, rather than its specification, which is very mediocre. You have a car that costs barely more than a petrol small car, before subsidies, and which is perfectly practical around town. You can quickly charge it once a week at a public charging point or overnight at home from a 13A socket. What you won't be doing with this car is going on long journeys.
It's a version 1 that needs improvement in some areas and not all owners will want something quite this austere. But the approach looks the way forward IMO.
Chinese? Dacia is Renault’s Romanian subsidiary.
In the cheap town car department the car to watch is the Citreon Ami - which is designed for a market we just don't (but should) have in the UK - very small cars for short distance personal transport.
What are the servicing costs involved with electric cars?
The Taycan is about the same as any other Porsche at the dealer at about 1,200 quid. You only have to have it done every two years though.
Forgive my ignorance but do electric cars have gears? If not, and if I were to be convinced that gearless cars will be standard soon, then why is my daughter* bothering to learn to drive in a manual?
(*She narrowly failed a practice theory test this week (85% pass mark required!) and one of the questions she got wrong was about a situation involving a milk float. She doesn't know what a milk float is. Why would she FFS - she's 17 and never seen one in her life.)
All electric? No, mad Porsche aside. My eldest learned in an auto as what is the point now of learning a stick shift? Once you have a motor as transmission you do not want to go back to a gearbox.
Yes, I'm sure this is right, but most learner drivers still learn in a manual because they (rightly or wrongly) think that renting a car when abroad is likely to be a manual and if you pass your test in an automatic you are only licensed (and able!) to drive an automatic.
Everyone should learn in a manual, you're just restricting yourself if you don't.
That's what I say to my 17-year-old every time he whinges about having to learn to use gears. However, the argument holds less and less water as sales of automatics increase, driven partly by EV sales. Last year was, I think, the first year in which more automatics than manuals were sold in the UK. In a couple of decades, manuals will be something of a rarity, and my lad will probably forget how to drive one.
I went without driving a manual car for 10 years. When I inherited my old manual Focus it was a bit strange and jerky for a day but within very short order it was very natural again. I agree though that in the end manual gearboxes will just be found in classic cars.
Is this chart genuine doe anyone know please? If it is then in the future there will be no trust in anyone with A Levels from 2020 and 2021. This does a massive disservice to those genuinely deserving of A grades.
Because of the disruption of their last 15 months this year's A level leavers will be the worst educated but with the best grades.
Which doesn't sound like a good combination.
The ones with top grades will, however, also be those with the best IT skills and the best independent learning skills, including time management, self motivation and resilience.
Which does sound like quite a good combination.
Maybe, but they may also be the ones from homes with the most cultural capital, the most helpful m/c parents, quiet room(s) to study in, and the best IT equipment. Learning from home is disadvantageous to kids from the poorest backgrounds with uneducated parents who can't lend a hand either materially or culturally.
Modern exams are a judge of an ability to remember things, not intelligence
All exams are completely useless when it comes to the real world.
But hey Gove and Cummings took a set of exams that were designed for the modern era and decided that it was way better to use an exam system designed for the 1930s-60s.
The simple fact is you don't need to know things anymore, how you get and apply the knowledge is way more important than proving you can remember facts.
Why is Daley fav for SPOTY? Got a bronze didn't he - others are more worthy surely? If he had got a gold to go with the joint gold thingy then fair enough. But he didn't.
I credit Tesla for making electric cars desirable to the general population, but in my view most current EVs, in particular Tesla, are massively overengineered.
EVs are the ideal vehicle for the suburbs, where 90% probably of all journeys are made. Electric motors have plenty of torque, which means you get decent performance on a low power motor up to about 50mph, which are the speeds you are going at in the suburbs. Electric motors are also smaller than the ICEs they replace. The way forward, I think is slightly smaller cars, matched to smaller motors and smaller batteries. Batteries are why EVs are more expensive than their ICE equivalents. By making them smaller, you make the car more affordable, lighter, quicker to charge and with more range per KWH, enough for a week's normal use.
Then you try to make the remaining 10% of journeys acceptable, but no more. This takes a change in mindset.
The engineering doesn't work that way. For a number of years, people tried to build electric cars to reduce the cost of the drive train. Primarily the battery size. The result were short ranged cars with such low performance that they were dangerous to drive on motorways.
The acceleration that modern EVs get is the side effect of a drive trained optimised for general usage - the brutal torque curve of electric motors is a natural feature. For decent range, you need regenerative breaking, for example. Which drives battery size up.
The "genius" in Tesla, was looking at the car conversion industry in LA, where for 200K+ you could have your Porsche made electric, and realising that the real costs in that were the one-off work and the battery. The other key insight is that batteries are dropping in price each year and increasing performance. At the same time.
I don't think that changes my point however. Starting with the battery, you work out how to get the most out of it, trading off performance against range. My point is that given most journeys are suburban, where you will get decent performance on a relatively low power set up, you should prioritise range over performance. Or to put it another way, you can get to a certain range with a smaller battery, with the benefits of a more affordable car and quicker charging times.
Yes. To my mind, the most interesting electric car in Europe right now is another Chinese model, Dacia Spring. For its offer, rather than its specification, which is very mediocre. You have a car that costs barely more than a petrol small car, before subsidies, and which is perfectly practical around town. You can quickly charge it once a week at a public charging point or overnight at home from a 13A socket. What you won't be doing with this car is going on long journeys.
It's a version 1 that needs improvement in some areas and not all owners will want something quite this austere. But the approach looks the way forward IMO.
Chinese? Dacia is Renault’s Romanian subsidiary.
In the cheap town car department the car to watch is the Citreon Ami - which is designed for a market we just don't (but should) have in the UK - very small cars for short distance personal transport.
?
Many of the people I know who bought cars like the Leaf, did so as the second car, to be used primarily for getting to the station for the commute or local driving in the area where they live.
Philip Cowley @philipjcowley · Aug 18, 2016 Middle aged people who did A levels decades ago: today is not about you.
It is if they are admissions tutors at Russell Group universities today who face a nightmare choosing between the 45% of A Level candidates who have A* or A grades today.
If exams and assessments do not properly distinguish between candidates academically, then admission to our top universities and hence top jobs becomes a lottery
Yes, and that might actually be a good thing, whether by increased social mobility or by exposing the worst students to what the Oxbridge fanbois assure us is the best teaching.
I credit Tesla for making electric cars desirable to the general population, but in my view most current EVs, in particular Tesla, are massively overengineered.
EVs are the ideal vehicle for the suburbs, where 90% probably of all journeys are made. Electric motors have plenty of torque, which means you get decent performance on a low power motor up to about 50mph, which are the speeds you are going at in the suburbs. Electric motors are also smaller than the ICEs they replace. The way forward, I think is slightly smaller cars, matched to smaller motors and smaller batteries. Batteries are why EVs are more expensive than their ICE equivalents. By making them smaller, you make the car more affordable, lighter, quicker to charge and with more range per KWH, enough for a week's normal use.
