exam results, anyone?

[terminallyrelaxed]

I did very well in my GCSE's but shit in A-Levels. When I found out I only needed one A Level pass to get onto Foundation Art, I began not doing as much as I should have.  Consequently, my only good mark was in Graphic Design.

Much the same here, although it wasnt because of what  needed to get in - entry was portfolio-based for art college. I just stopped giving a shit - I think I'd had enough of formal education by then; as my decision to go to art college rather than university, while partly coloured by vocational factors, was mainly because I was sick of writing bloody structured essays, and anything else I'd have into Uni to study would have involved a lot of those.

Got four A's at GCSE, did the same subjects for A-Level, got 3 D's....

[petercussing]

You cunts!

I heard all you had to do to pass this years A levels was to burp the name of the examining board to the rest of the class.

 Next year, i hear, they'll just give everyone gratis A levels in everything at birth.

Cor, our education system is just the best, guy! Everyone must just be getting more and more clever. Wow!

[Almost Yearly]

Classic post-90s ivory tower syndrome, from people I'd expect better from.

Tsk, "people from whom I'd expect better."

He mentions that (despite the resulting clumsy sentence structure) and doesn't mention the lack of a verb in the sentence?

One thing at a time. Don't want people thinking I'm doing you and your academic achievements down.


Oh go on then ... ;-)

[monkhouse terror]

Yeah exams are getting so easy, and you know those 3 year olds with their crayons? I could draw much better pictures than them, when I was that age my pictures were great.

[petercussing]

I also heard that if you physically barked the words 'Bonjour, les euros magnifique' you could simultaneously pass biology and french and economics.

[monkhouse terror]

physically

Wow, physically? They are getting too easy.

[petercussing]

You should check out the mental barking.

[Borboski]

I try and avoid it. god i can't bear it GCSE day too. Front page of the daily mail with a shot of four twins, white blonde middle class and horny beaming "we all got 6 A's and we're all going to inverness to study law ho ho ho.

But begrudgingly, well done to any of youse.

Uni's shite though, don't get excited about that.

This year's been not so bad, I've avoided the press today.

Mrs Borboski's little sister has got 3 B's (much better than me) and a C in general studies HA WHAT AN IDIOT MY GENERAL KNOWLEDGE IS MUCH BETTER THAN HERS.

[weekender]

At the risk of sounding like I'm trying to make an important point, I do think that there's something to be said for the diminishing appeal of qualifications in general nowadays.  Seriously, a few decades ago, 'A' levels and degrees were not that common, and as such were treated with more reverence.

Now, many more people get such qualifications.  I'm not suggesting that these people haven't worked as hard to get them or anything, but I think the problem is that there's always percentage brackets of who will be allowed to get a particular grade.  Put simply:

20% of 50,000 people getting a first in 1964 = about 10 people with a first, which makes it special.

20% of 842,615  people getting a first in 2004 = about 168,523 people with a first, which means it's more commonplace.

What I'm trying to say is that whilst exams aren't necessarily getting easier (although I think they are, as part of research into my degree I looked at some older exam papers, and they were harder than the ones I had to take), the sheer volume of people taking exams means that their importance is being dminished in modern society.  As already mentioned by some people, learning a trade or profession is a perfectly viable option - for example industries like plumbing are crying out for trainees.  A shortage of 'skilled' employees is happening in such industries, and the existing plumbers etc are able to charge higher fees as a result, and they're on much higher salaries than I could ever hope to be.

It all comes down to supply and demand, yet again.  I could do the job I'm doing now when I left school (actually, I could probably do it when I was at school), and I've got a degree.  I just think that today, there's too many students with qualifications to fulfil the roles that demand such qualifications.

That's my brief opinion, anyway.  I don't mean to belittle anyone's efforts in getting the grades they did, congratulations to all*.

*Except VM, obviously.

Edited: I don't know any plumbers, nor do I have a plumbing fetish, I was just using plumbers as an example.

[phes]

Conratulations to all.

At A-level I got one E, in three years. I challenge anyone to have COMPLETED three A-levels, and come out with worse results. Arrogant little shit that I was. Went on a three year bender, ABB in first year mocks, crashed and burned.

Still, six years on. I love my job.

