To have issues about my A level grades from 25 years ago...

[Beckidewinter]

This is a non-problem: tiniest violin territory, really, and I'm only posting out of curiosity to see if anyone has advice or can empathise. I have never confessed this to anyone...

I took my A levels 25 years ago and was totally and utterly devastated when I got BBB rather than the AAA I was predicted. I wept for two weeks. The consequences were nil. My parents were delighted (they were/are of the 'whatever makes you happy, darling' school of parenting), I was accepted into my first choice of University, did well and now have an MSc and PhD. Why then do I feel a sense of failure and, yes, embarrassment at this time of year, every year when the press are full of stories of success. Why on earth would it bother me and make me feel a bit sad and queasy in 2020? It's silly, irrational and more than a bit pathetic.

Most tragically (and secretly) of all, I find myself comparing my marks to those of famous people for solace "well, David Miliband got 3 Bs and he seems pretty bright..."

To be clear, like many people in their 40s, I have experienced real loss and grief and other painful life stuff, so you'd think I would have acquired perspective or wisdom or something, but alas, no and this just keeps biting for some reason ...Does anyone relate or care to psycho-analyse, or is it a loud chorus of YABVU?

[quote HelloDulling]@Hepcat75

Needless to say they haven't done a syllabus which didn't include the coursework element, since.

GCSEs and A-levels don’t have a coursework element any more, do they?[/quote]
A level English Literature still offers a coursework component, as does the IGCSE which is available to private schools only.

Frankly some of you need to get over yourselves. And to the poster saying it's the parents' fault for not encouraging a better work ethic?

Surely you wouldn't even bother putting your A Level results on a CV anymore after getting a Masters and Doctorate, so why worry? In the grand scheme of things they aren't important now, they were a means to an end, which was university.

I didn't do A Levels, but went to college (89/90) and did the 2 year OND which gave the equivalent of 3 A Levels as far as university entry was concerned and got in to my first choice. I don't put that or my GCSEs on my CV. I can't even remember my GCSE grades now, they aren't important.

For my profession, the fact I am Chartered holds the most weight out of anything I put on my CV.

@Hepcat75

No. I'm still bloody livid about my English grade, 20 years on. Four classes; three did a significant coursework element (25%, I think) on a piss easy book, arresting but ultimately lightweight, about which one can find about fifty study guides. They were allowed to revise and improve per tutor suggestions umpteen times before final submission. No-one got less than 15/20 and most got 18/19. Our class had to do an exam on the most tedious frigging C.18th novella (think certain parallels with 2020) barely one word of which I can remember today. They all got at least one grade higher than their predictions, and we all got at least one grade lower. It imperilled my friend's Uni place and the school had to really go into bat for her. Good of them. In spite of a blistering answer to my Tennessee Williams question, I got a B. I wish now I'd had it re-marked. I know if we were really good we could have got an A anyway, but the disparity in the two groups was extraordinary. A lot of parents complained and were told 'Someone had to be the guinea pigs'. Nope. They should have tried it out with the whole year or not at all. Needless to say they haven't done a syllabus which didn't include the coursework element, since.

I know I should get over it. I can't 😂

Not quite as 'blistering' as you think then?

You appear to be blaming the texts themselves for your results.

In 1983 I got 3 As , and an E in history. Pretty much everyone in our history class didn't do well . The history teacher was an autocratic bully who threw a chair across the room once when frustrated at how 'thick' we were. He was a Captain in the school's Combined Cadet Forces and shouted throughout the lesson as if he were addressing a group of squaddies rather than a group of intimidated girls. When applying for university we had headteacher's interviews. I was asked about my history prediction and why it was so divergent from my other subjects. I cried. The next girl going in saw me and looked worried as hell but she took her mum with her and they discussed the exact same issue regarding the history teacher. In the end I pretty much gave up on history and ploughed my efforts into everything else, hence the As.
In the end I had the grades I needed for university so I didn't care about the E but I heard a while later that the teacher left. I really hope our class' performance got him into hot water.

