AIBU to think Bs at GCSE are ok?

[catwalker]

Some issues with DS and GCSEs/6th form. He didn't get the grades he was predicted (As and As) but then I didn't expect him to as he doesn't put much effort into anything apart from his x box. He got mainly Bs, a couple of As, a couple of Cs and a couple of Ds. I was quite happy until I started reading the secondary education forum where people are tearing their hair out because their dc's didn't get straight As and may have blown their oxbridge chances. I get the impression that anything less than an A just isn't worth the paper it's written on. He could have done loads better but Bs are OK aren't they?

And anyway there are so many graduates these days that the Old Boys network is the main route to any covetable job - the amount of unpaid intern type work done by the children of the middle classes is a scandal and makes a mockery of the Government's stated aim of improving social mobility for the working class.

But that's a whole other thread........

Milly - good post. I agree, but I do think there is too much of a tendency to write people off before it's necessary. It may be harder/less likely for a B grade student to do all sorts of things ... but it's really important for them to know that they've not fucked up their lives already and things are possible..

Tchootnika they don't do IT at Oxbridge - you'd have to go to an ex Poly for that

"I get sent CVs every week. I look at the GCSE grades, A level grades, degree result. If they leave off the GCSE grades entirely you know they are thick or idle."

Statements like these are why people have mentioned in the past that you must be a professional troll, Xenia. I am highly sceptical that this would be standard practice in any sector, it's quite frankly unbelievable.

In my husband's sector, people look at the PhD topic and whether or not they are a chartered professional with substantial industrial experience. In our application procedure, there is no place on a form to record GCSE or A level results - no one is interested in qualifications below degree level. No one gives two hoots about GCSEs and frankly, if you have a good degree and postgraduate education and experience, it would be a nonsense to care about them.

Xenia the more you post the more I think your whole 'story' is BS. Thick or idle? Your grammar and spelling are atrocious and your attitude is positively bigoted.

x post 9 while 5 xenia is def not genuine. No one with her supposed privileged life would be so horrifically judgemental and basically unkind.These are the posts of a failure trying to make her/himself feel better.There are ways of discussing what levels need to be achieved to attain places at certain universities but to pepper your posts with insults amongst teh 'advice' is a huge giveaway.

really? TSC, my things have changed, I got accepted (but changed my mind) to do further Maths with a B. BTW I read how well your DD did on another thread somewhere. Congrats to your DD.

I agree that all sorts of things are possible. They have to be, because only the top 2-5% are going to get to go to Oxbridge, or get on to courses in dentistry/medicine/engineering etc at other universities.

One of my children may well be in that group, but I doubt the other one will be. I doubt either of them will have the desire or the ability to end up as a managing director. I'd just like to see them have the opportunity of stable careers, and I'd like to see them not lied to about the benefits of doing various GCSEs or BTECs for league table purposes or the benefits of university to fund the HE industry. I'd like them to be given sensible career advice on how to get a career, and I don't see that happening.

I think we are returning to a 1950s situation where if you are neither exceptional at academic work nor well connected, but are still reasonably bright, you should narrow your options down to things like nursing/teaching/social work/admin. We should not pretend that anything is possible, when we all know that social mobility has pretty much collapsed.

The unhappiest of my contemporaries (early 50s) are those individuals who chose law, banking or other finance-related careers. They are without a doubt the most affluent or my peers, but also have the most dysfunctional relationships and the worst health. Many of them (male AND female) have appalling relationships with their children and have multiple divorces under their belts. Plus a fair smattering of alcohol, substance-abuse, gambling addictions and eating disorders. Some of them have just turned into rather nasty, shallow, selfish and blinkered individuals. Workaholism and an uber-competitive attitude to life are not compatible with healthy inter-personal relationships.

This isn't schadenfreude. These are my oldest mates. I had to visit one in hossie recently - he has liver failure. His DW is going through chemo for breast cancer.

I guess it all comes down to what you ultimately, I mean REALLY ultimately want for your children. I remember how delighted my friends' parents were when their kids got the good results to get into the good unis to do the good degrees to get the spiffy City careers back in the 70s and early 80s. 30 years on, many of the oldies (now in their 80s) tell me how distressing it is to see their grandchildren growing up in dysfunctional and fragmented families with parents who are stressed and sick and probably have a shorter life expectancy than their own parents.

