So how good were my “good” results?
Well I have now had all weekend to mull over my results (after several hours of work) and have come to one conclusion: I could have done so much better. I mean, I got the results I needed to get into University and to chase the dream, but I feel that I could have got a B in Spanish and a D in Physics if I had put in 111%, as opposed to my 110% slog, in the last couple of months leading up to the exams.
The best thing I can do is to briefly analyse my results, subject by subject and unit by unit. However, before I do that, I think it would be best to return to my post-exam predictions:
| Subject Title | Predicted Grade | Actual Grade | Accuracy* | |
| Government and Politics | B (mid) | A (low) | 91.8% | |
| Spanish | C (high) | C (high) | 99.0% | |
| Computing | C (mid) | C (low) | 97.2% | |
| General Studies | D (high) | C (low) | 98.0% | |
| Physics | E (high) | E (mid) | 98.2% | |
| Critical Thinking (AS) | C (low) | C (low) | 99.0% |
* Accuracy is based on the difference between the UMS I predicted I’d get (which I didn’t publish) and the UMS I actually got.
So let’s start with Government and Politics. The exams I took in June of this year are in italics for all subjects and the accuracy of my predictions worked out as above for each subject module is also included. However, as I did not have unit totals for all modules at the time, these are likely to be less accurate than the overall subject.
| Subject/Module Title | UMS | Grade | Accuracy | |
| Government and Politics | 495/600 | A | 91.8% | |
| GOV1 Electoral Systems and Voting Behaviour | 84/100 | A | N/A | |
| GOV2 Parties and Pressure Groups | 84/100 | A | N/A | |
| GOV3 Features of Representative Democracy | 86/100 | A | N/A | |
| GOV4 Comparative UK/USA Government | 72/90 | A | 92.2% | |
| GOV5 The Politics of the USA | 63/90 | B | 90.0% | |
| GOV8 Government and Politics (Synoptic Module) | 106/120 | A | 74.2% |
Is there any point me going into this one? I couldn’t have done much better than an A. However, someone in my class managed it - so well done to Callan Davies, who came in the top five in the Country. One point I will make, though, is that my best score was in the synoptic module - mainly because I used examples from local government and a whole page on Pakistan (two of my pet topics outside the UK national and USA areas).
| Subject/Module Title | UMS | Grade | Accuracy | |
| Spanish | 411/600 | C | 99.0% | |
| SP01 Spanish: Young People Today | 81/105 | B | N/A | |
| SP02 Spanish: Aspects of Society | 59/90 | C | 87.8% | |
| SP3T Spanish: People and Society (Oral) | 76/105 | B | N/A | |
| SP04 Spanish: Contemporary Issues |
59/105 | D | 84.8% | |
| SP5C Spanish: Cultural and Social Landscape in Focus (Coursework) |
54/90 | C | 98.9% | |
| SP6T Spanish: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (Oral) |
82/105 | B | 79.0% |
It seems that, for the first time in four years of doing Spanish, my reading exam proved to be my biggest downfall. SP04 was the two-and-a-half hour reading/listening exam, and my only D in Spanish. However, I managed to increase my written exam from a U to an E to a C, which I a quite happy about - and, as most people who know me will understand, I am shocked and ecstatic that the two orals were my second-best modules.
| Subject/Module Title | UMS | Grade | Accuracy | |
| Computing | 375/600 | C | 97.2% | |
| CPT1 Computer Systems, Programming & Network Concepts | 76/105 | B | N/A | |
| CPT2 Principles of Hardware, Software and Applications |
89/105 | A | 85.7% | |
| CPT3 Practical Systems Development (Coursework/Exam) | 70/90 | B | N/A | |
| CPT4 Processing & Programming Techniques |
24/90 | U | 54.4% | |
| CPT5 Advanced Systems Development |
54/90 | C | 96.7% | |
| CPT6 The Practical Project (Coursework) |
62/120 | D | 90.0% |
My Computing results are both surprising and confusing. I had already seen the mark sheet for my CPT6 coursework, so I knew I’d be getting a D for that. I hadn’t expected getting an A on my CPT2 resit. However, a lot of the questions focused on legal aspects of computer use, and so I should probably be happy with my result there. Few people left the CPT4 exam happy, although I am still at a loss as to why I got a U for it. In fact, it is my lowest scoring exam across the board (yes, I did worse at that than my first attempt at Physics!). Overall, though 375 is only just over the 360-mark threshold for a C grade, and thus Computing also stands as second-closest to the lower grade boundary.