@KaptainKaveman - No; I'm pretty satisfied it was blistering. My point seems to have zipped past you like Penelope Pitstop, though. You'll note in my post I said that if we were really good, we'd've managed an 'A' anyway . . .

Totally agree that these were really good grades in those days. My very clever sister got ABB and her friend who went to Cambridge got AAA but was the only one in the 6th form to get it. Now quite a few in each school are getting a host of As and A*s. They will now have got harder again but this year’s cohort were the first in the new system and didn’t get to sit the exams so only time will tell on that. Entry requirements were lower then too. My sister got in to Nottingham to study Psychology basically because she had high grades although no sciences. Now Nottingham want AAA if no science and AAB with a science.

However, I didn’t take school seriously, still wish I had (I’m 51) and wish my parents were more encouraging to do well at school.

I didn't do well in my A-levels at all. Was predicted 2 A and 1 B and got 2 C and a D

Combination of lots of things including parents divorce, my mum leaving and my then boyfriend dumping me for a girl at 6th form who would have sex with him!!! Awful time and I just didn't work hard enough.

Didn't get my 1st choice uni but did well, a 2:1 in English and now run an English department.

I don't think about it really, it was a long time ago but yeh, things could have been very different......

I always think it's the comparison which bothers you.

I got AAB at A Level with the B being less than 1% off an A. No-one in the school got an A in that subject that year so it was the highest mark. Still annoys me though as I really could've worked a lot harder.

I also got less than 1% off a first in my degree. Again, it annoys me as I could've worked harder (and am a blatant idiot for not learning my lesson from A Levels).

None of it would change my life, but it is irritating, particularly as I have always had a reputation at work for being super intelligent (always feels like a slightly dirty secret).

This was 1991

@alliejay81

I always think it's the comparison which bothers you.

I got AAB at A Level with the B being less than 1% off an A. No-one in the school got an A in that subject that year so it was the highest mark. Still annoys me though as I really could've worked a lot harder.

I also got less than 1% off a first in my degree. Again, it annoys me as I could've worked harder (and am a blatant idiot for not learning my lesson from A Levels).

None of it would change my life, but it is irritating, particularly as I have always had a reputation at work for being super intelligent (always feels like a slightly dirty secret).

Yes me too!! People are always telling me how bright I am at work they think I'm another level of common sense and cleverness but I just feel like a failure!

It always bugged me when people said I didn't have an a stars at gcse. But I always says that as because they didn't do stars back in my day. I would have got one I thought.
So 2 years ago I put money where my mouth is and did a gcse and got my a star.
I am now one year into a second degree in that subject .
Don't do it! It is a slippery slope!

@Cocomarine

AAB here, and 30 years on I don’t consider those particularly good because:

• I got a B
• they’re not science and maths, so easy subjects
• I only did 3, not 4 which would have been OK or 5 which would have been good
• I never got a special letter to say my A was top whatever centile (such a thing may not exist, but I had it in my head that it does

Of course, the real reason I think I didn’t do well, is I had the parents who would say, “98%? What did you get wrong?” - and mean it. Better too high standards for me than too low, and I think it was bad parenting from a good place - but it left its mark and I’ve never felt proud of my results.

AAAA here but I can really relate to this, because the university I chose to go was such a huge disappointment for my DF. Even though it was better than what he had in mind - he had no understanding of the system. As a result I feel like a life underachiever, which I realise is ridiculous but also feels very real

I dont think yabu. I got ABC 30 odd years ago and I still get a nice feeling thinking of that so I can see the reverse being true. My kids cant get their heads around the fact that only about 15% of the population did them and an A went to around the top 10% of that. I got an interview at Oxford with those results.

@PhilCornwall1

Surely you wouldn't even bother putting your A Level results on a CV anymore after getting a Masters and Doctorate, so why worry? In the grand scheme of things they aren't important now, they were a means to an end, which was university.

