I just want to congratulate all the people who achieved their targets in their A Level results. Well done.
To anybody who didn't do as well as they might have. You have all done well to get this far and please do not give up hope. You can always repeat. Please dont waste your time by giving up. Time passes by so quickly so make the most of it. Heres wishing you all success.
I dont think there was any need for you to post a link to that picture, everyone who sat these exams at this level have at least achieved something, whether its in terms of a grade or something within themselves.
Congrats you those guys who posted before yall did great! there was a few of mine i thought i coulda done better in but thats just life im afraid
Computing is a WHOLE BIG bag of worms. Needless to say that the class average (with class being all 5 of us in A2!!!! ) was a 'D'...Make of that what you will.... :mad:
English Literature - not surprised about really - once again they didn't enjoy one of my papers and didn't mind the other(s)
Media - Coursework was 120/120. 100% - A . 2nd Paper 90/90. 100% - A. Guess what I got for my 1st Paper 34/120 :eek: Ungraded!!!! I dunno what I did, but I must have really pi$$ed someone off!!!!
Originally posted by Mr_X Let me guess - you had a crap teacher ?
When results plummet like this, it nearly always reflects on the learning environment you had (such as other pupils and teachers/lecturers)
Funny you should mention about Computing grades being down, i woulda say im pretty good with computers and still i only managed a D in computing AS which im dissapointed with :mad: and yes one of our teachers was a complete moron. The whole average must have been a D, one person got a B about 2 C's the rest D's E's and U's even the best person with computers in our class only managed an E so thats gotta say something in itself for the subject.
Sociology - A (with 100 bloody percent on one paper:D )
English Lang/Lit - B (I thought I'd failed)
Media Studies - B (I wanted an A :mad: )
General Studies - A
So I got ABBA. Hehe. Much better than I thought I would get anyways. Now all I have to do is worry about what I'm going to do next year. I plan to ditch English (the most hellishly crappy subject in the universe) and take either Law or Geography in its place. I may end up staying an extra year in sixth form...never mind.
Congratulations to everybody who got the results they wanted (and deserved) today and on Tuesday. If you didn't do so well, it isn't the end of the world, there's always resits...gotta keep going. Lastly, good luck to everybody who gets their GCSE results next Thursday.
Originally posted by chris110 Funny you should mention about Computing grades being down, i woulda say im pretty good with computers and still i only managed a D in computing AS which im dissapointed with :mad: and yes one of our teachers was a complete moron. The whole average must have been a D, one person got a B about 2 C's the rest D's E's and U's even the best person with computers in our class only managed an E so thats gotta say something in itself for the subject.
I thought it would have been the teacher that caused the problem. I know from experience that in my accounts class (the whole five of us ), there was a few that was downgraded from studying higher level to intermediate level (really, a stepping stone from a general level pass in standard grade upto a higher - like a C/D at GCSE going onto a A level really) because our teacher was crap.
We were left around three weeks without a teacher, (as our previous one was pregnant), and accounts is a really intense course so we were stuggling to keep up. During the easter break, we actually spent a few days in school doing accounts (it was either that, or failing).
So that was a few people's year wasted, and none of us felt confident at all before the exam. And we all know who's fault that was.....
oh yes and another point - when we did a mock exam in January, none of us passed (at higher level) wonder why that was ? It was after everyone failed that some decided to study the lower level course (the intermediate one)
Originally posted by Mr_X Let me guess - you had a crap teacher ?
When results plummet like this, it nearly always reflects on the learning environment you had (such as other pupils and teachers/lecturers)
OK - here goes:
Diary of Our Computing Course (I wrote this once, but the darned thing lost my post AGGGHHHH!!!)
Sept 2001
We are introduced to our teacher. He is waaaaaay past retirement age. He is surprised when we tell him that Hard Disks have exceeded 1Gb in size! He doesn't teach - he simply copies out of the textbook onto the white board, which he never touches with his finger - he'd rather go through the rubbish bin for a dirty scrap of paper to erase the ink than touch it with his fingers - even a single letter or mark!!!!
We don't have enough textbooks for the 20 of us, so we can't do homework for the first 3 weeks.
