Interesting Links for 10-2-2011

[andrewducker]

• One of the reasons why kids from poorer areas don't get into Oxford/Cambridge
  (tags: education academia class society uk)
• Extra testosterone reduces your empathy
  (tags: testosterone empathy psychology)
• What makes fructose fattening? Some answers found in the brain
  (tags: fructose diet health brains mri)
• Iron-deficiency is not something you get just for being a lady. 86% of women with anemia have undiagnosed gastrointestinal bleeding...
  (tags: gender health women biology)
• Saudi Arabia's oil reserves may be overstated by up to 40%
  (tags: oil wikileaks energy economics world saudiarabia)
• Spotify Is The Second Largest Source Of Revenue In Europe For Labels.
  (tags: music spotify europe)
• Aggression (bullying) increases as kids gain status.
  (tags: aggression bullying children relationships)
• the vicious middle - on status and bullying.
  (tags: status bullying children homophobia lgbt sexism)
• Russia Abolishes Winter Time. Will be on permanent Daylight Saving's Time as of March 27th
  (tags: time russia)

Comments

[vereybowring.livejournal.com]

The preferred subjects list seems to be much the same as it's been for quite some time, Maths + 2 other sciences to study a science is normal in my opinion.
If your school has not brought this to pupils attention and let them do unlisted subjects then it's the schools (and pupils) fault not the universities and changes should be made at school level not at universities.
The current trend to bash the top universities for expecting standards is ridiculous. Private schools prepare their pupils for top level university study - if I was a fee paying parent I would expect that as a matter of course.
Some schools are bad, some are good - ranting in the media about preferencial treatment does not help this. Improving bad comprehensives is a large task that may never bear fruit.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

"If your school has not brought this to pupils attention and let them do unlisted subjects then it's the schools (and pupils) fault not the universities and changes should be made at school level not at universities."

Yes, I agree completely. A school I was at for some volunteering (www.youarehiredplymouth.co.uk) last week had most of their sixth formers doing stuff like Business and Travel & Tourism at A-level. That essentially makes it impossible for that school ever to send candidates to the best universities.

[sigmonster.livejournal.com]

Are the top universities expecting standards, or are they simply prejudiced? I really don't know. Is there a study showing that non-traditional A levels are correlated with lower final degree classifications?

Because on the face of it, it seems perfectly plausible that admissions tutors are just selecting people like themselves and subjects like they did back in the 20th century.

In the short term, it makes no difference to students' best choices for getting into uni, but in the medium to long term it makes a hell of a lot of difference.