eyup, it's that time of the year when TV shows young girls embracing each other...

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i.e. A level results live on the breakfast progs...

Um, is this greatly interesting?

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 18 August 2005 08:26 (twenty years ago)

If they have nice shiny hair, yes.

― Sam (chirombo), Thursday, 18 August 2005 08:28 (twenty years ago)

I don't know what they're all so worried about, don't 96% of them pass anyway?

― Diddyismus (Dada), Thursday, 18 August 2005 08:29 (twenty years ago)

Yes, they get a nice, shiny piece of paper which says "I WENT TO SCHOOL" or might as well do.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 18 August 2005 08:30 (twenty years ago)

... i don't have one of those.

― g-kit (g-kit), Thursday, 18 August 2005 08:31 (twenty years ago)

well, given that parents of a-level students make up a fairly large proportion of the newspaper-reading population, it is the kind of story that writes itself.

and it *is* important that something like 23% of them are getting 'a's (figure obtained from vg catherine bennett article in today's guardian).

unfortunately the debate on standards is basically seen as belonging to the right. but the consequences of grade inflation don't benefit anyone except the educational establishment's own higher-echelon placeholders, ie people like adonis himself.

― N_RQ, Thursday, 18 August 2005 08:32 (twenty years ago)

well, given that parents of a-level students make up a fairly large proportion of the newspaper-reading population, it is the kind of story that writes itself.

Nail on the head time

― Diddyismus (Dada), Thursday, 18 August 2005 08:33 (twenty years ago)

not to mention that, shall we say, disillusioned middle-aged male proportion of the newsreader-reading population, their kleenex at the ready...

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 18 August 2005 08:34 (twenty years ago)

And they're so pretty!

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40701000/jpg/_40701538_sacred203.jpg

― Sam (chirombo), Thursday, 18 August 2005 08:34 (twenty years ago)

newsPAPER-reading population!

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 18 August 2005 08:35 (twenty years ago)

not to mention that, shall we say, disillusioned middle-aged male proportion of the newsreader-reading population, their kleenex at the ready...

Second nail on the head

― Diddyismus (Dada), Thursday, 18 August 2005 08:35 (twenty years ago)

I was actually talking to a girl this weekend who'd just finished her first year of a-levels, and when I asked which she was taking, she listed SIX! When I looked aghast, she said "yeah, I know, but I did AS maths and English lit already, last year..."

― JimD (JimD), Thursday, 18 August 2005 08:37 (twenty years ago)

In Scotland we didn't have A levels at school; we had Highers, which you sat in your fifth year, and you could do up to seven or eight different subjects.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 18 August 2005 08:40 (twenty years ago)

... yes, and people actually FAILED them occasionally, can you imagine!

― Diddyismus (Dada), Thursday, 18 August 2005 08:41 (twenty years ago)

haha, actually yeah, AS has really made the end-of U6 thing a bit less of a big event. when i went thru this, my L6 exams were kind of more important since the predicted grades used for getting interviews with universities were based on these, not yer actual a-level grades. i think the photos are poignant, because it's the last time in these kids' (haha 'kids', i feel i am among them anyway) lives they will achieve anything real and pure and just. (kidding, but not really.)

― N_RQ, Thursday, 18 August 2005 08:42 (twenty years ago)

Achieving success in a field with a 96% success rate doesn't strike me as being a towering achievement exactly

― Diddyismus (Dada), Thursday, 18 August 2005 08:46 (twenty years ago)

ok, it's just an excuse to print pix of pretty girls, because as we all know newspapers usually shy away from that sort of thing.

― N_RQ, Thursday, 18 August 2005 08:47 (twenty years ago)

and then the following week they'll cant about THIS PAEDOPHILIA MENACE

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 18 August 2005 08:49 (twenty years ago)

That's 96% for A-E grades, though, right? Anything below a C was considered fairly useless in my time (1997).

xpost

― carson dial (carson dial), Thursday, 18 August 2005 08:49 (twenty years ago)

In the Scottish Highers system, anything below a C was considered a FAILURE and you had to come back next year and RESIT.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 18 August 2005 08:51 (twenty years ago)

And that's what made me and Marcello the men we are today! Errrrrrrrrrrrrr...........

― Diddyismus (Dada), Thursday, 18 August 2005 08:52 (twenty years ago)

Quite.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 18 August 2005 08:52 (twenty years ago)

Ivor Cutler: "You can't beat a Scottish education, my head is full of irregular verbs still..."

