Apparently, it’s GCSE results day today, but as I’m 29 and don’t have kids, I only found this out via Twitter.
Yes – today’s the day when everyone seems to get A* results, girls do slightly better than boys, and the newspapers are full of rehashed reports that exams are getting easier.
But who wants to know about Jonathan getting his 15 A*s, really? Nobody. I think it’s much more interesting to look at the other end of the spectrum, and see what the worst result was.
Take me, for example. My worst GCSE result was an F in Art. I’ve told people in the past, that this means it says “F..Art” on the results sheet. This probably isn’t true. I bet they list the subjects first, THEN the results. It’s been so long since I looked at the official paperwork I can’t remember. I’m not going to look now, in case it actually is “Art..F” and ruins what is the only perk of totally flunking a subject.
I’d say the reason why I got an F is something of a selection of bad choices. I hated art, but I had to choose art, drama or music from a kind of “arts” section.
My inability to play an instrument in music would probably have involved some singing, and I didn’t want that. And I couldn’t take the public performance aspect of drama. I know you only put on shit plays in the school hall that nobody really watches, but even still – no.