So a first with say 99% at degree level is worth shit with B/C grade GCSE's. Bollox, I'm sorry but absolute tosh. A decent employer would look at recent results, unless like teaching where the GCSE grades matter for core subjects.

I asked my friends DFather earlier today (inspired by this thread) who is a financial advisor (own co) and he said he had bad O levels, OK higher and an average degree. He said he would employ someone who's skills matched the job and it wouldn't necessarily be the person with the best 'grades'. He said there's nothing worse than a know-it-all postgrad to employ.

Noddy, Xenia is "real". I know who she is IRL, although we are not personally acquainted. I lived quite near to her until recently and have come across her in a professional capacity. She is entirely genuine, and doesn't make much effort to hide details of her personal and proessional life on this forum, so is therefore quite identifiable. She has given interviews to the media etc. in the past.

Milly, I don't think at 15 it's easy to know who's going to be exceptional at academic work. To be frank, though people agonize, someone with 9 Bs at GCSE and someone with 15 A*s could still be very similar in aptitude, because GCSE tests are a pretty blunt instrument.

How interesting Mrs.Flittersnoop for someone barely literate as Xenia to go so far, there is hope after all for all our DC's with mediocre B's.

YAK, so what qualifications does a young person need to get into financial consultancy? If none, what skills do they need and how should they go about getting them?

I don't think your friend's father's qualifications come into it; he didn't enter work at a time when half of his peers had a degree.

dont know what some you harrumphing about.xenia is evidently v clever

Financial consultancy is different to being a financial advisor. Most financial advisors do their qualifications on the job as they are very specialised and they are involved in giving advice to members of the public, it's highly regulated.

Having said that, even now being an IFA is a job that is often done by people who haven't gone to Uni (since you need to do professional exams anyway regardless of having a degree). I work at a bank and a lot of our IFAs trained within the firm or within an investment firm having joined after a levels. obviously with the increased number of grads, more and more IFAs will be graduates these days.

I have a DS just about to start year 11 who is not only a late-summer child (only just 15) but was diagnosed as borderline ASD 18 months ago. His level of emotional, intellectual (and physical) maturity is behind that of his peers, and he only went through puberty properly this year. His intellectual curiousity and ability to conceptualise is just starting to kick in.

Had he been born 2 weeks after his due date instead of 3 weeks early, (ie August-born instead of July) we would have delayed his entrance into Reception by a year. That one year difference will probably result in mostly B grades with some As instead of A/A* grades at GCSE.

I suspect Xenia is MNing from an iPhone! - She has always been a crap typist however - just look at her posting history! I suspect she feels she has nothing to prove intellectually, therefore doesn't have to bother checking her spelling like the rest of us!

LRDTheFeministDragon
Re not ruling out Oxbridge - a generation plus ago DH got an exhibition to Oxford despite pretty mediocre O Level grades. He also failed Technology and is now on the Council of one of the major engineering institutions, so I'd agree that exams at 16 aren't always that significant!
In my earlier post, I wanted to point out that there are still very well established universities that do not require all applicants to have As and A*s at GCSE and As at A2.

composition and spelling on mn doesn't matter.at all
at work im precise,specific and exacting.because it matters.
mn is online bibble babble doesnt require attention to detail

Well maybe she should, she does come across half literate, nothing funny about it, really.

scottish - no, Xenia likes to tell us she is very clever and has a suspiciously in-depth knowledge of what it's like getting Bs at GCSE and going to a poly/ex-poly.

'Evidently' would mean we can tell it from her posts, instead of being asked to take it on faith and the vague implication her life is similar to that of someone who puts herself in the papers a lot (because my gosh, you couldn't possibly copy a well-publicized life, could you?!).

its words ona screen.doesn't require exacting composition and good syntax.id rather it remained pacy and interesting than dull posts the spelling pedants approve of

LRD, most people will be through the education system at 22 and on to their job/house/parenting prospects. What part of that higher education system you get into pretty much depends on what grades you get at 15 and 17 (in the case of my son, a Summer birthday). Whether or not he is genuinely more competent as an adult in academic matters is pretty much besides the point. What matters is what he can do in academic acheivement now.

The difference between an A* and a B matters a lot if the B prevents you from studying certain A levels, as others on the thread have said.