Name Patrick Brannac www.SmashingScience.org Page 1 of 12 Changing from CIE to Edexcel exam board for AS and A Level Summary • One of the CIE Chemistry AS Level papers, Paper 3, is a practical exam. They have made a list of chemicals which are essential to carry out this exam. Some of them are dangerous. There may be other considerations for selecting an exam board other than CIE. • This report looks at alternative syllabi to CIE Contents Changing from CIE to Edexcel exam board for AS and A Level .......................................................................................1 Summary .....................................................................................................................................................................1 CIE Paper 3 – The practical exam paper ......................................................................................................................2 Health and safety realities...........................................................................................................................................2 What is an exam board?..................................................................................................................................................2 What are the options for A level exam boards?..............................................................................................................2 Why choose Edexcel? ......................................................................................................................................................2 Which exam boards do the top schools in the UK, and around the world, use for A Level Chemistry? .........................4 What those who work in universities and in university admissions say: ........................................................................5 What students say: ..........................................................................................................................................................6 For more information ......................................................................................................................................................6 Appendix – Information about other top private schools...............................................................................................7 Westminster school.....................................................................................................................................................7 Appendix - Harrow School ...........................................................................................................................................8 Appendix preferred A Level subjects (From Harrow) ................................................................................................... 10 Additional information ................................................................................................................................................. 11
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Name
Patrick Brannac www.SmashingScience.org Page 1 of 12
Changing from CIE to Edexcel exam board for AS and A Level
Summary • One of the CIE Chemistry AS Level papers, Paper 3, is a practical exam. They have made a list of chemicals
which are essential to carry out this exam. Some of them are dangerous. There may be other considerations for selecting an exam board other than CIE.
• This report looks at alternative syllabi to CIE
Contents Changing from CIE to Edexcel exam board for AS and A Level .......................................................................................1
CIE Paper 3 – The practical exam paper ......................................................................................................................2
Health and safety realities ...........................................................................................................................................2
What is an exam board? ..................................................................................................................................................2
What are the options for A level exam boards? ..............................................................................................................2
Which exam boards do the top schools in the UK, and around the world, use for A Level Chemistry? .........................4
What those who work in universities and in university admissions say: ........................................................................5
What students say: ..........................................................................................................................................................6
For more information ......................................................................................................................................................6
Appendix – Information about other top private schools ...............................................................................................7
Westminster school .....................................................................................................................................................7
Appendix - Harrow School ...........................................................................................................................................8
Appendix preferred A Level subjects (From Harrow) ................................................................................................... 10
Additional information ................................................................................................................................................. 11
Patrick Brannac www.SmashingScience.org Page 2 of 12
CIE Paper 3 – The practical exam paper The only way to offer CIE AS Chemistry is to have the equipment and chemicals essential to carry out a range of
experiments in a practical examination called Paper 3. They do not want the schools to know in advance which
experiments they will be examining in a given year, so they have created a list of chemicals we must have to be able
to do any of the experiments that our students ought to understand and be able to carry out. This list includes
explosive and toxic chemicals.
Health and safety realities You could use facilities in an established school which already has the necessary paperwork and safety measures to
handle all of the chemicals instead. Any school that would agree to such a deal would be an extraordinarily
dangerous place to be in. A senior high school chemistry lab should have access to dangerous, including lethal
chemicals, the idea that you would let kids from another school, who might easily have no experience working in
such an environment to try it all out there, is from a scientific and educational perspective, beyond reckless. How
many other extremely dangerous things are they letting happen in their school?
What is an exam board? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Examination_board
What are the options for A level exam boards? In the UK there are only 7 exam boards that award A Levels that are allowed to be offered by schools paid for by
the government (these exam boards will also be used by all private schools as well, as all universities get much of
their funding either directly or indirectly through the government):
Patrick Brannac www.SmashingScience.org Page 4 of 12
Which exam boards do the top schools in the UK, and around the world, use for A Level Chemistry? For a list of the top schools (in terms of academic performance) in the UK for:
• iGCSE results, click here
• For A Level results, click here This list ignores IB schools and school that do not offer A Levels. Some schools like Harrow and Eton, are not the top performing, but are the most prestigious (e.g. in the Eaton Group). Some are just really old.
School iGCSE Exam Board
A Level Exam board
Website
Shanghai Concord Bilingual School
CIE Edexcel http://www.concordschool.com.cn/
Cardiff Sixth Form College, Wales, UK
N/A WJEC (Welsh exam board)
https://www.ccoex.com/en/page/departments
Concord, UK AQA OCR http://concordcollegeuk.com/academic/academic-departments/chemistry/
Dulwich College, UK Don’t say Don’t say https://www.dulwich.org.uk/senior-school/academic/subjects/science
Dulwich Shanghai, China Don’t say N/A (IB) https://oss-assets.dulwich.org/blocks/file/SS%20Parent%20Handbook_Final_LR-20180903-101849-656.pdf
Eton College, UK Don’t say Don’t say https://www.etoncollege.com/c_block.aspx
Harrow School, UK OCR OCR Chem A https://www.harrowschool.org.uk/MainFolder/Sixth-Form-Booklet----2017-19.pdf
Kings school, Canterbury, UK (oldest continuous school in the world)
Don’t say Don’t say https://www.kings-school.co.uk/academic/subjects/the-sciences/#slide3
North London Collegiate School, UK
Edexcel Don’t say https://www.nlcs.org.uk/senior-school-sixth-form/subjects/chemistry
Raffles Institute, Singapore
Don’t say Don’t say http://www.ri.edu.sg/ (highest number of students entering Oxbridge and Ivy League in Asia)
St Paul’s School, UK Edexcel 4CH1
OCR A https://www.stpaulsschool.org.uk/st-pauls/academic/chemistry
Tangling Trust, Singapore
Don’t say Edexcel https://www.tts.edu.sg/seniors/curriculum https://www.tts.edu.sg/uploaded/documents/sixth_form/2018-20_A_Levels_Options_Booklet.pdf
The Perse School, UK Don’t say Pre-U (CIE) https://www.perse.co.uk/prep/academic/curriculum/ https://www.perse.co.uk/upper/academic/subjects/chemistry/
Westminster school, UK. Don’t say
Mix of Edexcel A Level and PreU
https://www.westminster.org.uk/academic-life/results-and-leavers/ https://www.westminster.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Sixth-Form-Courses-2019.pdf (Highest academically achieving school in the country.)
Most of the best schools in the UK, and around the world, do not place much emphasis (sometimes none) on the exam boards they take. The very best high schools often offer a range of exam boards; each science in Concord UK, for instance, uses a different exam board.
Universities, including Oxbridge are required, at least officially, to consider them as all equal. This is an important point to understand, because the exam board is chosen by the teachers and the school, not the students, so it would be unfair to offer students advantages simply because of the school they were attending rather than the quality of their achievements. British universities have legal responsibilities, and a great deal of social pressures, to avoid the appearance of favouring students from more affluent backgrounds.