Thoughts Before GCSE Results Day 2017
Hey guys,
WARNING: This is a very unstructured, rambling blog post.
It's Monday today which means that there are only 3 days until my results day. I'm starting to panic.
I left school after my last exam on the 16th of June. That is a very long time to wait for results. Up until now, I have remained relatively calm, mainly because I've kept repressing any thoughts about GCSEs and have distracted myself.
It has all caught up with me.
Pretty much every waking moment is consumed by worries of my results. Last night I could not sleep and as I was laying in bed my mind kept playing over possible situations for Thursday morning.
The thing is, I know it's pointless. I know that the exams are already over and there is nothing I can do to affect the results now. And I also know that I was predicted all As so I should have nothing to worry about - but I still do.
Next year I want to take:
English Literature
Politics
Religious Studies
Music
However, to take 4 A-levels instead of 3, my college requires you to achieve straight As (or VERY close to straight As). If I don't meet the grades then I will only be able to take 3 A-levels (which is still a lot - don't get me wrong). I have thought about this situation and I have decided that if this happens, then I won't take music.
That is what makes me nervous, after 7 grades of the keyboard, 5 grades of music theory, a GCSE and multiple years in various music clubs, it would be devastating to not be able to take music A-level.
There is so much pressure for me to do well.
I have been in the top set of all my classes since the start of high school and I have been predicted all As. The amount of revision I did was tremendous and I honestly don't think I could have put more effort into revising for those exams.
To top it all off, the class of 2017 is the first year to experience the new 9-1 system which just adds to the pressure of those results.
What I think of the 9-1 system:
I don't understand how this is going to help employers at all. If in each year students are judged against each other rather than having grade boundaries correlating to marks, then surely it will become impossible to compare one year to the next?!
If the class of 2017 do really badly and get very low marks, then the grade 9 pupils may have only actually got a very low percentage in their exams (because we are judged against each other, it is possible to get a grade 9 but only have scored 50% in the exam)
If the class of 2018 then does epically well, then those grade 9 pupils will have achieved a much higher percentage in their exams.
This means that the phrase 'grade 9' is subjective to each year and it tells us nothing about how well the pupils did compare to the years before or after them.
I have decided to come off of nearly all of my social media for the next three days.
My Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and even Pinterest was full of news articles and links to advice regarding GCSE results. Most of these were negative, which, added to the crazy amount of worried statuses posted by other students in my year, was not only starting to get on my nerves but was also starting to make me a lot more stressed than I was before.
So, I have uninstalled them from my phone and, honestly, it's been nice to get away from the Facebook dramas today.
I will re-install them either Wednesday night or Thursday morning.
I'm also going to start taking my anxiety tablets for the next couple of days again (they're just herbal tablets which help you de-stress). I was taking them throughout the whole of year 11 on and off but consistently throughout the exam period and they really made a difference.
I am going to be also doing daily yoga and meditation for the next couple of days which should help calm my nerves.
I will write a blog on Thursday with my GCSE results. Good luck to anyone else receiving their results this year. :-)
Until Thursday,
-Emicool
WARNING: This is a very unstructured, rambling blog post.
It's Monday today which means that there are only 3 days until my results day. I'm starting to panic.
I left school after my last exam on the 16th of June. That is a very long time to wait for results. Up until now, I have remained relatively calm, mainly because I've kept repressing any thoughts about GCSEs and have distracted myself.
It has all caught up with me.
Pretty much every waking moment is consumed by worries of my results. Last night I could not sleep and as I was laying in bed my mind kept playing over possible situations for Thursday morning.
The thing is, I know it's pointless. I know that the exams are already over and there is nothing I can do to affect the results now. And I also know that I was predicted all As so I should have nothing to worry about - but I still do.
Next year I want to take:
English Literature
Politics
Religious Studies
Music
However, to take 4 A-levels instead of 3, my college requires you to achieve straight As (or VERY close to straight As). If I don't meet the grades then I will only be able to take 3 A-levels (which is still a lot - don't get me wrong). I have thought about this situation and I have decided that if this happens, then I won't take music.
That is what makes me nervous, after 7 grades of the keyboard, 5 grades of music theory, a GCSE and multiple years in various music clubs, it would be devastating to not be able to take music A-level.
There is so much pressure for me to do well.
I have been in the top set of all my classes since the start of high school and I have been predicted all As. The amount of revision I did was tremendous and I honestly don't think I could have put more effort into revising for those exams.
To top it all off, the class of 2017 is the first year to experience the new 9-1 system which just adds to the pressure of those results.
What I think of the 9-1 system:
I don't understand how this is going to help employers at all. If in each year students are judged against each other rather than having grade boundaries correlating to marks, then surely it will become impossible to compare one year to the next?!
If the class of 2017 do really badly and get very low marks, then the grade 9 pupils may have only actually got a very low percentage in their exams (because we are judged against each other, it is possible to get a grade 9 but only have scored 50% in the exam)
If the class of 2018 then does epically well, then those grade 9 pupils will have achieved a much higher percentage in their exams.
This means that the phrase 'grade 9' is subjective to each year and it tells us nothing about how well the pupils did compare to the years before or after them.
I have decided to come off of nearly all of my social media for the next three days.
My Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and even Pinterest was full of news articles and links to advice regarding GCSE results. Most of these were negative, which, added to the crazy amount of worried statuses posted by other students in my year, was not only starting to get on my nerves but was also starting to make me a lot more stressed than I was before.
So, I have uninstalled them from my phone and, honestly, it's been nice to get away from the Facebook dramas today.
I will re-install them either Wednesday night or Thursday morning.
I'm also going to start taking my anxiety tablets for the next couple of days again (they're just herbal tablets which help you de-stress). I was taking them throughout the whole of year 11 on and off but consistently throughout the exam period and they really made a difference.
I am going to be also doing daily yoga and meditation for the next couple of days which should help calm my nerves.
I will write a blog on Thursday with my GCSE results. Good luck to anyone else receiving their results this year. :-)
Until Thursday,
-Emicool
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