Motivation for GCSE's

lukeharvest said:
GCSE/A-Levels are ridiculously easy, they could make A-Levels 10x harder, and it still wouldn't be a scratch on how Oxford is as a student
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Any ego coaching going on at Oxford? ;)


lukeharvest said:
That's all A-Levels/GCSEs are about, coaching to pass exams.
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Not when I was at school they weren't, nor should they be.


realBabelfish said:
we kinda got screwed as we were 2nd year of GCSEs.
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Don't worry, us guinea pigs in the first year got screwed too. I have a vivid memory of coming out of my geography exam and a few of the girls were crying as it was so hard.

It turned out they'd worded the instructions wrong and we were supposed to chose 6 out of 12 subjects to write short essays about but we'd all tried to write all 12.

The Welsh Joint Education Committee's decision was to choose our best 6 essays to form our mark. Hardly fair given we'd had only half the time to write them.
 
Spenty said:
The prospect is there but many of my mates who are passing out of Uni this year have no job lined up, still don't know exactly what it is they want to do or are just going into a normal job like a call centre.
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I only have one friend who, several years down the line, is still floundering but that is partially due to his own requirements of what a job should entail. For everyone else, doctors, laywers, teachers, vets, magazine editors, BBC wildlife editiors, actuaries... :)

lukeharvest said:
I'm not being arrogant about it, but most people sit A-Levels, and Oxford is one of the world's leading universities? You actually expected them to be comparable? I have friends at other universities and our workloads aren't even comparable...
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The difference is nobody else cares.
 
Nitefly said:
I only have one friend who, several years down the line, is still floundering but that is partially due to his own requirements of what a job should entail. For everyone else, doctors, laywers, teachers, vets, magazine editors, BBC wildlife editiors, actuaries... :)



The difference is nobody else cares.
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Except employers of course. :rolleyes:
 
It was only a joke as you were very dismissive over the level of achievement involved in obtaining these qualifications.

I have no idea of the workload at Oxford but I can tell you that at the University of Southampton, where I studied Acoustic Engineering I was basically in lectures, labs or tutorials all day every day except Wednesday afternoon. So yes, depending on course, I do know that University CAN BE much harder than school. So it should be too.
 
Ben Cole said:
It was only a joke as you were very dismissive over the level of achievement involved in obtaining these qualifications.

I have no idea of the workload at Oxford but I can tell you that at the University of Southampton, where I studied Acoustic Engineering I was basically in lectures, labs or tutorials all day every day except Wednesday afternoon. So yes, depending on course, I do know that University CAN BE much harder than school. So it should be too.
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It just drives me up the wall when I have people telling me my qualifications mean nothing compared to if I took them 20 years ago. We actually have very few lectures (and contact time) at Oxford, you're expected to pretty much teach everything yourself (and if you're not the sort of person who easily learns from lecturing) you do have to entirely self-teach.
 
Arnie said:
Which somewhat defies the point in going there.
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Haha, I thought so at first as well, they cram a lot into a 50 minute lecture. What the lecturer goes over in the lecture would really take a good few hours to fully understand. Plus, the main benefit is the tutorial system, which is more helpful than anything else.
 
Depending on what you want to do in life, this generally applies:

DiCe! said:
If you don't get good GCSEs you cant do the A-levels you want.
If you dont get good A-levels you can't do the course you want at uni.
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+ if you don't get good grades at Uni, some employers won't even look at you.

If you want a job in which you could earn a lot of money you need to work for it, can't stand kids who think the world owes them something - I see a lot of them these days.

a) Get off GD
b) Get some past papers and work through them till the answers are instilled into your brain.
c) Revise with someone and set some goals to make sure you have covered everything.

It was a long time ago when I did my GCSEs :p we got given past papers to work through, I outlined key points for each topic and also used revision guides to help me.

Good luck!

BB x
 
lukeharvest said:
I'm not saying you have studied at Oxbridge to get a job.
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I know you're not. But you were the one who swanned in patronising those younger than you about their exams (which they may find difficult) tagged along with your Oxford 'prestige'.

People who are hard working and competent tend to do well in life. Oxford and Cambridge is a 'stamp' that a person is hard working and competent, but I think it's exceptionally obvious to most employers that individuals who are hard working and competent that don't have that stamp are exactly that - hard working and competent.

As such I believe that such prestige is almost entirely self-sustaining rather than of any practical significance and all the non-Oxford people I know who have been very successful seems to validate that *shrug*.
 
I wish I had put more effort at school. I managed to just get by and do "okay" but didn't excel, which I should have, I was just lazy. That being said I still made it to uni and did reasonably well, however, that was down to pure grit and determination - some say too little too late, but I was never going to be a grade A student anyway. Would have liked to have reached for the stars more, but was happy with plodding along. I've got more appetite now and I'm growing up in terms of career and as a person. It is a slog but life gets easier if you're in a good job you enjoy - so rather than have to kill yourself later in life to make ends meet in a job you hate, get somewhere now, whilst you have the chance to make a better future for yourself.
 
lukeharvest said:
It just drives me up the wall when I have people telling me my qualifications mean nothing compared to if I took them 20 years ago. We actually have very few lectures (and contact time) at Oxford, you're expected to pretty much teach everything yourself (and if you're not the sort of person who easily learns from lecturing) you do have to entirely self-teach.
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I understand that but the plebs I've spoken to with grades that not even the top candidates of my age could get tells me things are being devalued.

Even going to "University" is being devalued with Polytechnic and other institutions being allowed to call themselves Universities and giving out degrees in any old subject.

What isn't getting devalued though is going to Oxbridge. You should be the last person to get defensive. The top is still the top.

Unless of course you go to Oxford Brookes, in which case hang your head in shame.
 
Ben Cole said:
I understand that but the plebs I've spoken to with grades that not even the top candidates of my age could get tells me things are being devalued.

Even going to "University" is being devalued with Polytechnic and other institutions being allowed to call themselves Universities and giving out degrees in any old subject.

What isn't getting devalued though is going to Oxbridge. You should be the last person to get defensive. The top is still the top.

Unless of course you go to Oxford Brookes, in which case hang your head in shame.
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No, although the number of people who ask me if it's Oxford or Oxford Brookes leads me to believe quite a few Brookes students do just say Oxford.
 
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