Then you try to make the remaining 10% of journeys acceptable, but no more. This takes a change in mindset.
The engineering doesn't work that way. For a number of years, people tried to build electric cars to reduce the cost of the drive train. Primarily the battery size. The result were short ranged cars with such low performance that they were dangerous to drive on motorways.
The acceleration that modern EVs get is the side effect of a drive trained optimised for general usage - the brutal torque curve of electric motors is a natural feature. For decent range, you need regenerative breaking, for example. Which drives battery size up.
The "genius" in Tesla, was looking at the car conversion industry in LA, where for 200K+ you could have your Porsche made electric, and realising that the real costs in that were the one-off work and the battery. The other key insight is that batteries are dropping in price each year and increasing performance. At the same time.
I don't think that changes my point however. Starting with the battery, you work out how to get the most out of it, trading off performance against range. My point is that given most journeys are suburban, where you will get decent performance on a relatively low power set up, you should prioritise range over performance. Or to put it another way, you can get to a certain range with a smaller battery, with the benefits of a more affordable car and quicker charging times.
Yes. To my mind, the most interesting electric car in Europe right now is another Chinese model, Dacia Spring. For its offer, rather than its specification, which is very mediocre. You have a car that costs barely more than a petrol small car, before subsidies, and which is perfectly practical around town. You can quickly charge it once a week at a public charging point or overnight at home from a 13A socket. What you won't be doing with this car is going on long journeys.
It's a version 1 that needs improvement in some areas and not all owners will want something quite this austere. But the approach looks the way forward IMO.
Chinese? Dacia is Renault’s Romanian subsidiary.
French-designed originally for the Chinese market, based on an Indian market petrol model and branded for Dacia, a Romanian marque. Manufactured in China I think because battery costs are lower there.
The forthcoming Renault 4 and Renault 5 models, with the same design principles but better specs will be made in France, I think.
If the story is as it's been reported he has every right to do so - the nursery has been caught bang to rights.
I think what some of Twitter is missing is that to test the admission processes, a number of children (not sure if real or fictional) children were entered who where not the children of prominent SNP politicians.
As I said if the story is real - the nursery doesn't have a case to answer.
Asian Muslim name - no place available typical white scottish name - when would you like to start...
Is this chart genuine doe anyone know please? If it is then in the future there will be no trust in anyone with A Levels from 2020 and 2021. This does a massive disservice to those genuinely deserving of A grades.
Alternatively maybe going to school is a bad idea. Keep an open mind, see how the kids get on.
They do say that absence makes the heart grow fonder... Perhaps partial absence of the kids this year has made teachers think more highly of them and their potential ability
Quite a lot of my abler students actually did better working from home than they would have done in a classroom. Quieter, more relaxed, able to work at their own pace, no fear of being seen as the class swot. Which meant that some of them actually overworked themselves, where they wanted to do well. I was sending messages at 10pm when they submitted work online saying that they should now stop working and go to bed!
But ultimately I think this comes back to the fact exams estimate ability to do remember things under pressure, not how able somebody is. They do not, for example, demonstrate independent research skills, or how hard people work, or fully develop analytical skills in longer reports.
Which has been taken into account this year.
One other comment to make about that graph. It shows little difference between the old and new A-levels. If they make no difference to the outcomes, was it really worth (a) the hassle (b) the expense and (c) the damage of changing them? I have to say even as a supporter of exam reform at the time it was announced the answer would seem a clear ‘no.’
Modern exams are a judge of an ability to remember things, not intelligence
What's that French phrase about the more things change, the more they stay the same? Or something like that.
In our professional exams we had a memory test; we had to remember the doses of all the drugs in the British Pharmacopeia Pharmacy students could be identified on buses if they were n pairs because they were asking each other questions such as 'what's the dose of Dapsone'. Used around 1960 in UK for leprosy; not often, though!
I am sure PB has a higher number of Comp Sci grads than elsewhere, I am sure many of you can confirm how utterly useless that degree is
It depends where it is from.
A while back I saw some stuff from the conversion Masters (part time) that Kellogg College Oxford, that a friend of my fathers was doing.
The coursework was extremely interesting and emphasised design, style, testing and providing reasons *why* you did things in a certain way. As opposed to "it runs, have marks".
I don't want to sound like I'm making excuses for myself but I am one of those people that exams don't - I believe - represent my true ability. I am not good at taking exams and my results from several years ago reflect that but they have never impacted my ability to be good at chosen job. And people with better results than me are doing a lot worse for themselves, so what does that say?
Is this chart genuine doe anyone know please? If it is then in the future there will be no trust in anyone with A Levels from 2020 and 2021. This does a massive disservice to those genuinely deserving of A grades.
Yes, but see my earlier post about the issues in comparing. Certainly you should not use any grade from before 2015 as the exam system was different.
One thing it is worth remembering is that the exam system itself before Covid was not very reliable.
Why in the real world would anyone want to compare 2005 and 2021 cohorts based on A-levels? Who is giving out jobs to people in the mid-30s based on their A-level results?
If the story is as it's been reported he has every right to do so - the nursery has been caught bang to rights.
I think what some of Twitter is missing is that to test the admission processes, a number of children (not sure if real or fictional) children were entered who where not the children of prominent SNP politicians.
As I said if the story is real - the nursery does have a case to answer.
Asian Muslim name - no place available typical white scottish name - when would you like to start...
You mean the opposite, I think.
Yep, I noticed that when I came back after checking something.
The nursery really does have a case to answer and their excuse is going to be interesting to watch fall apart.
Is this chart genuine doe anyone know please? If it is then in the future there will be no trust in anyone with A Levels from 2020 and 2021. This does a massive disservice to those genuinely deserving of A grades.
Because of the disruption of their last 15 months this year's A level leavers will be the worst educated but with the best grades.
Which doesn't sound like a good combination.
The ones with top grades will, however, also be those with the best IT skills and the best independent learning skills, including time management, self motivation and resilience.
Which does sound like quite a good combination.
Maybe, but they may also be the ones from homes with the most cultural capital, the most helpful m/c parents, quiet room(s) to study in, and the best IT equipment. Learning from home is disadvantageous to kids from the poorest backgrounds with uneducated parents who can't lend a hand either materially or culturally.
I have to say that wasn’t altogether my experience. I don’t teach many middle class children, but there were still plenty of children from poorer backgrounds working really hard at home and doing very well.
It may be because the school I work in had adequate tech, of course, and gave it out for free to our substantial PPC. I wouldn’t go bail for everywhere being like that.
Why is Daley fav for SPOTY? Got a bronze didn't he - others are more worthy surely? If he had got a gold to go with the joint gold thingy then fair enough. But he didn't.
Peaty or Whitlock on merit don't you think?
Whitlock on merit in my opinion, but Daley has "been on a journey" and, actually, that's fair enough. Peaty is amazing, but I think he suffers from just having to turn up!
