I’m watching breakfast TV (unemployed 😀 ) and watching kids talk about their A-level results. anyone here getting results for themselves, their kids, their pupils? anyone having a busy day at a college/uni admissions offices?

let me also be the first to say that exams these days are a joke, teachers give out As for health and safety reasons because they’re scared kids will sue them if they get Fs, and the exams I did at school were far harder. that’s all rubbish, but I thought I might as well get it out the way…

😀

Yes, relief all round. Bloody tense between 05:00 and 06:00 when results came out!!!

Son awaiting maths A level result. He is already into Uni on the strength of his BTech but would be nice for him to do well as a bit of a confidence boost

Usual story of marking anomalies – whole departments with bizarre results, lots of painful near misses etc.

The marking has become a farce. I often watch examiners on the train and you get good insight into how to advise students from the manner and speed with which they work. Quite depressing after all the hard work that students put in.

JUst got mine, and they’re not too bad (BBBC). It does mean that I’d have to do a foundation year if I wanted to do mech eng at any of the better unis, but I’ve still got the gap year to figure out what I want to do.

I’m a bit annoyed that I didn’t get any ‘special consideration’ from the exam board (they give you a bit of extra time in exams and an extra 5% marks if they feel something personal has badly affected your ability to study), as my father passed away about a month before the exams started, and I found it pretty tough to carry on with revision after that.

Anyway, no more complaining – could be a lot worse!

Youngest daughter gets hers today if she can be arsed! She sooo relaxed about the whole thing. Doesn’t help that she decided not to go to uni and already has a full time job at the local hospital so results now seem immaterial to her

Usual story of marking anomalies – whole departments with bizarre results, lots of painful near misses etc.

That’s where I’m at. Quite angered by it actually. First year of New Higher in Scotland and I’ve got some frankly outlandish results swinging both ways especially in the coursework element. Are you a teacher THM?

extra 5% marks if they feel something personal has badly affected your ability to study), as my father passed away about a month before the exams started

Sorry to hear that. I don’t know about your exam board but I’d be really surprised if they did that. Extra time yes, extra marks no. Well done anyway.

my father passed away about a month before the exams started, and I found it pretty tough to carry on with revision after that.

Sounds like you did really well despite the terrible situation. Not sure I could have kept it together like that.

My eldest got his (retake) International Bacc results well over a month ago, taken at the same time as As, at a state school, marked and published much faster, and not arsing up the whole Summer. Has had his uni place confirmed etc etc.

It does seem a bit bizarre that there is only this short 4-5 week period in which to receive marks, get adjustments, contact Unis, do clearing etc etc.

Partners son gets add maths result today and GCSEs next week. happy days…

Good effort Parkinson. And well done for playing with the hand you were dealt.

Yes, here for my niece & nephew badly … niece is just about fine as she has been accepted to do a foundation year but nephew is in trouble.

Nephew predicted 3 A* but instead got 3 B and now I think he has been rejected by all Universities because they all offered him 3 A.

Just after his exam he double checked his answers with his teachers and all agreed that he managed to scored nearly 100%. i.e. Maths, Chemistry and Physics I think.

I have advised him to:

1. Ask his school to investigate his result again,
2. Go for clearance,
3. Seek alternative in applying for foundation course.

As oversea student he is already 20 yr old (UK & EU students normally graduate at 21 yr old) but life means nothing with a delay of two or three years.

The downside his father will have to fork out the money …

😮

JUst got mine, and they’re not too bad (BBBC). It does mean that I’d have to do a foundation year if I wanted to do mech eng at any of the better unis, but I’ve still got the gap year to figure out what I want to do.

I wouldn’t worry about the foundation year, I knew quite a few people who did one and subsequently did a lot better in the first couple of years of the actual degree than those of us starting from the usual AAB entry requirements.

Equally I’d resist the temptation to drop down to a ‘lesser’ university. If the course/department isn’t accredited by the IMechE then Chartership becomes more difficult, and the qualification you really need is Chartership, not the degree. And rightly or wrongly we only actively recruit from universities we’ve had good grads from before, coming from an unknown university would put you on the back foot when applying for jobs.

I’m on a 1700 – 0000 shift in A&E today… I’m sure these results will have an effect on me.

