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?

There is alot of snobbery on here - the same kind of snobbery I faced from my ex-manager (oxford phd grad), who told me my experience from university "wasn't much" as it was Brookes, and not Oxford. Incidently, they hired an Oxford under-grad a year later, who f-d up everything in the company with numerous mistakes - lost them thousands of pounds. Then I sat back and laughed.

Schools are to blame Tchootnika-or probably the government interference. Every DC has to jump through academic hoops. We have GCSE's where some DCs end up with 12 A* and others end up with none-this ought to tell you that one exam system doesn't suit all DCs. At 14yrs a DC ought to be able to choose a technical or practical route rather than academic. Countries like Germany manage it. We could do with more engineers not more media studies! Some DCs are set up to fail from an early age and then people are surprised that they rebel and decide school isn't for them and spend their time truanting or making everyone's life a misery in the classroom. I'm sure that many of them could blossom in the right environment.

To be honest, a small minority of Brooks students give Oxford a really bad name IMO. Lots of them are nice people working hard. But I live in Oxford and I do roll my eyes a bit driving through Headington (where Brooks is) as some of the students there are so posh, shopping in Waitrose and driving new cars. I've never met an Oxford student as posh as some of them!

You also see quite a few parents dragging their poor children all around the place, going on about 'this is where you should go when you are big, Tarquin'. Ridiculous when the child in question is obviously at primary school.

A B is a very good grade. Well done to him! If it's enough to get him onto the next stage, and he does well at A level, it's fine. Once you have A levels, no one cares about GCSEs, and so on. The important thing is to choose the right subject that he will enjoy and do well at.

Unfortunately, adolescence is a difficult period and some teens may not do as well as they are capable of doing despite parental support, for many reasons. I was depressed as a teenager and only just scraped the A levels to get into uni, but then got a 2:1 and went on to get a distinction in my Masters degree. Only the most recent qualification has any bearing once you leave education.

Notlettingthefear show - thanks! I'm getting anxious that some posters think that he will struggle if he didn't get As in all the subjects he's going on to do in the sixth form.

I don't know why every secondary education thread has to degenerate into a debate about oxbridge - in which neither ds nor I have the slightest interest. I only mentioned it in my op as the sort of discussion I was trying to get away from!!

I think that the idea is that you have automatically failed, catwalker if you don't get the grades that would help secure a place at Oxbridge.
Xenia has a very narrow range, she mentioned Durham and Bristol but I know from other threads that she is decidedly sniffy about Exeter and I suspect that places like Sheffield are 'beyond the pale' despite being in the Russell group.
As I said earlier-a lot of snobbery-rather than looking at what they actually do and whether they are suited to your DC.

cat, I don't see why he'd struggle and I'm sure his teachers would tell him they thought he would.

FWIW, I teach students who seem to get a fair range of GCSE grades but similar (good) A Levels. It's a non-Russell group but decent redbrick.

Yeah ragged excellent post earlier. So my 2/ 180 pupils in my year who got Oxbridge offers meets national %. (it's always nice to know your right!).

I loce senua earlier posts too. I totally agree if you have to push a child to get into Oxbridge then it's not for them. FWIW one friend at mone offered it declined becasue she knew how much work she put in for A's at GCSE (no *'s then!) and A's at A level. She felt as the anti was upped it would take more and more out of her - Oh and guess what - she's still a Lawyer!

catwalker I did, as an Adult an AS level in a sucject I didn't take at GCSE - and got an A. I got NO A's at GCSE. GCSE's are taught a specific way and A levels another. Sometimes the style of teaching makes as much of a difference as the actual work.

I reckon if your DS feels he should have done better - although his are great btw - then HE alone will put more effort in. If he knows he put in the effort then he has a set of grades to be proud of and he can go and discover what he wants to do with his life.

It's not rocket science. I fyou can get into somewhere relatively easily with poor grades and you can get into somewhere else with higher grades an employed with 2000 CVs would deserve to be shot if they went after those from the lower grade places. It hardly needs to be said. That doesn't mean the ex polys don't have good people but there will always be a pecking order.

And I know someone - his daughter had the best A level grades at her comp. Her father is very successful and well paid. She wants to be a lawyer at a top firm. Why did her school and her father let her go to Oxford B where all her friends were going and no one give her the basic information that it is not the place to go for what she wants to do? By all means let people with all the information they need, informatino about the prejudices of middle aged recruiters and the like, make a choice to go to an ex poly but don't let them make a decision believing everyone thinks all those places are just as good as some others. Make an informed choice. for some it will be a huge major triumph to get to oxford B of course and we would commend them for that.

