BoxRec

DavidPayne wrote:I'm all for addressing the economic work-place with the qualifications that we promote and facilitate, however we've created too many spurious subjects to accomodate all and whilst I concede that its as much about the discipline of learning as it is subject matter wouldn't it be better to encourage and embrace vocational blue collar qualifications as the equal of academic subjects and address our REAL shortage of plumbers, sparkies etc rather than create a generation of deluded, depressed and discarded TV wannabees?

Saw a news feature a while back about City types who are jacking in their jobs to retrain as plumbers because there's decent money, flexibility and constant deman.

FAIR COMMENT DAVE.

and james yip agreed A levels were much harder than a degree, I did my degree in Bus and finanace while working. F

One day off and two evenings a week, fuckin hard work while you are at work the other four days but when you are 20 odd you have more energy and seem to cope.

Of all the examinations I did, O levels were by far the hardest. You have to do so many subjects at once, and you are doing coursework and mock exams, and then have a final exam, I can remember the pace seeming pretty hectic. A levels were more of a cruise, and my degree was a complete piss take, even with all the coursework the pace was leisurely in the extreme.

i did gcse's mate and they were a peice of piss, walked em got ten at c and above mostly a's.

A level tho I found werent quite so easy, added to the fact all i did was play rugby, get pissed, chase my dick and go raving, I failed 3 first tiime round., E and N's impressive huh.

(cue my old man all time classic N, what the frigg does N stand for NOBHEAD!!!)

retook 3 defferent subjects in a year and upped em to BCD.

still fornicating hard but alot of that had to do with me no putitng the graft in if Im honest.

jamesmcdonnell wrote:Of all the examinations I did, O levels were by far the hardest. You have to do so many subjects at once, and you are doing coursework and mock exams, and then have a final exam, I can remember the pace seeming pretty hectic. A levels were more of a cruise, and my degree was a complete piss take, even with all the coursework the pace was leisurely in the extreme.

A US or European-style degree with a major and several minors has a lot to commend it, I think.

J wrote:i did gcse's mate and they were a peice of piss, walked em got ten at c and above mostly a's.

A level tho I found werent quite so easy, added to the fact all i did was play rugby, get pissed, chase my dick and go raving, I failed 3 first tiime round., E and N's impressive huh.

(cue my old man all time classic N, what the frigg does N stand for NOBHEAD!!!)

retook 3 defferent subjects in a year and upped em to BCD.

still fornicating hard but alot of that had to do with me no putitng the graft in if Im honest.

GCSE's were a joke, I did one GCSE and the rest O Level, and two bloody CSE's which I should never have been doing. The CSE's were actually harder to get a good grade in than the GCSE, which was a walk in the park.

I pissed my A levels, but ended up only doing two, because I got talked into doing Communications Studies, English Lit and Physics! Needless to say, once the physics got heavy on the maths, I was completely lost.

I did 4 A-Levels

English Literature, Economics, History and General Studies.

And day dreamed my way to E,E,U,D.

How in fornicate's name did you get into University with those grades? Did you fellate the Dean of students?

Being in Scotland, I walked through standard grades, our GCSE's, but by the time of Highers, I was more interested in sex, drugs and rock'n'roll basically. Kind of scraped together something (we've got 2 years to do them so you can retake them or whatever.) Went to Edinburgh Uni, by pretty much sleeping with the dean. I was entered into a crappy course but after a year or two of being 'in' they forget your school grades and let you transfer to a good course. Punchline is (there was one, honest) my Dad teaches at an ex-poly uni (I forget what we're calling them now) and he has some totally scary stories about meetings he has where they all decide to pass students who are getting about 30%. Basically in order to get the money (especially foreign students who pay about 10 grand a year.)

So, basically you could say I was a snooty git. (Except I'm not. Edinburgh is full of Ya's from some nondescript part of England and I spend my day scowling at them and their American Express gold cards that Daddy gave them) Stereotyping again, but a stereotype only becomes one when there's truth in it.

In conclusion, IMO, a 2:2 at a 'prestigious' uni is better than a 2:1 at 'another' uni. I'm not saying, of course, that degress and courses at other unis don't serve a use or purpose.

jomothepure wrote:Went to Edinburgh Uni, by pretty much sleeping with the dean.

Good mate of mine used to work for Citibank. He heard that there were some redundancies in the offing, so he started knobbing a senior lass in HR. Kept his job when a bunch of his colleagues got binned. Not sure he was totally callous, he might have been after her anyway, but it doesn't hurt.


The college I went to had a history dept that was notorious for the couple of old gay blokes who ran it. I was there three years, so I saw five sets of students go through the dept, 9 or so in each year. Of that approximately 45, one was a girl. And you had to see a medical cert to prove that. One of the lads reckoned he got in because at interview he said he'd 'try anything once'.

jamesmcdonnell wrote:How in fornicate's name did you get into University with those grades? Did you fellate the Dean of students?

