Exam results - news overkill?

[Ann]

I know the students must be individually excited and their families proud, but is there any need for every news bulletin on TV and radio to be reporting on their successes/failures, to show people we don't know opening their results.

Whilst I congratulate them, I am getting just a little bit fed up with hearing it all day long today. Students have been getting their exam results for many years - its not a new thing!

When I got mine nearly 50 years ago, we got ours through the post. I was on holiday at the time and had to spend nearly a week imagining the results in the letter which was sitting on our doormat awaiting my return! PS it was worth waiting for ......

[invisiblelady]

But FredPuli43, don't you think it sad that someone with a genuine love of books and far more intelligent, received a lower mark than someone who could "exam speak?" There is something fundamentally wrong when that happens?

[FredPuli43]

Depends what the reason for the comparative failure was, invisiblelady. The brightest pupil in the subject in my school class failed A level English altogether (examiners, and grades, were not as generous then). He probably wrote a brilliant essay to each question but only on one aspect of it, failing to mention the other points he should have referred to, if only in brief notes. Someone who covered all the points, but without fluency or deep understanding, passed.

One newspaper set mock A levels for some famous people. The former director of the Royal Shakespeare Company failed to get near a top grade on a question on Shakespeare. Brilliant, deep understanding, all the knowledge you'd ever want, but no exam technique as required, and a pretty average student aged 18 would have done better.

[invisiblelady]

Sorry...lost my internet connection. Ok...I accept your argument. You're right.

[mike11111]

Telling the examiner what he wants to hear is not always a good idea, depending upon the chosen topic of study. My history lecturer's special filed of interest was the reign of Queen Mary Tudor, for who he had a great deal of sympathy. Although not my particular field of study at the time, the custom was that essay titles were posted on the notice board and if you could be arsed you could write one. The good doctor had set a title;"Has history been unkind to Mary Tudor?" Knowing his interest, and being a mischievous young student, I decided to do a little research, the result of which was that I wrote him an essay twice the normal length in which I tore Mary Tudor to bits. I deliberately used intemperate language, describing her as a mad, menopausal frustrated homicidal maniac, amongst other things. As the marks didn't count towards my finals I wasn't too bothered - it was only a wind-up. At the next lecture I got the essay back. Nothing was written in the margins, but at the end was the comment; " I disagree with every single word you have written - A++"
Now that is true scholarship.

[invisiblelady]

Wow! Mike1111.......That is really good to read. I professional who did his job properly! Read what you had written, didn't necessarily agree with what you wrote, but marked you fairly. Good for him!

[mike11111]

Mind you, it didn't exactly help me with my essay entitled "Account for the decline of the Tories and the rise of the Whigs in the reign of Queen Anne", when I described Queen Anne as a "fat-arsed brandy-soaked old hag who scarcely knew what day of the week it was".

[invisiblelady]

and you based that opinion on what?????

[mike11111]

and you based that opinion on what?????

I based my opinion on the fact that she was a "fat-arsed brandy-soaked old hag who scarcely knew what day of the week it was"

[invisiblelady]

Hmmm....ok! Fair enough! lol

[mike11111]

The statue of Queen Anne outside St Paul's Cathedral unusually faces away from the church facing what used to be an 18C gin palace.. This inspired a wag to write;

"Brandy Nan, Brandy Nan, left in the lurch,
Face to the gin shop and back to the church".

[invisiblelady]

Mike? I wish I wasn't so tired because you intrigue me and are full of interesting facts. However, I neeeed to go to bed, and so I will wish you a good night x