🙁

Firstborn got a call yesterday afternoon from school asking her to put on her best jumping shoes, straighen her hair and come in early for cliched photographs, so we got a hint there that they thought she’d done OK.

She has been a bit panicky about a couple of papers but turns out they were tough for everyone else too. She has A*A*AA and is off to Nottingham and Madrid Autonoma to do Maths. Very proud.

padkinson – Member

JUst got mine, and they’re not too bad (BBBC). It does mean that I’d have to do a foundation year if I wanted to do mech eng at any of the better unis, but I’ve still got the gap year to figure out what I want to do.

Well done on the results – especially considering the circumstances.
What uni’s won’t let you in with those grades?!
When I did my A-levels, Brunel (who at the time was ranked fourth in the UK for Mech Eng) wanted 3xC grades.
I got 2C’s and E and an AS level E.

The E was in maths (I hated maths at school) and I ended up doing a foundation year. By the time I had got home from school I already had a phone call from the uni asking if I was interested.

It was great – best introduction to the uni I could have had, I reckon. It was a broad outline of many engineering subjects – the people who were doing it because they’d done inappropriate a-levels to go straight onto the course (history, geography, English etc.) found it hard work, but most of the people who were on it as they just missed out on the grades found it fairly easy.
I don’t know if all uni’s do this, but we had 3 weeks of project weeks where we were put into groups and given a book of project tasks, then left to it. You had to allocate tasks to people, be at the right place/right time to collect materials for the projects and then do testing of the things we made &/or do presentations.
We did all sorts of stuff including making a cantilever bridge from straws that had to span 1m (and was load tested), build a balsa centrifuge (again load tested), design and present our design for a type of aircraft, do some simple programming etc.

The foundation course also meant that when the ‘proper’ course came about, we were ready for uni life & knew what to expect.
Anyway, I’ve waffled a bit, but hopefully given you a little to think about. Only thing I didn’t have to cope with was all the fees. An extra year of fees is something to definitely give careful consideration to.

65% of our A2 physics students got a B or higher, which isn’t too bad 😉

My son’s results came out today – much lower than expected, but he seems to have got himself a place through clearing, quite near to some nice mountain biking areas as well!

I’m a bit annoyed that I didn’t get any ‘special consideration’ from the exam board (they give you a bit of extra time in exams and an extra 5% marks if they feel something personal has badly affected your ability to study), as my father passed away about a month before the exams started, and I found it pretty tough to carry on with revision after that.

Well done on some great results. Many people would be overjoyed with those without having to go thru anything like you have. It may be worth contacting the uni’s you want to go to and explain the circumstances of if you dont want to adk a teacher to do it for you.

Teen 1 is off to Southampton University for his first choice subject. He’s very pleased and has every right to be so. Very good cycling club too 😉

It does seem to have prompted an outbreak of antigravity students, if the news websites are anything to go by.

Why is it always girls jumping in these photographs?

I received mine today, i’m in Norway currently, can’t think of many other places I’d want to be when finding out how I did. I got in to uni though 🙂

I suppose the Scottish equivalent (sort of) is the advanced higher level (or SYS when I was a lad).

Elder child did a Science Bacc. – got a pass – C – which is acceptable as the school hasn’t actually taken anyone through it before and TBH they could have given him some nmore support & guidance rather than just say “go for it” – support & guidance is something he does kind of need..

He also did 3 advanced higher – all As – and another Higher – also A – to add to an impressive collection – all the better since the university acceptance was in the bag and so he didn’t *have* to put the work in (I know I didn’t !!) So very pleased with his results, made last Tuesday a lot more comfortable in our house I can tell you (and his sister got v good Nat 5s as well, so no/little balancing act required..)

Son got the grades for Architectural engineering at Sheffield which is good 😀

Students I teach physics to

AS was good in terms of pass but less high grades than before

A2 was down on high grades and and still not enough passing

I teach in a fairly challenging area and it looks like our results our being squeezed by the government drive for standards

I will be glad to see the back of the current practical assessment system which yet again our students did badly in

I think my nephew is screwed now with BBB not sure what when wrong.

He wanted to study Petrol chemical or something and I think he needs to apply for foundation year now …

The girl done well, worked amazingly hard and has come away with A* x 4. Means she has got that place at Cambridge doing Nat Sciences. What’s just as amazing is two of her mates are off to Oxbridge too, and that’s a small state school in the back of beyond County Durham.