Oct 2001
We finally have the textbooks - but no-one does the homework apart from me and one other person. Why? Because no-one else can understand what he's doing/saying! He finishes the first half of term by locking himself out of the room...
Nov/Dec 2001
We start designing/creating our coursework project (we are given a specification that we must complete - we later have to take the project into the exam room and answer questions on it). I spend several hours doing this each week because we only get 2 hours at the computer in class. Three people drop off the course. Two people begin to complain to their teachers whilst the rest of us think about doing the same. I am veeeeeery close, but then my report says that I'm predicted an 'A' for my exams, so I feel that perhaps I was a little unfair on the old fella...
Jan/Feb 2002
I have spend an awfully large amount of time on my project. Things are no better in the teaching department I mention to a teacher or two that things are not going well with him - they say they'll "sort it".
I complete my project. It works exactly to specification - I'm dead chuffed as I finish it first with it working as it should... We are now down to about 12 students.....
Mar/Apr 2002
We are told that we are to write documentation - it should only be a few pages with a couple of test print-outs to demonstrate that it works. I do this and am feeling alright about (if not bored by) the whole thing.
We are taught last minute stuff about what will be on this 'coursework paper'. Needless to say, we are a bit bemussed by the whole thing. Study leave begins and we all swat up on the exam stuff. More complaints go towards teachers & tutors
Aug 2002
I recieve my results - My predicted 'A' for my exam papers comes out at a 'C', and the coursework paper mark is so low it is considered 'ungraded'...
Sept 2002
First week back I talk to one of my other teachers. She reveals (on the grapevine of course ) that she has helped an Asian student move from his 'I.C.T' lesson because she was crying and upset - her parents had threatened to remove her from college because she was failing the subject so badly!!!!
There are 5 of us continuing the course. No one is optimistic....We learn we have to take the 1st year coursework paper again - that means a whole NEW project. So we now have one year to do two years worth of coursework projects.
Fortunately it seems our cries of dispair and disgust have been answered. We have a new teacher for the subject. He promises to make sure that this will never happen again, and that this year will be a LOT better...
Oct 2002
After the first few weeks going well, we are surprised to see that we have a member of staff filling in for him - we learn that our new teacher suffers from Cystic Fibrosis. We are told he should be back in a week. The following week we still have members of staff filling in - we are told that '...he may be away for a few more weeks' and that they are arranging a subsitute for us. The following day we find out who the subsitute is....you guessed it.....1st year teacher is back again!
We (as I hope you can imagine) have had enough. 4 out of 5 of us walk out mid-way through his lesson. We later learn he has sent a note telling our 2nd year teacher what we did when he returns - obviously no-one has confronted the man about our terrible grades (one person still in the class got a 'C' for their coursework paper - the rest of us got 'ungraded')
Nov/Dec 2002
After 3 weeks of filler teachers we get our proper substitute - he only teaches the NVQ course - he knows NOTHING about the A level syllabus. A week after he starts we get our old teacher back; however, because of his personal life he only takes half the classes whilst the new substitute teacher takes the rest.
We are worried about the 2nd year coursework. We have barely started it and we have to do the 1st year coursework in our own time as well! We are told not to worry and that we'll focus on it next term...
Jan/Feb 2003
...All panic starts here - after 2/3 lessons our teacher is back in hospital again (not his fault obviously, but it does leave us in the middle of a certain creek without a paddle....). We haven't learnt all the work for the first paper yet and the course is just over half way through!
I have taken to learning via the textbook as much as possible, although it doesn't seem to be helping much We recieve the minimum of help on our coursework - it is a constant battle with teachers as to what we should be doing in our lessons. Total help for the 1st year Coursework exam is LITTERALLY one A4 sheet of paper!!!! A couple of the students have had to start their 2nd year projects over again because they are inappropriate.
Mar/Apr 2003
We are all frustrated! Once again, we are left with few options. Whilst our teacher has returned, we still have a whole project to get done on top of the one that we are already falling behind in! I am working double time on the projects - I could still get as high as a B grade if I get high 'A's in all the other papers (yeah - right)!
I spend an EXTRA 17 hours in the final week getting all the courseworks sorted (take into account I have to get another 2 subject's worth of coursework in on top of this). Breaktimes, Odd hours here and there, lunchtimes, weekends... I spend AGES trying to get the project bang up to scratch! Our 2nd year coursework is marked, but we are not informed of what the teacher thinks of them (hardly surprising seeing that I JUST scraped an 'E' grade in the end).
