BS: A-level impending doomsday UK

Subject: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: jayohjo
Date: 14 Aug 00 - 05:30 PM

Anyone else waiting for A-level results on Thurs? (your own, children's, grandchildren's ;) friends, family, pets?)

I am - and trying not to think too much about it (& failing).

Any words of wisdom from those who've done

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: Mbo
Date: 14 Aug 00 - 05:32 PM

Are A-levels like SAT's here in the U.S.?

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: jayohjo
Date: 14 Aug 00 - 05:40 PM

Don't know - A-levels are what you do at age 18 (roughly!) and determine whether you get into uni and whether you will ever have a 'real job' etc - so just ever so slightly important.....

*tense fixed grin* jayohjo XX

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: Mbo
Date: 14 Aug 00 - 05:48 PM

Sounds like the SAT's to me! Of course I never took 'em so I wouldn't really know...

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 14 Aug 00 - 05:53 PM

Good luck on your A-levels! Just remember to take deep, calming breaths. When I'm tense, I often forget to breathe at all! I wish you all the best!

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: The Shambles
Date: 14 Aug 00 - 06:02 PM

There is life after A-levels...........Whatever the results.

Easy to forget that........Good luck to all those suffering.

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: P05139
Date: 14 Aug 00 - 06:17 PM

How about GCSEs in ten days!?

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: Lanfranc
Date: 14 Aug 00 - 06:45 PM

Just be glad you're not in Scotland - their examining board appears to have screwed up big time! Of course they're blaming the computer system, but they would wouldn't they?

We've been through it with two daughters, both of whom survived. Both went to Uni and graduated, one works for me, the other's teaching sailing in Grenada!

There is life thereafter, pass or fail, and UCAS can come up with some surprising opportunities.

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: Morticia
Date: 14 Aug 00 - 06:46 PM

My daughter is awaiting her A level results too.......tense, of course we're not bloody tense?!

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: Amergin
Date: 14 Aug 00 - 06:59 PM

Not missing much, Mbo, SATs a bloody joke.....can't believe there are folks who spend an entire year studying for the damn thing.

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 14 Aug 00 - 07:47 PM

Don't panic if you screw up.

Take a few years off doing something interesting around music or whatever, and then come back in as a mature student, when interesting life experience is likely to be rated more highly than the exam grades - and then study something you really want to study, instead of the where-can-I-get-in-do-with-my grades ratrace which is looming up for so many over the next few weeks.

Maybe we could start giving out Mudcat Degrees. Music related of course.

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: death by whisky
Date: 14 Aug 00 - 08:14 PM

My god-daughter us waiting for her LEAVING CERT results(thats the equivalent in Rep of Ireland).I'm with McG on this one.Time out.

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: MikeofNorthumbria
Date: 15 Aug 00 - 11:53 AM

A few reassuring words for all A-level candidates and their families. I quote from "The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams.

"DON'T PANIC"

Why not? Because...

1) Even if you're sure that you screwed up the exam, you may still have got the grades you need.

2) Even if you haven't got the grades you wanted, you may still be all right.

2a) The institution you applied to may still take you. Every year around this time, some people who have made the grade decide that they don't wan't to go to college after all, leaving gaps for anxious admissions tutors to fill at the last minute. It's always worth asking!

2b) If they won't, then you will probably be able to get a place through the clearing scheme at some other institution of higher learning, which may turn out to be just as good as your original choice.

3) Even if you can't get in anywhere this year, there's always next year, or the year after. Then, your experience of surviving in the big wide world will ensure that when you return to academia as a mature entrant, you will enjoy (and profit from) the experience far more than most of those green and gawky nineteen-year-olds will do.

And finally, remember that a university degree doesn't guarantee you a better or more meaningful career after graduation. Many drop-outs from academia end up doing better (both financially, and in terms of job satisfaction) than their brothers and sisters who stayed on the scholarly treadmill.

Would Pete Seeger have been a better musician if he'd stayed on at Harvard, instead of going on the road with Woody Guthrie? And would the world have been a happier place if Pete had put aside his banjo, graduated summa cum laude, and gone on to be a successful corporate lawyer? I rest my case.

Wassail!

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: Catrin
Date: 15 Aug 00 - 02:20 PM

When i was sixteen, I was supposed to take some O'levels, but decided to stay in bed instead and took the phone off the hook. I waited until I was 28 before taking an A level in a subject i was interested in. Hard work because of family and earning money and all the rest of it, but much more rewarding (for me at least) than I would have found it at age 18. I've got a degree now and I will be studying for an MA in September this year.

