Don’t worry about the title, it was just another feeble attempt at driving those desperate Google wankers wild. You know the same ones that come here searching for Abbie Titmuss videos just because I mentioned her once…Awww, crap I did it again. But yeah, more people come here searching for Abbie Titmuss than searching for me, which is a bit disconcerting.
Oh well, it’s that time of year when the newspapers write a lot about A-level results and how the nation is either full of potential genuises or the system is dumbed down. Now looking around this fair isle is it obvious to me that we aren’t getting any smarter as a nation. In fact, we positively celebrate the moron – though I think that tide might be turning somewhat. Anyway, more kids get A-level grades than ever before, blah, blah, blah. In my day, back in the late 1980s, fewer kids took A-levels and went to university and I think the statistic was something like on 5% of A-level takers would score an A grade. This figure has now been turned on its head.
Well maybe these kids are smart, but back in the day we had to do 100% exam with no coursework and some of those exams were tough going. I never really tried that hard with my exams – never did. I was only ever interested in writing and so naturally English was my subject. It was the subject I wanted to own. Out of my three A-levels, I only passed my English Literature with an average “C” grade, but then I only ever put in an average performance. I was too busy shtumping The Missus and being a teenager in love to put any value on these academic acheivements. I’m still the same. When I chose my A-levels back in 1987, for some reason I wanted to do two English A-levels. I think it was because I knew that I could pass these without minimum of effort, but the heads of the college wouldn’t let me do that. It was too much English, they said.
But my crowning achievement came in 1990 when I returned back after my original disastrous exams to get another A-level just so I could get enough points to get on my degree course. I went back and took English Literature and managed to pass it in six months with a “C” grade. That was it. I got my points, my two A-levels in English and entry into Ealing College of Higher Education (you know, that’s the one where all the rock stars went). The rest, they say, is history.
With hindsight, I should have tried harder. The Missus begged me to put more work into my Biology exams and I could have passed it easily. My Geography exams were a total abortion. It wasn’t so much that I didn’t work hard. I did. In fact, I concentrated on my Geography because I loved the subject and wanted to pass it and put it before my Biology exams. Somehow there was a mistake along the way because when all six of the class sat down and read the paper, you could hear each one of us exhale in panic almost in unison. What they taught us on that course didn’t appear in any of the questions. I know it is easy to blame other people, but I really do believe we were taught the wrong syllabus or something. Afterwards and outside the exam hall, I spoke to my equally blustered and confused colleagues and we all agreed something was amiss. Safe to say, we all failed. I’m still annoyed about that because if I’d have not bothered and concentrated on my Biology exam, I could have at least scraped a “D” grade there. Stupid, stupid, stupid. But that’s life.
Exams? Age makes me realise that they aren’t worth the paper they are printed on. Nothing beats experience and enthusiasm.
Meanwhile, here’s the latest version of that Crossroads tune I posted the other day. The end isn’t finished yet:


Direct download: CLICK HERE

« »