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

I thought I would just post you a little message because I noticed that you posted a Kula Shaker lyric to the 'greatest lyric' thread. I used to love Kula Shaker (I managed to see them play live twice) and Govinda would easily be in my top ten all time favourite songs. It was a shame that Crispian Mills disappeard up his own backside the way that he did, but they were great while they lasted. I notice that you like films. There is a greatest films thread on Book of the Future (from whence I have appeared). Link = http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/plain/F120284?thread=266431 if you are interested. I also notice that you have just read 'Stupid White Men'. I got that for Christmas but haven't read it yet. I have been studying the first year of an A level English Lit & Lang course and banned myself from reading anything other than our set book during that time. However, exams are only three weeks away, so I can start reading proper books again soon. Liz ~

Ah, Kula Shaker! I've still got both their albums somewhere. They were supporting Blur at the V97 festival and were one of the main reasons I decided to go. That's the only time I've actually seen them live, but it was enough. I still maintain that 1997 was the peak in musical achievement of the entire 20th century, with Kula Shaker, Blur, Prodigy, Radiohead, Oasis when they were still good, Beck, Ash and others all producing some of their best work.
I may will follow up on that Book of the Future thing. I am seeing a lot of films, including trying to catch up with some of the 'classics' that you can't miss if you want to be respected as 'someone who knows about films'. In a couple of weeks I'm organising a Godfather marathon night, as a friend has all 3 films on DVD. A couple of weeks ago I saw Citizen Kane, and was quite impressed.
I highly reccomend 'Stupid White Men'. Michael Moore makes a lot of great points in an educative and entertaining way. Although not all of it is entirely relevant to the UK as well, much of it is and the rest is worth reading just to help us understand the American people and their views. I didn't always agree with Moore's solutions to the problems he presented, but his arguments were well put and he seemed a veryt smart and thoughtful guy.
It's a real shame that you're not reading other books. I love reading, and I wouldn't want to stop myself doing it if I could possibly avoid it.

I was at V97! Did you go to the one at Chelmsford? That's where we went and Kula Shaker were my main reason for attending. My boyfriend liked Dodgy and I must say they were good, but Blur were the band of the day for me. I can't say that I 'saw' Kula Shaker that day because I am only 5'3" and I was a long way back in the crowd. I could make them out on the video screen and if the wind blew the right way, I could hear them too! My boyfriend dislocated his ankle the week before V97 and was still on crutches, so we couldn't get into the throng as much as we might have had he been fit. We couldn't explore the site much either, so we didn't really get the full festival experience. Anyway, two years later Chris bought me tickets to see Kula Shaker at The Corn Exchange, Cambridge (a valentines present, ahhh) and they were FANTASTIC! 'K' by Kula Shaker is one of my favourite albums (cue another link to BotF thread about favourite albums that has not taken off in the way I would have hoped http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/plain/F120284?thread=269836) but I was not quite so enamoured with 'Peasants, Pigs and Astronoughts'. I must agree with you about 1997 being a bumper year for British music - I probably bought more CD's in that one year than I have bought in the five years since. Moving on to films, my brother bought me 'Cizizen Kane' on video for Christmas. I have seen it before and was largely underwhelmed, but I do intend to give it another go. I'm looking forward to reading full length books again, once I have re-read The Railway Man (this will be my third read through, and marvellous though it is, I am getting a bit tired of it). I have read lots of short stories, but I know that if I start a novel or anything then I will read that rather than do my studying, so reading for pleasure has been put on hold. It looks as though the A2 part of my English Lit & Lang course is not running next year and I might not be able to finish my A level afterall, so I am a little miffed about that. All this effort just to get an AS level is not what I had in mind.

They really have messed up this AS-level thing. A friend of mine went through the first year of them, and he's worried that they're going to get branded as 'that' year, meaning their results count for less with employers, etc.

I don't know why they split up the A level courses like this anyway (apart from weeding out the weaker students - if they don't pass AS then they don't go on to A2, hence the rise in the number of A level passes). I did my history A level in only one year so I was not impressed to find that they had changed the system since then.
What particularly annoys me is that there is a course in the 2003/04 Suffolk College brochure that allows you to do the AS and A2 courses for English Lit & Lang in only one year. If they had offered that this year then I could have been on my way to a full A level and not be worrying about next year anyway. The A2 course that I need to do to get a full A leve is definitely not in the brochure. The bank holiday means that my next class is not until 12 May but I shall be discussing this with my tutor then.
This wouldn't be the first time that Suffolk College have shafted me like this. I did RSA Stage 1 book keeping about seven years ago. I managed to pass it so I enrolled and paid for the Stage 2 course only to find that it wasn't running because they had no one to teach it that term. I got my money back but I was not impressed that their system had allowed me to enrol for something that wasn't running.
I work for Suffolk College at the moment and I am astonished by the level of beaurocracy on a daily basis. I am on a temporary contract and the date of my escape is now only four months away.

