So last year I did my GCSEs; I did eleven exams in the subjects: Biology, Art, Physics, Chemistry, Design Technology, Geography, Enlgih Lit and Language, Spanish, Maths and Computing. I was pleasantly surprised late this summer when I received my results to find I had grossly underestimated my knowledge on most of the topics. Here in the UK we use a number system for grading now (I know, it’s really stupid) that goes from 1-9, an 8 being equivilant to what was previosuly an A*, which would mean that a 9 was an A**, or something, right? I think what really happens is that they examiners take the higher percentile of 8 grades and basically change them to 9s, in order to distinguish them. So to get back to me, I was predicted some pretty low grades, and I was truly embarrassed, especially since I associate myself more with “the smart people” rather than the “cool people”, of which most were getting straight 8 predictions. I was even more afraid having taken the real exams and realised that I probably should have started revision a bit earlier, but luckily my best friend short-term memory had been sticking out for me and I managed to achieve a pretty good set of results. In the end I got four 9s, five 8s, one 7 and a 6 (in spanish, have I ever mentioned that I hate languages?).

So those results were followed by incredible relief that I would not have to beg my parents to disown me for wasting their money on school fees. Also, please don’t get the wrong message, I am very grateful for the money my parents invest in my education, but I have a pretty rocky relationship with my attention who enjoys draggin me to see the nest funny video or episode in a dodgy Netflix series (cough, cough, Riverdale, cough!). Jokes aside, Riverdale is amazing! Okay really though, I don’t mean to be a dark-dwelling lowlife who spends most of his life behind a computer screen and obviously I’v been given a second chance in taking my education seriously, so here we are. A-levels are a lot harder than I thought they’d be, I mean we only do four subects now, but it feel even harder than last year. I probably doesn’t help that we’re being told that what we’ve learnt in the past is either completely untrue or a gross oversimplification. Ohhh, I hate Chemistry…

Sorry if this wasn’t what you were looking for, but I hope it was mildly entertaining to read.

. John