I can't believe people are celebrating Oxford B as a top class university? It doesn't offer medicine / dentistry and a graduate from that establishment would be unlikely to be considered for an interview at the law firm my sister works at.

That's a bit patronizing Xenia ... what if someone wants to do a course because Brooks offers it and somewhere else doesn't?

I fyou can get into somewhere relatively easily with poor grades and you can get into somewhere else with higher grades an employed with 2000 CVs would deserve to be shot if they went after those from the lower grade places

I can't make sense of that sentence.

Nor can I! There is no mention here of just wanting to go somewhere to do something without considering the hierarchy in terms of employers etc. I chose my course because I liked the look of it and with no pressure or even knowledge of all this snobbery

Besides which, I'm sure if no-one out of Oxford Brookes ever got a job, they would have stopped attracting students some time ago ...

I personally know three people who are millionaires who have limited education, and a very large number of people with doctorates from Oxbridge who have extremely limited income.

If someone can become a self-made millionaire with no education, I very much doubt that attending Oxford Brookes is going to stop them succeeding. The brightest and the best will flourish regardless. Now that libraries have become largely electronic, many have much larger collections than previously and a highly intelligent, self-motivated, engaged individual can apply themselves independently to scholarship wherever they are. Not all students need to find their life's mentor at university.

Actually, one of the few things that would really, really encourage me to pick a university would be its library ... Oxford/Cambridge/London have copyright libraries and it makes a huge difference IMO. Presumably that varies a lot depending what you're studying though.

Do you have tips on how to become a millionaire then working?

Most of the people I know who are uni educated have good jobs but the ones I know who are loaded and also who have interesting careers have done it by hard work and ideas and entrepreneurial skills.

But maybe those with lower grades have better people skills, work harder, are more able to do the specific job they went for. All grades do is show you can write assignments and revise for exams. And I say that as someone is currently doing a degree. I know all the theory, can argue very well my case in tutorials and drive I my tutor nuts as my dyslexia prevents my assignments reflecting this.

I currently do a job where NVQ level 2 has become desirable, I have a level 4 equivelent. I have applied for jobs where level 3 is required. I got turned down for interview and when questioned why was told, CV great but over qualified. So qualifications don't count for everything IME.

x posts.

I agree with you absolutely, Xenia.

A girl in my college got 3 As in her A levels. I talked to her the other day - I'd told her a couple of years ago not to take my subject as it's wasn't academic enough for her - she wanted to study English Lit at university and I suggested RE and History to go alongside Eng Lit at A level.

When I spoke to her I found she was going to the local ex-poly to study Eng Lit. She's first generation university educated and nobody at home had the knowledge or experience to suggest a better university. (Every exam she'd taken was A grade.) I was furious with her teachers who'd allowed her to go there without any recommendation for a better university.

Of course it matters where you go to university. The fact that we can all point to someone who made a fortune who didn't go to university or who went to a poor quality university has nothing to do with it. Those people are talked about because they succeed against expectation.

Dyslexia is a completely different thing, youarekidding.

Surely anon2011 someone wouldn't go to Oxford Brookes if they wanted to do medicine/dentistry or a lawyer or am I missing something? Is every DC supposed to want to be a doctor or a lawyer?

I didn't want to be any of those 3 choices, neither did my DCs-surely you decide what you want to do and find the establishment that does it best? And decide on the one that you are mostly likely to get into.

You seem to go through life patronisingly thinking that parents of comprehensive pupils haven't been to top universities themselves and haven't a clue! In my area there are no selective state schools, lots of people can't afford private school fees-their DCs go to the comprehensive-where else could they go? Any open meeting that I have been to at school have had plenty of intelligent questions about Oxbridge.

It is a huge mistake for parents to try and get their DC into a university if they are not up to it. My DS1's first girlfriend had this problem with her father. He wasn't realistic about her ability. He talked her out of courses that would have been suitable and pressed her to apply for more prestigious ones. I always remember getting the A'level results, it was very difficult as DS got the ones he needed, and I was overjoyed, but his girlfriend was in tears. It wasn't the grades, they were what she expected, it was the fact that she had to tell her father. It was so sad-parents should be realistic and supportive. Very often the parent hasn't been to Oxbridge-just expect their DC to do it-for reflected glory!