I hear on the radio this morning that schools may remain closed today due to bad weather, forcing some to postpone GCSE and A-level exams. Radio 1 interviewed a girl who said that, if this happened, she would be forced to sit eight exams in the summer and wasn’t sure how she would cope. Erm, excuse me? How will you cope? By getting stressed and panicking like the rest of us did, darling.
On my 18th birthday I had the joys of a mock A-level maths exam which I had to take knowing that it didn’t actually count towards my final result as it was just ‘practice’. There were at least two exam papers for every non-practical subject taken (art was different, obviously) so many of my friends who were sitting 4 A-levels did indeed have at least 8 exams in the summer of 1993. Mock exams in January were part of my GCSEs too and, even though some of the coursework counted towards my final grade, I knew that I had to sit exams in all 9 subjects in the summer and all would count. I was quite rare doing only 9 GCSEs too – many people I knew at other schools did at least ten. I hate to say it, but kids really do appear to have gone soft.
I also saw some students on the way into work today who clearly hadn’t seen each other since December and were squealing with delight at their reunion. One girl literally jumped on her friend while another shrieked with glee. Enjoy it now while you can, ladies. Once you graduate and enter the oh-so-delightful world of work, you’ll calm down just like the rest of us.
I heard that girl on the radio too and laughed! All my subjects had all the exams at the end. As did my Uni degree.
Kids! They don't know they're born.
I heard that too – i'm sure i can't have been alone in thinking 'Hang on, i had three exams for each of four subjects in my A-Levels, all in the summer. And three of them were on one day!' Soft indeed. I caould barely move my arm the week after my English and History exams – kids these days must have it easy 😛
Hah! Absolutely! I sat all mine in the Summer in the 90s too, somehow I managed to cope.
Mostly by doing my revision in the pub if I remember rightly. Those were the days!