Diesel

These kids are so bright! Either that or its another Labour fudge...

In my day 20 yrs ago I got one 'A' as I was by far the best in Biology - I think one other kid in class got an 'A'. We were all in the 'clever dick A stream' too,

I got another couple of B's, 5 'C's a 'D' and an 'U'. The absolute brain boxes with no life got maybe 4 'A's overall, tops.

Based on the above am I being unfairly dismissive towards the kids I just saw jumping up and down on TV as they got 4 A*'s and a few 'A's? 94% passed all exams it seems - would have been more like 30% in my day.

As an employer I must say I give very little creedence to exam results on CV's for school leavers these days. I find rather absurd as it used to be a guide to what someone was like but now they are all geniuses as are the schools and governors and government and everyone in education generally

D

NotoriousREV

Am I the only person thinking "what the flying **** is a ******* A*?"? Too many get A's so they have to create another grade instead of changing the bandings of the current grades? What bollox.

dsmith

You really need to tell us the year so we can place the appropriate value on the grades

PG

I was thinking the same ! An A* WTF? Do the idiots get D's with a wee smilie face beside them ?
Listening to Radio One today it would appear that any numptie can get an 'A' now. Most often in Drama for some reason So they may not be able to read or write but they could play the role of someone that can

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

A* star came about in my era 10 years ago. It was basically given when you had nearly full marks (98% or somthing like that). Probably changed now.

I do remember when passing the media bandwagon moaning at how it has become easier and more people are passing.


But hell it was hard work, I got 1 A*, 4 Bs and 4 Cs back then and 2 of those Bs should have been an A thanks to a **** up with being issued the wrong paper for double science (intimediate instead of advanced) whereby it was impossible to get an A....me bitter? well maybe

And sorry, but I refuse to belive that anyone in this day and age who utters the words "you know" and "innit" in every sentence could get an A for English and English Literature. If they do, then we are all doomed

So yes I think Labour are fudging the figures or using "PC" moderation...My old secondary school has gone down the pan since I left, and quite a few others too, yet it seems to get better results...I must be missing something there

Diesel

LOL That's what we need - like a log table based on year to work out the true value to the results. Anyone remember how to use them - and no I dont mean using your Texas Scientific/Gameboy!!!

D

darlodge

6 D's, 3 few E's, 1 F . The worst of these was IT with a F. And that's what I'm doing now

I could not wait to get out of school and start work at 16. School taught me a few things but I've picked up soooo much more whilst working than I ever did at school, however I put this down to me be a little $hit bag and being in my rebellious stage

Darren

princessyin

thats really harsh downgrading the hard working pupils work and earned grades, mostly media fed food in your brain, by no means least an A and A* are easy to get, my brother picked up his results and he no chav, he was very disappoint in his results, mixtures of 3 A's, B's n C's and a D in IT which was very surprising!

dsmith

princessyin - I'd love to think you were being ironic.....

princessyin

well depends on your personal expectations, suppose some people do view GCSE's as a waste of time, depends what perspective your viewing it from and where your planning on leading your life to

darlodge

Sort of like the record or achievement.

I don't know if they still use these books but I've never seen them used. Mines got photos in to stop them getting damaged.

Darren

dsmith

GCSEs needed for A Level
A Levels needed for Degree
Degree needed for 1st Job

After that experience is worth 1000 times more. And in IT at least, you would never know those that left education after GCSEs / A levels or degrees so long as they can do the job....and of course assuming they are not illiterate monkeys who can only speak and type in retarded text speak, without the slightest clue about punctuation or spelling.

Unfortunately GCSEs, or any other qualification, don't appear to bear any relation to basic literacy skills these days.

Bubba po

I take it that you aren't the academic one in your family from this post.

Bubba po

My w**k colleague has a third class degree in Zoology. He can neither write coherently nor spell. Many subtleties of language or general banter pass him by. If he is the educational creme de la creme, then I give up.

what would scooby do

Bubba, it's all about the mix of intelligence and knowledge

Some people can fathom Friedrich Nietzsche but can't boil an egg

princessyin

yeah i know some people who are academically gifted but lack general common sense and initiative lol.