Is this chart genuine doe anyone know please? If it is then in the future there will be no trust in anyone with A Levels from 2020 and 2021. This does a massive disservice to those genuinely deserving of A grades.
Yes, but see my earlier post about the issues in comparing. Certainly you should not use any grade from before 2015 as the exam system was different.
One thing it is worth remembering is that the exam system itself before Covid was not very reliable.
Why in the real world would anyone want to compare 2005 and 2021 cohorts based on A-levels? Who is giving out jobs to people in the mid-30s based on their A-level results?
I credit Tesla for making electric cars desirable to the general population, but in my view most current EVs, in particular Tesla, are massively overengineered.
EVs are the ideal vehicle for the suburbs, where 90% probably of all journeys are made. Electric motors have plenty of torque, which means you get decent performance on a low power motor up to about 50mph, which are the speeds you are going at in the suburbs. Electric motors are also smaller than the ICEs they replace. The way forward, I think is slightly smaller cars, matched to smaller motors and smaller batteries. Batteries are why EVs are more expensive than their ICE equivalents. By making them smaller, you make the car more affordable, lighter, quicker to charge and with more range per KWH, enough for a week's normal use.
Then you try to make the remaining 10% of journeys acceptable, but no more. This takes a change in mindset.
The engineering doesn't work that way. For a number of years, people tried to build electric cars to reduce the cost of the drive train. Primarily the battery size. The result were short ranged cars with such low performance that they were dangerous to drive on motorways.
The acceleration that modern EVs get is the side effect of a drive trained optimised for general usage - the brutal torque curve of electric motors is a natural feature. For decent range, you need regenerative breaking, for example. Which drives battery size up.
The "genius" in Tesla, was looking at the car conversion industry in LA, where for 200K+ you could have your Porsche made electric, and realising that the real costs in that were the one-off work and the battery. The other key insight is that batteries are dropping in price each year and increasing performance. At the same time.
I don't think that changes my point however. Starting with the battery, you work out how to get the most out of it, trading off performance against range. My point is that given most journeys are suburban, where you will get decent performance on a relatively low power set up, you should prioritise range over performance. Or to put it another way, you can get to a certain range with a smaller battery, with the benefits of a more affordable car and quicker charging times.
Yes. To my mind, the most interesting electric car in Europe right now is another Chinese model, Dacia Spring. For its offer, rather than its specification, which is very mediocre. You have a car that costs barely more than a petrol small car, before subsidies, and which is perfectly practical around town. You can quickly charge it once a week at a public charging point or overnight at home from a 13A socket. What you won't be doing with this car is going on long journeys.
It's a version 1 that needs improvement in some areas and not all owners will want something quite this austere. But the approach looks the way forward IMO.
Chinese? Dacia is Renault’s Romanian subsidiary.
In the cheap town car department the car to watch is the Citreon Ami - which is designed for a market we just don't (but should) have in the UK - very small cars for short distance personal transport.
?
Many of the people I know who bought cars like the Leaf, did so as the second car, to be used primarily for getting to the station for the commute or local driving in the area where they live.
But the Leaf seats 4 people and can do 140 miles at a push (I remember that fact when we all looked at them when Sunderland council were doing trials and as my employer at the time was in one of their offices we were offered the same £100 a month trial deals).
The Ami seats 2 max and has a max range of 60 miles.
If the story is as it's been reported he has every right to do so - the nursery has been caught bang to rights.
I think what some of Twitter is missing is that to test the admission processes, a number of children (not sure if real or fictional) children were entered who where not the children of prominent SNP politicians.
I’m sure the nursery will argue that they didn’t give a place to Yousaf because he was an arse, rather than because he was Asian.
Which is why its important that the nursery (we are told) turned down other applicants with Asian/Muslim sounding names.
Why is Daley fav for SPOTY? Got a bronze didn't he - others are more worthy surely? If he had got a gold to go with the joint gold thingy then fair enough. But he didn't.
Peaty or Whitlock on merit don't you think?
Because the award is Sports Personality of the year, not Sporting Achievement of the year.
And Tom Daley has been known by the general public for 13 years and been in the news for that length of time.
Why is Daley fav for SPOTY? Got a bronze didn't he - others are more worthy surely? If he had got a gold to go with the joint gold thingy then fair enough. But he didn't.
Peaty or Whitlock on merit don't you think?
Whitlock on merit in my opinion, but Daley has "been on a journey" and, actually, that's fair enough. Peaty is amazing, but I think he suffers from just having to turn up!
Its worth pointing out that Team GB victory in the synchro was the only non-Chinese gold in the whole diving programme.
But Daley isn't the GOAT in the way Peaty is. Or Cav. Nor has the just incredible successful in the way the Kenny's have.
Modern exams are a judge of an ability to remember things, not intelligence
With respect that is an insult to my granddaughter who has just achieved 3 x As
She is highly intelligent and has the world at her feet
Not necessarily. The exams may only be testing a small fraction of her capabilities.
Indeed, many people over the years have argued that closed book exams are a lousy way to judged the capabilities and knowledge of a person.
Further, that such exams cause people to prepare for the exam, not learn to the limits of their abilities.
I am currently watching my daughter preparing for GCSEs - I have discussed with her the way in which, in some things, she is having to prioritise exams skills over actually learning.
Modern exams are a judge of an ability to remember things, not intelligence
With respect that is an insult to my granddaughter who has just achieved 3 x As
She is highly intelligent and has the world at her feet
She didn’t sit the modern exams though, Big G. I have no doubt that 3 As reflects her ability, and I’m delighted to hear she’s got on her course. But remember, exams can go wrong even for the ablest students, through no fault of their own.
Many of my GCSE history cohort struggled because the exam board sent us the wrong paper. Prague Spring of 68, which we hadn’t covered, instead of the Secret Speech of 1956, which we had. Didn’t bother me, as I knew enough about the topic to answer the questions anyway, but everyone else’s grades were down about 25%. And also remember @Morris_Dancer and the fun (/sarcasm) he had with A-level philosophy.
The point CHB is making, and here he has some justice on his side, is that maybe there are better ways to measure intelligence than just a few final exams.
Whether that is how things will develop I don’t know.
Anyway, enough procrastinating from me. I need to get this patio done.
Is this chart genuine doe anyone know please? If it is then in the future there will be no trust in anyone with A Levels from 2020 and 2021. This does a massive disservice to those genuinely deserving of A grades.
Because of the disruption of their last 15 months this year's A level leavers will be the worst educated but with the best grades.
Which doesn't sound like a good combination.
The ones with top grades will, however, also be those with the best IT skills and the best independent learning skills, including time management, self motivation and resilience.
Which does sound like quite a good combination.
Maybe, but they may also be the ones from homes with the most cultural capital, the most helpful m/c parents, quiet room(s) to study in, and the best IT equipment. Learning from home is disadvantageous to kids from the poorest backgrounds with uneducated parents who can't lend a hand either materially or culturally.