May/June 2003
We take the 1st Coursework Paper Exam. I think it goes better (which it does - I got a 'C' this time - A "Pyrrhic Victory" I'm sure you'll agree)
Before we go on study leave we are all laughing to prevent ourselves from crying. We know we are going to do badly - very badly. We haven't been taught anything AT ALL for the second paper (I managed to accumulate a whole 26 UMS marks out of 90 from my own personal study [NOT REVISION - STUDY!] in the end). One student in the class feels he's going to do so bad that he has already decided to enrol at the college next year to sort out the mess Needless to say he isn't doing A level computing....
August 2003
Final marks:
CPT1: C Grade
CPT2: C Grade
CPT3: Ungraded (retake - C Grade)
CPT4: D Grade
CPT5: Ungraded
CPT6: E Grade
Overall: D Grade
So please try to imagine how it feels when people tell us these things are 'getting easier' and will be 'worthless within 5 years time'. I say to those people: Please take off your rose-tinted beer goggles and give 'em a clean...
that story is awful - it wasn't as bad here for accounts - but i feel sorry if those that had moved down a qualifacation. now those people are one higher less - that could count of they were going on to uni.
I really sympathise damndirtytape. i've had a similar situation, though not as bad. I wish these politicians and whoever that say that exams are easy would think about what they are saying. Its easy for them being in high paying jobs that they've had for years. But I bet they could not pass these exams now. We work very hard for our results!
This year in drama we were meant to have a new teacher to the college, but he was hurt in a car crash the week before term started so couldnt teach. Of course that is a very valid reason and fair enough. Well they got us the worst supply teacher ever. She was the most slutty, stupid woman I have ever met. She really was stupid. I dont know WHY they hired her. She left after a month....we learnt absolutely nothing! She didnt even try and teach us anything....we just played drama games.
Then we got this other teacher. He was so funny and inspiring. He was a brilliant actor, had been on whose line is it anyway and performed with people from the west end. However, he hardly tried to teach us. He preferred having fun.
January, we got our new permanent teacher. We had learned not a thing and had to study 2 plays, a drama practitioner and devise a play in groups. Well, we were meant to start the devising in October as that had to be finished by early MArch. This new teacher was at least qualified and taught us the syllabus. However she is so pessimistic and horrible to us. SHe literally turned round to people and told them that their work was crap. She wouldnt give constucive advice though.
I can totally relate to that about the first teacher, ours was exactly the same! the coursework we had to do witout our computing teacher so it wasnt surprising that we all got a U in it, although the teacher we did have seemed to know more than our actual one. He sent people out all the time, even if you just look at him in the wrong way and he told us that 50% was an A grade, when i got 160/300 and get a D i think its something to do with computing teachers mate...
ICT is a common area for weak teachers, actually. Most people with an ICT-related degree are sensible enough not to go into teaching, and so schools are left with the dregs (on the whole).
At the school I last worked in, two of the Maths department were 'borrowed' to teach ICT. One of them had so little a clue about ICT, he had to bring his own laptop into school once to find out if it had got a CD-Rom drive on it... jeez!!
I'm hoping to get into Brunel in Uxbridge, I am enquiring with them now [they originally asked for 300 UCAS Points but they said I might still have a chance].
They haven't got the results yet, and I have just faxed them through from my local chemist.
Oh yeah, I'm hoping to do BSc Computer Science.
If all fails, I still have a place at my insurance choice, Westminster in Harrow.
I'm hoping to get into Brunel in Uxbridge, I am enquiring with them now [they originally asked for 300 UCAS Points but they said I might still have a chance].
They haven't got the results yet, and I have just faxed them through from my local chemist.
Oh yeah, I'm hoping to do BSc Computer Science.
