A'level results day.

[ctdctd]

With a c d and an e sounds like education maybe a stretch to fair for him.

Not good academically, so what's the point of sending Timmy off to Uni.

Get away from home and used to the big bad world?

[TimberWolf]

I didn't realise it was possible to fail A levels these days (anything less than a B). Aren't most of them getting A's?

Historically weren't grades based on your grade ranking compared to your peers? E.g. 10% got A's, 20% got B's etc? So it didn't matter how hard or easy the exams were, employers/educational establishments could differentiate students with grades and these had some credibility and usefulness.

[MarillionFan]

Get away from home and used to the big bad world?

Well Dave could give him a bloody good hiding and chuck him out on the streets.

This would give the same result and cost a helluva lot less!

[d000hg]

I didn't realise it was possible to fail A levels these days (anything less than a B). Aren't most of them getting A's?

Historically weren't grades based on your grade ranking compared to your peers? E.g. 10% got A's, 20% got B's etc? So it didn't matter how hard or easy the exams were, employers/educational establishments could differentiate students with grades and these had some credibility and usefulness.

My father's school did that but that was for their own exams, I think. My maths teacher did mention something similar, that the mark needed for an A is not fixed in advance (unlike when I was at university), but that was a few years back too, before all these A2 things came in.

Glad to see the new A* grade, to make it easier to see who actually did well.

[gingerjedi]

With a c d and an e sounds like education maybe a stretch to fair for him.

Not good academically, so what's the point of sending Timmy off to Uni.

too far

[Mich the Tester]

Young people today don’t even know what an ‘A level’ is. In my day, we had to do mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology AND translate the textbooks from ancient Greek while writing our examinations in Latin; and don’t go thinking you could get away with the odd spelling mistake, oh no, that was twenty lashes with the birch and a retake. Once we’d finished our ‘A levels’ we were sent to do national service and become real men; there was no namby pamby university for us, just a tour in the jungles of Wuggobongo getting beheaded by fuzzywuzzies and learning to share our socks with the bilharzia worm! But we were happy!

The youth of today have it far too easy! Bring back the birch and bring back national service! That´ll make them into the kind of queens that made the British Empire great!

[EternalOptimist]

Young people today don’t even know what an ‘A level’ is. In my day, we had to do mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology AND translate the textbooks from ancient Greek while writing our examinations in Latin; and don’t go thinking you could get away with the odd spelling mistake, oh no, that was twenty lashes with the birch and a retake. Once we’d finished our ‘A levels’ we were sent to do national service and become real men; there was no namby pamby university for us, just a tour in the jungles of Wuggobongo getting beheaded by fuzzywuzzies and learning to share our socks with the bilharzia worm! But we were happy!

The youth of today have it far too easy! Bring back the birch and bring back national service! That´ll make them into the kind of queens that made the British Empire great!

Well said. I like you Mich

damn fine fellow what.

[Mich the Tester]

Well said. I like you Mich

damn fine fellow what.

Oh, you went to Tosher's too, did you?

Always good to see a fellow Old Toshpottian!

Huzzah for Tosher's!


PS Bit of a shame about old Gubby! Came to grief with a horned buffalo in the Sudan and had to be 'rebuilt'; I think they call it transgendering these days! Sounds jolly painful, but never mind, all those lashings prepared him for dealing with a little discomfort!

[Paddy]

Well, that's a C and D more than I got - but they were much harder back in the good old days.

[NotAllThere]

3 years not on the dole?

That's just pandering to government employment figures.

The problem with 10% of each year getting A's etc. is that you can't compare one year's intake with the next. For the same work, in one year you get a C, in another a B or a D. Mind you, with the supposed absolute marking, I'm waiting for the news that more people have passed, and there are more A grades than ever before.