I have to say that wasn’t altogether my experience. I don’t teach many middle class children, but there were still plenty of children from poorer backgrounds working really hard at home and doing very well.
It may be because the school I work in had adequate tech, of course, and gave it out for free to our substantial PPC. I wouldn’t go bail for everywhere being like that.
Not immediately relevant but Eldest Grandson teaches in a primary school in a disadvantaged area, and he sees that as a problem already.
Modern exams are a judge of an ability to remember things, not intelligence
With respect that is an insult to my granddaughter who has just achieved 3 x As
She is highly intelligent and has the world at her feet
Not necessarily. The exams may only be testing a small fraction of her capabilities.
Indeed, many people over the years have argued that closed book exams are a lousy way to judged the capabilities and knowledge of a person.
Further, that such exams cause people to prepare for the exam, not learn to the limits of their abilities.
I am currently watching my daughter preparing for GCSEs - I have discussed with her the way in which, in some things, she is having to prioritise exams skills over actually learning.
Outside of examination the family and others have recognised her extraordinary intellect and she has already authored 7 books
Modern exams are a judge of an ability to remember things, not intelligence
From what I've seen, modern A-level exams are somewhat better than they used to be with regard to testing the application of knowledge. My partner's daughter, for example, was rather taken aback when confronted with questions on naked mole rats in her biology paper a couple of years ago. She complained that the creatures hadn't been covered in lessons, but the questions were, in fact, getting the students to apply what they had learned in a different context.
Is this chart genuine doe anyone know please? If it is then in the future there will be no trust in anyone with A Levels from 2020 and 2021. This does a massive disservice to those genuinely deserving of A grades.
Yes, but see my earlier post about the issues in comparing. Certainly you should not use any grade from before 2015 as the exam system was different.
One thing it is worth remembering is that the exam system itself before Covid was not very reliable.
Why in the real world would anyone want to compare 2005 and 2021 cohorts based on A-levels? Who is giving out jobs to people in the mid-30s based on their A-level results?
When I used to regularly recruit for roles that required a good level of numeracy I would look at their A Level Maths result. As most people didn't have a Maths degree it was the only way I felt I could get an initial view before an interview. I would often screen using this.
If I were recruiting in a few years time and I saw two candidates with As in Maths A Level, one from 2019 and one from 2021, then I would be quite suspicious of the ability of the latter.
The grade inflation of 2020 and 2021 does a massive disservice to those genuinely deserving of the top grades. They won't care about it now with their results sheets showing As but in a few years I think they might well be quite cross!
I credit Tesla for making electric cars desirable to the general population, but in my view most current EVs, in particular Tesla, are massively overengineered.
EVs are the ideal vehicle for the suburbs, where 90% probably of all journeys are made. Electric motors have plenty of torque, which means you get decent performance on a low power motor up to about 50mph, which are the speeds you are going at in the suburbs. Electric motors are also smaller than the ICEs they replace. The way forward, I think is slightly smaller cars, matched to smaller motors and smaller batteries. Batteries are why EVs are more expensive than their ICE equivalents. By making them smaller, you make the car more affordable, lighter, quicker to charge and with more range per KWH, enough for a week's normal use.
Then you try to make the remaining 10% of journeys acceptable, but no more. This takes a change in mindset.
The engineering doesn't work that way. For a number of years, people tried to build electric cars to reduce the cost of the drive train. Primarily the battery size. The result were short ranged cars with such low performance that they were dangerous to drive on motorways.
The acceleration that modern EVs get is the side effect of a drive trained optimised for general usage - the brutal torque curve of electric motors is a natural feature. For decent range, you need regenerative breaking, for example. Which drives battery size up.
The "genius" in Tesla, was looking at the car conversion industry in LA, where for 200K+ you could have your Porsche made electric, and realising that the real costs in that were the one-off work and the battery. The other key insight is that batteries are dropping in price each year and increasing performance. At the same time.
I don't think that changes my point however. Starting with the battery, you work out how to get the most out of it, trading off performance against range. My point is that given most journeys are suburban, where you will get decent performance on a relatively low power set up, you should prioritise range over performance. Or to put it another way, you can get to a certain range with a smaller battery, with the benefits of a more affordable car and quicker charging times.
Yes. To my mind, the most interesting electric car in Europe right now is another Chinese model, Dacia Spring. For its offer, rather than its specification, which is very mediocre. You have a car that costs barely more than a petrol small car, before subsidies, and which is perfectly practical around town. You can quickly charge it once a week at a public charging point or overnight at home from a 13A socket. What you won't be doing with this car is going on long journeys.
It's a version 1 that needs improvement in some areas and not all owners will want something quite this austere. But the approach looks the way forward IMO.
Chinese? Dacia is Renault’s Romanian subsidiary.
In the cheap town car department the car to watch is the Citreon Ami - which is designed for a market we just don't (but should) have in the UK - very small cars for short distance personal transport.
?
Many of the people I know who bought cars like the Leaf, did so as the second car, to be used primarily for getting to the station for the commute or local driving in the area where they live.
But the Leaf seats 4 people and can do 140 miles at a push (I remember that fact when we all looked at them when Sunderland council were doing trials and as my employer at the time was in one of their offices we were offered the same £100 a month trial deals).
The Ami seats 2 max and has a max range of 60 miles.
The issue with vehicles that size, is that if you have full crash protection (as opposed to using the truly evil "it's a quad bike" excuse) the the vehicle is inefficient. You need a certain minimum size to meet modern crash protection standards, unless you build it like a tank or a race car.
Why is Daley fav for SPOTY? Got a bronze didn't he - others are more worthy surely? If he had got a gold to go with the joint gold thingy then fair enough. But he didn't.
Peaty or Whitlock on merit don't you think?
Because the award is Sports Personality of the year, not Sporting Achievement of the year.
And Tom Daley has been known by the general public for 13 years and been in the news for that length of time.
There have been plenty of winners for whom personality isn't exactly their greatest attribute.....its really a proxy for the one that has done very well and the public know (and a sport with a big lobby). But Daley isn't alone in this respect.
Why is Daley fav for SPOTY? Got a bronze didn't he - others are more worthy surely? If he had got a gold to go with the joint gold thingy then fair enough. But he didn't.
Peaty or Whitlock on merit don't you think?
Because the award is Sports Personality of the year, not Sporting Achievement of the year.
And Tom Daley has been known by the general public for 13 years and been in the news for that length of time.
Well if it's based on notoriety maybe Rashford should get it.
Why is Daley fav for SPOTY? Got a bronze didn't he - others are more worthy surely? If he had got a gold to go with the joint gold thingy then fair enough. But he didn't.
Peaty or Whitlock on merit don't you think?
Because the award is Sports Personality of the year, not Sporting Achievement of the year.