If all fails, I still have a place at my insurance choice, Westminster in Harrow.
yeah i was just wondering if anyone knows how to find out if you have a place at a uni. i did'nt get the results i wanted to go to my first choice but i got a letter from ucas today telling me i did but it said that it was dependent on me reaching my targets a so i tthought that was the end of it. i read on and theres a slip saying that if i don't accept this offer i can't go into clearing or another uni so i'm now confused as i'm not sure if i am in or not. i then check the ucas website and it says that they are satisfied that i have met there requirments and i am on the course but i have not meet their requirments and in fact i'm about 60 points down. the other strange thing that it is dated the 11 of august before the results came out so i'm confused. can anybody shed some light on this.
Phone your first choice uni direct [that's what I did because I thought I didn't have the grades as they originally asked for 300, i had 260 UCAS points.]
At the end of the day, the uni decides if you go there, not UCAS, so ask your uni direct!
Congratulations! You must have worked extremely hard for those marks. Ignore what everyone else will tell you about 'dumbing down' - I know the truth and it's far from easy!
Originally posted by damndirtyape I got my welcome pack for uni today - talk about a sh*t load of paper :eek: Must send that slip thing off to UCAS before I forget....
i got my welcome pack for uni today aswell but i still don't know if i have a place. i have'nt told them my results so would they know my results already or would ucas know them.
Originally posted by homer911 i got my welcome pack for uni today aswell but i still don't know if i have a place. i have'nt told them my results so would they know my results already or would ucas know them.
Well, I don't know if things have changed but back in my day the unis knew the results the day before the students.
As a former student< I would say DO NOT panic and take the first place you can- you will live to regret it. I got 3 As and a B at A Levelas they used to be, and so I was fortunate enough to have first pick. Even then though, i made the wrong choice and choose a course at a uni that i didn't really like. I left after 2 years and am now taking things much more slowly- working to raise some money and thinking of going in a opposite direction from what I was doing (history).
Just dont choose the course that "will take you" - You should choose the course.
Comments
To anybody who didn't do as well as they might have. You have all done well to get this far and please do not give up hope. You can always repeat. Please dont waste your time by giving up. Time passes by so quickly so make the most of it. Heres wishing you all success.
I dont think there was any need for you to post a link to that picture, everyone who sat these exams at this level have at least achieved something, whether its in terms of a grade or something within themselves.
Congrats you those guys who posted before yall did great! there was a few of mine i thought i coulda done better in but thats just life im afraid
Computing : D
English Literature : B
Media : A
Computing is a WHOLE BIG bag of worms. Needless to say that the class average (with class being all 5 of us in A2!!!! ) was a 'D'...Make of that what you will.... :mad:
English Literature - not surprised about really - once again they didn't enjoy one of my papers and didn't mind the other(s)
Media - Coursework was 120/120. 100% - A . 2nd Paper 90/90. 100% - A. Guess what I got for my 1st Paper 34/120 :eek: Ungraded!!!! I dunno what I did, but I must have really pi$$ed someone off!!!!
Let me guess - you had a crap teacher ?
When results plummet like this, it nearly always reflects on the learning environment you had (such as other pupils and teachers/lecturers)
Funny you should mention about Computing grades being down, i woulda say im pretty good with computers and still i only managed a D in computing AS which im dissapointed with :mad: and yes one of our teachers was a complete moron. The whole average must have been a D, one person got a B about 2 C's the rest D's E's and U's even the best person with computers in our class only managed an E so thats gotta say something in itself for the subject.
Sociology - A (with 100 bloody percent on one paper:D )
English Lang/Lit - B (I thought I'd failed)
Media Studies - B (I wanted an A :mad: )
General Studies - A
So I got ABBA. Hehe. Much better than I thought I would get anyways. Now all I have to do is worry about what I'm going to do next year. I plan to ditch English (the most hellishly crappy subject in the universe) and take either Law or Geography in its place. I may end up staying an extra year in sixth form...never mind.
Congratulations to everybody who got the results they wanted (and deserved) today and on Tuesday. If you didn't do so well, it isn't the end of the world, there's always resits...gotta keep going. Lastly, good luck to everybody who gets their GCSE results next Thursday.
I thought it would have been the teacher that caused the problem. I know from experience that in my accounts class (the whole five of us
We were left around three weeks without a teacher, (as our previous one was pregnant), and accounts is a really intense course so we were stuggling to keep up. During the easter break, we actually spent a few days in school doing accounts (it was either that, or failing).