I do rather fancy continuing to do these courses once I get out of uni into full-time work. When you see all these exotic GCSEs and A-levels (oceanography, dance, book-binding...) that simply weren't available to us the first time around, I just can't help being interested. They'll look good on my CV, and interesting as classes and, besides, they're only GCSE level so how hard can it be?

I did a GCSE in Computer Studies about eight years ago (GCSE's didn't exist when I was at school) and I must say that it was the easy-peasiest exam that I have ever taken. The coursework was a pain in the rear though! Not difficult, just time consuming.
'A' levels seem tough to me, but perhaps it is just that my brain is seizing up with old age (36 next week - blimey!).

I like the idea of people comparing the number of GCSEs they have ('I have eight', 'well I have eleven') and then I could tell them that I have 26 of them! Of course, I would have to do 16 more GCSE exams first...

The trouble with trying to compare qualifications is that so many of us now have different ones. I have a mixture of CSE's and O levels from school, plus some RSA's, one GCSE and one A level. Is a CSE worth more or less than a GCSE?

Yesterday I had to proof read a very dull report and the only bit the caught my attention was the part that said "among employers there is a lack of respect for qualifications, particularly NVQ's." Oooh, I wonder why?

I tend to take them as directly equivalent if the main exam is taken in the same year the first time around. Thus O levels are equal to GCSEs. I don't know what was taken at age 18 before A levels (possibly CSEs?) but I would judge them to be equivalent too.
I was somewhat surprised when I realized that the qualifications could be taken by adults, as I had thought concession was made to the youth of those sitting the exams in the difficulty of the papers.

I can vouch for the fact that CSE's are a lesser qualification than an 'O'level, never mind an 'A' level! Ordinary level was sat at sixteen and Advanced level at eighteen and CSE's were for the plebs at secondardy modern school (like me!) who were not deemed bright enough to sit 'O' levels. I was able to sit three 'o' levels as well as my CSE's if I studied in my own time and my parents paid for the extra exams.

Having sat a GCSE (which is supposed to be a cross between a CSE and an 'O' level) in my late twenties, I can say that it was the easiest-peasiest exam ever and I think that they probably are geared very much towards children rather than adults. I personally think that A levels are still a difficult exam and anyone who says they are easy wants to try sitting one!

While I am in the mood for ranting about education, did you know that one or two places STILL do the eleven plus? Many people will tell you that the system of secondary modern schools for people who fail their 11 plus no longer exisits. Indeed, it shouldn't because the labour governments of the 1970's tried to phase this system out and replace it with comprehensive schools. However, I believe that the system still exists in Northern Ireland and I KNOW it still exists in the boroughs of Holland and Boston in Lincolnshire, which is where I had the misfortune to go to school, and where some of my friends still live and their children are in this old fashioned system. If you pass your 11 plus, you go to the Grammer School if you are a boy and the High School if you are a girl and if you fail, you go to the local secondary modern school. Now that all sixteen year olds sit the same qualifications, it seems to me pointless to still operate this arcane system. I get very irritated when I see debates about the pros and cons of selective education on the television, why don't these people just go and visit the places where selection still exists?

To my knowledge, 11-plus exams still operate everywhere in the UK. I sat my 11-plus exam, passed it, and went to a Grammar School. Quite frankly, I don't think I would have been happy in an ordinary comprehensive.
I am told that the single verbal reasoning test that I took way back when has since been replaced by a more sensible set of exams in a range of subjects. I always thopught that it was a bit silly assuming that someone is more able at learning in general just because they are good at verbal reasoning.
I think that when they amalgamated CSEs and O levels into GCSEs, they made a single grade system that tried to cover the whole range of ability. However, not everyone in the country sit the same exams. After some assessment by the teacher, it is decided whether a pupil will sit the 'Higher' paper that focuses on the upper grades, or the 'Foundation' paper that provides more accuracy in the lower range, but does not allow for grades above C. The vast majority of exams by the vast majority of students at my school were Highers, but I know my brother at a comprehensive took mostly Foundation.
Even if the exams themselves _are_ the same, the standard of teachings was definitely higher at our school in my view. Admittedly, it is very hard to judge, given that I have never been to another school, but verbal comparisons with other students (especially my siblings) support this. We did seem to go deeper into our subjects after covering the basics more quickly. It also obviously helped, because my school and the girls' High School just across the road consistently end up in the top 10 schools in the country for exam results. A few years back we actually finished top.
My dad is the kind of person who gets involved in administration, so he is part of the PA in both my school and my siblings', and they have been party to discussions on the future of selective schools. One would think that parents would be of the opinion that their child is very unlikely to be able to enter a selective school and so they would be against them. In reality, most of them consider that their child(ren) _may_ be able to enter the school and so they would like it available on the off-chance.
As for claims of elitism, they are actually basically spurious. The nature of the selection process actually works _against_ the class system. I have heard it said that you can see just as many parents at King Edward VI Parents' Evenings who have come straight from the building site as from the board-room. For myself, I've never been tht observant, and didn't think to check while I had the chance.