[mr suit]

i respect any of The Kids taking their A-Levels and doing well...

if you cast yer mind back, at the time all you wanted to do was get drunk, stoned and laid, and to give up the time you want to spend doing that (or at least thinking about doing that) to learn Second Order Integration and Special Relativity is to be commended.


i did my A-Levels before all this AS malarky, and am totally convinced that the AS Levels, whilst perhaps identical in content, are more of a pain in the arse to take.

i failed (or passed poorly, i forget) a Maths module at the end of first year in 1999, as i expected. then i aced the thing June 2000. to have that much pressure on your first year of A-Levels, when you're that young, is pretty hard.


and i can't knock the thread, because not only did i bore every cat here with talk of my second year courses and exams, i posted my results up in "...nothing of note to say" and all.


however.... lighten up! fanny/b3ta's post made me laugh like hell. especially as my boss's son got her results today and she was on the phone telling all and sundry, as well as us... and i really didn't care and neither did any of the folk she was dialling.

[falafel]

20% of 50,000 people getting a first in 1964 = about 10 people with a first, which makes it special.

*ahem* 10,000, surely?

A bit less special than 10, you'll agree (although, in accordance with your post, also a fair bit more special than a couple of hundred thousand... but I'm sure that less than 20% of people get firsts, even these days...)

Hope your degree wasn't in Maths...

[slim]

Conratulations to all.

At A-level I got one E, in three years. I challenge anyone to have COMPLETED three A-levels, and come out with worse results. Arrogant little shit that I was. Went on a three year bender, ABB in first year mocks, crashed and burned.

Still, six years on. I love my job.

<lays exam papers on the table, grinning broadly>

Ladies and Gentlemen, one D at AS-Level, one E, again at AS-LEVEL, and... one N at AS-Level. All in 3 years!

I am the laziest cunt*, and I claim my £5.

*This is what happens when some naive advisor at the Job Centre informs you that if you only study for a certain amount of hours a week, you can claim the dole. So you therefore take up residence in the pub near college and do sweet fuck all.

[weekender]

*ahem* 10,000, surely?

Yes.

Hope your degree wasn't in Maths...

Have you checked the other figures I quoted?

[JJJJH]

my boss's son got her results today...

Err...

[mr suit]

my boss's son got her results today...

Err...

heh... she did tell one person that "we" had done very well... it's almost as if she sat the exams herself y'know.

[Doctor Stamen]

Conratulations to all.

At A-level I got one E, in three years. I challenge anyone to have COMPLETED three A-levels, and come out with worse results. Arrogant little shit that I was. Went on a three year bender, ABB in first year mocks, crashed and burned.

Still, six years on. I love my job.

Mine were pretty crap, a B (English), C (Gen Studies!), a U (Computing) and an N (Political History).  When I got my results I really didn't give a flying fuck as I had much more important stuff on my mind.  Ironically, I went on to get a Computing degree and now find Political History quite interesting - back in 1996, I couldn't bring myself to do any of my reading.  I'd just discovered the joys of alcohol, which is a perfectly valid excuse.

When they show these kids on the news opening their results, nobody ever gets shit results.  I'd love someone to open the envelope and get a couple of U's.

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

Are A'Levels "easier" because they're more modular/coursework based nowadays?

And does having the internet at your fingertips make coursework a piece of piss?

That's my theory as to why the pass rates have gone up, (and also why girls do better - because they take more care over assignments).

[mr suit]

Are A'Levels "easier" because they're more modular/coursework based nowadays?

i'd say not.

like i said up there, i'm grateful as hell that i took mine in 2000 before the AS shift.... being 16-17 and doing exams of that "importance" is really very harsh.


oh, and i've never plagarised any coursework... i don't see the point. in any case i'm arrogant enough to believe that my own work surpasses most of the essays that are probably online.

[no_offenc]

I fucking hate coursework, and somehow managed to walk out of Computing A2 last year having done no coursework for either half of the course, and doing no revision, with an E.  How I didn't end up with a U is beyond me.  Our teacher was a useless cunt though, and it ended up with almost 3/4 of the class doing badly (Es and Us).

Today I ended up with a B in Media Studies (yes, I know, technically a non-subject but it interested me somewhat), a C in Music and a D in Chemistry.  I think I'm better with humanities subjects, like.

Now I'm meant to go to the local shitty Uni (Liverpool Hope, hahaha) and do a 3 year course on Media with Music Technology, which should be interesting, if nothing else.

My girlfriend got 2 As and 2 Bs for Philosophy, English Lit, History and Business Studies.  Smartarse, heh.  She's only in her first year though.

[Lt Plonker]

my boss's son got her results today...

Err...

And the operation was a success, I'd wager.

[Rev]

Two As and an E.

But that was ten years ago.  Were they hard then?  My results suggest that one of the subjects I took was hard and the others were far too easy.

