The exam board also makes the point that people might just want to broaden their curriculum and have a good foundation for DIY work.

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African American students in grades four and eight increased their marks on reading exams by 23 points, and eighth-graders posted a 40-point gain on the math exam, she said.

CNN: By Karen Spiller/The Telegraph of Nashua

And to top it all off, Modern Portfolio Theory, which is drilled into the head of every finance major and, more to the point, every Certified Financial Analyst exam taker, tells them that finance has no discernible causal relationship with economics.

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Critics of the idea also point out that, unlike America, Britain already has a reasonably standardised exam system, which is designed to instil the sort of specialist knowledge that British undergraduate degrees tend to require.

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Prof Imre Leader, a maths fellow from Trinity College, Cambridge, has assessed Cameron's maths skills, and believes there is no point fast-forwarding through exams and qualifications unless someone is achieving 99% on every exam.

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From any internet access point in the world, thousands of students this year will be able to download their results from one exam board at least.

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