Grades Don't Define You

If you've just taken your GCSEs, then on Thursday you would have found out your results. Whether they were good or bad, I just want to let you all know that whatever you got doesn't define you as a person. It's kind of like setting a load of different animals the task of climbing a tree and saying whoever could ever climb it the quickest is the best. If this was between a monkey, elephant and a fish then the monkey would obviously be seen as the better animal. But if this task was set for the same animals to see how far they could swim underwater, then the fish would be the better animal. These exams don't necessarily bring out the best in you. 

In fact, I think we shouldn't have exams at all. You spend months leading up to these exams trying to prepare for them and trying to find the right balance between going out with people and studying. If you're anything like me you would have done more of going out with people than studying. The night before the exam is the worst because you're constantly debating with yourself on whether you've done enough revision or not and if you try and fit a bit in in the morning or just leave it. Then you're lining up outside the hall and going over one or two things with the people around you (as well as realising that you know absolutely nothing for the exam and realise seconds before you walk into the hall that you should have done more revision). When you are finally able to open the paper and see the questions you're either really happy and could write for hours; or you're sat there trying to remember when (or if) you learnt anything that was on the paper and trying to come up with at least one thing to write down to try and get a few marks. Once the exam's ended you're glad that it's over and either realise that you did really well or really bad: but overall you're just happy that you can forget about everything that was on that paper. But once the exams are over it's the dreaded wait until you can find out how you did and constantly thinking that you've failed every single exam and that you're either going to have to retake a few of them or repeat the whole of year 11. 

Then when you open that envelope and look at your results, you are (hopefully) pleased with how you did and realise that you had nothing to worry about. And if you're not pleased with how you did then you shouldn't worry about it because there are plenty of things you can do to redeem yourself. You can always retake the exam if you did really badly. If it was something to do with being a grade off what you needed to get into a sixth form/college then I shouldn't worry about it too much. A lot of the time they will make an exception and let you in anyway because no one if 100% guaranteed to get the grades they're told they're going to get/need. There are always other options out there anyway.

I am really proud of myself because I now have 10 GCSEs and 1 equivalent. I took my first GCSE in year 9 because my school does it like that for some reason. Here are my grades:

Art: C (year 9)

ICT: pass (year 9)

Ancient history : C (year 10)

Core science: C (year 10)

Maths: C (year 11)

English language: B (year 11)

English literature: B (year 11)

Additional science: C (year 11)

PE: B (year 11)

Spanish: B (year 11)

History: C (year 11)

In just under two weeks time I'm going to my local sixth form and I'm going to be studying psychology, history and health and social care. I currently have absolutely no idea about what I want to study if I go to university or what job I want to do. But that's okay because not everyone will have an idea of what they'll be doing in five years time. Right now, if you don't know what job you want to have, it's just about taking subjects that you enjoy; but that also give you a range of different opportunities when you're older. 

I hope that the results you got on Thursday were what you wanted (and possibly better). If they didn't exactly go to plan then I shouldn't worry about it too much because a lot of people will be in the same position as you. There are plenty of things that you can do if you absolutely need to get a better grade for a certain subject if it will affect what you can and can't do in the future. A lot of employers won't necessarily be looking for that A* grade anyway: they just want to know that you passed you're GCSEs  so they know what you are capable of.

Thank you for reading this and I hope that none of you are disappointed with your results. Also, if you were only a few marks off the next grade up then don't constantly question yourself on what you should have done to get that grade. At the end of the day you did the best you possibly could and you should be proud of yourself for doing just that.

Love Beth xx