Be Excellent To Each Other

Hey! It's A-level results day. For the younger generation. Who are damned to be crushed by the misery of Thatcher's Britain part II. Unfortunately. But! You older guys and girls. You had your A-levels results in much sunnier climes. Figuratively. (Or not, if are a bit older.) How did you do? Was it a bitter disappointment, or a day of soaring elation?

Me? Anticlimax was the word. Got on the train to college in the early afternoon with my brother to check the results. Looked at results on a big pin board. Were the same as my AS level results: not a bad thing, but oddly a sense of "is this it?" came over me. AS results day a year earlier, was thrilled and excited for the future. Now it all seemed routine like clockwork. We both went to the station to wait for the train, without spotting anyone I knew, rather confused but not quite philosophical. Bought Edge, possibly issue 114, from the newsagents to read during the wait and journey. Came home. Had an Indian takeaway later with the family, a meal by ruined by dad's unpleasantness and the unexpected appearance of his brother. Not a very happy day in all. Despite a triumph of sorts.

I knew I wasn't going to do very well in mine as I did no work for them... Shame I didn't tell this to my parents.

I went to college with all my friends. Picked up our results then went to the pub for a bit. The best bit of the day was watching someone fall off a bus seat as the bus stopped suddenly.

I did a BTEC so I did not have the wait A level folks did..

It was on results day that I found out that you could get an N grade. Bloody geography.

Pretty much what I expected, really.

Well except for the long wait turning "that was easy, must be an A" into "i've failed badly. "

So not actually what I feared at the time.

Yeah, I muffed up a gold-studded academic career when A-levels came around. Went from predicted AAAB to AACD (one of the As was the most important topic of all, General Studies). Never mind, it got me where I needed to be.

Got an A in maths, a B in physics and a C in chemistry, and the only one I was happy with was the C!

Malc

I was disappointed, as I got far lower grades than anticipated, but this was due to my personal life having taken a rather sizeable turn for the worse in the months preceding the exams, taking me from a predicted AAABC to AABCE.

Since my two favourite Uni options only required a BC or BBC, I was fine, so, yeah, that was okay. Still not a time I associate with good memories though.

I did rather better than expected, getting straight A grades. This was a very good thing obviously, so me and my mates went into town and straight to the pub. I guess it was my first all day drinking session and after a sterling performance necking Guinness for 12 hours, my older bro had to come to town to carry me home.

Everything kinda went wrong when I went to Uni and ballsed everything up over three and a half years, but I wouldn't change a thing now.

Walked to school with friends, got predicted ABC, but not for the right subjects—got a surprise B for physics but a C for art and design. Naturally, I then spent a year doing an access course, before going to uni to do art. The event itself wasn't really memorable—just groups of people showing up, grabbing an envelope and then either whooping or being a bit sad. And then we all went home.

Needed BBC. Got AAA. Was happy.

Much more thrilled getting those results for my AS levels the previous year, admittedly. Expected Cs and Ds back then. Second year of A-levels was plain sailing, but the first year, I was worrying the whole time that I wasn't cut out for it.

Fairly underwhelming, so far as I remember - no popping to school for me, just opened the results envelope. I'm sure I was nervous, but the results were fine. I hadn't applied to university, so there was little riding on them. Instead, after a 'not going' strop, I applied the next year - easy when you've got the grades already.

I got a B in Maths, C in Physics & A in Accountancy

Got a Trainee Accountant job in the summer & did not bother going to uni.

If you did that this year, it'd cost you an *extra* 24 grand or so, they're saying

I got BCD, and needed ABB to get into my uni.

But then they let me in anyway!

Edit: But then I dropped out anyway!

I'm just going to leave this here.

Mostly SFW.

http://sexyalevels.tumblr.com

Mali went from ACDC to ABBA.

I got 15,000 A*s. Then, as I'm a pretty girl, I appeared in newspapers when I hugged another pretty girl.

I think I got DDE. I can't really remember, i've got 2 degrees now so it doesn't matter. Between the ages of 16 and 18 was not a good time for me to "achieve" anything tbh. I fucking hated doing A levels.

Heh.

AAB to BCC with an A in general studies. If I'd have gotten 2 marks more in German, it'd have been an A, and I would have gone to London to study medicine (They really liked me at interview, basically). Something I've never really forgiven my German teacher for marking my coursework down for 'not relating to Germany enough' when I'd written a factually correct and linguistically excellent piece on the role of nuclear power on the future of the European Union. I am aware that resentment is like taking poison and expecting the other person to die, but it still galls me a bit. That and I should have worked harder. In my defence, the casual slip shows quite how good the surf was around that time, and the super fun trips I was taking with the MrsA of the period, walking to find secluded coves and the like.

Still, it got me where I am today, so I grateful for small mercies, and I don't think I'd have been a terribly good doctor, either.

It vexes me when people say that the exams are getting easier, but I've banged that drum before.

I don't remember the day being that memorable really... bit of relief when I got my results (AAA, needed AAB for Uni course) but as I was at one of those obnoxious schools which treats anything less than an A as failure I didn't really feel much sense of achievement, more a sense of "well I should bloody well hope so". Then there was a big panic when I got a letter of rejection from Nottingham Uni because my Maths A-level had actually been achieved earlier in the year (it was a modular course) and so hadn't been communicated to them, leaving them thinking I only had AAU Got sorted though.