― Diddyismus (Dada), Thursday, 18 August 2005 08:53 (twenty years ago)

highers don't=A-levels, though

― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 18 August 2005 08:54 (twenty years ago)

You sit them earlier, so, in my day at least, they were supposed to be "easier"

― Diddyismus (Dada), Thursday, 18 August 2005 08:55 (twenty years ago)

yeah...

― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 18 August 2005 08:56 (twenty years ago)

I still did A-levels, though - my teachers warned me that Oxford would probably still insist on them regardless of my Higher results, so I dossed off to Jordanhill for a year to do 'em.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 18 August 2005 09:01 (twenty years ago)

(you did an oxbridge entrance exam too, presumably?)

― N_RQ, Thursday, 18 August 2005 09:02 (twenty years ago)

Yes, plus I had to go down there for interview.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 18 August 2005 09:04 (twenty years ago)

I understand that more and more Universities are setting or thinking of setting entrance exams, because they don't feel that the results of the A' Levels are giving them any sort of meaningful indicator of the students' abilities any more.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 18 August 2005 09:07 (twenty years ago)

I got a D in Higher Chemistry, it was really annoying to know that if i'd got an extra 10% correct i would have passed.

My best friend got 6 A grades in her Highers and ended up studying classics at Oxford.

― leigh (leigh), Thursday, 18 August 2005 09:07 (twenty years ago)

Actualy I got into Oxford without any problems whatsoever, having pissed around for two years beforehand and only managed to obtain 2 piss-poor A'Levels!

(That was Oxford Poly, obv.)

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 18 August 2005 09:10 (twenty years ago)

I got into Oxford, no problems. Parking's a bit of a git though..

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 18 August 2005 09:12 (twenty years ago)

i only brought the oxford exams up cos they don't do 'em any more.

― N_RQ, Thursday, 18 August 2005 09:13 (twenty years ago)

I like old Brookes. When Laura started her librarian career she had the option of either working in the Bodleian or at Brookes (at that stage it was still the Poly) and she chose Brookes 'cos she felt the Bodleian was too stuffy, both in terms of atmosphere and the people who worked there (no offence intended to any Bodleian workers who might be lurking! - L just thought that the people and environment at Brookes were hipper and cooler, more fun to be with and work with).

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 18 August 2005 09:14 (twenty years ago)

We've had the 'A' Level results so now we can look forward to all the front page shock/horror stories in the Mail and Evening Standard about middle class children not getting into good universities, despite having 87 A grade A Level passes, because some oik or coloured person got in instead

― Diddyismus (Dada), Thursday, 18 August 2005 09:17 (twenty years ago)

The lack of oik or coloured input in newspaper A-level photo galleries is noteworthy, if predictable.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 18 August 2005 09:18 (twenty years ago)

Did I not read somewhere recently that the International Baccalaureate Organisation had recognised the Scottish "Highers" (which, as has been mentioned, is taken a year earlier than either A'Levels or the Baccalaureate Diploma) as an equivalent qualification but did not accept that (all / some / most / any?) A'Levels reached the equivalent standard?

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 18 August 2005 09:20 (twenty years ago)

"L just thought that the people and environment at Brookes were hipper and cooler, more fun to be with and work with"

This much should already be obvious!

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 18 August 2005 09:21 (twenty years ago)

oh, things have clearly declined since 1998, when i got 4 as. (ok, one in general studies.)

― N_RQ, Thursday, 18 August 2005 09:22 (twenty years ago)

Do any ugly boys ever do A-levels (other than myself eight years ago)?

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Thursday, 18 August 2005 09:30 (twenty years ago)

"We've had the 'A' Level results so now we can look forward to all the front page shock/horror stories in the Mail and Evening Standard about middle class children not getting into good universities, despite having 87 A grade A Level passes, because some oik or coloured person got in instead"

After that we will have the annual farce of the Universtity statistics, in which the Universities are ranked according to the following criteria:
a) the proportion of students from disadvantaged areas and backgrounds etc. that they've taken on;
b) the proportion of students that actually complete the courses and obtain their degrees.

And again no-one will apparently actually grasp the significance of the fact that the two lists are to a huge extent mirror-images of one another.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 18 August 2005 09:34 (twenty years ago)

Yes, they don't get on telly though. They have to be fairly certain of getting their requirements though (hey! why not fail on national TV?)