The path we take in life can be mysterious. There is more to 'success' than academia or career.

Saying all this, I know how tense it is waiting for results. I wish you the best of luck and hope that you achieve that which you set out to achieve.

My thoughts are with you.

Catrin

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: Linda Kelly
Date: 15 Aug 00 - 02:58 PM

Chill out mateys - you want tense wait till you hit UCCA -if its anythng like it was in my day then thats when the panic really hits ya!

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: roopoo
Date: 15 Aug 00 - 03:06 PM

All good advice. My son didn't do so well on his A-levels, (an understatement: he only just passed one and failed two), and was all for chucking the towel in. Then the uni he wanted to go to offered him an HND in the same subject, and he completed that a year ago. Next year he will be finishing his degree, graduating at the same time as he would have done anyway, and with the qualification he wanted. What I mean to say is, don't panic! There are usually options. Universities and colleges get funding for the number of students they attract, so of course they are going to try and fill their courses. Shop around.

mouldy

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: jayohjo
Date: 15 Aug 00 - 04:56 PM

And THIS is why I love the Mudcat! Also - Mudcat degrees, what a fantastic idea!

Cheers on behalf of jittering 18yrolds all over the place, jayohjo XX

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: Morticia
Date: 15 Aug 00 - 06:44 PM

Just been having big talks with my daughter and, as I understand it, the problem is more about the fact that it is all so damn public......grandparents, aunts ,uncles etc. all want to know how you've done, it's all over the news and papers so they can't forget and......if you plough them......you have to tell people so......Jaysus, what a pig!! What to do if you have ploughed them is almost a secondary consideration.......glad I don't have to go through this crap any more.

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: MMario
Date: 15 Aug 00 - 06:50 PM

HND?

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: Morticia
Date: 15 Aug 00 - 06:59 PM

An HND is a Higher National Diploma.......usually a vocationally based course of two years leading to a very much respected qualification in a trade rather than in a discipline i.e Engineering rather than Physics,Accountancy rather than Mathematics......does that make sense?

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: GeorgeH
Date: 16 Aug 00 - 07:18 AM

Good luck to all those who are waiting . . but whatever the results, go out and make (or enjoy) some good music . . . it may or may not take your mind off things, but it might remind you that life goes on, regardless.

And as others have commented, just remember that academic qualifications are GREATLY (and increasingly) over-rated . . . For what it's worth our company's software team range from a guy who never went to college to a guy with a PhD, and within the team there's no distinction between them!

G.

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: JulieF
Date: 16 Aug 00 - 08:50 AM

My best wishes to all. We are waiting for my daughter's first GCSE ( English taken a year early) and it suddenly struck me this is what its going to be like for years!. All the other GCSEs next year, As levels the year after, a Level's after that - oh blissful summers.

Just to add my voice to everyone else. These results are never the end of the world. I work in an FE college and I have seen lots of examples of people who have failed various exams and have then gone on to do wonderful things. Our oldest student recently was 97.

Julie

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: Morticia
Date: 17 Aug 00 - 04:07 AM

Okay, today is the day.....I am just about to go and put some clothes on, prior to driving Fiona down to college for her results.......I've been up since dawn ( while she sleeps peacefully, naturally) and have a feeling not unlike going to my own execution.......more later if I haven't opened a vein in despair.( You should know, as background,that Fiona said the only way she was going to pass these exams is if she ate them first)

Anyone with an ounce of compassion for a suffering parent will have everything available crossed today....I don't care how hard it makes it to type!

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: Penny S.
Date: 17 Aug 00 - 05:47 AM

The news generally is good, better levels than last year, and for the first time, girls have done better than boys. There had been puzzlement that when it got to this age, the boys suddenly started to out perform them. Now we'll have to change our teaching to favour the boys for who learning ain't cool.

A levels require two years study, and are not really like SATS, which I gather are supposed to be independent of cultural bias etc, more like intelligence tests with multiple choices. A-Levels have essay type questions, and you are supposed to show not only what you remember of the subjects you have studied, but also how you can use the knowledge to show what you think. "Hamlet is indecisive. Discuss." That sort of thing. The A originally came from Advanced, and followed O levels or Ordinary ones. No discussion. Now O's have been replaced by GCSE. O's and A's were GCE's, General Certificates of Education. What does the S stand for?

