It’s time for an honest conversation about the purpose of exams

sir – It is not only in A-levels that we are seeing grade inflation. The proportion of first-class degrees being awarded is also much higher now.

Before rejigging what we call grades (report, August 11), we need to stop and think about the purpose of exams, and what we want to be able to deduce from the results. If we merely want to know that a student has reached a certain level of attainment, then a pass/fail system would be adequate.

However, if we want to rank students, we need to do that properly. Having nearly 50 per cent of students attaining top grades at A-level, and one in three getting firsts, is a nonsense.

I happen to be wary of over-reliance on exams. My husband failed the 11-plus but went on to get a PHD; I got indifferent A-levels and couldn’t get into medical school, but had a good career as a hospital consultant once I got my BSC and PHD and was finally allowed to do the medical training.

However, if exams are the best we can do, let’s decide what we want the results to tell us, and be honest about it. After that, deciding on a grading system should be relatively easy. Dr Jenny Jessop

Doncaster, South Yorkshire

sir – Switching from alphabetic to numeric grades will not cure inflation.

One solution would be to publish the percentage mark gained by each pupil in each subject. An alternative is to normalise the results. This would be based on the sensible and defensible assumption that pupils’ relative performance conforms to a normal (bell) curve – so that, for example, the top 5 per cent of marks get an A, the next 15 per cent get a B, and so on. Pamela Wheeler

Shrewsbury

sir – This year’s exams should have been administered with the expectation that grades would fall across the board. There would still have been a top and a bottom. The universities would simply have had to adjust their entrance requirements.

In the event, inflated scores were inevitable. I cannot understand why Gavin Williamson is still in his job. Mick Ferrie

Mawnan Smith, Cornwall

sir – A young woman, interviewed on the BBC, said: “We’ve worked hard. We deserve these results.”

Therein lies the problem. Those of us who taught in the past recognised that, often, the students who failed to achieve high marks had worked harder than the ones who did. I once gave an A for effort to a child who went on to achieve a D or E.

There is an important lesson: one should accept one’s limitations and learn to flourish within them.

Felicity Mcweeney

Morpeth, Northumberland

sir – The real question is: why are state schools performing so much worse than private ones? Rather than tinkering with grades, the focus should be on ending this discrepancy. Malcolm H Wheeler