So 16 year olds are opening their envelopes to find out their results (acutally I think most go into schools).

I remember when I went in to get my results, full of angst and nerves. Frustrated and shocked to find I didn't get a single A-grade (predicted AAA, expected ABB at the worst, got BBB). At the time, felt like I'd been a failure. It was only after investigation that I found the exam board had cocked up my marking (incorrect data entry!) and I got ABB. Ended up resitting A-levels to get AAA (got above 90% in my resits). It was a life-changing time as I wasn't going to university like my friends, and I didn't know what I was going to do. But it made me more comfortable with failure, and I worked harder in my life at that point than I ever have before or since. Think I was doing 12- hour days of revision during the resit time.

For those of you who got end of school/college qualifications (A-levels, GCSEs, O-levels etc), how did you feel on getting your results? What were your experiences?

EDIT: and good luck to those of you/family/friends who are getting their results today or next week.

I took A levels in 2004, my mum had been in hospital for 2 months for a difficult pregnancy and my sister was born during my Spanish exam, 1 month early so pretty stressful time.

I did pretty well, and ended up being one of 2 people in my year getting an honourable mention, which my "friends" resented, and they didn't talk to me for months afterwards. So really a mixed bag.

Score 95% in English, 100% in maths in English so here I am now

I took my CSEs in... about 20 years before TheFrenchun, and got a Grade 5 in Maths and Grade 6 in Social Studies.

I hated school, but here I am, 30 years older, with an Honours Degree, PGCE, Level 2 English, a newly earned Level 5 Maths Specialism certificate, or to give it the full title: Level 5 Subsidiary Diploma in Teaching Mathematics (Numeracy) in the Lifelong Learning Sector, which I received this week and god knows how many C&G technical qualifications.

I'd say I'm doing alright

I've got GCSEs, GNVQs and other things, none of which I can even remember the results for. I detested school, only the geeky part of my brain took anything in by osmosis. None of the teachers were what you'd call inspiring (they had energy and it's a stupidly tough job, but, well, teenagers). I often wonder about those people who claim it's the best days of your life!

I took far more interest in learning as I got older without it being forced.

Don't remember O-levels at all. I remember A-levels.. I had no problem getting the grades I needed to go to the Uni I wanted to, so I was quite chilled about it. The worst bit was meeting a lot of people I'd been friends with at school that it was pretty certain I'd never see again.

Degree results are a bit odd in so far as they put the results up on the board but you pretty much know what grade you're going to get anyway - you know if you're a 'first' material and other than that it kind of doesn't matter - a 2:1 doesn't mean much more than a 2:2 in most people's eyes. What actually happened was about the third person to get there replaced the results sheet with a notice saying 'come to the pub' and we had the sheet pinned up over the bar .

Jon

I didn't do exams before leaving school. \•/

Mark

^^^Awesome idea. We used to have regular exams and we always started from the bottom of the list up (I think it was done in order of score). When we had the final degree result (pass/fail), we started from the fail list first and was gutted to find two of my friends on that list (one of them was my best friend and he was there with us). He was so gutted I couldn't leave him at home whilst we went off to the pub to celebrate so I stayed at home with him.

I did Standard Grades, Highers and CSYS (Certificate of Sixth Year Studies) an, certainly at the school I went to, we didn't do the going into school to get results thing. They were just posted to your house.
Did go into Uni to see my results, bit of a let down. Still all the tutors were in so you go and have a chat about it.
However important your school qualifications may seem at the time after while it's the experience that counts.

I did my A Levels back in 1979. Results were posted to your home address. I was on holiday in France at the time, so I had to phone my dad and get him the read them out to me and also to check that I had got onto one of my offered university courses.

IIRC I got a B, two Cs and an E which was just enough to get onto my second choice course. By that time I was pretty much fed up with formal education and had coasted through most of my A level years. I worked out later that I had spent more time in the woodwork shop building an electric guitar in my last year than I had on any one of my A level courses. Going to university for me was a complete mistake. I hated both the course and the place (Marine Biology at Swansea) and lasted only a year. A second attempt at further education (Town & Country Planning at Trent Poly) lasted just two years before I dropped out due to my band getting record label interest although it didn't lead to anything other than signing on.

In the long term it hasn't mattered. My A levels are a distant memory and I'm good enough at what I do so that my qualifications (or lack of them) are completely irrelevant.

"If your A level results aren't joyous take comfort from the fact I got a C and two Us. And I have a Mercedes Benz."
- Jeremy Clarkson