So that was a few people's year wasted, and none of us felt confident at all before the exam. And we all know who's fault that was.....
oh yes and another point - when we did a mock exam in January, none of us passed (at higher level)
OK - here goes:
Diary of Our Computing Course (I wrote this once, but the darned thing lost my post AGGGHHHH!!!)
Sept 2001
We are introduced to our teacher. He is waaaaaay past retirement age. He is surprised when we tell him that Hard Disks have exceeded 1Gb in size! He doesn't teach - he simply copies out of the textbook onto the white board, which he never touches with his finger - he'd rather go through the rubbish bin for a dirty scrap of paper to erase the ink than touch it with his fingers - even a single letter or mark!!!!
We don't have enough textbooks for the 20 of us, so we can't do homework for the first 3 weeks.
Oct 2001
We finally have the textbooks - but no-one does the homework apart from me and one other person. Why? Because no-one else can understand what he's doing/saying! He finishes the first half of term by locking himself out of the room...
Nov/Dec 2001
We start designing/creating our coursework project (we are given a specification that we must complete - we later have to take the project into the exam room and answer questions on it). I spend several hours doing this each week because we only get 2 hours at the computer in class. Three people drop off the course. Two people begin to complain to their teachers whilst the rest of us think about doing the same. I am veeeeeery close, but then my report says that I'm predicted an 'A' for my exams, so I feel that perhaps I was a little unfair on the old fella...
Jan/Feb 2002
I have spend an awfully large amount of time on my project. Things are no better in the teaching department
I complete my project. It works exactly to specification - I'm dead chuffed as I finish it first with it working as it should... We are now down to about 12 students.....
Mar/Apr 2002
We are told that we are to write documentation - it should only be a few pages with a couple of test print-outs to demonstrate that it works. I do this and am feeling alright about (if not bored by) the whole thing.
We are taught last minute stuff about what will be on this 'coursework paper'. Needless to say, we are a bit bemussed by the whole thing. Study leave begins and we all swat up on the exam stuff. More complaints go towards teachers & tutors
Aug 2002
I recieve my results - My predicted 'A' for my exam papers comes out at a 'C', and the coursework paper mark is so low it is considered 'ungraded'...
Sept 2002
First week back I talk to one of my other teachers. She reveals (on the grapevine of course
There are 5 of us continuing the course. No one is optimistic....We learn we have to take the 1st year coursework paper again - that means a whole NEW project. So we now have one year to do two years worth of coursework projects.
Fortunately it seems our cries of dispair and disgust have been answered. We have a new teacher for the subject. He promises to make sure that this will never happen again, and that this year will be a LOT better...
Oct 2002
After the first few weeks going well, we are surprised to see that we have a member of staff filling in for him - we learn that our new teacher suffers from Cystic Fibrosis. We are told he should be back in a week. The following week we still have members of staff filling in - we are told that '...he may be away for a few more weeks' and that they are arranging a subsitute for us. The following day we find out who the subsitute is....you guessed it.....1st year teacher is back again!
We (as I hope you can imagine) have had enough. 4 out of 5 of us walk out mid-way through his lesson. We later learn he has sent a note telling our 2nd year teacher what we did when he returns - obviously no-one has confronted the man about our terrible grades (one person still in the class got a 'C' for their coursework paper - the rest of us got 'ungraded')
Nov/Dec 2002
After 3 weeks of filler teachers we get our proper substitute - he only teaches the NVQ course - he knows NOTHING about the A level syllabus. A week after he starts we get our old teacher back; however, because of his personal life he only takes half the classes whilst the new substitute teacher takes the rest.
We are worried about the 2nd year coursework. We have barely started it and we have to do the 1st year coursework in our own time as well! We are told not to worry and that we'll focus on it next term...
Jan/Feb 2003
...All panic starts here - after 2/3 lessons our teacher is back in hospital again (not his fault obviously, but it does leave us in the middle of a certain creek without a paddle....). We haven't learnt all the work for the first paper yet and the course is just over half way through!
I have taken to learning via the textbook as much as possible, although it doesn't seem to be helping much
Mar/Apr 2003
We are all frustrated! Once again, we are left with few options. Whilst our teacher has returned, we still have a whole project to get done on top of the one that we are already falling behind in! I am working double time on the projects - I could still get as high as a B grade if I get high 'A's in all the other papers (yeah - right)!
