The wheel turns...

A bit of a hoo-haa about this year's A-level results following the introduction of a new, tougher testing system.  Except it's not new - it's going back to the old system which existed when I took my A-levels in 1955 I think it would have been.  No course-work, no modules, no AS exams - just one three-hour exam at the end of the two years, and back then it was pass or fail - no grades.  There were many who thought it unfair that your whole academic future should depend on one exam when you might not be at your best, and so continuous assessment became the order of the day.  But you can raise arguments against any method of testing a pupil's ability and so continuous assessment in its turn gave way to course work, and so on.  We seem to have now come full circle back to the idea of a single final exam.  But I very much doubt that will be he end of it.