Mike Tillbrook examines the impact of the new AS and A2 courses, raising several serious concerns. He explores problems for effective and rigorous assessment as well as implications of the new course structure for the quality and range of historical learning. Critical of new restrictions in content, he suggests that there is now scope for very unfortunate choices by schools. He also raises concerns about progression and whether the new examinations have secured a suitable intellectual demand. He argues, further, that an obsession with conformity and with certain kinds of accessibility have created problems for awarding bodies themselves. Formulaic approaches to question-setting are helping neither learning nor assessment. Mike Tillbrook acknowledges the exciting and innovative work in AS and A2 that has arisen in the last two years - so much of which has been celebrated in this journal - but argues nonetheless that the six unit model has been conducive neither to greater rigour nor to coherence.