62 replies to this topic

[JMickle]

It's A-Level results day in england (A-Levels are what you take just before going to university for those who dont know) and every 17/8/9 year old in england have just found out how unlikely they are getting into uni!
I have only done my first year, so I got my AS level grades, which will count o half of my final grade next year, if i choose to carry on all my subjects and whatver/
I got a D in maths and physics and an E in music.

Anyone else got any grades today? what grades did you get when you did your A Levels however many years ago? or any other degrees/GCSEs or whatever?

[CociCookie]

Got my grades today for AS, B's in Maths and Computing, C in Design & Tech and D in Physics. Dropping D&T and concentrating on the others in A2, seeing as the other three are the recommended ones for the course I wish to go onto at Uni.
I might try to do better at Physics this year though, main reason I got the D is from paying little attention out of boredom near the end of the year when I should have been revising... whoops

[JMickle]

haha i had the worst physics teacher i learn everything in the last couple weeks before the test :/ what are you planning on doing at university? I want to do physics, but I may reconsider looking at my grades :/

[big ass skelly]

Dude how could you do so badly at A levels Shit's like putting square block in square hole

[JMickle]

i'm an idiot. a few of my mates got like ALL As and the rest a few failed some of their subjects i  think i got the middle ground here

[CociCookie]

haha i had the worst physics teacher i learn everything in the last couple weeks before the test :/ what are you planning on doing at university? I want to do physics, but I may reconsider looking at my grades :/

My physics teacher was a good laugh, I just got bored of the subject matter, which ain't that helpful. Planning on doing Game Software Development, which is taught at my local Uni in town.

[Faust]

Well done guys on your results thus far.

Remember that less than 50% of students nationally get 5+ A*-C GCSE grades including English & Maths, so by getting your GCSEs you put yourself in the top 50% of people qualification-wise. Less than half of those again stay on to do A-levels so, in spite of local rag/The Sun's saying 'EVERYONE GOTS A A-LEVELS!!' it simply isn't the case. You've put yourself in the top 25% of people now, so well done! Onwards and upwards.

Remember, if you aren't happy with your grades, there are always resits.


Mark: A lot of it boils down to the teaching of the subject as well as students' abilities to regurgitate information. If you have a pretty rubbish teacher, you most likely are not going to do well. I know a fair few students who had potential who've done badly due to teaching. Yeah, A-levels ARE quite easy if you know the system and exactly what's required of you, which is kind of how they're taught now. However, some teachers don't do this and leave students to enter examinations blind as to the requirements. This can equate to less good grades.

Note less good - two Ds and an E is WAY better than no AS levels at all!

[Carrion Crow]

Long trip down memory lane/advisory post:

I got Ds and Es in my AS levels first time around and when my parents found out they said they refused to pay for me to live at home anymore and that they certainly weren't paying my train fare each day for me to go to my high school's sixth form. A few weeks later I convinced them to let me to go to a different place, a college - not a sixth form where I studied two subjects the same and 2 different. This meant that the second time around I did a lot better, I got AAAB in my first year of redoing my AS and AAA in the second year and I did Electronics, Maths and Geography (Eng Lit was the AS I dropped cause there's only so many times you can take a bunch of ugly girls in one room gawping at you).

If you are serious about wanting to do something specific at uni, maybe you could do the same thing. I think college is free in the UK until you are 25, one thing to worry about is that the longer you leave it before going to university the more chance that the tories will get in and that will most likely bring ball-breaking fees. You never know what they are going to be like the next year. My sister comes from the same household and she had the same financial check that student loans give you as I did and she gets a grand more than me because she is from a different yeargroup and they get more. Your loan-based fortune is pretty arbitrary is what I am trying to say.

When I went back to college a second time I knew what I really wanted to do and that was because I liked electronics so much. It was such a great subject and I have to credit that to the teacher because he made me want to study it at uni. You have to want to succeed to get the high grades otherwise, with Ds and Es you are pretty much treading water before heading into the world of work. Any worthy university these days has high entry requirements of B or above.

You have to think to yourself, are you enjoying what you do now and if you falter in that thought, you should go online to the sites of some unis you might want to go to and look at the entry requirements for the courses. That way if you see something that you would like to do you know right away what the requirements are to get in.

This is just some advice/experience from someone who got the same grades when I was back then. You do get an easy time doing you A levels compared to later study and they are easy if you can stay motivated and you know what you want to do. Not knowing what you want to do in life was the main source of apathy and de-motivation for me.

Keep us posted on what you decide to do man!

