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Aled got his A-Level results (exams you sit in the UK which determine which university you go to) last Thursday.
He managed a to get a BBC, which was enough to get him into Loughborough University. Congratulations to him.
There was a twinge of ego shrinking in his wonderful news: officially, I’m the thickest child in the Wynne family.
Rick did well, Aled did well, I did rather shitty with my BCD. Sure, I still got into Liverpool and had an awesome time there, but the fact remains that my A-Levels were pretty rubbish.
Two things I learned though:
1. A Levels Do Matter
Certain companies (**cough**IBM**cough**) wouldn’t look at me with my grades, so if you’re to sit them soon, don’t fuck them up.
2. They are NOT getting any easier
First of all, how can calculus or Shakespeare change over 5 years? I know I did take a look at some of Al’s coursework, and it was exactly the same as mine. I don’t know how they mark it, but it didn’t seem any harder.
So, how did you do in your A Levels, if you got them last week or last decade? I’m particularly happy to hear from people who got worse A Levels than me.
In other news: My PC is even more screwed than it was on Monday, but my focus has been on Bonnie, who has not been well. She’s getting better now, but to all those who say I’ve got my priorities wrong – heed this: blog < dog.
Comments: 11 Comments
Rhys Wynne, the author of this blog, is a 20 something web designer from Colwyn Bay. 
Have you seen the new iMacs? They are sexy sexy and slim and powerful and crash-resistant and best of all, Windows-less!
PCs are good, they have their place… it’s the operating system which is crap.
Now excuse me whilst I go and stick an Apple sticker on my car.
dude… i think i can officially say now i have the worst A-levels out of everyone i know!
History – C
Computing – C
Economics – E (i will never understand this bullcrap subject!)
still – i got to Liverpool too
congrats to your bro!
Is Bonnie suffering from a peanut butter overdose?? (i’ll be suprised if anyone gets this reference but if you do… your a bit sick in the head and i fear for your dog!! its also a reference from a blink-182 song before you cast dispersions over me!)
and exams are blatantly being marked more leniently these days!
@Rhys I’ve already suggested them! Rhys is just stubborn. I got him to use gmail and I will get him to use a mac!
My A levels were pants B,C,C,D,E. woo for my E, the only reason I think I got into Kent was because I’m a girl, and there’s like 5 girls on my course! (including me!)
I dont think alevels matter at all, they only look at them when they have 2 perfect candidates and need to differentiate.
Errm, the A-Level exams might not be getting easier, but the marking is. In the old days the marking used to be on a bell curve, so only the very top X% got As, the next top Y% got Bs and so on. You were competing against your peers and every fraction of a percentage point could matter.
Sometime in the last 10 years, they changed the marking so that anyone scoring over X% got an A, so once you’ve scored your 80% (or whatever it is) the rest of your paper doesn’t much matter.
Now this doesn’t help the universities or the students. In wales, very nearly 24% of all papers got an A grade but can you honestly say that one quarter of all people sitting the paper were identically smart?
Now go to university and two things happen; first you are going to be marked on the bell curve and your institution and course MATTER. Employers aren’t daft and they know a first science degree from, say, Hull isn’t equivalent to, say, Imperial.
Hmm, well I don’t konw about since we left school, but doing the past papers from 1998-2002 or whatever, in Physics, Chemistry and Maths they did seem to get progressively easier. Suppose it could have been that they got closer to the syllabus we were taught, though I doubt it would change much. Err, and I think I’d better keep my A level results to myself…
I technically got the same as Aled under the previous
points system (A,B,D and B,B,C both equalled 22 IIRC). Fuck knows what that’s worth in today’s money though.
And my actual grades were shite compared to my predicted grades, so I have no reason to feel smug about them. One bad day in the exam hall (and some pretty average coursework) can make a huge difference.
@Han: Sorry to tell you this, but A levels matter a hell of a lot, unless you have a 1st class degree and a full checklist of extra-curriculars like sports captain/society president while at uni.
This especially applies to the blue-chips as me and Rhys both found out to our cost.
The problem is, so many applications come through that the empolyers really like to thin the numbers down early on – assessment centre days cost a lot of cash! Exam results are the most objective way of doing that, unfortunately.
To put it in perspective, here’s a little story I picked up at a recruitment fair a couple of years back:
One of the Big Four (accountancy firms, and not the one I ended up at) had a “rule of thirds” at the time.
For every 100 applications, around 32/33 would be asked to do some online psychometric testing. For every 100 applicants that did those tests, around 30 would be invited for an initial interview. Same process for the 1st assessment centre, same again for the 2nd assessment centre (not sure how many firms do 2 assessment days now), and same yet again for interviews with a Partner.
I think Partner interviews had a slightly higher success rate (50%-ish), mainly because they have to be pretty serious about the applicant to dedicate that amount of Partners’ chargeable time to the process.
So, with such a massive process in place, the last thing you need is to be filtered out at the first hurdle.
If you have worse than expected A-levels, make sure you blitz your 2nd-year modules at uni so that you can be predicted a 1st. Offers are normally made based on predicted results, so it’s worth doing!
Jesus, that was another epic comment… sorry Rhys!
It always surprised me that when I left Uni potential employers still wanted to scrutinise my A-Level results (or rather lack thereof).
I always figured that my degree would supercede them but I too have never quite escaped the spectre of my not too flashy A-Level results.
Damn those employers!
Yea they do matter that’s why I’m going back to re do them! I thought I had the worst but G-man comes in first with his followed by Z-man.
And I get the peanut butter thing, it was either you that told me that at uni and I told my friend at work or the other way round, thing it was you thou. Still very funny though not as good as horse blow job thou or black man with blow up penguin
I can’t remember the actual grade. It was 44 years ago, but I know they were not good. I passed History, Literature, Scripture, flunked Math and French. I decided to do English again because I had not done well and my teacher was very surprised as she thought I would have no trouble. I have always hated exams of any kind. I think I automatically fail. I dread ever having to take my driving test again, just in case I fail, why I would I don’t know I have been driving for 40 years and never had an accident but its those exams that get me every time!
I was surprised how much A-levels mattered after school despite what the teachers said. I had the luck of someone on my side I managed to get AAAB so I managed to get into Kent which was all I cared about.
Now if I could just replicate the same kind of luck for my final year..