I spend an EXTRA 17 hours in the final week getting all the courseworks sorted (take into account I have to get another 2 subject's worth of coursework in on top of this). Breaktimes, Odd hours here and there, lunchtimes, weekends... I spend AGES trying to get the project bang up to scratch! Our 2nd year coursework is marked, but we are not informed of what the teacher thinks of them (hardly surprising seeing that I JUST scraped an 'E' grade in the end).
May/June 2003
We take the 1st Coursework Paper Exam. I think it goes better (which it does - I got a 'C' this time - A "Pyrrhic Victory" I'm sure you'll agree)
Before we go on study leave we are all laughing to prevent ourselves from crying. We know we are going to do badly - very badly. We haven't been taught anything AT ALL for the second paper (I managed to accumulate a whole 26 UMS marks out of 90 from my own personal study [NOT REVISION - STUDY!] in the end). One student in the class feels he's going to do so bad that he has already decided to enrol at the college next year to sort out the mess
August 2003
Final marks:
CPT1: C Grade
CPT2: C Grade
CPT3: Ungraded (retake - C Grade)
CPT4: D Grade
CPT5: Ungraded
CPT6: E Grade
Overall: D Grade
So please try to imagine how it feels when people tell us these things are 'getting easier' and will be 'worthless within 5 years time'. I say to those people: Please take off your rose-tinted beer goggles and give 'em a clean...
This year in drama we were meant to have a new teacher to the college, but he was hurt in a car crash the week before term started so couldnt teach. Of course that is a very valid reason and fair enough. Well they got us the worst supply teacher ever. She was the most slutty, stupid woman I have ever met. She really was stupid. I dont know WHY they hired her. She left after a month....we learnt absolutely nothing! She didnt even try and teach us anything....we just played drama games.
Then we got this other teacher. He was so funny and inspiring. He was a brilliant actor, had been on whose line is it anyway and performed with people from the west end. However, he hardly tried to teach us. He preferred having fun.
January, we got our new permanent teacher. We had learned not a thing and had to study 2 plays, a drama practitioner and devise a play in groups. Well, we were meant to start the devising in October as that had to be finished by early MArch. This new teacher was at least qualified and taught us the syllabus. However she is so pessimistic and horrible to us. SHe literally turned round to people and told them that their work was crap. She wouldnt give constucive advice though.
Terrible!
join the queue - I have an english teacher and an accounts teacher to lynch first
I can totally relate to that about the first teacher, ours was exactly the same! the coursework we had to do witout our computing teacher so it wasnt surprising that we all got a U in it, although the teacher we did have seemed to know more than our actual one. He sent people out all the time, even if you just look at him in the wrong way and he told us that 50% was an A grade, when i got 160/300 and get a D
At the school I last worked in, two of the Maths department were 'borrowed' to teach ICT. One of them had so little a clue about ICT, he had to bring his own laptop into school once to find out if it had got a CD-Rom drive on it... jeez!!
AVCE ICT [Equiv to 2 'A' Levels] - A,B
'A' Level Eng Lit - E
260 UCAS Points in total.
I'm hoping to get into Brunel in Uxbridge, I am enquiring with them now [they originally asked for 300 UCAS Points but they said I might still have a chance].
They haven't got the results yet, and I have just faxed them through from my local chemist.
Oh yeah, I'm hoping to do BSc Computer Science.
If all fails, I still have a place at my insurance choice, Westminster in Harrow.
[Both Unis in West London]
digiperson
Well, I got into Brunel!!!!!!!!!!!!
*Cracks open some beers.........*
digiperson
At the end of the day, the uni decides if you go there, not UCAS, so ask your uni direct!
Good luck with it!
digiperson
Got my AS results yesterday
Maths - A
Physics - A
Economics - A
Chemistry - B
D
Not gonna carry Chemistry on for A2
Congratulations! You must have worked extremely hard for those marks. Ignore what everyone else will tell you about 'dumbing down' - I know the truth and it's far from easy!
i got my welcome pack for uni today aswell but i still don't know if i have a place. i have'nt told them my results so would they know my results already or would ucas know them.
Beth.
Just dont choose the course that "will take you" - You should choose the course.