What can’t be forgotten is that students woke up having dreams of further education crushed - YEP opinion

In our latest Voices of the Future column Orla, an 18-year-old student, reflects on receiving her A-level grades in the middle of a pandemic.
YEP Voices of the Future columnist Orla McAndrew - like thousands of others - didn't have the results day she ever expected to have.YEP Voices of the Future columnist Orla McAndrew - like thousands of others - didn't have the results day she ever expected to have.
YEP Voices of the Future columnist Orla McAndrew - like thousands of others - didn't have the results day she ever expected to have.

When the year began, I was gearing up to the biggest year of my academic life - sitting my A Levels.

I was nervous, very nervous, but excited to end my studies and spend the summer relaxing.

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Sitting my A-Levels was a rite of passage, one that I’d seen family members go through and felt ready to do. 

In March, as the world came to a crashing halt, so did A-Levels, and eventually they were cancelled.

At first it was a huge relief. I didn’t have to revise and go through a gruelling exam season.

A win for me! However, the next question was, how am I going to be graded?

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It was decided that it would be a combination of mock results, coursework and teacher assessments. It seemed fair, my teachers know me and my work. 

Unfortunately, it clearly hasn’t worked like that. On August 4, students in Scotland got their exam results.

It was revealed that thousands of students had had their results lowered.

This news was met with uproar and the Scotish government were accused of reducing grades to a post code lottery. A week later the Scotish government upgraded students, giving them grades they were predicted.

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What can’t be forgotten is that students woke up having dreams of further education crushed and that couldn’t happen again.

It was then rumoured that 39 per cent of A-Level results could be downgraded.

This only heightened anxiety for students waiting. Eventually, the English government decided to allow students to use their mock exam grades. Whilst this seemed like a good idea, mocks differ in each centre.

The run up to results day is naturally an anxious time, however this year was completely different. We had no clue how we may have performed in an exam setting.

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Would it be better or worse than the grade that we got on Thursday? The waiting was horrible. 

We also missed out on receiving grades in college with the support of teachers and peers.

Having watched family members collect their results in person, it was particularly disheartening to be missing out on this.

My expectations of results day changed drastically.

I’d spend it quietly celebrating (and just sleeping!) with family. It was more of a relief that the waiting was over than a celebration. 

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Results day was one of the most stressful yet rewarding days so far. It took me 40 minutes to log on to UCAS track to see if I got my place. The website just couldn’t cope with the amount of people on the system and the wait was painstaking.

However, once I finally logged on, I found that I got into my first-choice university!

I believe I was graded fairly and I’m thankful to my college, Greenhead in Huddersfield, for all the help they gave me. 

See you next year York!

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