And Tom Daley has been known by the general public for 13 years and been in the news for that length of time.
There have been plenty of winners for whom personality isn't exactly their greatest attribute.
If he loved Barcelona so much, why not play for them for free?...
[T]he notion the world’s most gifted footballer should simply offer his services pro bono betrays a telling lack of perspective.
Whilst the situation may have been beyond recovery at this point, the real issue is that Messi has drained Barca over the last few years. It reminds me a little bit of Ayrton Senna and McLaren. Senna thought that to be considered the best he had to be paid the most by a long way. And whilst McLaren were spending silly money on Senna's salary, Williams were spending money on Adrian Newey.
The good news for Messi is that his greed probably won't lead indirectly to his death.
Has Messi drained Barca?
It's not Messi's responsibility to manage Barca's finances. Plus they should have improved over his time there. One thing worth noting is that you see quite frequently people walking around in Barcelona replica shirts nowadays which was almost unheard of a decade ago. At least as far as I'd noticed in the UK.
Why is Daley fav for SPOTY? Got a bronze didn't he - others are more worthy surely? If he had got a gold to go with the joint gold thingy then fair enough. But he didn't.
Peaty or Whitlock on merit don't you think?
Because the award is Sports Personality of the year, not Sporting Achievement of the year.
And Tom Daley has been known by the general public for 13 years and been in the news for that length of time.
There have been plenty of winners for whom personality isn't exactly their greatest attribute.
Wikipedia says he got three, English, Economics and History, but doesn't mention the grades. TBH, I don't think any of the Royal Family are very academic, are they?
Modern exams are a judge of an ability to remember things, not intelligence
With respect that is an insult to my granddaughter who has just achieved 3 x As
She is highly intelligent and has the world at her feet
Not necessarily. The exams may only be testing a small fraction of her capabilities.
Indeed, many people over the years have argued that closed book exams are a lousy way to judged the capabilities and knowledge of a person.
Further, that such exams cause people to prepare for the exam, not learn to the limits of their abilities.
I am currently watching my daughter preparing for GCSEs - I have discussed with her the way in which, in some things, she is having to prioritise exams skills over actually learning.
Outside of examination the family and others have recognised her extraordinary intellect and she has already authored 7 books
... which rather suggests that she was way ahead of getting As at A Level.
EDIT: which is why Universities are increasingly asking about "life stories" in the American style.
1. Poorly designed assessments of any type are a waste of time. 2. It is entirely possible to design exams that test more than recall. 3. It is entirely possible to design online exams, using relatively simple & common platforms, that thwart the majority of collusion.
Why is Daley fav for SPOTY? Got a bronze didn't he - others are more worthy surely? If he had got a gold to go with the joint gold thingy then fair enough. But he didn't.
Peaty or Whitlock on merit don't you think?
Because the award is Sports Personality of the year, not Sporting Achievement of the year.
And Tom Daley has been known by the general public for 13 years and been in the news for that length of time.
There have been plenty of winners for whom personality isn't exactly their greatest attribute.
{Nigel Mansell has entered the chat}
Even Steve Davis won it once.
Nigel Mansell makes Steve Davis look like the life and soul of the party.
Modern exams are a judge of an ability to remember things, not intelligence
With respect that is an insult to my granddaughter who has just achieved 3 x As
She is highly intelligent and has the world at her feet
Not necessarily. The exams may only be testing a small fraction of her capabilities.
Indeed, many people over the years have argued that closed book exams are a lousy way to judged the capabilities and knowledge of a person.
Further, that such exams cause people to prepare for the exam, not learn to the limits of their abilities.
I am currently watching my daughter preparing for GCSEs - I have discussed with her the way in which, in some things, she is having to prioritise exams skills over actually learning.
Outside of examination the family and others have recognised her extraordinary intellect and she has already authored 7 books
... which rather suggests that she was way ahead of getting As at A Level.
EDIT: which is why Universities are increasingly asking about "life stories" in the American style.
She was top student in her school last year and is part of an international literary group
Modern exams are a judge of an ability to remember things, not intelligence
With respect that is an insult to my granddaughter who has just achieved 3 x As
She is highly intelligent and has the world at her feet
Not necessarily. The exams may only be testing a small fraction of her capabilities.
Indeed, many people over the years have argued that closed book exams are a lousy way to judged the capabilities and knowledge of a person.
Further, that such exams cause people to prepare for the exam, not learn to the limits of their abilities.
I am currently watching my daughter preparing for GCSEs - I have discussed with her the way in which, in some things, she is having to prioritise exams skills over actually learning.
Outside of examination the family and others have recognised her extraordinary intellect and she has already authored 7 books
She shouldn't bother with university if she's written 7 books already tbh.
Why is Daley fav for SPOTY? Got a bronze didn't he - others are more worthy surely? If he had got a gold to go with the joint gold thingy then fair enough. But he didn't.
Peaty or Whitlock on merit don't you think?
Because the award is Sports Personality of the year, not Sporting Achievement of the year.
And Tom Daley has been known by the general public for 13 years and been in the news for that length of time.
There have been plenty of winners for whom personality isn't exactly their greatest attribute.
{Nigel Mansell has entered the chat}
Even Steve Davis won it once.
The point is that the public votes for the person they want not the person who achieved the most.
Which means that Tom Daley sits near the top with a Bronze and Cavendish has disappeared because his story fell apart when he didn't win the final stage in Paris.
"I am currently watching my daughter preparing for GCSEs - I have discussed with her the way in which, in some things, she is having to prioritise exams skills over actually learning."
Odd, because I think that is one skill typically lacking in my students, year after year.
If he loved Barcelona so much, why not play for them for free?...
[T]he notion the world’s most gifted footballer should simply offer his services pro bono betrays a telling lack of perspective.
Whilst the situation may have been beyond recovery at this point, the real issue is that Messi has drained Barca over the last few years. It reminds me a little bit of Ayrton Senna and McLaren. Senna thought that to be considered the best he had to be paid the most by a long way. And whilst McLaren were spending silly money on Senna's salary, Williams were spending money on Adrian Newey.
The good news for Messi is that his greed probably won't lead indirectly to his death.
Has Messi drained Barca?
It's not Messi's responsibility to manage Barca's finances. Plus they should have improved over his time there. One thing worth noting is that you see quite frequently people walking around in Barcelona replica shirts nowadays which was almost unheard of a decade ago. At least as far as I'd noticed in the UK.
His wages undeniably have. If that's his fault or the clubs is a different matter. They said what % of the overall wage bill of the entire first team squad his salary was on the Athletic, I want to say it has been ~50%. Its been 500 million for the past 5 years, I think 850m over 10. The extra shirt sales isn't making up for that and Barcelona are now 1.3bn in the hole.
Why is Daley fav for SPOTY? Got a bronze didn't he - others are more worthy surely? If he had got a gold to go with the joint gold thingy then fair enough. But he didn't.