[Faust]

Hey ed, I totally appreciate your giving out of advice, and a lot of it makes sense. I just need to pick you up/comment on a couple of things though:

I got Ds and Es in my AS levels first time around and when my parents found out they said they refused to pay for me to live at home anymore and that they certainly weren't paying my train fare each day for me to go to my high school's sixth form. A few weeks later I convinced them to let me to go to a different place, a college - not a sixth form where I studied two subjects the same and 2 different. This meant that the second time around I did a lot better, I got AAAB in my first year of redoing my AS and AAA in the second year and I did Electronics, Maths and Geography (Eng Lit was the AS I dropped cause there's only so many times you can take a bunch of ugly girls in one room gawping at you).

That's not great parental support there, I have to say. It's like punishing a student for not being able. I know a few people who HAVE gone to college and got better grades, but I believe this is for the reasons I'll talk about below. Oh yeah FUCK YOU for the English Literature comments hehe. Nowadays we have a few more guys taking the subject! I even had a COMMUNIST with a BERET in one lesson. I bet you don't get that in physics, EH?!?!

If you are serious about wanting to do something specific at uni, maybe you could do the same thing. I think college is free in the UK until you are 25, one thing to worry about is that the longer you leave it before going to university the more chance that the tories will get in and that will most likely bring ball-breaking fees. You never know what they are going to be like the next year. My sister comes from the same household and she had the same financial check that student loans give you as I did and she gets a grand more than me because she is from a different yeargroup and they get more. Your loan-based fortune is pretty arbitrary is what I am trying to say.

1) While college DOES sometimes improve one's grades, this simply isn't because colleges are 'better'. In fact, overall, colleges get a lot WORSE results from students. The main bonuses about colleges are that you're treated more like an adult, call your teachers by their first names, and it's a relaxed atmosphere that's conducive to independent learning. This DOES benefit some students and rapidly improve their grades, but these tend to be slightly older students, like yourself as stated earlier. Sometimes people who've restarted their AS-levels. A new setting, alongside the realisation that you need to work harder, CAN do wonders, but college isn't the miracle cure it appears to many people. It IS a change though, and it can be a good change at that. It totally depends on the kind of learner you are.

2) College IS indeed free until you're 25, as long as you don't have any higher qualifications than what you plan to study. If you're over 25 and unemployed, it is also free or at a massively reduced fee. My partner is going back to college to do a BTEC Level 3 (A-level equivalent) in Music Tech. As he's 25, and already has a BA in Music, we have to pay nearly two grand! If he didn't have that degree we'd be SITTING PRETTY!

3) Do not worry about 'BALL BREAKING FEES'. I left university with £48,000 of debt. However, the system works now as more of a GRADUATE TAX than a LOAN. This means you don't pay anything until you earn over £16k, and when you do you pay a minimal amount. I earn a fair bit of cash nowadays, but still only pay like £40 a month to the student loan company. Not the end of the world!

You have to want to succeed to get the high grades otherwise, with Ds and Es you are pretty much treading water before heading into the world of work. Any worthy university these days has high entry requirements of B or above.

This is the sentence that really makes me disagree with you dude. 'Worthy' university! ALL universities are worthy and all can produce the qualifications necessary to do what you want with your life. Don't do down people's achievements because they can only achieve Ds and Es. I have a colleague that got a couple of Ds and a B at A-level, who now teaches alongside me and is a FANTASTIC teacher. They ended up getting a nice class of degree from a university and are now pretty set up. Don't listen to the bullshit about 'WORTHINESS OF UNIVERSITY'. If it isn't one of the top twenty, which require AAB, it really doesn't matter whether the requirements are BBB are DDD. Employers don't give a shit anyway.

This is just some advice/experience from someone who got the same grades when I was back then. You do get an easy time doing you A levels compared to later study and they are easy if you can stay motivated and you know what you want to do. Not knowing what you want to do in life was the main source of apathy and de-motivation for me.

Total agreement with this paragraph. Keep motivated!

ed: Don't see any of this as an attack - I totally agree with your sentiment. Just wanted to give a POSTIVE INSIDER'S VIEW of the situation!

[Carrion Crow]

Yeah, when I was talking about ball breaking fees what I really meant to say is that you may get less to live on during the year, which means you will have to get a job if necessary and that may impact on your degree depending on the number of contact and study hours you work a week.

I think my parents were pretty harsh on me, but it put me on the right path. It was the slap I needed to go from being a waste of space to someone who actually does work and you have to start working at some point in your life, better sooner when in academia so that you make a better return from it later on.

Those Eng Lit. girls were terrifying. There was one who always smelled funny, wore a pink lacoste tracksuit and put her hand on my leg when I was depserately trying to ignore those two other bad traits.

