Watchdog finds drop in exam standards for maths

A question that has been vexing students, parents and employers was officially answered on Friday, revealing that some exams have definitely become easier.

The maths A-level, for example, was not as hard for students in the late 1990s as in previous years, a report by the Government's official exams watchdog said. English, though, was more difficult with questions on Shakespeare texts being more demanding.

The findings emerge in a series of reports from the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority comparing exam results over a four-year period.

Two exam boards, the AQA and the Northern Ireland-based CCEA, are criticised for setting less demanding A-level maths papers in 1998 compared with 1995. The report says the AQA cut the length of the examination and that a series of short questions on statistics was less demanding than longer questions set in the earlier paper. CCEA is criticised for turning a three-hour pure mathematics paper into two 90-minute papers, resulting in easier questions and less concentration on algebra.

The QCA also claims all the exam boards failed to take action to implement recommendations from an earlier report intended to improve the quality of the exam. The report in 1995 had called for tougher algebra questions but the watchdog said yesterday the standard was "not necessarily demanding enough".

In English, however, the exam boards had replaced texts such as Julius Caesar and Macbeth – considered "insufficiently demanding" for A-level work – with more challenging plays such as Hamlet, Henry V and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

The English and maths reports were among a series of 14 on different GCSE and A-level subjects published yesterday by the QCA. Overall, they showed there was little difference in the standards of questions over time.

David Hargreaves, head of the QCA, said: "Comparing standards is difficult because the yardstick tends to change as examinations are brought up to date. Factors such as rapid developments in technology, changes in higher education or new thinking can influence the balance of components and the type of evidence required."

Ruth Lea, head of policy at the Institute of Directors, said the findings on maths exams confirmed what employers had long suspected.