And More...

When comparing today's 'A' Level Physics with that of 35 years ago, I should have added that in the Statics and Dynamics sections (ie those parts where Newton discovered quite a lot of the material), the coverage is pretty much exactly the same.

However, I do have one reservation about todays courses - the textbooks.  Bright, multicoloured, covering the topics in bite-sized chunks and occasionally containing unfunny 'jokes'.  Really, they seem a little patronising.  Quite unpleasant.  And this may be another reason why the unknowing feel the subjects have been dumbed down, or made easier.

I fear, however, that in general they may be quite effective at covering the material and explaining it...  which might help explain the improvement in grades (along with better teachers and more committed students).

And yet, and yet.  Every so often their explanation seems lacking or unclear (eg Kirchoff's rules in the OCR book) - and we turn to an updating of Nelkon and Parker,  the good old, big, fat, unforgiving but capacious textbook that I used. 

And it often helps...