| Subject/Module Title | UMS | Grade | Accuracy | |
| General Studies |
361/600 | C | 98.0% | |
| 6451 General Studies 1 | 88/120 | B | N/A | |
| 6452 General Studies 2 |
60/90 | C | N/A | |
| 6453 General Studies 3 | 36/90 | E | N/A | |
| 6454 General Studies 4 |
66/90 | B | N/A | |
| 6455 General Studies 5 |
63/90 | C | 95.6% | |
| 6456 General Studies 6 |
48/120 | E | 93.3% |
Ah, General Studies. Everyone’s favourite non-subject. Because of the fact that I was doing Critical Thinking, I wasn’t supposed to to General Studies and was timetabled no lessons. However, at the last minute, I decided to enter into the full A-level and chance it in each exam. The fact that, overall, I got a C (including B in two Y13 modules) without going to a single lesson in my entire second year - or, for that matter, even looking through a textbook - shows just how much of a joke this subject really is! My biggest hope is that Rainham Mark will soon wake up to this farcical “subject”, which is not accepted by many Universities, and teach students information actually necessary in their day-to-day lives.
| Subject/Module Title | UMS | Grade | Accuracy | |
| Physics |
278/600 | E | 98.2% | |
| 6731 Physics 1 | 49/90 | D | N/A | |
| 6732 Physics 2 |
45/90 | C | 96.7% | |
| 6733 Physics 3 | 62/120 | D | N/A | |
| 6734 Physics 4 |
50/90 | D | 95.6% | |
| 6735 Physics 5 |
43/90 | E | 92.2% | |
| 6736 Physics 6 |
29/120 | U | 90.8% |
In many ways, I am reasonably pleased with my Physics results - I actually managed to get a (safe) grade. However, part of me is thinking that, had my Physics 2 unit not been on the same day as the driving test I passed (the excitement of which led me to do almost no revision that day!), or had I studied slightly harder for Physics 6, I would have got a D. That would have turned my results day joy into ecstasy!
| Subject/Module Title | UMS | Grade | Accuracy | |
| Critical Thinking (AS) |
183/300 | C | 99.0% | |
| F491 Credibility of Evidence | 77/120 | C | N/A | |
| F492 Assessing and Developing Argument |
106/180 | C | 98.3% |
A lot of people took Critical Thinking to escape General Studies (like me), believing it would be just as easy but slightly less boring (unlike me - I took it because the skills learned will be useful in a career in law and in politics). Many dropped out after F491 in January, when they discovered it’s not as easy as it looks. I only just got a C, but it is a C nonetheless, and I am more than happy with this result.
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I am no expert on the complexity of how exam results are now documented and portrayed, but I do offer my from-the-heart congratulations to you and to all the others who have achieved good results.
I am very much aware of the current debate as to the effective devaluing of such results by Government manipulation, and the difficulties all of that has given potential employers. That, though, does not mean that you and your fellows didn’t put in the sheer effort, anguish and all the rest of it that we did in my day.
The system is deficient, not you.
August 21st, 2008 at 11:33Thank you, John.
However, I am still not bought by any of the arguments that there are major flaws in the system (although I can accept that there are some problems with it).
What bothers me more, though, is that our efforts are not undervalued so much by the flaws in the system as by all the pious and bitter people who did badly when they were at school and can’t bear to see the next generation doing better than them.
So, rather than congratulate them, they claim that exams are getting easier, thus truly undervaluing the results and insulting the students who have worked their hardest to achieve them.
I’m obviously not suggesting you are one of these people, John, but there are a lot of them out there (Yourmedway’s blogger yesterday, for example!).
August 21st, 2008 at 11:45Oh, I don’t begrudge good results. I narrowly failed by 11-plus, though my younger brother passed, went to Grammar School and University. Well done to him, and to you.
It has, however, been pointed out that employers are now finding it difficult to evaluate job applicants on the basis of exam results, and that is because the system genuinely has been tampered with to such a degree that it has created a real problem that didn’t exist before.
That I think is now becoming broadly accepted, which is where “the system” is falling down and could make it difficult for your generation post-University.
We shall see what happens in practice, but in the meantime some of us are understandably concerned. That’s all. We’re on your side!
August 21st, 2008 at 15:16Further to the foregoing…
This article might help clarify the distinction that needs to be made in this discussion.
August 21st, 2008 at 15:39Oh, and THIS. There are undoubtedly others, but I’ll leave it there.
August 21st, 2008 at 15:57As I said, I wasn’t claiming you were one of them.
I would suggest that the system is problematic at the moment - it’s not that exams are easier or have been “dumbed down”, but the contrary, that higher grade boundaries should be altered to reflect the increasing number of people achieving the higher grades (I would have been happy to get a B in G&P).
I am quite split on this, though, because at the same time I do not see any value in making it harder to achieve the “lower” grades (C and below) as many, many students struggle to even get these - and in terms of employers, four grade C GCSEs is more valuable than it’s vocational “equivalent”.
Of course if so much emphasis weren’t put on meeting these targets by the government (both grade achievement and university entry), then the system wouldn’t have to be so “fair” and many of the problems now being faced would not exist.
August 21st, 2008 at 19:36Yup, that seems to be generally fair comment; and you are “on the inside”, so to speak, so I bow to your knowledge on the whole subject.
August 21st, 2008 at 20:54