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?

@PhilCornwall1

If you're nearly 50 there were no A star grades when you were at school - or did you not mean that literally. (Also, if you're any older than 48 then you would have sat O' levels.)

That confused me too. GCSEs back then were A through to "thick as shit" (not sure what the letter was). I was first year GCSE and I'm 48.

I remember GCSEs being introduced and one of the big "selling points" was that there was no fail grade. Of course immediately everyone saw A-C as a pass and D-G (I think that was the lowest grade) as a fail. And, other than A* being added, this lasted about 30 years from 1988 to a few years ago when they introduced the 9-1 grade system.

Imo 9-1 is clearly so that grades 10, 11, etc., can be added later on.

Imo 9-1 is clearly so that grades 10, 11, etc., can be added later on.

You could well be right there.

I know how you feel. In my case (through a lot of counselling) I’ve realised that due to my parents/ my upbringing, a lot of my self worth is tied to my perceived intelligence. I got AAAB at A Level (before A*s in A Levels) and I was devastated about the B. I got a C in an AS that I didn’t take to A2 and I had such residual shame about it, I didn’t include it on my CV for years. It took me a long time to come to terms with the fact that a C isn’t an absolutely awful grade. I went to the type of school that if you got a C in anything, it was as though you’d essentially failed the subject. I also have the type of parents who were very much disappointed B/C grades, which doesn’t help!

Did anyone else take 16+ exams? They were a forerunner to GCSEs. Around in the mid 80s.

@HoldMyLobster

Did anyone else take 16+ exams? They were a forerunner to GCSEs. Around in the mid 80s.

I have never heard of 16+ exams. I did O-levels in the mid-80s.

YANBU.. I did my A-levels nearly 20 years ago and got A, B, D (and a B in general studies but that doesn't count!).

The D was in a subject that I did struggle with, but I'd improved my grades throughout the two years from Cs to Bs, I'd just scraped a B in the mock, was predicted a B. Thought the lowest I'd get was a C. Awful anxiety meant I barely slept the night before the first exam and I just really struggled. Still annoyed and also with the format of that subject - there were no modules or coursework so the entire outcome of those two years of work was based on two 3-hour exams.

The 'B' subject was similar tbh - no modules or coursework and I was predicted an A.

This thread is illuminating. I hadn't realised that being taught the wrong syllabus or just not being taught ie there literally being no teacher assigned to a class was such a common occurrence back in the day.

I laugh about our class finding out at the end of what is now Y10 that we'd been taught the wrong history syllabus for a year and then finding out towards the end of our 'A' level teaching that we'd 'missed' being taught a book, but I can see from this thread what a deep impact these types of situations have on some people.

My dh is still annoyed, some 40 years after the event, that he wasn't selected for the senior school cricket team as the places automatically went to whoever was in the rugby team regardless of ability. The hurt of these injustices does really run deep.

A star wasn't introduced until 1994 at GCSE level.

Just found another Mumsnet thread about 16+ exams.
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/education/278497-joint-cse-and-o-level-exams-desperately-need-info-on

The first GCSEs were 1988, but I took 16+ exams in 1984 or 1985. I also did an A/O level - I wonder if those are still around?

This thread is illuminating. I hadn't realised that being taught the wrong syllabus or just not being taught ie there literally being no teacher assigned to a class was such a common occurrence back in the day

We had 2 maths teachers for A level maths, for Pure and Applied maths in 1992. One of the teachers simply didn't bother/get round to a couple of significant chunks of the curriculum.

This thread is illuminating. I hadn't realised that being taught the wrong syllabus or just not being taught ie there literally being no teacher assigned to a class was such a common occurrence back in the day.

Yep - and I was taught Maths A levels by a teacher who'd never taught or taken Maths A level herself. There were stages that year where she just gave us the book and we all tried to muddle our way through it together.

Everyone in my school who took a language A level failed - no idea what that teacher was doing or why she had a job.

We had 2 maths teachers for A level maths, for Pure and Applied maths in 1992. One of the teachers simply didn't bother/get round to a couple of significant chunks of the curriculum.

Yes it wasn't until I had a friend at university help me with my maths exams that I realised how much maths A level I had just never been taught.

She was teaching me some absolute basics and was horrified that I didn't understand them already.

I've never heard of the 16+. I did O Levels in 1982 and A Levels in 1984.

GCSEs were on the horizon and being discussed. In fact, my O Level history was one of the first ever been GCSEs in 1982. I found the certificate for it when I was sorting through a drawer the other day. I guess we were guinea pigs.