I didn't do A Levels, but went to college (89/90) and did the 2 year OND which gave the equivalent of 3 A Levels as far as university entry was concerned and got in to my first choice. I don't put that or my GCSEs on my CV. I can't even remember my GCSE grades now, they aren't important.

For my profession, the fact I am Chartered holds the most weight out of anything I put on my CV.

Depends. In my profession, it's normal to list them, even with postgrad qualifications and for a senior role...

I know it’s ridiculous (and I think you do too OP) but I’m still pissed off about 1 of my A Level results 19 years ago which was a B. I’d never had a B throughout my entire educational life and cried about it for weeks. I still got my university place and the rage spurred me on to work for a first, but every year at results time I feel annoyed about it.

I did my A levels the same time as you , Op and got Bs as well. In those days only 5% of students obtained an A and so I was able to get into a great Uni. I feel sorry for the kids these days as the whole system has been devalued - 38% of students with an A means that it holds no value and is meaningless. Similar to degrees - no one got a first in 1997 !I did a Chartered Qualification which is the qualification that was probably the best thing I did. I feel really sad for the kids sitting exams these days as there is so much more pressure on them and grade inflation has just let them down.

Depends. In my profession, it's normal to list them, even with postgrad qualifications and for a senior role...

As you say, it's profession dependent. Ultimately I want to see solid experience in the profession I work in. You could have a candidate with fistfuls of degrees (and I've had a candidate like this), but there was no way they could have done the job to the level we required.

I did my A levels 20 years ago and got CDD which tbh I was delighted with as I really struggled with A levels!
However I haven’t put them on my CV for many years, they were only a means to get into uni and my degree is what is now relevant to my career

I had glandular fever during my GCSE year and did terribly after being predicted much better grades (still got all 9 and all but one were Cs, but was predicted As and Bs). I was devastated and it really knocked my confidence. Decided that I was stupid and did a BTEC in art rather than going to 6th form - which was ridiculous and really screwed me over academically. Did end up going to uni eventually but never got over the lack of faith in my own abilities and felt like an imposter.

However I haven’t put them on my CV for many years, they were only a means to get into uni and my degree is what is now relevant to my career

Exactly this. For my GCSEs and college course, I worked to get the results I needed to make the next step.

Where I knew I needed to get a high grade in a subject, I worked more on that than say a subject where I needed a C. I didn't chase the highest grade in all areas. That's not to say it wasn't important to pass, but I wasn't going to exhaust myself over it.

I'm still bitter about my education and my results. My school was absolutely shite, my teachers shocking, proper middle of a sink estate failing comp which was permanently closed a few years later.

A levels weren't much better. First year was fab, was estimated AAA. All essays were A/A*. Second year absolutely shocking. Teachers striked on and off all year. 1 was off on long term ill health and his replacement was a bloke who had just been made redundant from steel works and presume was on some kind of reskilling programme. Which would have been fine but the subject was 2nd year A level philosophy. His degree was in engineering and he had been in manufacturing for 20 odd years.

I scraped 2 cs and a d. The d unsurprisingly in philosophy. We hadn't covered half the paper at all. He apologised to me outside it was that much of a fuck up.

Am finally going to uni tho, start in September, eng lit and philosophy degree.

I went to a very rough school, behaviour was awful, bullying was rife, teachers either didnt stay long or some of their teaching styles could be classed as humiliating and bullying also. I scraped a b and some c's, I then left and worked really hard, went to university and qualified strangely to be a teacher. This week I applied for a job and had to list my GCSE's, am mid 40's, I am still ashamed by my grades and still am judged by my experiences as a teenager.

They were much harder in the 1990’s.
No teacher of mine gave out previous A grade essays to read and dissect. I never saw the exam criteria. I didn’t even get an essay structure to follow- at my school we had to just do it.

As someone who once they know what to do, can usually do it well, I was not suited to the old way.

They were much harder in the 1990’s.

We used to say that about the 1980s. My parents used to say that about the 60s. The grading criteria may be different but I'm not sure that the work itself is easier.

You done better than I did. I didn’t take a levels or go to university. My life’s turned out pretty well though.