Rootling in the loft recently, we came across some A Level exam papers from 1967 and 1968. The questions relating to the main subjects were completely incomprehensible. Once upon a time we might have been able to understand the questions and we have the evidence in the form of a certificate that we actually knew enough to get more than an 'Unclassified' or whatever was awarded in those days.
It was the General papers that provided the most interest not only because we could actually understand the questions but because they provided a glimpse of the exam system of the time. They also suggest that pupils of the time were either much more sophisticated than their equivalent today, that the examiners were expecting them to be so or that they were trying to impose a 'grown-upness' on the young of the late sixties.
Here is a sample of the 1967 questions.
- Discuss, with examples of one or more well-known artists, the aims of the portrait painter. What effects has the development of photography had on the painting of portraits? This is in a general paper, not an Art A Level
- Write a critical appreciation of any opera or ballet you have seen. (Every aspect of the work and its performance should be considered.) It is good to see only highbrow entertainment being allowed but what does that threatening remark in the bracket really mean?
- Give an account of the origins and development of Jazz music. To what extent do you regard modern 'pop' music as a form of Jazz or as a revolt from it?
- Describe the satisfaction you have received from the formal, as distinct from the representational, elements and qualities of one work of art in any medium. Um ...
It goes on to ask one to comment on the proposition that 'When science comes in at the door, common-sense flies out the window'; whether we prefer the work of contemporary novelists to the novels of an earlier generation, with examples; whether the public image of the poet has changed from that of fifty to sixty years ago, and how; and whether we agree that 'morality is only a majority opinion on social conduct - and at that the opinion of a bygone generation'.
In a later section - only one question may be answered from each section - we are asked how much influence and what kind is exercised in the world by the British Commonwealth and what is needed to enable the Commonwealth to survive; we are invited to suggested the changes that are imminent in Western Europe and the NATO Alliance and what effect these will have (it was the height of the Cold War); we are asked to 'account for the rapid increase in organised crime'; and, most surprisingly, we are invited to consider whether it is a fair appraisal of the British political scene that 'While the Tories become more and more radical and Labour more and more conservative, the Liberals vociferously support both sides of every question'. Ouch! It is hard to imagine this last question being acceptable in today's politically-sensitive environment.
To answer these questions intelligently in a 45 minutes essay would require considerable knowledge of what used to be called current affairs and is now known as 'politics'. It would also require a degree of prescience not normally found in 18 year olds. Mr Gove would be proud as would any Etonian who had been faced with the question starting 'You are the Prime Minister of Britain and ....' in his entrance exam, taken when he was 13 years old.
These are not questions likely to be answerable by the vast majority of today's young.