I got BBE at A Level. The B's were in French and German and the E was in history. I was happy with those. They let me into the university of my choice to study Modern Languages as I was hoping, and I wasn't planning to continue with history anyway (I really hadn't enjoyed it at A Level and had found it such a chore). I was just relieved to have scraped a pass.

I got what I wanted out of it. Nothing else mattered. The grades haven't been asked for since and I don't bother volunteering them.

I changed what I was studying after the first year (dropped Pure and Stats and figured I could do Sociology in a year). The teacher was sceptical and so entered me for the gcse as well. I had taken o levels, and there was literally no way I was taking a gcse so I just didn’t go to the exams.
Even at that point we were laughing at how easy the gcses were in comparison.
I got BCD and ran away to join the circus. (Not really, went through clearing and ended up at a ‘better’ university, hated it, dropped out after a semester, joined the civil service, joined the military, went back to a different uni and got a first, have now dropped out of four masters). I’m fifty. I mean, I really have to get my shit together at some point.

Just looked through my old exam certificates out of curiosity - I took the 16+ exams in 1985, and I got both a GCE and a CSE certificate for them.

BBBD which corresponded to 1112.

Such a long time ago now!

There are so many people with tons of qualifications now but it doesn't mean they are well educated. Something very vital has been lost from the system.

I don't remember the 16+ exams but think I was the first year to take GCSE O'Levels with passes from A to E and U for Unclassified. Prior to that it was possible to fail! My Mother and MIL in the early 50s matriculated and I think that was closer to the EBacc because it had to include Maths and English. All this talk of the wrong syllabus does help understand why Ofsted was created. Schools have got much better at getting students through exams but imo much worse at educating them. I know lots of people who went to excellent schools in the early 70s who achieved a handful of O'Levels and started work at 16 who are very clever and very successful and actually well educated.

I barely even finished school, let alone do A levels. I've done no further education at all.

I'm not bothered, school wasn't my thing. I prefer learning about things I'm interested in on my own terms, not because I'm forced to by school.

Wow that's a long time to be pissed off. Although in 1989 I took maths gcse I did middle paper highest grade you could was a C, I got a D... But in the Xmas I did the higher paper and got an A.... Still fucked off 31 years later. Why didn't I do the higher paper.. What a an idiot I was

I did a 16 + exam for Biology! It seemed easier than a CSE but then I wasn't the most blessed in the brains department especially for science and maths! I excelled at English and literature. Only o level standard. Couldn't wait to leave school.

Not a grade one, but I’ll add a subject grumble!
I was studying Geography, and there was a field trip - optional for lower sixth, same trip compulsory for upper sixth.
I was 16, living with my boyfriend, no contact with parents, working through college but meals-skipping-no-heating-loo-roll-stolen-from-work-poor.
I told my teacher that I couldn’t afford the trip, and she was ultra patronising about me paying back the hardship fund at “only” a fiver a week, and of course I could afford that.
I was humiliated, and switched to History.
I wish I’d still stuck with Geography, but I was 16 and ashamed of being poor.

I have just 5 GCSEs C grades and no A levels, I was quite ill during my childhood and only took 5 GCSEs and was lucky to be able to take any. When I put it on a CV I think it looks like I almost failed half my GCSEs as people usually have 8 or 9 GCSEs. I have a degree in one of the subjects I got a C in even though I have no A levels.

The first GCSEs were 1988, but I took 16+ exams in 1984 or 1985. I also did an A/O level - I wonder if those are still around?

Christ they were too. For some reason I thought I left in 89, although if I'd done the maths, it would have been obvious.

My excuse is I'm not thinking, I'm on leave this week

I did English 16 plus in 1985.

@Kittywampus you couldn't do that cack then. Clearing was only fir if you missed your grades!

@Cocomarine - That's made my blood boil. I'm not comparing our situations, but my schools fees were paid from a trust (when the family were wealthy! 🤣) but we were not at all well off - my dad did all sorts of jobs from postie to fruit picker; my mum was a librarian. There was no money for extras, and even the unavoidable expenses were a worry. At one point the school changed the jumper, from navy to navy with a red stripe on the v neck. These obviously weren't available from supermarkets, or second hand - they had to be purchased new, and they weren't fucking cheap. I got so much shit from my form tutor for not having one after the 'grace period' had elapsed. In the end, after I'd tried to be a bit discreet, I just snapped in form time - "We're not sure how to pay the mortgage this month; there's no money for a whimsical bloody new jumper". Stupid cow.