Peaty or Whitlock on merit don't you think?
Because the award is Sports Personality of the year, not Sporting Achievement of the year.
And Tom Daley has been known by the general public for 13 years and been in the news for that length of time.
There have been plenty of winners for whom personality isn't exactly their greatest attribute.
Modern exams are a judge of an ability to remember things, not intelligence
With respect that is an insult to my granddaughter who has just achieved 3 x As
She is highly intelligent and has the world at her feet
Not necessarily. The exams may only be testing a small fraction of her capabilities.
Indeed, many people over the years have argued that closed book exams are a lousy way to judged the capabilities and knowledge of a person.
Further, that such exams cause people to prepare for the exam, not learn to the limits of their abilities.
I am currently watching my daughter preparing for GCSEs - I have discussed with her the way in which, in some things, she is having to prioritise exams skills over actually learning.
Outside of examination the family and others have recognised her extraordinary intellect and she has already authored 7 books
She shouldn't bother with university if she's written 7 books already tbh.
She is to study Italian and hopes to add to her English, Welsh, and French language skills with Italian and Japanese with periods living in both Italy and Japan which is all part of her course apparently
"I am currently watching my daughter preparing for GCSEs - I have discussed with her the way in which, in some things, she is having to prioritise exams skills over actually learning."
Odd, because I think that is one skill typically lacking in my students, year after year.
Modern exams are a judge of an ability to remember things, not intelligence
With respect that is an insult to my granddaughter who has just achieved 3 x As
She is highly intelligent and has the world at her feet
Not necessarily. The exams may only be testing a small fraction of her capabilities.
Indeed, many people over the years have argued that closed book exams are a lousy way to judged the capabilities and knowledge of a person.
Further, that such exams cause people to prepare for the exam, not learn to the limits of their abilities.
I am currently watching my daughter preparing for GCSEs - I have discussed with her the way in which, in some things, she is having to prioritise exams skills over actually learning.
Outside of examination the family and others have recognised her extraordinary intellect and she has already authored 7 books
She shouldn't bother with university if she's written 7 books already tbh.
Eventually you begin to learn the patterns in the way questions are recycled. You never see the same exact question twice. But variations on questions rotate through the years for each examining board. So if you rote learn methods and arguments... On exam day, it's like meeting old friends who have changed, slightly.
If he loved Barcelona so much, why not play for them for free?...
[T]he notion the world’s most gifted footballer should simply offer his services pro bono betrays a telling lack of perspective.
Whilst the situation may have been beyond recovery at this point, the real issue is that Messi has drained Barca over the last few years. It reminds me a little bit of Ayrton Senna and McLaren. Senna thought that to be considered the best he had to be paid the most by a long way. And whilst McLaren were spending silly money on Senna's salary, Williams were spending money on Adrian Newey.
The good news for Messi is that his greed probably won't lead indirectly to his death.
Has Messi drained Barca?
It's not Messi's responsibility to manage Barca's finances. Plus they should have improved over his time there. One thing worth noting is that you see quite frequently people walking around in Barcelona replica shirts nowadays which was almost unheard of a decade ago. At least as far as I'd noticed in the UK.
His wages undeniably have. If that's his fault or the clubs is a different matter. They said what % of the overall wage bill of the entire first team squad his salary was on the Athletic, I want to say it has been ~50%. Its been 500 million for the past 5 years, I think 850m over 10. The extra shirt sales isn't making up for that and Barcelona are now 1.3bn in the hole.
Yep, the club can’t meet the financial fair play rules with his salary included, and thought they’d be able to somehow work something out - but couldn’t, and now he leaves on a Bosman.
Messi apparently confirmed at PSG for €35M net per season for 2 seasons. Likely to set off a chain-reaction of other deals.
Personally I think as great a player as Messi has been he is at the age where he will be declining. PSG will I'm sure be hoping that the marketing benefits he brings will pay for it all. Likely they will now have to sell a number of players.
Wikipedia says he got three, English, Economics and History, but doesn't mention the grades. TBH, I don't think any of the Royal Family are very academic, are they?
Charles II was rather interested in science, or what passed for it at the time.
Modern exams are a judge of an ability to remember things, not intelligence
With respect that is an insult to my granddaughter who has just achieved 3 x As
She is highly intelligent and has the world at her feet
Not necessarily. The exams may only be testing a small fraction of her capabilities.
Indeed, many people over the years have argued that closed book exams are a lousy way to judged the capabilities and knowledge of a person.
Further, that such exams cause people to prepare for the exam, not learn to the limits of their abilities.
I am currently watching my daughter preparing for GCSEs - I have discussed with her the way in which, in some things, she is having to prioritise exams skills over actually learning.
Outside of examination the family and others have recognised her extraordinary intellect and she has already authored 7 books
She shouldn't bother with university if she's written 7 books already tbh.
She is to study Italian and hopes to add to her English, Welsh, and French language skills with Italian and Japanese with periods living in both Italy and Japan which is all part of her course apparently
One of my nieces did something like that, although not the authoring; ended up in the Foreign Office. My sister, her mother, was amazed at the way, when working in the consulate in Istanbul, she picked up Turkish.
I wish your granddaughter well; Japanese isn't an easy language to learn, I understand, but Japan is a good place to be.
You can be intelligent and do well in exams and you can not be intelligent and do well in exams. That's not to take anything away from the hard work students put in but I stand by what I said, that exams do not show intelligence or your ability to do a job.
I am sure most of the people here are extremely intelligent people and far more than I will ever be - but I am sure many of them have done well and badly in exams. The common thing is that they are intelligent people.
I think the emphasis on exam results is one of my least favourite things about the modern world.
Why is Daley fav for SPOTY? Got a bronze didn't he - others are more worthy surely? If he had got a gold to go with the joint gold thingy then fair enough. But he didn't.
Peaty or Whitlock on merit don't you think?
Because the award is Sports Personality of the year, not Sporting Achievement of the year.
And Tom Daley has been known by the general public for 13 years and been in the news for that length of time.
There have been plenty of winners for whom personality isn't exactly their greatest attribute.....its really a proxy for the one that has done very well and the public know (and a sport with a big lobby). But Daley isn't alone in this respect.
Quite. The two most successful SPotY entrants of all time are Andy Murray and Lewis Hamilton. Hugely successful sportsmen, but hardly the most sparkling or personalities.
Modern exams are a judge of an ability to remember things, not intelligence
With respect that is an insult to my granddaughter who has just achieved 3 x As
She is highly intelligent and has the world at her feet
Not necessarily. The exams may only be testing a small fraction of her capabilities.
Indeed, many people over the years have argued that closed book exams are a lousy way to judged the capabilities and knowledge of a person.
Further, that such exams cause people to prepare for the exam, not learn to the limits of their abilities.
I am currently watching my daughter preparing for GCSEs - I have discussed with her the way in which, in some things, she is having to prioritise exams skills over actually learning.
