I distinctly remember the white envelopes. It all boiled down to what was inside mine, 2 years of work and now an envelope. The closer you are to the beginning of the alphabet the better!
My Psychology A-Level was probably the reason I fully committed to going into education and teacher training. The course included a whole block on child psychology and I was gripped. It led me to better appreciate what I wanted to do. I remember going into a local primary school and seeing myself making a career out of working with learning.
But was I really an “A” grade student?
by da.mas
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You might say that I flunked my psychology course work modules throughout my second year, they contributed in part to my final result but I struggled and was getting C’s and D’s. It wasn’t going well. I enjoyed the subject but found it hard to pull together the course work.
I went into the final exam leave feeling quite deflated but I had the chance to put it right – I had an intense 3-4 weeks of revision, which went really well. I almost enjoyed the exams because I just felt ready.
I wrote what they wanted to hear.
So when I opened the white envelope on that sun scorched lawn weeks later I had managed to pull it together and score one of the highest marks the Psychology department had seen on a final exam. Well done Tom you got an A.
At the time this was incredibly exciting – the whole campus was on a grade knife edge – nothing but talk for months and months of grades to get into universities. What did you get? How did you get on? Did you get what you wanted?
We were all wading knee deep in grades and exam results.
2 years of our education boiled down to that hot day with the envelopes and as those seals were torn we were in fact seeing a path being laid out before us. For some of us more education and those grades were the key.
On reflection I see the whole thing for what it really was including my own part in the merry-go-round of college and university.
Although I got an “A” grade for my course I think, at best, I was just good at taking the exam. I was an “A” grade psychology exam taker (on that day)! Could I do it again? Probably not without the intense cramming revision. Einstein referred to it all as coercion of the mind:
One had to cram all this stuff into one’s mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not.
The most valuable thing that came from my experiences at college was not the grades but realising that primary teaching was something I wanted to pursue. However at the time the cultural swirl around results was the environment I was in and grades seemed the key to everything in my future. How very wrong I was.
I appreciate your own contribution to this discussion Oliver – I had the points required for my 1st choice university and yet not the grades! Similarly though I am not regretful, now anyway. Like I say in the original post the fervour for grades and entry points to university masked some of the amazing experiences I had during my two years.
At university the need for certain types of grades was comprehensively eclipsed by the personality, passion, drive, determination and imagination of teachers I was training with. I left university knowing that it is as much about these personal facets as anything.
I couldn’t agree more and even in such complex subject such as Psychology the potential for experiential learning is huge. Your daughter’s experience does not make a great dea of sense but it echoes many people’s experience. The value an institution places on students as statistics is altogether damaging.
I recall wanting to see my papers but not being allowed – what rubbish! A chance to see what was successful, to be clear about why things had gone well in an exam – and much like your daughter’s experience, learn from what mistakes I made. That opportunity never arose and so was lost. On reflection the weeks of revision, hours of study and the incredibly lengthy exams become detached from me – they were a hoop we needed to jump through for someone else.
It is interesting how what you value shifts. I once figured it was all about grades – training to be a teacher and getting my first job taught me it is about much much more than that.
Yes that question of “What did you get for your A Levels?” is no doubt echoed around all of the universities. The parallels with OFSTED are interesting. When it comes to exam time we adapt our behaviours to suit the method, for many schools OFSTED is the catalyst to straighten things out and adapt behaviours to what the inspectors are looking for.
I have been through many inspections, one in my NQT year, and also conveniently jumped through the hoop provided. But I have always been mindful that inspections are summative accounts of schools. Many of the decisions and opinions are formed through figures (grades) in a desktop report prior to visiting. Sadly this, in some respect, dictates the school’s behaviour and focus on grades and figures.
Thanks for sharing this personal reflection Tom. It has made me think about my own experiences at that time.
I applied to do History at University, and I also did very well in the exams, above 90% in all my history papers. However, I missed out on my first choice of University because I was one grade below expected in my Maths A level. On investigating the scores the difference between the grade I got and the one I needed was made by one single mark. One mark in a largely unrelated discipline ended up changing my future hugely.
As it happens I am happy with how it worked out, but I can still vividly remember the anguish felt by many who had not managed to play the exam game as they hoped. That is the other side of this story, the people who every year fail to be ‘A’ grade (or whatever grade they ‘need’) exam takers on that day.
The very fact that such important results come as a surprise to many young people each year, and that these surprises can change their futures seems wrong to me. If assessment was relevant it’s results wouldn’t come as a surprise.
Thanks for making me think!
Good point Tom – and reinforced this summer for me when my daughter ‘graduated’ (grades are everywhere) from university in UK with a degree in Psychology. On her final papers, she did very well but what struck me was that she knew she had made some significant errors on one paper and was told so. However, she was never told what they were and how she could correct her misunderstanding. 3 years with some top teachers studying this stuff but the number grade she achieved is more important than the knowledge she accrued. How does that make sense?
And on the subject of psychology – she had 2 years of wonderful teaching at IB level, plus 3 so-so at uni – but in those 5 years studying the psyche of others, not 5 minutes was spent exploring internally her own psyche – one of the most fascinating areas of exploration in this subject was right ‘behind her face’ but no one thought to direct her there. Everything is about the intellect and very little about our deeper, more natural intelligences. We need to incorporate more experiential learning in our schools and universities.
Kevin Hawkins
I’m with you completely Tom. Did you ever see the final scene in the Orson Welles movie ‘The Lady From Shanghai’? A house of mirrors! The rich understand that university is a means of extending the old school networks. The middle are increasingly excluded from education by the neo-con mantra of user pays, and the poor are as disenfranchised as ever.
I remember arriving at Sheffield University to do my Philosophy degree. The whole social hierarchy began with the question “What did you get for your A Levels?”
I can’t help but think that’s wrong.
As you mention, Tom, it’s easy to get caught up in the moment, especially when you’ve done well. I see this all the time when it comes to Ofsted: people are quick to dismiss the superficiality when it’s not them being inspected (or if their school does poorly). But if, on the other hand, the place at which they work does well then they’re “so proud” and it “reflects hard work” etc. etc.
We can’t have it both ways.