h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Sucks boo! or words to that effect. Not Hyde Park but the Domain in Sydney. I think it takes exceptional skill to get old(ish)cannon to keep time with the orchestra. They were really spot on and it was a warm evening picnicking under the trees.
When I did O levels (in the 1950's )the main choice was Arts or Sciences. I was supposed (wrongly) to be good at languages. When I applied to universities, I discovered that I had 94% for O level Maths; I think I would have made a good engineer.
I failed O level Latin and cried for 3 days as that meant I couldn't do English at Cambridge, did Art (which I was good at) rather than Music (fortunately for you, none of you have had to listen to me singing.) On the way I picked up prizes in flower arranging and public speaking, which were considered suitable skills for girls at the time.

Sorry for remembering incorrectly.

My school was very keen that we gels did STEM subjects even before that was an acronym or a Thing. Anyone like me who did languages was To Be Severely Discouraged.

To whit: when I did my O-levels I was very good at English, French and Russian. And thus did I say: i will do those 3 for A-level, thank you very much for all the set books I'll read them over the summer.

Which I did. and that time spent reading Madame Bloody Bovary in yer actual French is time I will NEVER get back. Anyhoo. Got back to school in September to be told, no word of a lie, "that's 3 essay subjects. You'll never manage. You're doing Russian, Maths and Economics.

I was really good at O-level maths. I was so appallingly useless at the A-level (a mixed course of pure and applied) and the rlationship with the teacher was so bad that even though there were only 5 of us in the class I used to sit there and do my Russian prep. and got an F (for Fail)

Economics was fun though. as was Russian.

Pure and applied maths. Oh dear God no Even though I was so awful at maths and failed my O level, the school, for reasons completely unfathomable, thought I should do S level maths in the lower sixth at the same time as resitting O level. So I started learning about calculus and about statistics.

Honestly, they might as well have speaking ancient Mongolian for all I could understand. I managed to get out of it somehow and switch to another subject. Failed O level maths at the first resit, then somehow managed to get a C pass at the second I'll never know quite how I managed that. I think the examiner must have been on drugs.

This conversation is dragging up too many bad memories - see also: trying to remember sharps and flats for the different key signatures

Me too, I did well at O level maths, but because I mixed it (against all advice) with French and English at A level, I floundered drastically. Maths A level on its own just doesn't work without Physics alongside it. And the right kind of mind, too, probably.

However, I'm pleased to this day that I didn't do all Arts subjects, despite failing the maths. I would have loved to have continued history and chemistry, though.

The German system involves taking far more subjects up to Abitur. You major in some and minor in others. You must have maths, German and English and a selection of science, social science and arts subjects. In my husband's day, you just ploughed through everything, meaning that when you left school, you were qualified to go into any university subject you wanted. He was supposed to become a dentist, and ended up as a Latin teacher.

I was lucky to have quite a free choice at GCSE and A-Level. I liked maths and languages, so at GCSE I did all 3 sciences plus French, German and Russian, and Maths and English. The only difficult choice was between Geography and History for my 9th subject, as I wasn't keen on either particularly, but I chose History in the end.

At A-Level, I chose double maths and physics, plus Classics, but because everyone else who chose Classics also did essay based subjects, we had to do a final exam instead, so I had all exams and no coursework I hated the exams and having to memorise chunks of text, especially as i *only* got a B, but I enjoyed the lessons, which was the main thing...

I was a member of my school orchestra, but I wasn't keen on the theory so I was glad to drop Music as a subject for GCSE, and I did very badly in Art so I was encouraged to drop that. I enjoy doing art for my own pleasure now, but I don't think it would win any prizes...

We had a similar method of choosing O level subjects as a few people have described here - several lines of subjects, pick one from each line. Ours was seven lines. The first two - Eng. (Lit and Lang. with Spoken Eng.) and maths were compulsory.

The next four... well, I'm trying to remember if the subjects were grouped together, or if they were jumbled up; you know - all the sciences on one line, practical and art/craft-related subjects on another, languages on another, subjects like Hist. and Geog. on another, or if the subjects were spread across all the lines. But I don't recall. I know that there was a science subject *I* wanted to do on the same line as a language subject my parents insisted I do, and you couldn't skip one line and take two subjects from another.

The last line was a bit of a mish-mash. I think Econ. was on it, and maybe a non-exam subject or two (so you get away with only studying six O levels. I don't remember what else was on that line though.

PE was automatically scheduled, whether you wanted it or not. Come this time of the year I definitely didn't.

I did actually get an O level in maths and an O level in woodwork. I told the careers officer what exams I'd passed, and that's how I spent the first two years after I left school making rulers.

This is an interesting conversation.

I remember when I was in High School (10th to 12th grade in my time) my two least favorite subjects were Math and English.

In my career I spend a great deal of time each day crunching numbers (and I am good at it).