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 18 August 2005 09:34 (twenty years ago)

In my experience it was the Yahs who ended up dropping out early 'cos they knew they were going to get a cushy job/life anyway. Those of us who actually had to work to get to Oxford tended to - surprise surprise - work harder to get our actual degrees.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 18 August 2005 09:36 (twenty years ago)

When were you at Oxford, Marcello? Was that little tosser who was heir to the Sainsbury's millions (or whatever) there when you were?

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 18 August 2005 09:38 (twenty years ago)

Recall plenty of tossers during my time there, but no Sainsbury's heir types. I was at Lady Margaret Hall from 1981-84. Simon Reynolds was in the same year as me (but he was at Brasenose) and David Stubbs one year above. Mark S graduated the year before I started.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 18 August 2005 09:42 (twenty years ago)

brasenose! POSH!

― N_RQ, Thursday, 18 August 2005 09:43 (twenty years ago)

I know a Sainsbury! He's no tosser tho...

― Diddyismus (Dada), Thursday, 18 August 2005 09:43 (twenty years ago)

I shop at Sainsbury's. Am I a tosser?

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Thursday, 18 August 2005 09:45 (twenty years ago)

No, you're thinking of Clive Anderson.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 18 August 2005 09:46 (twenty years ago)

"I was at Lady Margaret Hall from 1981-84. Simon Reynolds was in the same year as me (but he was at Brasenose) and David Stubbs one year above."

I was at The Poly doing my Foundation Course 1982-83! Did you ever get to the Lamb & Flag or The Coven?

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 18 August 2005 10:08 (twenty years ago)

"I shop at Sainsbury's. Am I a tosser?"

"No, you're thinking of Clive Anderson."

Wait, what if he's Jamie Oliver, and you've told him he's not a tosser?

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 18 August 2005 10:11 (twenty years ago)

Lovely jubbly.

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Thursday, 18 August 2005 10:12 (twenty years ago)

In terms of drinking or gigs? Gigwise we generally tended to go down to ze Big Smoke; pub-wise, our pub, from beginning to end, was the Mitre in t'High Street.

(Stewart xpost)

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 18 August 2005 10:12 (twenty years ago)

it's funny, the mitre was a hang-out for peeps like evelyn waugh and wh auden -- today, it is a dive, with very few students.

― N_RQ, Thursday, 18 August 2005 10:18 (twenty years ago)

he Lamb & Flag was the punks pub in Oxford.
The Coven was a punk / post-punk / goth club.

Because I was stuck out in poxy Wheatley, and the last bus back left at something ridiculous like 10:00PM, if I wanted to go into Oxford at night I had to choose to either:
a) go home early like a sad case; or
b) try to find someone with a car who wanted to go with me; or
c) try to hitch back; or
d) crash out on my mate Munchy's (ex Reading punk, was sent to prison in Oxford and ended up staying there after he was released) floor.

It usually ended up being d).

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 18 August 2005 10:24 (twenty years ago)

lamb and flag now fairly studentless (i get it confused with the eagle and child. one of these was the tolkien/cs lewis hang-out). i spent many of my days in the kings arms ('KA'), the local, closer than the college bar.

― N_RQ, Thursday, 18 August 2005 10:40 (twenty years ago)

"lamb and flag now fairly studentless"

Oh the Lamb & Flag was pretty well studentless in my day too! Lots of punks and lots of goths but no (obvious) students.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 18 August 2005 10:49 (twenty years ago)

Isn't the Coven now a gay bar?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 18 August 2005 10:51 (twenty years ago)

i think it's kind of goff-techno now.

― N_RQ, Thursday, 18 August 2005 10:52 (twenty years ago)

Goth has never really died in Oxford.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 18 August 2005 10:53 (twenty years ago)

N_RQ, are Bretts Burgers still in Oxford?

I believe they started originally from a van down by the station, then took premises in Cowley Road (right next door to where a gf and several mates of my lived right after I'd finished at Poly!), and they kept expanding until, by the late '80's, they had several branches - including one in Reading.

Unfortunately the one in Reading closed several years ago and I haven't seen the name since.

Shame if they've disappeared completely 'cos they made by far the best burgers I've ever eaten!

