Critical Thinking
Critical Thinking is currently taught to Year 10 by Mrs Reynard and Miss Mills but other teachers such as Dr Jackson also teach the subject at A2.
Critical Thinking
Allegedly a complete waste of time as an AS, however if taken as a full A-Level may be useful for creating complex irrefutable arguments.
Conversely, it may not, as it spends a lot of time looking at clarification (what precisely constitutes an irrefutable argument?), more flaws and rhetoric (yes RHETORIC. Spelt like that. You won't understand it, but I do, being an authority on the subject) and appeals to authority, "blinding with science", and even more fun things like "the hard sell". Don't miss out!
Upon entering year 10 students are given the opportunity to take AS critical thinking. This is a great way to get an extra A level if you don't mind missing 3 afternoons per fortnight. Consequently from the start of each year the number of students taking this subject after school decreases.
A2 Exam
The first group of students to take the 3 hour mammoth paper were unfortunately slightly unprepared; in the words of Doc Rob and Mrs Helm "Guinea pigs". The exam was initially badly designed, and the person responsible was fired for the production of his degree level practice paper, and another one to go with it as the final exam. The person who rewrote the paper produced another impossible practice paper, with a number of massive 25+ mark essays in just an hour and a bit. When this was complained about, our teachers were told that the actual exam would have a lot less content.
Unfortunately, this failed to be the case. The A2 students taking the exam sat down with no idea what they were in for, but when half time's wonderful break arrived, they stepped out of the exam room, stood around and expressed their convoluted mirth to the tune of "We're all going to fail". We didn't, in the end, but the marks must have been drastically scaled up because a number of students actually left entire essay questions out and still managed to pass with a reasonable grade. Mr Haycocks also sat the exam, becoming the proud recipient of an A-grade.
Anecdotes of Randomised Marks
I was thrown out of my Critical Thinking AS set by Mr Ventress and proceeded to get the highest mark in the class.
