What did you get for your A Levels (if you did them)? (Trigger warning - a levels 💐🫂)

[hotmumshit]

BBB - eng lit, sociology and history

Was so sad, I wanted aab

💐💐 for those of us who get mild ptsd whenever results day rolls around

It’s a long time ago (1970) but BBBD.

AAB Psychology, chemistry, biology in 2006. Definitely the most stressful time of my life. Uni in comparison was a breeze and I came out with a first.

ABBC Communication Studies, Sociology, English Language, Media Studies

BBB in Physics, Chemistry and Biology, which in 1983 was enough for Medical School.

BDE in 2005. I didn’t put enough work in, could have done way better. Never mind!

AAAA maths, biology, chemistry, physics. No A*’s available back then

I studied really hard to get my A levels. I was still shocked at getting As though. My parents always told me I wasn’t very bright, but pretty. And a man would marry me, so I wouldn’t need to work.

Wow amazing work ethic! So pleased for you it all paid off. I really think I underestimated how much work it takes to get good grades. You totally deserved those As!

One D and two E's.

Still got my PhD though.

Google confirms that in the 1970s, General Studies A-level was a popular complementary subject designed to broaden sixth-form education, often taken alongside three specialized A-levels to bridge the gap between arts and sciences.

In reality, it was an A level that no-one took seriously and no-one revised for. One of the questions was to explain how a Victorian pile driver worked. I hadn't a clue (and still don't).

Kicked out at end of AS year

Went back to Uni in my 30s, gained PhD and lectured for a couple of decades

I always tell disaffected or disappointed students that some people need some life experience before their real academic interests amd strengths become apparent

It was popular up untill the 90s at least i never did it but i know loads of people who did my understanding was it was pot luck what you got asked

Thanks for the info. It sounds like the question wasn't to test if you'd been studying victorian civil engineering. I recon it was to test how you work something out, or make educated observations. A bit like the qustions university of job applicants get to test how articulate or logical you are. Like, how do you find a needle in a haystack, what would your super power be and why, etc. They're not looking for a 'right' answer, as such.

I'd guess that a victorian piledriver would be a huge, steam-powered macine. The victorians didn't have electricity or hydraulics, so they would have used steam power to raise the hammer of the driver up the rig and then release the pressure to let it drop rapidly onto the item being driven in the earth. Similar to steam hammers in foundaries. It would have been operated by a fraction of the workforce previously needed to operate a manual piledrivers, allowing the victorians to build bridges and steel buildings rapidly.

I love questions like that. I'd get massively marked down on my spelling tho, which has always been awful ☹️

ABC (this was long before the A was split to include A*) for Psychology, Business Studies, Biology.
I got 100% in Psychology I later found out, so that was a nice surprise. I credit a really good teacher and it was the subject I was most interested in.

DH did General Studies in 1993! Alongside more academic A levels. It was basically designed to keep you in school, but gave him the extra UCAS points he needed for his first choice uni, when he dropped a mark on Chemistry.