One of the many things that pisses me off about this country is that we can never applaud improvements in this kind of thing.  Could standards of education be improving?  No!  Could higher pass-rates be tied to the fact that more people are taking A-Levels these days?  No!  

They have to be getting too easy, right?  Because we worked rilly bliddy hard for ours, right?  We're supposed to be the creme de la creme, right?  Who are these young bastards with their bits of paper that look suspiciously like ours?

[Krang]

Mine arrived in the post this morning.

(AS) Sociology: B
(A) English: D
(AS) Psychology: U

Sociology was my main test this time, and im happy i got the result (A,D,C were the paper grades)

Knew id failed Psychology, so it was no shock, hopfully theyll let me carry on at A-Level, because i was actually quite good. (decent results in topic tests and mocks, just felt a bit drained and never revised)

English im very happy with, its amazing to know that despite not being very good at English, i still passed despite having roughly 0% attendance since christmas.

[Almost Yearly]

Well enough of what we think ...

Don't let anyone tell you that standards have dropped because more of you have done well. This is simply a myth.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Miliband attacked the "national disease" of being cynical about improved exam results.

(And from the Telegraph yesterday): "More pupils are achieving high grades at GCSE and A-level because the exams have been made easier for those who do not perform well in conventional IQ tests," David Miliband, the schools minister, said.

A-Levels are not becoming easier at all. As I only finished my A-levels a year ago I know. Its just that the students are working hard to get the grades they deserve. This is not a bad thing but a good thing it shows that something is working. If the government want more students to go higher education which they do then they should be pleased with the results. Well done to the students.

Once again the government is telling us that black is white and we should just accept that it is so. I've worked in HE for 15 years and there it is clear that many of the first year biology students I've taught have a poor understanding of basic science. Like many of my peers I come from a working class background and got into university on merit in the early 80s. I certainly have no interest in elitism in any area of society and I fully support open access to HE for all but equality is not served by lowering standards. We've already heard strong warnings from an industry no longer able to trust the ability of recent graduates. What exactly is this super educated generation of the future going to do for a living I wonder? Well the government could use a few more think tanks.

The government's A-level of Pride campaign today issued a statement saying "Congratulations, we're proud of you," signed by representatives from business, education, politics and entertainments including the prime minister and TV presenter Graham Norton.

I didn't know Graham Norton was prime minister already.

[untitled_london]

i had a go at 6 a-level all told

i dropped frnch maths and physics, although stimulatin they never really retained my interest so much that i wanted to take the exams...i dropped out in the term before th exams.

i never felt that i wasted that year & a half, as i still felt i gleaned a great deal of knowledge despite never having had it tested or put to sctrutiny.

in the end i plumbed for:

politics (A)
media (C) i was predicted an A, and screwed the exam buy thinking i had 3 hours instead of  2 1/4.......ooops :p
sociology (B)

all told not bad i felt, as i had a great time during those years.
going on to university was good experience, but continuing onto a masters was in-hind-sight a bad move as i didn't enjoy it.

given my time again, i'd have studied IT/ graphic design/CGI as thats where my heart lies.

----

many congrats to all those who got the results they were after today btw - comiserations to those who didn't.

[fanny splendid]

And they say standards aren't dropping?

[mikeyg27]

English - A
Media - A
History - B

Results are going up because of cunts like me taking up subjects like Media where they give you an A for writing your name. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[mwude]

English: D ... im very happy with, its amazing to know that despite not being very good at English, i still passed despite having roughly 0% attendance since christmas.

Erm, maybe it's just me but I thought a D was a fail?  I was always under the impression that A - C was a pass and anything D or below was a fail but graded accordingly i.e. D: you've failed but only just, F: you've properly failed, U: yeah, thanks for coming.

Not singling you out specifically, Krang, I just want clarification on what grades actually mean.

[Purple Tentacle]

At my grammar school, A-C was considered a pass at that school, but an E is actually officially considered a pass, believe it or not.  I suppose that in crummy schools they consider an E a pass.


Anything that gets you into the course of your choice is a pass I suppose, so if you want to get into Oxford then a B is a big fat fail, and serve you right you swot.

edit: Eeeesh, I sounded like a right grammar school git there.  I hate the concept of selective education and the 11+ is morally repugnant.  Just so you know.

[DJ One Record]

According to mikeyg27, I guess I can't spell my name correctly. Check out this hall of shame:

English Language - B
Media - B
Communications - C

So much for my BBB/ABC loving first choice then. :(