With results day looming I’m sure I’m not the only one feeling the stress, indeed according to BBC News students awaiting results are even turning to drink to relieve stress!

So you’re really worried about your results, you tried your best but maybe your place at Uni or your new job is riding what you get. Results day is a big deal, and whether your pleased with your results or not the last thing you want is someone telling you that in fact A-levels are getting easier. It happens every year- and it irritates me SO much!

I worked my butt off for my exams and if I get the results I want on Thursday I want to be celebrating and looking forward to exciting things ahead. I don’t need someone who probably sat these exams 30 years ago telling me that the exams I worked and stressed for and actually found really hard are getting easier and easier and that A I got, doesn’t mean as much as I thought it did. Equally, if I’m disappointed with my results I hope I’ll be thinking ‘I tried my best’ and looking at the different options open to me, I certainly don’t want to be told that, ‘by the way those exams your not happy with, getting easier aren’t they!?’

Then what about those students who didn’t get 5 GCSE’s and couldn’t even study for A-levels. Their going to feel great if they hear that the exams they weren’t able to sit aren’t even that difficult. If A-levels are getting easier and an ‘A’ now stands for Average rather than Achievement why are the government still placing so much store by these out of date academic exams and refusing to introduce an integrated education system such as the framework outlined by Tomlinson?

We should be celebrating the achievements of our young people! No one who has just sat their exams will tell you they were not challenging. Yes, I agree that these days you need more than just qualifications. You need to have activities and skills on your CV alongside qualifications to make you stand out from the other university or job applicants. Time spent going on TV, radio and commenting to the newspapers on how easy exams are would be better spent encouraging non formal learning, emphasising how important it is that students learn a variety of transferable skills and the importance of getting involved in activities and societies at college, university and in their community.

This year the youth agenda is starting to be pushed into the limelight particularly with the Youth Green Paper, which has fantastic opportunities to make changes for Further Education students. However what is fundamentally failing students of all ages is our education system. Not only is it not free, fair and funded, it favours academia and leaves vocational learning in the dark. NUS has started putting FE back at the heart of its agenda and its time to Government did the same. I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it- Tomlinson was a missed opportunity but there are opportunities, especially the upcoming Foster Review on the Future of Further Education for the Government to rectify its mistakes.

So when you get your results and you hear someone saying the exams were easy- ignore them! Just think, I worked hard, that’s unproductive, ‘bothered’??? Maybe you’ll also be thinking, well then maybe its time for reform- its what I’ll be thinking and its what the NUS FE campaign will be saying loud and clear!

Good luck x

PS. Remember, if when you get your results and you didn’t get what you were hoping for, your unsure about where to go from here or just need some advise- there is support out there for you.

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