Suresh

My O level record from the late 80's :
3As, 3B's, 1C, 1D, 1U (applied mathematics bored the sh*t out of me)

Simon S3

OK, took mine in 1987 (It were `ard back then).

Physics. B
Chemistry. C
Biology. A
Geography. A
English. B
Maths. B
Technical Drawing. B
History. B
English Lit. U (whoops).

We had none of this course work bollocks, if you screwed up the exam then that was it.

I did OK, I wasn`t interested in A-levels so became an apprentice instead. The level of handwriting some of the kids turn up with today beggars belief.

NotoriousREV

I got 2 A's, a B (did maths a year early), 3 C's, a D, an E and got an F for IT. I'm another one that did badly in in GCSE IT yet now do it for a living, although it's because I didn't hand any coursework in for it

My A Levels were worse, got and E in Biology and a U in Chemistry mainly due to the fact I was sleeping with half the girls my classes and concentrating on each of them not finding out about the others Ah, happy days!

Did GCSE's in 1991 and A Levels in 1994 (took a break from edumacation for a couple of years)

Leslie

Funny how so many with those kind of results can't read or write properly, or understand maths either!

Les

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

Isn't it true that employers are complaining that *they* are having to educate school leavers in basic English and Maths when employing them?

Isn't it also true that Exam markers are being told to ignore spelling errors when marking english papers?

No, I'm sorry - but the level of marking doesn't seem to bear any resemblance to the standards of 20 years back (when I took mine)

OllyK

The thing that puzzles me, when I did O levels, we used to 8 maybe 9 and the real high flyers may have done 10. These days the norm seems to be doing 12 or more. You can't be telling me that in 15 years or so standards are so improved that almost everybody is not only able to take on an additional 4 or 5 exams (to the same standard) and pass then to a higher grade. It just doesn't add up to me, as the school leavers I come across seem to be a waste of space for the most part.

CrisPDuk

I got 13 straight 'B's in my O levels - 10 (Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, English L & L, French, German, History & Art) in '86 and a further 3 (Applied Maths, Geology & General Studies) in '87

As I tell my kids now, any fool can get a mix of A's, B's & C's but it takes true dedication to be consistently second rate

Abdabz

Ooo it was 1990 and I got:
English Langwidge (A)
Biology (B)
German (C)
Geography (C)
Maths (C)
Cookin n **** (C)

And that was with more booze and weed in me than an england bound truck from Amsterdam... Oh and having missed half the year due to finding indulging in saiod products during school time was far more fun than sitting in class Excellent!
English Lit (E)
Electronics (E)

jbryant

I got 3 A's, 6 B's and a C in the mid 80's.
Was roughly 2/3rds of the way down the pecking order in the local grammar school. Hey, they even told us other kids in the year were more intelligent or more stupid (oh sorry I mean academically challenged ) than us [shock horror] and ranked us 1-90 for each subject in the school year. Just wouldn't be allowed now for fear of damaging the little darlings.

Hey - at least we were allowed to fail back then - Now you'd just get a "A-Minus-Star-Star-Slash-A". Up yours to all the bull**** around education at the moment. The whole exams thing is being debased to the point of worthlessness, and I'm amazed that some of the kids I know have got the grades they did.

Interesting social experiment number 1:
Take a few thousand GCSE students of varying academic success who have just taken their exams. Ensure syllabus matches, and ask them to sit equivalent level papers from 10 years ago and 20 years ago. Then publish the results of their grades this year versus what they achieved in the old papers. Then everyone can look at the results, make their own minds up, and shut the hell up - case closed.

Joolz

OllyK

This was done for A levels, it was posted on here last week. People getting A's with the current batch, were struggling to get D's and E's with the old papers.

MJW

I did Maths O level a year early, then was among the first to do GCSEs which to be honest were a lot easier than the O level papers we looked at. I got 6 A's, 3 B's and a C, 4 A-levels and a S-level, and went on to get a 2-1 in Industrial IT. I did want to do English Lit at Oxford, but by the time I was in 6th form I was too busy faffing about with birds and booze to give 100%. So I stumbled into engineering and now run my own business.