A-level pupils 'too tired' to show ability

Sixthformers taking AS-level exams this summer may have been too tired to do themselves justice because of government changes to the way the exams were sat, the official report into the grading of this year's papers concludes.

Mike Tomlinson, the former chief schools inspector who was commissioned by the Government to check the grading of this year's AS and A-level exams after last summer's fiasco, said his monitoring of the process had uncovered evidence of "unevenness of performance" across pupils' AS-level papers. Mr Tomlinson called on the Government's exam regulators to reconsider their decision to hold all exams in each AS-level subject on the same day, arguing that students could fail to show their true abilities because they were exhausted.

He also concluded that England's three main exam boards were not using identical procedures when setting their grade boundaries, suggesting that some boards' exams could be easier to pass than others.

Mr Tomlinson's full report on the trustworthiness of the grading process concluded that the sheer volume of AS-level exams taken each day had caused pupils to flag during long sessions. "The quality of work in AS papers, and in some cases the unevenness of performance across the paper, was noted," he said.

"Some awarders judged that the limited time available in Year 12 [the first year of the sixth form] to study for AS examinations could be the cause of some answers being limited in one or more ways.

"Others attributed this effect to result from the change to examining all AS units in a subject in one session."

The new AS-level exams were first sat by sixthformers in 2001 after the papers were introduced as part of Curriculum 2000, which launched new-look modular A-level courses. They prompted complaints from parents, pupils and teachers unhappy at timetable clashes and the high number of exams.

In response, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), under David Hargreaves, then its chief executive, recommended that candidates should sit all their AS-level units on a single day, rather than over several days to avoid clashes. Estelle Morris adopted those reforms as Secretary of State for Education after the 2001 general election.

But Mr Tomlinson suggested that the move might have been a mistake. "The changed system, which means having all the papers for a single AS exam on the same day, meant very heavy loads for some students," he said. "There was evidence that students were getting tired and their performance faded across later parts."

But he said that there had been no repeat of the problems that dogged last year's exams, when thousands of students were given the wrong grades. Students could have full confidence in the grades they were awarded last week, he said.

* Thirteen schools will learn this week whether they will face closure because of their poor grades. The schools could be shut under ministers' "three strikes and you're out" policy after GCSE results come out on Thursday, if fewer than 15 per cent of pupils achieve five good GCSE passes for the third year in a row. Another 10 poorly performing schools have already decided to close or become city academies.