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 18 August 2005 10:58 (twenty years ago)

My first-ever proper girlfriend was from Abingdon. Haven't been back to Oxford since she dumped me in late 1998. Am I missing anything?

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Thursday, 18 August 2005 10:59 (twenty years ago)

Sadly, the van vanished in the late '90s after the lock/stock/barrel redevelopment of Park End Street to allow construction of horrible new university building next to the station.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 18 August 2005 10:59 (twenty years ago)

"Isn't the Coven now a gay bar?"

The original Coven where I used to go was torn down iirc, but I believe they moved the club somewhere else.

"Goth has never really died in Oxford."

Undead, undead, undead!

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:00 (twenty years ago)

N_RQ, are Bretts Burgers still in Oxford?

think not. the good shit is from peppers, on walton st, up past the phoenix.

ah, yes: it's now 'the coven II', and it's on a road that probably didn;t exist 20 years ago, near the poly that isn't brookes, by the ice rink.

― N_RQ, Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:01 (twenty years ago)

the wonderful world of oxpens...

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:03 (twenty years ago)

"it's now 'the coven II', and it's on a road that probably didn;t exist 20 years ago"

Which is apt, since (if my feeble memory and even more feeble sense of geography weren't conspiring to deceive me the last time I went to Oxford) there's now a road where the original Coven used to be.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:05 (twenty years ago)

God, Bretts in Reading closed a very log time ago...

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:57 (twenty years ago)

Eagle & Child was definitely the Inklings pub (Tolkien, Lewis, et al). Remember because scandalized re origin of "eagle & child", which is to say, Zeus' abduction of Ganymede for nefarious (licentious) purposes.

― Laurel (Laurel), Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:03 (twenty years ago)

You mean it was burned to the ground by a paedo-hatin' lynch mob?

― Diddyismus (Dada), Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:07 (twenty years ago)

NRQ, that "poly" is the further education college innit.

The first time i met tom it was in the mitre and yes it is a bit of a hole.

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:11 (twenty years ago)

haha, i shd kno it was an FE college, given that i worked there for a week last year!

― N_RQ, Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:12 (twenty years ago)

"God, Bretts in Reading closed a very log time ago... "

More than 5 years certainly; probably not as much as 10?

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:17 (twenty years ago)

"that "poly" is the further education college innit."

No, it's now Oxford Brookes Uni.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:18 (twenty years ago)

nah -- he means the one near the westgate. the old poly in east oxford is now brookes. i had thought there was another poly, which is actually an FEC.

― N_RQ, Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:20 (twenty years ago)

Ten years seems about right!

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:24 (twenty years ago)

"the old poly in east oxford is now brookes. i had thought there was another poly, which is actually an FEC."

The old Poly was on two sites, the main one in Headington and the other one (where I was exiled to) at the former Lady Spencer Churchill College site in Wheatley.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:28 (twenty years ago)

Rebellion grows over 'too easy' A-level exams

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:29 (twenty years ago)

adonis is a cunt.

"almost a quarter of A-level papers are now graded A." i know it's the mail and shit, but this has to be a problem, really.

― N_RQ, Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:31 (twenty years ago)

The very fact that he calls himself "Adonis" demonstrates that he really hasn't got a clue.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:40 (twenty years ago)

Lord Adonis at that. 'call me lord adonis, bitch'.

― N_RQ, Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:41 (twenty years ago)

"Ten years seems about right!"

If I shut my eyes, I can still taste them....

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:42 (twenty years ago)

I'm sure I took Dawn there once, early on in our rel. But I daren't ask in case it wasn't her.

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:44 (twenty years ago)

You only had eyes for the burgers, obv. - entirely understandable.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:46 (twenty years ago)

I love the name Lord Adonis contrasted with the quality of Roswellism in him which appears to be more advanced than that of fellow sufferer Andrew Marr. Either that or he is Montgomery Burns at 40.

― suzy (suzy), Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:47 (twenty years ago)

There are not enough pictures on this thread, you Brits you.

― n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:47 (twenty years ago)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2005/08/18/unexam.jpg

the ever-reliable telegraph

― N_RQ, Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:50 (twenty years ago)

http://www.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/3/3b/180px-Fraudcast_News.jpg

"Now, about these examination results...."

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:53 (twenty years ago)

four years pass...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00603/a-levels_603306a.jpg

― Bob Six, Thursday, 20 August 2009 18:59 (sixteen years ago)