Do grades still make the grade? 4

Stephen Gorard asks "Why use qualifications as a means of rationing higher education?". For mathematics, in which university courses build on foundations laid at school, the answer is obvious: to determine at what level degree courses should begin. For all the system's faults, a good maths A-level grade remains the most useful guarantor of sufficient competence to undertake a degree.

Niall MacKay
Mathematics admissions tutor York University