D-Day

No it's not some war rant about the war criminals Blair and Bush, but a little post on exam results. For students in Scotland today is the today they find out the results of their Highers* and it brought back a few memories of waiting for that brown envelope myself.

First time around i was waiting with a sense of doom about what my results would be and it wasn't just teenage agnst, i knew well just how poor my chances of decent results were and it was soon confirmed. I started the year taking 4 subjects, after the prelims it was down to 3 as i'd dropped Maths after a very poor prelim result** and my result in a technical subject whose name escapres me at present was so bad it wasn't even listed on the certificate. Of the 2 subjects left the best result was a C for Geography. A worsening attendence record had took it's toll and i had a bit of a long lie in bed that day.

However all was not lost, there was a 2nd bite of the cherry still on offer and i was determined to have a better go at it. Also my mum bought me a new video recorder to cheer me up, which i still have and works pretty well. So i went backto school with a renewed sense of determination, mostly because i was fucking desparate to get out of town and go away to university, and i wasn't going to do that with a single C in geography, Motherwell college beckoned, a worrying thought.

I had checked around Uni prospectuses and decided that 3 good*** highers would be enough, i had concerns about spreading myself to thin, i thought i was better off concentrating on 3 rather than trying to do 4 or even 5 in one go. So i decided to resit my english and i took two crash highers in Modern Studies and Economics. To be honest i'm not sure entirely why i picked those two, i think Modern Studies was reccomended as being a bit of a skoosh and dunno what i was thinking with economics.

Anyway i put a bit more effort in and by the time i was waiting on the envelope hitting the mat again i was fairly confident i'd get what i needed. However there was some doubt, English and Modern Studies were going well and looked straightforward for passes and hopefully solid B's. Indeed i harboured hopes of an A in Modern Studies as i was only a couple of marks away from that in the prelim. Hoping for a B in english and with Economics as the potential sticking point. I had missed that prelim through illness and the quality of my coursework had deteriorated after a bright start. Being a teenage lad i wasn't going mental with the studying and general work, i was taking it seriously but obviously there were lapse.

So economics wasn't looking so good, what possibly turned that around for me was the post prelim report card. We had a temp teacher come in about that time as original teacher was away on maternity leave and she put my predicted mark as a grade D. I was well pissed off, for one thing she was only in the door two minutes what would she know? So that probably inspired me to knuckle down on the economics and pass it to proove her wrong.

Anyway after i'd sat my exams i had the feeling that i had at least passed all of them, i was 95% i'd got passes and about 75% sure that i'd get what i needed. I was maybe more confident than that as i decided to ignore a possible place at a college in glasgow. It was for same course i was looking to get in at University but starting at HND level and only requiring to higher C's. They wanted an interview and i decided i was just to good for that and was going to get what i needed anyway.

So the day came and i retreated into the bathroom with the envelope and proceeded to open it, i took out the certificate and read what i had achieved. It said two B's and a C, i was quite chuffed at getting my place at uni and on closer inspection i was a little disappointed. As suspected the Modern Studies exam hadn't went great and instead of pushing on for an A i only got a C. This was partialy made up for the fact i got a B in economics and i felt a little smug about that.

So thats one horror story and one i can't complain about for me. I not sure why i've decided to share my mediocre exam results with the world, it possibly the most crashingly dull thing i've written but i dunno perhaps it's something easy to relate to and seeing as i've written it now may as well hit that publish post button.

*Presuming they are still even called Highers.
**9%
***In the end the course i applied for asked for BBC.