FLUNKED YOUR EXAMS? ME TOO!

Fiona Scott
5 min readAug 28, 2022
DIDN’T DO THE EXAM THING WELL? DON’T DESPAIR, TAKE ACTION

It was an August day in 1984 and I was walking to my school to collect my A level results, eagerly anticipating taking up my place at university to study English Literature or Medieval English.

Joined by my best mates who had similar dreams — one was going to uni to study acoustics, one taking a gap year and one off to train to be a nurse. Everything did hang on those results.

Two years earlier, I’d collected my O levels and I’d done really well. I’d taken seven, passed seven, got 2 As, 4Bs and a C and I’d also passed my typing examination. I flew into sixth form and I really felt I was growing up. I was on a roll.

Except I wasn’t. I’d found A levels really hard, I’d worked hard yet I’d found revising almost impossible, the weight of information overwhelmed me and I just couldn’t focus. I didn’t know how to revise and there were few tools available to teach you. I’d taken History A level and we’d done a boring course on the theory of history, not history itself. Yuck.

And I’d got a new boyfriend who was older and working and he had taken so much of my time and energy. Not his fault at all, I was growing up and exploring life. It was exciting. Far more exciting than poring over books all of the time.

The only examination I’d been relaxed about was a little known ‘S’ level in English Literature…

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Fiona Scott

Fiona has been a UK journalist for more than 30 years as well as being a freelance tv producer director. She’s also had her own media consultancy since 2008.