Don’t believe a word of it that good grades are “just given away”. Plenty of kids try their level best and never hit high grades, but still keep at it.

I’m on a 1700 – 0000 shift in A&E today… I’m sure these results will have an effect on me.

Bloody part-timers. Off in an hour until maybe 7am I might see you before midnight.

Son got lower than expected D in maths as did most of his friends including the class high flyer. Maybe a year of harsher marking. Luckily he had all distinctions in his Btech so he has his uni place.

Why is it always girls jumping in these photographs?

White men can’t jump….

Doing our collective nuts today with clearing 😆 Not to mention 10 million enquiries from kids who’ve passed and taken up our offers. Good times though, got a lot of kids into the courses they want, we turn into a call centre for the day but it’s the best callcentre in the world 😆

Re coming up short… Posts up the page are bang on, foundation years and college articulation are superb options these days. Other option for a lot of kids who don’t want to do that is Scotland- because of the 4 year degree system, entry requirements to 1st year are lower for a-levels and it gives the whole uninterruped uni experience thing which some kids want. And there’s quite a lot of funding support too, from some unis. It’s not better or worse than foundation or college but can be another option.

padkinson – Member
JUst got mine, and they’re not too bad (BBBC). It does mean that I’d have to do a foundation year if I wanted to do mech eng at any of the better unis, but I’ve still got the gap year to figure out what I want to do.

Why not look at an engineering apprenticeship before going to uni?
A few a our newer “junior engineers” have never had a spanner in their hands and have no idea how things work!!

My son did this but in different fields. Apprentice industrial elect/draughtsman. Left that when there was a downturn to join a civil eng company using his cad skills. They sent him to uni on day release and he now has a degree in structural eng. The company hit hard times due to partners falling out and the recession. He is now back at his old job but with better prospects 😆

For science degree you need to score well in order to go to good University but if you are applying for mickey mouse degree courses then they are all the same regardless of where you go.

I studied mickey mouse courses at two Russel group Universities many years ago so I know what mickey mouse looks like. What have I become? Yes, you guess it right a minor ZM bureaucrat. The question is why didn’t I realise there is no need to have two degrees to be a ZM?

😯

Amphill – which uni is he going to? I’m off to Sheffield too

Yes University of Sheffield. I thought he was going to defer apparently I’m wrong…

Results day is pretty horrific actually – v real exposure the often random brutality of life. Arbitrary grades delivered by markers in a rush can have a major impact on peoples’ futures. Still – life is not fair – is a message that has to be learned. Next stop the lottery of job interviews

Congrats to those who did well. Chin up to those disappointed. Treat those two imposters just the same.

So mucgh emphasis is put on going to univercity, to then run up debts, and work on the checkout at Tesco when you eventually get a degree.

Get an apprenticeship, learn from day one, get a trade, buy tools and learn how to use them, earn money from day one, go to college to learn theory and practical skills and build /repair/maintain stuff.

Son got AS results. Did well, especially in maths and further maths. He seems re-invigorated for doing Maths at Durham.
His friends (mainly) did less well regrettably.
Teamhurt’s Rudyard imposters quote sums it up.If you try your best you will get what you are able to get, if you slack off then you will get what you deserve.
To the poster above who’s dad died: I was in a similar situation 20+ years ago and have since done OK. Losing your dad has an effect on you, sometimes this effect can come out years after your loss. Hope things go well.

Two Bs and a C. He’d applied for Uni but his heart wasn’t in it and we said don’t bother. He’s much happier knowing there’s no debt to face or the worry of falling behind (which I felt was very much a possibility).

Well done to everyone who got what they wanted and commiserations to those that didn’t. I think that everyone ultimately reaches their level regardless of exams/university etc. There’s many roads to the same destination.

Rich.

And just to add; you’re likely to be working for 50 years. Whatever you do, make sure it’s something that you’re going to enjoy. It’s a long time hating what you do.

Found out our overall stats now: 99% pass rate and 53% high grades. One student got 5 A*, three got 5 A*/A, and 27 got 4 A*/A. That’s not too shabby 🙂

Don’t believe a word of it that good grades are “just given away”.

Absolutely. The lad who got 5 A*s is in my tutor group and has grafted for two years to get those.