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: Morticia
Date: 17 Aug 00 - 06:51 AM

Ok, well she passed all three ( B,C,D) and already had one under her belt from last year so the good news is she can get into the university she wanted though the grades weren't what she was hoping for........phew...thank God it's over........Jay....how did you get on?

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: GeorgeH
Date: 17 Aug 00 - 09:07 AM

PennyS: GCSE is General Certificate of Secondary Education and came about from the amalgamation (?sp; English Lang. grade 5) of GCE 'O' level and the CSE - "Certificate of Secondary Eduction" (although others provided alternatives for the "S" there.

Of course you left out GCE A/S levels and S levels (the last used to be called "Scholarship" but seem to have been demoted to "Special" . . . )

And the 'A' Level arrangements are all changing next year, but I've not got my head round that as yet . . .

G.

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: JulieF
Date: 17 Aug 00 - 11:59 AM

I can help with what's happening next year :

A Levels become AS Levels in the first year - with the AS qualification gained at the end of the year.

Then A2 in the second year which coverts the AS level to an A Level.

Students will be encouraged to take roughly 4 AS levels in the first year and convert 3 to A levels in the second year - perhaps doing another AS Levels.

There are also Vocational A Levels (GNVQs)- of Various sizes. Its all a bit complicated.

This is a fairly hot topic both at home and at work.

Clearer - or more confused ?

Julie

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: GUEST,Penny S (de-cookied)
Date: 19 Aug 00 - 12:55 PM

OK, so I didn't get it all right. What do you expect from a primary teacher who just has to cope with QCA tests, and MARK THEM HERSELF!

But, for those with problems, my niece, a few years back, didn't get what she needed for Manchester, but ended up better off at Exeter, reading maths, and achieving better than the public school kids who had walked in. And got some surfing in, too. Keep looking for places through UCCA.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: GUEST,jayohjo in edinburgh
Date: 20 Aug 00 - 06:17 PM

YAAARGH! I haven't been able to post before this, but I GOT 4 A-GRADES, HEEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEE! So I'm celebrating. A bit.

Everything is great! jayohjo XX

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: Quincy
Date: 20 Aug 00 - 06:38 PM

Congratulations Jayohjo!!!!!!!
That's some achievement.......here's wishing you every success in the future.....well done!

best wishes, Yvonne

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: Catrin
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 07:21 AM

Jayhayjo!!!

Clever thing! Well done.

Congrats and all that

Catrin

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: InOBU
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 07:34 AM

This time of year, oh about 1977, in Dingle, Co. Kerry. My wife and I - and Mora and Siobhan O'Connor and Sorcha Bolger are passing the church. Mora skips in to light a candle for her A levels. They now have the new electric candles just installed. She puts tupence or so in the slot.... nothing happenes. She takes it as an omen. She begins to scream and curse. We have to carry her out of the church. There was an electic company strike on. ANYone in touch with the above, give them Larry and Genie's best. They were related to the O'Conner (Jerry) of the chipper in Dingle, and lived in Donegal. Good luck to all on exams, tests, quizes and all other times of torture...
Larry

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: Morticia
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 09:45 AM

Congratulations Jay, that's wonderful.......where are you going and what are you reading?

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: Noreen
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 09:49 AM

Many congratulations, Jo, what a feeling! Keep us in touch with what you're doing.

Noreen

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: Mbo
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 12:04 PM

Congratulations, ladies!

--Matt

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: catspaw49
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 01:50 PM

My heartiest and most heartfelt congratulations to you both. Continue to give your best and you will never be disappointed fore all that matters is within you.

The whole problem with life is that we only get to experience each age once so enjoy it and be happy with yourself. All My Best,

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: A-level impending doomsday UK
From: Gervase
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 02:50 PM

Jayohjo - well done!
I did four A-levels, but had the misfortune to fall wildly in love half-way through the course.
Sure, I got four passes, but they were shite, and I never did get onto the course I'd plumped for - but 20 years on, I've done a job for which nothing qualified me bar bare, bald chutzpah and cheek, and married a gorgeous lunatic to boot.
NowSo, bejaysus, what exam could give you all that, eh?
The moral being?
Make the most of it while you can. And, whatever your parents say, squander your youth (for three years at least) and go on to do grand things.
Remember Ian Drury - and be magnificent! Good luck...