Nope, despite the 8 points I got being enought to get on a degree course at somewhere like the Isle Of Wight Further Education Bohemian Summer Camp, I opted to stick with Staffordshire and went for the HND in Business in Finance, which actually involved work and much of the same course content as my campus colleagues who did half the time on the BA Business Studies degree.

Then having campaigned for two years in the academic Championship, I got a play-off place and 18 months of Premiership degree study and dissertation I was rewarded with a 2:1 BA Hons in Business.

I'd finally learnt the lesson of effort. I've probably forgotten it since however.....

DavidPayne wrote:

jamesmcdonnell wrote:How in fornicate's name did you get into University with those grades? Did you fellate the Dean of students?

Nope, despite the 8 points I got being enought to get on a degree course at somewhere like the Isle Of Wight Further Education Bohemian Summer Camp, I opted to stick with Staffordshire and went for the HND in Business in Finance, which actually involved work and much of the same course content as my campus colleagues who did half the time on the BA Business Studies degree.

Then having campaigned for two years in the academic Championship, I got a play-off place and 18 months of Premiership degree study and dissertation I was rewarded with a 2:1 BA Hons in Business.

I'd finally learnt the lesson of effort. I've probably forgotten it since however.....

Top stuff. I have a lot of time for that

Coconut wrote:

jomothepure wrote:Went to Edinburgh Uni, by pretty much sleeping with the dean.

Good mate of mine used to work for Citibank. He heard that there were some redundancies in the offing, so he started knobbing a senior lass in HR. Kept his job when a bunch of his colleagues got binned. Not sure he was totally callous, he might have been after her anyway, but it doesn't hurt.


The college I went to had a history dept that was notorious for the couple of old gay blokes who ran it. I was there three years, so I saw five sets of students go through the dept, 9 or so in each year. Of that approximately 45, one was a girl. And you had to see a medical cert to prove that. One of the lads reckoned he got in because at interview he said he'd 'try anything once'.

I think I'd rather go 'straight' into the land of employment

Coconut wrote:

jomothepure wrote:Went to Edinburgh Uni, by pretty much sleeping with the dean.

Good mate of mine used to work for Citibank. He heard that there were some redundancies in the offing, so he started knobbing a senior lass in HR. Kept his job when a bunch of his colleagues got binned. Not sure he was totally callous, he might have been after her anyway, but it doesn't hurt.


The college I went to had a history dept that was notorious for the couple of old gay blokes who ran it. I was there three years, so I saw five sets of students go through the dept, 9 or so in each year. Of that approximately 45, one was a girl. And you had to see a medical cert to prove that. One of the lads reckoned he got in because at interview he said he'd 'try anything once'.

During my 2nd year at univeristy, I did an interesting social experiment, unwittingly.

A mate of mine at university died, after throwing himself in front of a truck from a bout of depression. This had quite an effect on me, I thought I was ok about it, as he wasn't THAT close a friend, but went through a period where I just couldn't get to sleep, and like a walking zombie. I tried to play it down, but it became clear that something was wrong and I was summoned to the head of the department, who told me something along the lines of 'pull yourself together man and was told in no uncertain terms to get my coursework in pronto.

My girlfriend who I lived with at the time, who was also friends with this guy, and who happened to be six foot tall, blond and incredibly good looking, and who also did English and Lit, made a big deal about the whole thing, turned on the waterworks, and was told that for the rest of the term she didn't have to attend any classes and could hand in her coursework whenever she liked.

Later that same year, I am ashamed to say I did a bit of essay copying, which actually backfired. I got the lowest marks I had ever got for any of my essays, which were always 2:1 grade or above, and got 2:2 grades and a few thirds.

My girlfriend, who copied THE SAME ESSAYS, got 2:1 marks for every single one!

What was the connection. Well, would you believe that the English department was almost entirely populated by 50 something males who had a hard-on and pre-cum every time she walked into the room.

Academics are a joke.

just to back up James story, his girlfriend at the time was a stunner!!!!

i am not sure if "rohypnol" was on the market at the time either

Sadly she didn't age well......looked like Bagpuss last time I saw her.

jamesmcdonnell wrote:Sadly she didn't age well......looked like Bagpuss last time I saw her.

in boxing terms perhaps she "wasn't living the life"

but pink and white stripes seems a little unusual

Is this thread now evolving from Council Tax to politics to education. I now have bad feeling it's going to turn into a favourite TV programmes of the past and ugly girlfriend thread. Hope it doesn't happen.

Crystal Maze, with Richard O'Brien / Welsh bird with tattoos a pierced tongue, and had posters of Crufts on the walls. I was physically sick in the morning.

P.S. I've got a border Collie. He only comes home during the holidays.

I did mechanical engineering, only a HND as i ran out of money,but it was bloody hard and intense. I hated all those i shared houses with in my two years who did not study as hard as me. Language students were the worst, very littles to do. Political, and media studies students were having the time of their lives.