Did you get the results you were hoping for?

1990 was the year that I received my A-level results. I remember that on that particular Thursday I was at cub camp. Now I know that you are now thinking that I must have been some sort of child genius sitting my Advanced Level examinations whilst still wearing a woggle, shorts and long grey socks with elasticated tags on them; I don't recall what those were called... But no I was not a genius, I was on cub camp as a leader. I can't quite recall all the things that we did as cub leaders on camp but I'm sure that making cocoa and playing in the woods was involved.

http://www.scouting.milestones.btinternet.co.uk/woodbadgeimages/gilwoggle2.gif

So that exam results day would have found me waking in a sleeping bag, helping to make a cooked breakfast for 20 youngsters and then driving to school to collect my results. It was a stressful time. Success meant going to the university of choice, failure meant going to a polytechnic. I needed a B and two C's to get into my chosen higher education course. I achieved two B's and a C and when opening the envelope I knew that I was off to university.

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I dutifully returned to camp (I think I sneaked home for a shower) and then that evening my Dad turned up to celebrate with some cans of real ale around the camp fire.

Today was A-level results day, when up and down the country the students received their results. Most already knew if they had done OK as in this technological age the students can log on to the university application system, UCAS -known as UCCA and PCAS in my day- at midnight to find out if their application had been successful. If they were off to Uni it meant that they had made the grades. Personally I think this takes some of the magic out of opening the envelope, kinda knowing what a present is before unwrapping it.

As I write this the BBC is reporting a 30th consecutive rise in A-level pass rate, but a fall in the top grades. The politicians will argue about the reasons for this most probably that the exams got easier and that teachers are not stretching the students enough for them to get th A and A* grades. I hope those hard working students don't listen to these press snippets. For them the A-level exams are just as hard as ever, and no one passes an A-level without studying.

One thing about exam result day which troubles me. On the morning news you always get a reporter encamped at a school with four or five captive students who have to open their results liv to the nation. How come those students always get 4 A's?

The reporter then asks, "Did you get the results you wanted?".

Of course all five of those students are off to Cambridge to study Medicine. Good luck paying off your debts guys.

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