ACE

Just got in contact with some old school chums via Facebook. I only knew them two years (we were in the sixth form together) but I have such fond memories of them.

One in particular was often made fun of by our Sociology teacher. He had his pack of brainy favourites who would get praise and then there were the ones he'd make known he thought were not so great. My friend was one of these. Mostly because she'd say things like "I done it yesterday". He would chuckle whenever she spoke and would talk to her like she was stupid, even in front of everyone in the classroom. She took his reaction in good humour but her giggles jut made him think even less of her, assuming she didn't know she was being got at. I'm not sure what she got for her A-levels in the end. I think it was three Es. Something like that. Of course this came as no great surprise to Mr Wilkinson.

Anyway, turns out she didn't like her results so retook her A levels and got three As and then went on to do a Psychology degree and post-grad diploma. "Stick that up your arse, Mr Wilkinson" she declared.

Well stick it indeed. I can't believe she got three As. I'm immeasurably proud she did because I know it was on her OWN hard work and not out of support from the school (support was laughably poor).

As for me, I aced my A'levels.

And by that I mean I got grades A, C and E (German, English Lit and Sociology respectively).
I look back and am annoyed at the grades. I was completely at sea during my A levels. I had just come from 10 years in a German school. I had never seen, much less read or written an essay. I had no idea what one was and certainly didn't know anything about introductions and conclusions. I didn't learn anything about essay writing. Because I had no foreign accent and I could spell and punctuate they assumed I was as English as everyone around me but I really wasn't. The first year was culture shock.

Language style, form and function of an essay? I was clueless and no one thought I might need a bit of help on the matter. As an example, I remember my first essay at A level. We had been reading a poem in class and were asked to submit an essay on it by next week. I wasn't sure what an essay was but I wrote what I could. My English teacher was appalled. It was half a page of A4, written on maths paper (this was normal in my school in Germany - you can write but also draw diagrams on maths paper so we were encouraged to use it) and naturally contained none of the normal rituals of essay writing. I just wrote about the poem as concisely as possible (being concise was important in Germany, we never wrote anything more than a few hundred words long). You'd think the teacher, being handed something like that would get an idea that maybe this student needs some help. I decided to try better and thought I just needed to waffle more. During my A levels it was always difficult for me to get enough words to make an essay so I just wrote everything in lengthy sentences, using lots of filler words. That's what essays seemed to be like to me.

Aside from the essay writing fiasco, I had also never sat an exam in my life before. The exam hall routine was something entirely alien to me. I didn't know much about what it would be like until the day. No one had told me how to revise, either. I had not a clue. Not. A. Clue.

So I'm quite bitter myself but that JM did what she did and proved them wrong makes me want to punch the air (or the teacher). She's an example of someone not letting other people tell her she's stupid or can't do it. Just showed em how it's done. Good For Her!!!