A Level Retrospective

So I got my A Levels back and I don't like them much, which will sound funny when I reveal what grades I got:

• Physics - A*

This one I'm glad about because it was by far my weakest subject in January or so, I hardly understood electromagnetism, and yet I managed to just about get onto the grade boundary. Doing all those past papers did pay off. I did overestimate myself a few times, though, being very close with papers 1 and 2, and slightly exceeding my expected score in paper 3. On the whole, I'm happy.

• Further Maths - A

This one stings for the wrong reasons:

Obviously I wanted as high a mark as possible, because a D isn't anything to take joy in, but I didn't want to do the exams either. The right choice would have been to drop further as soon as I got my Imperial offer, which was back in March.

So it's clear I didn't want to mess the exams up entirely, but I'd have probably been much happier without a qualification. I hated further maths; to any students entering sixth form and choosing their A Level options, only do further maths if you need to or are sufficiently committed to the cause. I did further maths initially out of interest, and eventually out of embarrassment.

I overestimated myself in papers 1 and 3 really badly, but in papers 2 and 4 I was somewhat bang on. Five marks ahead of the grade boundary, I guess it's okay? But in an ideal world I wouldn't even be writing this section because I'd have saved my anxieties for a more worthy occasion!

• Chemistry - A

This one hurts. Genuinely. 

Now, I will clarify this means I got into Imperial. Yay, that's fun - I got into arguably one of the best universities in the world, let alone the UK or London. That also means I might get to blog about Bexley, and I avoided clearing. 

However, when you consider the blog, I feel like an A is a massive letdown. All the blogging and revision, all the stress and post-exam panic, all of that...for an A. Seven marks below the grade boundary. I overestimated how well I'd do in every exam as well.

Now, in fairness, my exam results were actually in line with my revision, and the main issue is that OCR is an awful exam board with no moral compass. The A* grade boundary was the exact same as last year, the A boundary was one mark different, I had to check whether I'd accidentally clicked on the 2024 grade boundaries. 90% for an A* is still ludicrous, and whoever's in charge of the questions really is stealing a living, they ask the same bloody stuff every year basically. 

Which, again, makes my A look a bit more embarrassing, I suppose. Yes, it's an A, but I wanted an A*. I most certainly didn't want my results to look like I cared about chemistry as much as I did further maths. Especially as I'm going to study chem, and hope to leave maths in the past, to never have to revisit it.

Combined with the A* from maths last year, I got A* A* A A, which I guess is fine, but I'd have much preferred one less A and one more asterisk. But then again, you can't always get what you want.