About that worthy university comment: If you know what you want to do you can quite easily find out which departments are the best and what university they are at. It sounded like a very GENERAL comment like I was being cavelier about it but at the end of the day, you only live once and if you have the chance to redo it all, like you would if you were JMickle's age right now why not aim to go to one of the best?

You were right though I did need to clear up some of the things I said above. I guess it's not the easiest message to get across really.

[big ass skelly]

Yeah I mean IDK I went to a grammar school so I guess it might be different but I didn't even try at A levels (did whole year's worth of art coursework in 2 weeks before hand in) and I did reasonably at least. The subjects with exams were even easier cause the teaching method in this country seems to be "here is how you pass your exam :)"

[Faust]

Mark - there we go, that's the issue. You went to a grammar school, wherein GCSE pass rates are like 99%+ in the majority of schools, and they're able to achieve this through selective intake. The majority of normal schools have MUCH lower pass rates than that, some being 20%+. Obviously this isn't SOLELY due to ability - sometimes it's due to the living environment of students, parental support etc. Remember - most students go to grammar schools with a whole lot of parental support. There's some students whose parents can't even read and write, therefore can't even find out when and where the tests are hehe!

I get what you mean: at grammar school, DDE is like "WHOA YOU ARE LETTING US DOWN". In the normal world, however, it can be a really big achievement.

The subjects with exams were even easier cause the teaching method in this country seems to be "here is how you pass your exam "

This is my huge problems with examination based courses. However, if you DON'T teach in this style (and a LOT of teachers/schools don't), your results are a lot lower. Most children don't intrinsically know what is expected of them examinationwise.

Those Eng Lit. girls were terrifying. There was one who always smelled funny, wore a pink lacoste tracksuit and put her hand on my leg when I was depserately trying to ignore those two other bad traits.

That sounds like GOOD TIMES to me XD!!!!

[Jordan]

I just spent a year doing a fast track BTEC course. I studied Music Technology at a National Diploma level and came out with 2 Distinctions and a Merit which I am very happy with! For those non UK, here is a link to a page explaining BTEC - http://www1.edexcel....tec/index2.html

[Faust]

Well done Jordan! What are you planning to do now?

[Kaworu]

Man I remember my A-Levels. It was a fun time of working out what corses to ignore to focus on the fun/important ones, and juggling time around, and generally not caring at all at the same time. Never really worried much about it though, spent my time drawing dragons while everyone else was revising.(if anyone cares, Geography: D, History: B, Fine Art: C, Business: Pass, ICT: Merit/Distinction). Not great, but good enough.

[JMickle]

Just had my dad tell me i'm a failure which can't be good. :/ looks like it would be very smart for me to pursue a career in music and just get a job to pay my way through. I will go back to college next year and finish my A-Levels but at the end of the day I don't think i can improve on these grades by much without a lot of dedication, which i just don't have. I was considering going to a university to study music instead but really I would have to pay for that and I doubt it would be worth it a degree in music isn't gonna get me any further than I would without.

[Carrion Crow]

Man, uni is awesome. You should at least consider some of what I said cause its a great experience.

[Faust]

JMickle: Dude, there's always resits. You're allowed to resit your exams in January to improve your grade. You can easily turn those results around!

Oh, and you get loans while at uni to power through. Studying music for three years would be around 10 hours a week contact time, giving like 20+ more hours to focus on part time work to pay through. Plus you get the three years of freedom that you don't get if you go straight into the workforce.

[Faust]

Man, uni is awesome. You should at least consider some of what I said cause its a great experience.

Totally. There was some really good advice in ed's post. Often some students find that they work much better at college than at sixth form, due to the more adult/independent feel.

[JMickle]

Man, uni is awesome. You should at least consider some of what I said cause its a great experience.

I know i know and I would love to go to university its something i've wanted to do for a long time, but... i dunno i'm just pretty down right now :P
my dad was saying that my college wont want me back because of my grades, but i know that isnt true coz they did say if you get at least 3 Es your back in. i'm just wondering if dads just trying to get me to prove him wrong or something and work extra hard next year. I know that if I want to get into the uni i wanted to (nottingham, to do physics) I need at least ABB, and from what i've heard about A2 of all my subjects, its going to be a lot more of the things i am better at , but doubled with retaking all my exams i dont know if i could cope with the workload.

i dunno i'm just really confused at the moment. i know i want to go back to college and my maths teacher always talks sense i just wanna talk to him and ask him whats best for me (as he know at least a bit how i am as a student now). ye gads i'm fuzzled

ps i am at a college not sixth form