Outside of examination the family and others have recognised her extraordinary intellect and she has already authored 7 books
... which rather suggests that she was way ahead of getting As at A Level.
EDIT: which is why Universities are increasingly asking about "life stories" in the American style.
She was top student in her school last year and is part of an international literary group
Well done to your granddaughter. If I were her though I'd be slightly annoyed though that many other students not of the same calibre ended up with the same grades. The grade inflation of the last 2 years does the most damage to the most able pupils, unfortunately.
London public transport is on the whole superb, because it has proper investment and is accessible.
Levelling up now must entail offering the same to elsewhere, not destroying TfL as BoJo wants to do
Exactly. The difference between this and the radial approach in some cities which enable you to get to the centre but nowhere else is important - the key is that in London you can easily get almost anywhere else in London more quickly than by road.
The other thing I'd like to see is a review of planning to require new estates to include a significant retail element. When I lived in Bulwell (Nottingham) my block was surrounded by housing in all directions, but we had a huge Morrisons nearby and an easy walk for nearly everyone. Down here in Godalming the shopping area is almost completely separate from the housing area (with virtually no bus service). Neat city planning with people in X, shops in Y and businesses in Z is the antithesis of how most people want to live.
That should normally be covered by "sustainability" requirements in Planning, surely, which cover closeness to services?
I credit Tesla for making electric cars desirable to the general population, but in my view most current EVs, in particular Tesla, are massively overengineered.
EVs are the ideal vehicle for the suburbs, where 90% probably of all journeys are made. Electric motors have plenty of torque, which means you get decent performance on a low power motor up to about 50mph, which are the speeds you are going at in the suburbs. Electric motors are also smaller than the ICEs they replace. The way forward, I think is slightly smaller cars, matched to smaller motors and smaller batteries. Batteries are why EVs are more expensive than their ICE equivalents. By making them smaller, you make the car more affordable, lighter, quicker to charge and with more range per KWH, enough for a week's normal use.
Then you try to make the remaining 10% of journeys acceptable, but no more. This takes a change in mindset.
The engineering doesn't work that way. For a number of years, people tried to build electric cars to reduce the cost of the drive train. Primarily the battery size. The result were short ranged cars with such low performance that they were dangerous to drive on motorways.
The acceleration that modern EVs get is the side effect of a drive trained optimised for general usage - the brutal torque curve of electric motors is a natural feature. For decent range, you need regenerative breaking, for example. Which drives battery size up.
The "genius" in Tesla, was looking at the car conversion industry in LA, where for 200K+ you could have your Porsche made electric, and realising that the real costs in that were the one-off work and the battery. The other key insight is that batteries are dropping in price each year and increasing performance. At the same time.
I don't think that changes my point however. Starting with the battery, you work out how to get the most out of it, trading off performance against range. My point is that given most journeys are suburban, where you will get decent performance on a relatively low power set up, you should prioritise range over performance. Or to put it another way, you can get to a certain range with a smaller battery, with the benefits of a more affordable car and quicker charging times.
Reducing the max rated power of the motors doesn't increase range very much. Electric motors have a surprisingly wide efficiency range, and smaller motors don't scale in weight linearly.
Range is mostly a function of battery size.
Sure - but batteries weigh and cost a lot, and reducing the size of the car and its range reduces both.
There’s an interesting by election in my ward on Newcastle City Council on Thursday. The Cons are doing better here on a local level and its a Lib Dem defence (following the unfortunate death of a councillor).
I’ll be voting LDs I think as Labour don’t need any more councillors on NCC.
There is a not a single Conservative councillor on Newcastle City Council, they could do with 1
Don’t think they deserve it to be honest but my fellow residents may disagree
17.6% of Newcastle voters voted Tory in May but they had no representation, so regardless of whether you hate the Tories or not it would be nice if they got at least 1 councillor to represent their views out of 78
Another convert to Proportional Representation!
You'll be up for a severe telling off by Ms Priti Patel!
I am currently watching my daughter preparing for GCSEs - I have discussed with her the way in which, in some things, she is having to prioritise exams skills over actually learning.
When I tutor students for A-level French and Russian we do nothing but past exam questions in the last week before the exam. It's not the way to be the best French or Russian speaker but it's the shortest route to an A*.
Messi apparently confirmed at PSG for €35M net per season for 2 seasons. Likely to set off a chain-reaction of other deals.
Personally I think as great a player as Messi has been he is at the age where he will be declining. PSG will I'm sure be hoping that the marketing benefits he brings will pay for it all. Likely they will now have to sell a number of players.
According to the analysts, he is still more effective and valuable than basically any other player, and that he manages his efforts. He is more consistent than Ronaldo for instance, scoring above expectation every season (only Harry Kane is basically in this category), and then you have the creativity from dribbling and passing.
What you now don't get with Messi is any sort of defensive effort, he can't do the attacking elements and also close down the opposition. Earlier in his career, he also was effective at pushing the opposition when they had the ball
The problem I can foresee for PSG is they already have a number of other players who can't or won't do much defensive work either e.g Neymar.
Modern exams are a judge of an ability to remember things, not intelligence
With respect that is an insult to my granddaughter who has just achieved 3 x As
She is highly intelligent and has the world at her feet
Not necessarily. The exams may only be testing a small fraction of her capabilities.
Indeed, many people over the years have argued that closed book exams are a lousy way to judged the capabilities and knowledge of a person.
Further, that such exams cause people to prepare for the exam, not learn to the limits of their abilities.
I am currently watching my daughter preparing for GCSEs - I have discussed with her the way in which, in some things, she is having to prioritise exams skills over actually learning.
Outside of examination the family and others have recognised her extraordinary intellect and she has already authored 7 books
She shouldn't bother with university if she's written 7 books already tbh.
She is to study Italian and hopes to add to her English, Welsh, and French language skills with Italian and Japanese with periods living in both Italy and Japan which is all part of her course apparently
One of my nieces did something like that, although not the authoring; ended up in the Foreign Office. My sister, her mother, was amazed at the way, when working in the consulate in Istanbul, she picked up Turkish.
Interesting and her authoring is part of an international literary group she is in but I expect she will not have quite the time to devote to writing now as she embarks on her new adventure
Eventually you begin to learn the patterns in the way questions are recycled. You never see the same exact question twice. But variations on questions rotate through the years for each examining board. So if you rote learn methods and arguments... On exam day, it's like meeting old friends who have changed, slightly.
Our students do the same. Its a fine strategy, until it hits something unexpected.
And the mind set it seems to instil is unhelpful for a very practical degree course.
Why is Daley fav for SPOTY? Got a bronze didn't he - others are more worthy surely? If he had got a gold to go with the joint gold thingy then fair enough. But he didn't.
Peaty or Whitlock on merit don't you think?
I think Peaty and Whitlock are strong candidates on sporting merit, but given the dominance of the Chinese in diving I'd say Daley did a hell of a job too.
