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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Teens opening their exam results envelopes live on tv - what do you think?

19 replies

AttilaTheMeerkat · 27/08/2009 09:58

It happened again this morning on both Breakfast and GMTV with the GCSE results. Anyone else feel a sense of unease when this happens?. When did that all start anyway, am not that bloody old but don't remember all this even 5 years ago. Think it smacks of media hypocracy really showing all these kids (and what if they don't do as well as expected of them) yet on the other hand saying that the exams get easier every year.

OP posts:

pooter · 27/08/2009 10:00

Well, the schools have access to the results before the kids, so if the teachers are involved you can bet the kids are about to find out happy news - but yes, you wouldn't catch me doing it!

Lifeinagoldfishbowl · 27/08/2009 10:01

I don't lilke it either but it has been done every year for the last 10 years or so - remember them doing it when I got my results.

ByThePowerOfGreyskull · 27/08/2009 10:05

I agree with pooter, the results are known by the school a few days before, I very much doubt that they would let the child open the results on tv if it was going to be bad news.

Hulababy · 27/08/2009 10:05

Was happening when I was getting my results and that is 20 years ago!

As for the "getting easier" every year - again they were saying that the year I got my GCSEs, back in 1989. 'tis all nonsense really though.

If results go up - they are too easy
If result go down - teachers and schools are failing and poor

You can't win. The media just have to print some story about exams year on year.

Hulababy · 27/08/2009 10:07

Since when did schools find out results much before the chldren though? I knew maybe an hour beforehand when I was teaching. I know a teacher now and he was able to find out A level results from midnight via a special weblink, but this is still only a few hours before. Not days.

ByThePowerOfGreyskull · 27/08/2009 10:09

They certainly do with A'levels and I have to be honest I have assumed that the system is the same for GCSE's

piscesmoon · 27/08/2009 10:18

I always get cross that they show very attractive, thin girls. I think they should choose some spotty, fat boys sometimes! I would bet that the TV cameras are directed to the A* predictions.

TheCrackFox · 27/08/2009 10:21

Yes, it is always the pretty girls. We need some geeky boys - they would just half shrug their shoulders. Much more dignified.

ginnny · 27/08/2009 10:21

Hello Attila (long time no 'see' )
I watched it this morning and I think its so pointless and repetitive.
I'm convinced that someone must know what is in the envelopes beforehand, as they always seem to get the grades they wanted.
And, call me heartless, but I couldn't give a stuff whether some teenager in Nottingham or somewhere passes or fails his GCSE's. Its hardly newsworthy. I only care about my dsd and my niece and what their results are today.

TheCrackFox · 27/08/2009 10:23

You never see anyone failing miserably. It would be a refreshing change from the pretty blonde getting 10 "A"s that we have been subjected to for the past 20 years.

PfftTheMagicDragon · 27/08/2009 10:25

When I went in for my results (about 10 years ago now) the teachers all knew what we had got.

There is no way they don't know which ones are about to open good grades and I am sure that they would not select someone who is about to get a horrible shock.

It all seems a little pointless though.

TrillianAstra · 27/08/2009 10:29

It's rigged. They might not know exactly what they've got, but they must know they've done pretty well if they've been told 'come over here with this group and be on the telly'.

Hulababy · 27/08/2009 10:33

Bythepowerofgreyschool - I have definitely never known teachers to know days in advance for GCSEs or A Level. My friend is an examiner and even he didn't know until midnight on the Wed, as pupils found on the Thursday.

Hulababy · 27/08/2009 10:34

PfftTheMagicDragon - I used to go in on results day and found out an hour or so before the pupils did.

Hulababy · 27/08/2009 10:45

IIRR though Universities find out A level results a fair few days before the actual results days, in order to sort out admissions, etc. I knw a friend of mine recieved an offer from his first choice university on the morning he got his A level results, just before setting off to school to see what he had got.

OtterInaSkoda · 27/08/2009 12:18

I hate all the hyperbole fullstop.

Yes exam results are important - for the people sitting the exams and their families that is. In the scheme of things I couldn't give a hoot. If one year average grades fell/rose 50% that'd be news but "some teenagers found out their grades for some exams" isn't news imo. I reckon it's just reporters wanting to peer down a lens at attractive young girls.

Moreover, I think it adds to the pressure to achieve the "right" grades in the "right" subjects at the right time . Where does that leave kids who want to take a different path? I think our definition of success is far too narrow and I'm not sure I think kids should be taking so many exams in the first place. They should be out having fun before the grinding drudgery of adulthood saps them of their youthful enthusiasm. Call me a boring old Marxist but it's conformism gone mad

Bathsheba · 27/08/2009 16:12

Oh now, it was a couple of weeks ago when the A Level results came out, but thre was a pupil who didn;t do as well as expected and was gutted on Radio 5 Live...

I agree its normally incredibly glam girls who are all off to Bristol to do law, and get 150 As that they normally pick, but there was a boy on the radio who was going to have to have a serious rethink as the grades he got weren;t good enough for the conditional place he'd be offered.

deaddei · 27/08/2009 19:16

Crackfox- my sentiments exactly.
I aquirmed at the 3 eight year olds on the GMTV sofa who had done gcses ridiculously early. What do they do at school now in those subjects? I just feel uncomfortable with these little kids opening their envelopes......

peppapighastakenovermylife · 29/08/2009 22:03

Universities know the A level results on the tuesday - although students dont get them until the thursday. Obviously we are signed to upmost secrecy but I bet things to get out.

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