A-level overhaul will let brightest students shine

A major overhaul of A-level exams will bring in more Oxbridge-style questions to allow Britain's brightest students to show off their talents, The Independent has learnt.

Exam boards have been instructed to make their questions more open-ended to allow pupils to show off their creative and thinking skills. Ministers and exam board officials are worried that current A-level papers fail to stretch the brightest pupils.

In future, the examination will include the kind of questions previously reserved for the advanced extension award papers - usually taken by high-flyers who want to go on to elite universities such as Oxford and Cambridge. Those taking history papers might, for example, be asked questions that inquired into the thinking behind Oliver Cromwell's campaign during the English Civil War rather that just rely on candidates to outline the main dates and events of the war.

The moves are disclosed today by Ken Boston, the chief executive of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, the Government's exams watchdog, in an interview with The Independent. They come on the day that he is about to unveil radical changes to the secondary school curriculum for 11- and 16-year-olds which will for the first time insist all pupils should study a range of authors from different cultures and traditions. As a result, Maya Angelou, Benjamin Zephaniah and Meera Syal have been added to the reading list used in schools. University admissions officers say it is no longer possible to identify high-flying students now more than 20 per cent of all A-level scripts are awarded an A-grade pass. The first pupils to sit papers in the new-style A-level will do so in the summer of 2010.

Dr Boston said of the changes, which include the introduction of an A* grade for those pupils scoring 90 per cent or more: "The questions will have much less structure or even no structure - requiring more creative answers."

The changes will follow reforms to the secondary school curriculum unveiled today which will see a move away from the traditional subject-based curriculum to a more themed approach, with topics straddling a number of subjects.

These will include global warming, which would cover geography and science, and economic and financial capability, which would include elements of maths and economics.

But Dr Boston rejected criticism from traditionalists who claimed it would "dumb down" the curriculum and leave less time for subjects such as history and languages. "This is no 'new age' curriculum," he said.

The plans will also broaden the number of languages studied by 11- to 14-year-olds by removing the restriction that they should study European languages. More pupils could study Mandarin, Japanese and Arabic - considered by Gordon Brown to be essential to success in the business world.

Dr Boston's plans will be endorsed by Ed Balls, the Children, Schools and Families Secretary, today.