GCSEs...

[IcyEvils]

Woohoo! Got the results from the school there, I got 7 A*s and 3 As. Cramming seems to actually work- the As were in DA Science and Maths, which I was expecting Cs in. Pretty proud of the Art one (shut up!), as it usually takes over 95% for an A*, and the teacher was telling me it was B standard all year.

A guy in our school got 12 A*s though. Hasn't seen daylight in years.

 

[Valkyrie101]

Just got my results, 8 A*'s (English Lang/Lit, Maths, sciences, Spanish and French), 2 A's (History and Latin) and a C in RE.

Oh, and a U in Additional Maths. But hey, all but five out of thirty-two failed it, so it's not a big deal.

 

[Mr Montmorency]

8 passes, four of them are Bs. I'm satisfied with this outcome.

 

[imnot]

i did a science one earlier this year, and i don't know when i'm getting the result.

 

[PAGEToap44]

Ah GCSE's... I miss them. A level results days, those are fun times.

 

[PAGEToap44]

Woohoo! Got the results from the school there, I got 7 A*s and 3 As. Cramming seems to actually work- the As were in DA Science and Maths, which I was expecting Cs in. Pretty proud of the Art one (shut up!), as it usually takes over 95% for an A*, and the teacher was telling me it was B standard all year.

A guy in our school got 12 A*s though. Hasn't seen daylight in years.

Yay, high five for A* in Art. (although mine was last year) However, did you genuinely work hard for that one, or did you do what I did, which was to do jack shit all year then put all your effort into the final exam?

 

[hardlymotivated]

I'm aiming for Oxford/Cambridge, so...yeah, I kind of need to do well. Apparently the average Oxbridge applicant has 12 A*s, so...

I'm calling bullshit on that 12A* average statistic, and the Oxford/Cambridge interviewers care much, much more about your personal statement, AS-Level results, and especially your subject interview strength than they do your GCSE grades. I was granted an interview at Oxford with 5As and 4A*s. They made it clear that the GCSE grades didn't matter and didn't properly reflect on my aptitude as a prospective student at the university.

GCSE results aren't the best measure by which to assign a prospective Oxbridge student's standing at all, and if you were told otherwise it was probably just to scare you into working as hard as you can. With those grades, I ranked 13th out of 39 applicants (they accepted 1st through 10th, so I didn't get the place) to the subject at the college to which I applied, so if your 12A* average is true I ought to have ranked much lower.

 

[Last Valiance]

Four A's, Five B's and Two C's

Way above my targets (mostly c's)

*wooopwoopwoopwoopwoopwoopwoopwoopwoopwoopwoop*

 

[IcyEvils]

Woohoo! Got the results from the school there, I got 7 A*s and 3 As. Cramming seems to actually work- the As were in DA Science and Maths, which I was expecting Cs in. Pretty proud of the Art one (shut up!), as it usually takes over 95% for an A*, and the teacher was telling me it was B standard all year.

A guy in our school got 12 A*s though. Hasn't seen daylight in years.

Yay, high five for A* in Art. (although mine was last year) However, did you genuinely work hard for that one, or did you do what I did, which was to do jack shit all year then put all your effort into the final exam?

I did jack shit for the first module so the only decent pieces were the sketches and charcoal drawings.

The second module was colourful and actually fun to do and look at (it stood out against all the 'cars' and 'holiday' pieces so I think I got bonus marks there. My final piece for that (a clay fish bowl) was horrendous, the teacher even but sparkly silver paint on it behind my back.

And I put loads of effort into the final exam, a fine art painting of the Guggenheim Museum in NY with the skyline 'shopped onto it and the colour scheme messed about with.

Although when I think about it, I didn't do a lot of work at home unless there was a deadline the next day. A few all nighters but the rest was done in school.

Did you keep Art on for A Level?

 

[Danzaivar]

Look on the bright side. If you go to college and get A levels then no-one will care that you messed up that one GCSE. If you go to uni and get a degree then no-one will care that you messed up that one A level. If you've been working in a field for 3 or 4 years then no-one will care that you messed up your degree.

All you need is a good enough grade to get to the next step.

 

[Last Valiance]

Also, my school (grammar school cuz I'm cool like that), the average GCSE grade was an A or A*.
Fucking scary.

38 people got 10 A*s and an A, and 47 11 A*s or A's.

Being around unfeasably clever people all the time sucks...

 

[Outlaw Torn]

Why are so many people worried? GCSEs were as easy as pissing on a corpse, I managed to get As in non-pointless subjects without doing any revision. As someone previously said, your results won't mean squat. They're just a stepping stone into A levels, which are just a stepping stone into University (which is all that matters, admit it). But it is always fun to go to results days (regardless of the level) and see how many people are crying in horror. Such joy!

