oh dear: Teachers say no-one should 'fail'

[wendigo100]

I didn't do very well in my O-level mocks, which shocked me a bit, and it was the fear of failure in the real exams that got me in off the streets at night and brought to an end my budding career as a yob.

I wouldn't have had the same fear of deferred success.

[wendigo100]

A levels were graded A to F, O, and U.

What was O?

I seem to recall you could fail an A level, but just do well enough to get an O level. Is that what it was?

[hattra]

IIRC "A" levels grades A - E were a pass, F was a marginal fail, so you could do an early resit (I seem to remember that they were done during the Summer holidays), O was an "O" level pass, and U was "try again next year". Is it still the same these days?

It looks as if the "O" level grades may have started to change from numeric in the early 70's (at least for some exam boards) - I didn't think that happened until just before the GCSEs were brought in - you live and learn, eh!

[wendigo100]

U was "try again next year". Is it still the same these days?

ISTR that U stood for Unclassified, the equivalent to not turning up, or doing so badly you might as well not have.

In which case, rather than "try again next year", it was more like "try going to school first".