There is certainly no compulsory 11+ in the area where I live, although I believe that it is an optional thing down the road in Essex. As for elitism, well, if you apply for a job in the Boston or Spalding areas and you are up against an equally skilled applicant who has been to the High School or the Grammar School, they are more likely to get the job. I know that children are still assessed at the age of 11 but to decide at that point whether they get a good education or not is unfair, particularly to the boys who generally perform less well than girls in exams anyway.
I see from last nights TV news that tests for seven and eleven year olds are to be phased out in favour of continuous assessments. Far more sensible to assess younger children in this way in my opinion.

I did the first two papers of my AS level English Lit and Lang yesterday. It did not go well and I felt rather traumatised afterwards. Normally, exams don't bother me at all and I sail through them but this one was tough. Methinks I haven't done enough work this time.

The 11+ certainly wasn't compulsory. Out of my class of 30 or so, only about half-a-dozen were taking the test with me.
If you don't decide who deserves the higher levels of education at age 11, when can you decide? By the time they are 18, or 16, or even possibly 14, they have already lost much of the opportunity to learn more and better.
As for the advisability of differentiating students at 11, I can only tell you that those I went to school with _were_ above average. There were hardly any that really struggled with lessons, and they had mostly (voluntarily) removed themselves within the first couple of years. Similarly, some more able students arrived in the first couple of year, but not many.
My first exam of this year was meant to be on Wednesday, but they postponed it to a week today without telling some of us. That's not an emotional experience I'd like to go through again!

That was a bit naughty to move your exam like that. I hope you have recovered from the trauma.
I sat two papers for my AS level English Lit & Lang on 20 May. The Poetic Study paper was a bit of a nightmare and I really don't think that I did enough. Language Production was a bit better, but it took my 15 minute to think of anything to write, leaving myself only one hour to finish the job. I have rarely felt so dispondent after an exam. The final paper, Language of Speech and Prose was on 23 May and went much better.
Now I just have to wait and see how well I did and whether or not I can sit the A2 part of the course. It feels a bit odd not to have any evening classes to go to on a Monday night. The time seems to have flown by while I have been studying this course.
Good luck with the rest of your studying and exams.

I've sat my fair share of those nightmare exams. My technology (electronics) GCSE exam was terrible. All I could think was that all these schematics looked like short-circuits. What withthat and my awful practical coursework, I'm surprised I managed to get away with a D.

I am glad to have my studying out of the way for this year, but I must admit that I am bored in the evenings now that it is all finished. I didn't know what to do with myself on Monday night when I had no evening class to go to. I really must get myself a life! I haven't had a great deal to do at work this week, so having something to occupy me in the evenings has become a bit of an obesssion.

I have, at long last, started reading 'Stupid White Men'. Some of the things that Michael Moore reveals are really quite shocking, aren't they? Particularly, the introduction where he explains how much trouble he had actually getting the book released in the USA. So, much for the land of the free!

I think what they did to black voters was most worrying. It's a really good book by a good writer.
If I've got nothing to do of an evening, I usually watch TV, listen to radio, read a book or stay out in one of the computer clusters. It can get annoying on, for instance, Teusday nights, when I really can't find anything on TV worth watching, though. I'm moe or less used to not having a life, so having somewhere to go of an evening is more of an exception than a rule.
There's some very good TV on Monday nights. A new series of Spooks started last monday on the BBC, after which I'd watch the news and then potter around until Frasier and The West Wing on Channel 4. I am really starting to think that The West Wing is literally the best programme on TV at the moment. It's witty, intelligent and challenging, with great characters you can actually feel for.

I usually tape The West Wing because I need to be asleep at midnight if I am going to work the next day. I watched this weeks episode last night and, apart from the nonsense with Charlie & CJ, I thought it was rather dull. I must admit I am getting bored with it now. The trouble with American series is that they are too long and I start to loose interest after about six episodes. I have been watching The Cambridge Spies on BBC2 on Friday nights (I loved Tom Hollanders performance as Guy Burgess, totally OTT!) but that has finished now. I don't watch much telly if I am on my own because I get bored with it very quickly. My boyfriend will watch any old rubbish, so the TV is on a lot more if he is at home. He's into that new Sunday night thing on BBC1 called 'State of Play', what I have seen of it looks very good but I can't be bothered with it myself.

I read another chapter of 'Stupid White Men' last night, the one about how low paid newly qualified pilots are. I earn more than that! I agree with you about the treatment of the black voters, very worrying indeed.

I've got no work to do again today. My boss said she had plenty for me to do but she has naffed off to a meeting. Her idea of a job for me is usually something really menial that will only take my ten minutes anyway. I used to be a Credit Controller, which I gave up because I found it too stressful. Three years ago I was actually in charge of my own department (all be it a very small one). I don't miss the hassle, but when Clare asks me to tidy her desk for her, I find myself thinking about the more senior jobs I have had with some fondness.

Chat soon.

Liz
~

I don't have a problem with the length of things as my concentration span is quite long. For me, it's more a matter of how good something is at holding my attention than how long I can hold my attention onto it. If it's good enough, I can watch it forever.