But, as others have said, it's a public vote not an objective assessment. Daley is well known and liked by the press and public.
I say this all having done extremely badly in my exams, failing to get into the University I wanted to go to and doing a pretty bad job of the one I did eventually go to.
I don't believe this makes me any more or less intelligent than the bloke who got 4 A*s and is one of my best friends.
Wikipedia says he got three, English, Economics and History, but doesn't mention the grades. TBH, I don't think any of the Royal Family are very academic, are they?
Charles II was rather interested in science, or what passed for it at the time.
Contemperaneous with a young Isaac Newton; quite a lot going on, scientifically.
Wikipedia says he got three, English, Economics and History, but doesn't mention the grades. TBH, I don't think any of the Royal Family are very academic, are they?
Comments
One thing it is worth remembering is that the exam system itself before Covid was not very reliable.
The present system of winner takes all is clearly indefensible.
It's a version 1 that needs improvement in some areas and not all owners will want something quite this austere. But the approach looks the way forward IMO.
Asian Muslim name - no place available
typical white scottish name - when would you like to start...
I think the last car I rented abroad (Spain, about 7 years ago) was a manual.
(And no, wasn't from a Manuel.)
Which doesn't sound like a good combination.
https://twitter.com/WilliamJHague/status/1425029758488829952?s=20
Which does sound like quite a good combination.
Good point - I never thought of that.
Absolutely delighted for her and to be fair all of her family
But hey Gove and Cummings took a set of exams that were designed for the modern era and decided that it was way better to use an exam system designed for the 1930s-60s.
The simple fact is you don't need to know things anymore, how you get and apply the knowledge is way more important than proving you can remember facts.
Peaty or Whitlock on merit don't you think?
Many of the people I know who bought cars like the Leaf, did so as the second car, to be used primarily for getting to the station for the commute or local driving in the area where they live.
From the "I slipped and my penis got stuck in the vacuum cleaner" book of excuses.
The forthcoming Renault 4 and Renault 5 models, with the same design principles but better specs will be made in France, I think.
But ultimately I think this comes back to the fact exams estimate ability to do remember things under pressure, not how able somebody is. They do not, for example, demonstrate independent research skills, or how hard people work, or fully develop analytical skills in longer reports.
Which has been taken into account this year.
One other comment to make about that graph. It shows little difference between the old and new A-levels. If they make no difference to the outcomes, was it really worth (a) the hassle (b) the expense and (c) the damage of changing them? I have to say even as a supporter of exam reform at the time it was announced the answer would seem a clear ‘no.’
In our professional exams we had a memory test; we had to remember the doses of all the drugs in the British Pharmacopeia
Pharmacy students could be identified on buses if they were n pairs because they were asking each other questions such as 'what's the dose of Dapsone'.
Used around 1960 in UK for leprosy; not often, though!
Edit; problem with predictive text!
A while back I saw some stuff from the conversion Masters (part time) that Kellogg College Oxford, that a friend of my fathers was doing.
The coursework was extremely interesting and emphasised design, style, testing and providing reasons *why* you did things in a certain way. As opposed to "it runs, have marks".
I was actually rather impressed.
She is highly intelligent and has the world at her feet
The nursery really does have a case to answer and their excuse is going to be interesting to watch fall apart.
It may be because the school I work in had adequate tech, of course, and gave it out for free to our substantial PPC. I wouldn’t go bail for everywhere being like that.
The Ami seats 2 max and has a max range of 60 miles.
And Tom Daley has been known by the general public for 13 years and been in the news for that length of time.
But Daley isn't the GOAT in the way Peaty is. Or Cav. Nor has the just incredible successful in the way the Kenny's have.
Indeed, many people over the years have argued that closed book exams are a lousy way to judged the capabilities and knowledge of a person.
Further, that such exams cause people to prepare for the exam, not learn to the limits of their abilities.
I am currently watching my daughter preparing for GCSEs - I have discussed with her the way in which, in some things, she is having to prioritise exams skills over actually learning.
Many of my GCSE history cohort struggled because the exam board sent us the wrong paper. Prague Spring of 68, which we hadn’t covered, instead of the Secret Speech of 1956, which we had. Didn’t bother me, as I knew enough about the topic to answer the questions anyway, but everyone else’s grades were down about 25%. And also remember @Morris_Dancer and the fun (/sarcasm) he had with A-level philosophy.
The point CHB is making, and here he has some justice on his side, is that maybe there are better ways to measure intelligence than just a few final exams.
Whether that is how things will develop I don’t know.
Anyway, enough procrastinating from me. I need to get this patio done.
See you later.
If I were recruiting in a few years time and I saw two candidates with As in Maths A Level, one from 2019 and one from 2021, then I would be quite suspicious of the ability of the latter.
The grade inflation of 2020 and 2021 does a massive disservice to those genuinely deserving of the top grades. They won't care about it now with their results sheets showing As but in a few years I think they might well be quite cross!
It's not Messi's responsibility to manage Barca's finances. Plus they should have improved over his time there. One thing worth noting is that you see quite frequently people walking around in Barcelona replica shirts nowadays which was almost unheard of a decade ago. At least as far as I'd noticed in the UK.
EDIT: which is why Universities are increasingly asking about "life stories" in the American style.
2. It is entirely possible to design exams that test more than recall.
3. It is entirely possible to design online exams, using relatively simple & common platforms, that thwart the majority of collusion.
Which means that Tom Daley sits near the top with a Bronze and Cavendish has disappeared because his story fell apart when he didn't win the final stage in Paris.
Odd, because I think that is one skill typically lacking in my students, year after year.
Eventually you begin to learn the patterns in the way questions are recycled. You never see the same exact question twice. But variations on questions rotate through the years for each examining board. So if you rote learn methods and arguments... On exam day, it's like meeting old friends who have changed, slightly.
Personally I think as great a player as Messi has been he is at the age where he will be declining. PSG will I'm sure be hoping that the marketing benefits he brings will pay for it all. Likely they will now have to sell a number of players.
I wish your granddaughter well; Japanese isn't an easy language to learn, I understand, but Japan is a good place to be.
I am sure most of the people here are extremely intelligent people and far more than I will ever be - but I am sure many of them have done well and badly in exams. The common thing is that they are intelligent people.
I think the emphasis on exam results is one of my least favourite things about the modern world.
What you now don't get with Messi is any sort of defensive effort, he can't do the attacking elements and also close down the opposition. Earlier in his career, he also was effective at pushing the opposition when they had the ball
The problem I can foresee for PSG is they already have a number of other players who can't or won't do much defensive work either e.g Neymar.
And the mind set it seems to instil is unhelpful for a very practical degree course.
But, as others have said, it's a public vote not an objective assessment. Daley is well known and liked by the press and public.
I don't believe this makes me any more or less intelligent than the bloke who got 4 A*s and is one of my best friends.
As did Fergie.