E for English
For someone who has never got below a C, an E is rather shocking.
When I first read that I almost panicked. What would people say? My other results were great: A in Geology, A in Media and a B in Drama. I knew I hadn't done well in English—despite my teachers insistence that I was doing fine. I didn't trust my teacher there, she may have thought I was right on target, but she didn't know my targets. I draw a small comfort from the fact that I was not alone in my disappointment with my WJEC English literature AS results. A good deal of my class (including real ‘high flyers’ did quite badly).
This begs the question of why? My own grade is understandable enough—I never really understood the books and my technique really isn't great (but not through lack of trying). Also I have a feeling my short story (part of the coursework) was slightly more avant garde than norm—but why did everyone do so badly? Was it the teacher? Was it that we had a class full of morons? Did anyone else do WJEC English lit AS this year? How did you do?
Another question that I want to ask is why does everyone seem to have an off year in Year 12 (16–17 years old for non-English folk)? I know people who did great in their GCSE's but who did really badly this year. After hearing the results of my GCSE friends, who did marvellously (3 A stars is without a doubt very impressive) it hit me that so many people flunked Y12 who I wouldn't have expected to.
Any ideas on why Y12 is so terrible? Or is it just my school?