The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority has recommended that pupils need at least a grade B at GCSE before they can do AS-level maths (TES, June 14). This will not solve the problem of the high failure rate at AS-level, since most schools already insist on this, and some say that a grade A is the minimum requirement.
The QCA should collect the data for the pass rates at A and AS-level in 2001, breaking down the results according to the GCSE grades achieved. This would probably show that the failure rate at AS-level was higher than at A-level, even when GCSEs are taken into account.
Doing AS-level maths by the end of Year 12 is more difficult than doing A-level maths by the end of Year 13. Thus AS-levels have had exactly the opposite effect to that intended, and have made post-GCSE maths accessible to fewer students. There are two possible solutions: either allow candidates to complete the AS-level by January of Year 13, or give them the option of sitting a two-module AS-level.
Henry Mallorie Cromarty Court Widmore Road Bromley, Kent