As for my use of English these days - I will leave that to those who read my words here.

I think there is a world of difference between having to do - and - wanting to do.



F S

We did the Cambridge board O and A levels (except for music for some weird reason) and it was only years later that I discovered they offered a single maths paper with Pure and Statistics. now that would have been way more useful for most of us - especially those who were doing economics and therefore forced to do O-level stats in the LVI (yes, a two year course in one year)

One of the most forward thinking O-levels we did was Computer Studies - which I took - which was one of the very modern ones with coursework. And, therefore, regarded by my over-achieving pressure-cooker school as rather useless. I wish I'd done that at a-level instead of Maths.

My school's attitude to A-level choices was that you should pick the subjects you did best at in your O-levels, unless you had a definite career in mind. It would have been better if they'd told me to pick the subjects I'd done well at and enjoyed. At the time, science subjects were more highly regarded, career-wise, so I chose Maths, Chemistry and Physics (grades A, B and C respectively). If I'd picked subjects I enjoyed I'd have chosen French, Latin (both B) and either English Literature (A) or History (C). I might even have gone to university. As it was, I dropped out after one year of study.

All these over achievers going onto La-Di-Da A levels.
Some of us managed to succeed at the 11+ by scoring just less than the mark required to go to the grammar school selected by our parents but not by enough to end up at the secondary modern.

So it was off to the Technical school for us...

Which subjects and how many O levels you took depended on which stream you were in.
In my case being definitely not academic
it was

Maths
English Language
Physics With Chemistry
Commerce
Metal Work
Engineering Drawing.

I added Physics as a standalone subject as I was quite good at that.

Only blew out on the English, ended up with a D (After a re-take)!

And yes we were made to run around cold muddy fields instead of doing anything interesting.

As for A Levels

Try ONC Electrical Engineering then HNC Electronics, much more fun

The benefits of an expensive private education, mate

I went on to do army qualifications since i so spectacularly flunked my A-levels. Which are no good now the wall has gone (although it looks like a 2nd cold war might be starting, I'll be back in the game )

I took English Lit A-level for fun a while ago - due to my impeccably bad timing I only had a year to study all the books but it was fine. I wish I'd stood my ground when I was 16 and done it back then

At 15 (I took my O-levels a year early) I didn't enjoy picking a book apart, although I did enjoy studying Shakespeare. Maybe I'd have done OK at English Lit. I'd certainly have done better at French and Latin than I did at Physics and Chemistry. I seldom wrote my lab notes up on time, and I hated doing the homework.

Oh, and don't remind me about PE. In winter it was a muddy hockey field (a whole afternoon), or netball. I enjoyed swimming, but we got one lesson of that per week. In summer it was tennis or netball. A group of us became very good at high, wild serves on to the railway embankment behind the tennis courts. We could spend most of the lesson hunting for the balls.

Tennis - luxury! We had to play rounders.

We did rounders, too. I hated it, as I hated all team sports. In fact, other than swimming, the only sport I enjoyed was badminton and we didn't do that often enough for my liking.

Badminton, now that was fun

I disliked team sports too, and all outdoor winter sports. In the summer though, you couldn't get me out there quick enough. I might have been the only person in the whole school who could get the hop, skip and jump in the right order, and with a fair amount of distance too. Not far enough for me to be entered into any local school competitions, thank Bob.

we did Tennis and Rounders in the summer. And cricket which I loved. I also seem to remember intermittent athletics too.

In the winter we did Hockey. And there was Lacrosse but I don't remember much about that.

Then there was the PE inside, which was jumping over stuff or climbing stuff in the gym. I'm useless at that and hated it.

Some years there was swimming but we had to go to the Bristol uni pool. Our coach had to park quite a long way away and as is the way with school swimming we never had time to dry our hair. In the winter we all had iced up hair by the time we got back on the bus. Not fun.

we also had "Dance" anyone remember that? being put into groups of around 4 - 6 girls and given a piece of music (Funeral for a Friend seemed to be a favourite) and had to come up with some kind of routine for it. Everyone hated it.

We wore red leotards for indoor stuff. No fun at all for teenage girls. Outside it was a red airtex shirt and grey shorts or a skirt. Only the lucky few got skirts. Mostly the boarders got culottes. Because. Ladies.

In our last year however, half our games lessons were exchanged for ballroom dancing for all the - I kid you not - all the coming out parties we were expected to attend.

It's a wonder I'm still sane.

In junior school we had an hour of folk dancing every Wednesday afternoon. The boys all hated it, naturally, but I had a stroke of luck. We were all paired with a girl, and it was the same girl every week. My partner had asthma and could only manage about 20 minutes before she had to sit out the rest of the lesson, and so did I. What a nuisance

Oh dear, how sad, never mind

An hour of folk dancing every Wednesday? I don't know why that amuses me so much! But why not?