Walking the Tightrope: Exams
Students who had buried their heads in the sand- or should that be in their pillows - after completing the dreaded exams were forced to confront the fact that their future hopes and dreams could depend on the contents of an envelope. Sally Codman and her family live through that most nervous time - the arrival of exam results.
Students, parents, siblings, grandparents and family pets throughout the country have been on red alert, as the students prepared to receive the A-level results that would shape their future, or the GCSE marks that determined whether or not they got that new mobile phone or Playstation.
Holiday dates were changed, or elaborate, complicated, arrangements made to ensure A-level results could be forwarded to the four corners of the globe and longed-for conditional university places either confirmed or withdrawn.
Students who had buried their heads in the 'sand' - or should that be in their pillows? - after completing the dreaded exams, were forced to confront the fact that their future hopes and dreams could depend on the contents of those envelopes, delivered to their schools.
Families tiptoed around their nervous student youngsters, and my friend's son warned that he would probably be staying away for a few days until his big sis had 'got her head round' her results. I suspect he wasn't alone.
Family pets picked-up the bad vibrations in the ether and warned each other to lie low or take a few away days until the worst was over and any kick-the-cat/dog inclinations had disappeared. Although no one actually made plans to leave Castle Codman pre A-level results, we did do quite a bit of tiptoeing and tongue biting in the run-up to the Big Day.
Fortunately, Eldest Daughter's mood was considerably improved by the fact that she'd passed her driving test a couple of weeks ago and has planned a Gap Year, so if her results had been disappointing she would have had some time to re-think her life. Happily that's not necessary and she's received confirmation that she can start the course she's set her heart on.
But after hearing about the experiences of some of her fellow students I can't help feeling that the so-called 'clearing' process is a recipe for disaster for thousands of young people. Although UCAS (the University and Colleges Admissions Service) say they will accept clearing applications until September 20th, the reality is that lots of disappointed students, who haven't got the exact grades required by the Universities of their choice, spend a stressful couple of days trying to phone or e-mail for alternative courses.
How many of them, in a distraught and highly emotional frame of mind, will commit to almost any alternative or similar course, at any University or College, that may be very different to their original aspirations, just to fulfil their expectations of continuing as a student?
Surely it would be better to have at least a couple of days as a cooling off period before allowing these kids to enter the clearing scrum? As for the record number of students who passed their exams, I wonder how many of them are secretly seething about the 'A-levels are getting easier' headlines, which appear each year a few days before the results are released?
From my first-hand experience as one of E.D's conscientious study partners throughout her final A-level year, I'm of the opinion that such remarks owe more to 'sour grapes,' political machinations, or a lack of stories in News Rooms up and down the country, in the traditional holiday 'silly season,' than to the exams really getting easier. Today many youngsters are encouraged to 'think big' and 'aim high' and more and more of them believe that the World's their oyster, and they are prepared to study hard and long to achieve their goals, rather than resign themselves to filling shelves in their local supermarket for the rest of their lives.
Instead of complaining that they have too many straight A students to choose from, the top, popular, over-subscribed Universities should stop moaning that the current system doesn't allow them to pick the best candidates and return to the old-fashioned practise of interviewing prospective students in person, instead of suggesting schemes such as extended essays to help them make their choices.
The Government could help by withdrawing funding for the more impractical degree courses currently on offer - you know the ones, the sort that teach you everything you never needed to know about The Beatles or surfing or gambling or ........I'm sure you can fill in your own pet hates here. Let's just have less of them and more places for would-be doctors, dentists, nurses and teachers - and more jobs for them when they've completed their degrees!
