By Simon Wright - Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88
Over the last
two weeks, thousands of students up and down the country, as well as Scotland
and Wales have been receiving their exam results. For some, it is the crucial A Levels that
determine whether they get the place they want at Universities across the
United Kingdom. For others, it is proof
that they are onto a bright future and for some unlucky ones, a nervous future
might wait. However if you didn’t get
the results you were looking for, then don’t give up. With hard work and sheer persistence, you
will get to where you want to go.
I am speaking
from personal experience, and will open up on a chapter of my life that I have
always struggled to talk about. I feel though that this is the right time to express my feelings on a subject that could
have destroyed me, but was actually the making of where I am today.
The date was
Thursday, 25 August 2005, and it was the turn of yours truly to receive my GCSE results. At this time you believe everything your
secondary school teachers say. I was
told eight months earlier that I would get eight GCSEs at A-C grade without Double
Science, which was always going to be failed due to my lack of knowledge and
understanding of all scientific aspects. Others said that without Maths and English,
you won’t get into University so basically your life is screwed if you don’t
get these grades. Being 16 at the time,
you become naïve and believe they know what they are talking about.
Outlook and the reality
The reality
was I never enjoyed the process of exams in those days. While I wouldn’t say I was the brainiest
child by some distance, I did carry strong knowledge in many subjects in the
classroom, and this carried through into coursework too. However when it came to exams, everything
changed. I couldn’t quite put my finger
on it – whether it was nerves, the exam hall scenario or those irritating invigilators
who have a job to do, but you wish they just weren’t there to oversee things.
My tutor at
the time in Year 11 had forecasted eight GCSEs, and I’d made a realistic
prediction of six.
So when I left my house to take the bus to my secondary school to
collect that piece of paper, I was cautiously optimistic that I had done well.
When I got to
the hall, I opened the paper and felt sick.
I remember feeling lost, everything in the hall was a blur. I had got C grades in the English subjects, as
well as French and Religious Studies, but it was well below my
expectations. I felt I would get good
grades in History, Maths and Drama too – with Geography and I.C.T being
subjects where it could go one way or the other. Around me, everyone was celebrating their
superb results and there was I – feeling down, gutted, devastated and trying
to keep my emotions in check.
Only one of
my friends came to see me and could see I was struggling to take in the shock
of what I had just seen on the white paper.
She gave me some comforting words before I departed. I just wanted to get out of the place, find a
corner down the street and throw up.
In reality, I
look back and realise I didn’t work hard enough. I had revised in all my subjects, and given
it my best but I could have studied harder and put in extra hours. Perhaps I had got complacent. Either way as I went home, I looked into the
prospect of not knowing what to do next.
It was a bribe
The school I went to was a place called Radcliffe Secondary in Milton
Keynes. The main talk of the whole year
was the mess the school was in, having just entered special measures after
failing an Ofsted inspection.
Therefore the temporary headteacher came in and offered all students £200 if they passed
five GCSEs at A-C level. This was no
more than a filthy and ungrateful bribe.
The headteacher, who will remain unnamed also, offered £50 to every
single student who took their exams.
I even
appeared on Central News in May 2005, around a week before the exams started to
give my feelings on the money incentive.
I remember saying: “Everyone
feels happier, morale gets higher.”
When you are 16 you think it is a good thing, but growing up it doesn’t
feel right and shouldn’t be encouraged in schools up and down the land
today. Something like a free day out at
a top theme park or a special event at the school such as a private audience
with a former pupil who has gone onto becoming a star would be more
appropriate.
What’s more,
I never saw any of this money. It was
given to the successful students, but I never received the £50 for taking
exams. At the time I would have taken
it without a second thought but offered now; I would take it and
donate it to charity.
I never made
a fuss of it – because I knew I would probably be facing a losing battle, but
the whole incentive was dirty, wrong and totally unethical. I have nothing positive to say on the 'bribe.'
Fighting back
I did get
into Sixth Form because I decided to retake my Maths GCSE, and this time I got
it on the second attempt of asking. I
also found out that my History paper was re-marked, because I missed out on a C
grade by just one mark. Amazingly they
couldn’t find the extra mark that could have made a difference.
When I
decided in the spring of 2006 that I didn’t want to go to University, the head of the sixth form I attended wrote me off and basically decided I was a failure. That was entirely my decision. I believed I wasn’t ready for the Uni
challenge, and after some okay AS Level results, knew I wanted to pursue a
career in the media industry.
That is where
Milton Keynes College came along and offered me fresh hope. I did complete the second year at sixth form,
but had decided almost at the start of that second year that college was my
next destination. I slightly regret not leaving
my sixth form in the summer of 2006, as I could have made the move to
University a year earlier, but I probably wouldn’t have made the network of friends
I have now from the sixth form days and the people that entered my life during
the University of Northampton experience.
After two
fruitful years at college where I knuckled down and stayed out of the partying
to get the results I needed, I went to University. With the UCAS points I had built up, I could
have gone to a top-class University but felt Northampton was a decent home for
me to set-up for three years.
Now after
some time on the sidelines before having started a permanent role with Topps Europe
six weeks ago, I look back on my education history with pride. I finished with a 2:1 journalism degree, a
BTEC National Diploma in Media Production, A Levels in English Literature and
General Studies, and AS Levels in History, Sociology and Travel &
Tourism. And all of this came from that
day in August 2005 where it felt like I had no future.
Advice to keep it up
 |
| Results day can be both the best and worst days for students |
To those
students who got the results they wanted and were looking for over the past
fortnight, many congratulations (students pictured looking ecstatic. I hope
you go on to have a brilliant time at University; college, sixth form or even
full-time employment if that’s the avenue you decide to go down.
For the
people who didn’t quite get what they wanted out of these exams, the bits of
advice I would offer is always have a Plan B, keep believing and don’t give
up. In my experience, giving up is the
easy option but quitters never win.
Trust in what you want to do, whether you want to be a journalist, a
lawyer, a teacher, even a brain surgeon if you want! You can achieve anything if you put the hard
work and dedication into your chosen field.
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