Anyway, given the current state that Uni admissions are in you probably shouldn't get your hopes up on getting a place unless you do seventeen A levels and get something higher than an A in all of them. Best prepare by doing an A level in unemployment studies that the education ministry will probably be rolling out soon.

 

[Woodsey]

One of my questions in my Maths paper last year was "Draw a 5cm line"

There is no way in hell you were taking the higher paper.

OT: 6 As (English Lit & Lang, Maths, Stats, ICT), 4 Bs (History - bit annoyed about that, one of the papers just had stuff that I hadn't revised for at all though, but I did get an A* for both bits of coursework - BCS, RE and Science), 2 Cs (German which I only did 1/6 of the GCSE course of before I took my exam, Additional Science) and a D (French, which I've only done the GCSE course of and had no work on it prior to that).

 

[RobCoxxy]

As long as you've actually put some effort in, you'll come out with A-C.

Only complete fucking morons failed the GCSE's when I was in secondary.

 

[T3hMonk3y]

7a*'s 3a's you can only do 10 in my year. Not too bad considering i did feck all work.

 

[PAGEToap44]

Woohoo! Got the results from the school there, I got 7 A*s and 3 As. Cramming seems to actually work- the As were in DA Science and Maths, which I was expecting Cs in. Pretty proud of the Art one (shut up!), as it usually takes over 95% for an A*, and the teacher was telling me it was B standard all year.

A guy in our school got 12 A*s though. Hasn't seen daylight in years.

Yay, high five for A* in Art. (although mine was last year) However, did you genuinely work hard for that one, or did you do what I did, which was to do jack shit all year then put all your effort into the final exam?

I did jack shit for the first module so the only decent pieces were the sketches and charcoal drawings.

The second module was colourful and actually fun to do and look at (it stood out against all the 'cars' and 'holiday' pieces so I think I got bonus marks there. My final piece for that (a clay fish bowl) was horrendous, the teacher even but sparkly silver paint on it behind my back.

And I put loads of effort into the final exam, a fine art painting of the Guggenheim Museum in NY with the skyline 'shopped onto it and the colour scheme messed about with.

Although when I think about it, I didn't do a lot of work at home unless there was a deadline the next day. A few all nighters but the rest was done in school.

Did you keep Art on for A Level?

Hell yes, it's my best subject. Just got an A for AS so pretty pleased. Yeah, the start of GCSE art is terrible, cos you have to paint what you're told. Which is boring. I like the final exam though, I got to bring Surrealism for that. XD And really looking forward to the next and final year, I can do whatever I want. As long as I actually do something.

 

[gussy1z]

TBH GCSEs arnt work much anymore

 

[notyouraveragejoe]

MWAHAHAHAHAHA! I took mine last year. I took the IGCSEs (international Cambridge version). I got 3 A*s, 5 As, 1 B and 1 C. Next year though I'll have to wait for my IB results and that'll be terrifying.

 

[The Afrodactyl]

I got my results earlier today, did pretty well.

Mostly Bs, with some As, a C and 3 A*s.

 

[megalomania]

I'm aiming for Oxford/Cambridge, so...yeah, I kind of need to do well. Apparently the average Oxbridge applicant has 12 A*s, so...

I'm calling bullshit on that 12A* average statistic, and the Oxford/Cambridge interviewers care much, much more about your personal statement, AS-Level results, and especially your subject interview strength than they do your GCSE grades. I was granted an interview at Oxford with 5As and 4A*s. They made it clear that the GCSE grades didn't matter and didn't properly reflect on my aptitude as a prospective student at the university.

GCSE results aren't the best measure by which to assign a prospective Oxbridge student's standing at all, and if you were told otherwise it was probably just to scare you into working as hard as you can. With those grades, I ranked 13th out of 39 applicants (they accepted 1st through 10th, so I didn't get the place) to the subject at the college to which I applied, so if your 12A* average is true I ought to have ranked much lower.

I'm with you on this.

I got an interview on 2A*s and a pile of the rest. I guess it helps I already had A-Level maths when I applied but still you're right.

Admittedly that was a few years ago and I am a firm believer in the slipping of exam standards, so it wouldn't surprise me if most people applying now do have 12A*s.

And before all of you young 'uns bring all that whiny 'exams are just as hard now' crap, know this - both of my parents are teachers. Also the slipping standards isn't new! It had already started when I took my exams, I remember doing A-level papers from the 80s and being capable of doing only 3/4 of the questions, and I did better than most because I was doing Further Maths