A test for you

[guy]

CSE mainly in secondary modern/comprehensive, O level in Grammar (most subjects) in North Herts during the 60's/70's

I went to a Grammar and the school was "told off" for entering too many students for CSE French (just my class got 30 grade one French CSE's), exam board thought that we should have been entered for O level

[Marco]

It was an exam you took at 11 years old to determine if you would go on to Grammar school or to a Secondary Modern in areas where the comprehensive system had not been introduced.

Ah, thanks. That would explain it. We had the latter up in Glasgow.

Marco.

[Marco]

CSE mainly in secondary modern/comprehensive, O level in Grammar (most subjects) in North Herts during the 60's/70's

I went to a Grammar and the school was "told off" for entering too many students for CSE French (just my class got 30 grade one French CSE's), exam board thought that we should have been entered for O level

Cool. I went to a 'posh' private school, so was fortunate to be doing French in Primary 6, plus algebra and 1st year secondary school English, the year next. We even had a lady coming in who gave us elocution lessons, lol. Great fun!

It was good discipline though and preparation for the real world.

IME, nothing opens doors more, and provides opportunities, than being able to speak properly (here I'm referring to good diction and proper pronunciation), and also being able to spell correctly and write using proper grammar and punctuation, plus having been taught good manners and etiquette - all of which breeds self-confidence, which also opens doors.

In secondary school up in Scotland it was O-levels and A-levels, and also what was called Sixth Year Studies, which of course you did in your 6th year, if you stayed in school for that long! SYS exams were effectively 1st year uni standard, and I got four in English, French, Italian and geography, as at the time those were the subjects I was most interested in.

Those were the days when exams were demanding and genuinely hard to pass, and you really needed to know your shit - unlike the piss-easy bollox now!

Marco.

[guy]

Not really as good as it sounds - the CSE French was easy (I thought), I know that if I had taken O level I would have failed.

Strange though, the first time I went to France was over thirty years later and a few phrases came back to me.

[guy]

....

IME, nothing opens doors more, and provides opportunities, than being able to speak properly (here I'm referring to good diction and proper pronunciation), and also being able to spell correctly and write using proper grammar and punctuation, plus having been taught good manners and etiquette - all of which breeds self-confidence, which also opens doors.

Marco.

I taught in a public school for a year and was invited to the Christmas dinner.
My wife and I were most impressed with a sixth form girl who had been seated with us (I hadn't taught her, so I was a little apprehensive at first). As you say, her good manners, etiquette and the resulting self confidence contributed to our having a lovely, chatty and relaxed evening.
Success in life isn't all about academic qualifications. I have taught many pupils in state schools who wouldn't have coped in a similar situation, even though they were her equal in academic terms.

[Roy S]

Those were the days when exams were demanding and genuinely hard to pass, and you really needed to know your shit - unlike the piss-easy bollox now!

Never found exams that hard to pass (class of '75), didn't do much revision either but ended up with 7 O levels at good grades. Never stayed on for A levels, wanted to start earning some dough to buy 'hifi'

Other half's grandson is 14 and his homework is far from 'piss-easy bollox'.

[Beobloke]

Cool. I went to a 'posh' private school, so was fortunate to be doing French in Primary 6, plus algebra and 1st year secondary school English, the year next. We even had a lady coming in who gave us elocution lessons, lol. Great fun!

It was good discipline though and preparation for the real world.

IME, nothing opens doors more, and provides opportunities, than being able to speak properly (here I'm referring to good diction and proper pronunciation), and also being able to spell correctly and write using proper grammar and punctuation, plus having been taught good manners and etiquette - all of which breeds self-confidence, which also opens doors.
.

I also went to a private school. Nothing to do with being posh but my mother was a teacher and knew how bad the comprehensive boys’ schools in our area were (Southampton suburbs) and so she had a “No son of mine is going to any of those dumps” attitude! She and my dad scrimped and saved to send me there which meant quite a frugal childhood but they were some of the happiest years of my life.

Regarding your point about etiquette and good manners, one of the things about the school that stuck with mum until the day she died was the speech the headmaster gave the new parents when we started the secondary school. He said “ I cannot promise to send you hone a genius in five years’ time, but I will send you hone a gentleman”.

Our school had a very distinctive uniform, so if any of us put a foot wrong in public, letters to the headmaster usually resulted which were read out in assembly. Fortunately we also got our fair share of praise letters when we helped old ladies with their shopping or held doors open for people, and they did used to read those out as well, to their credit!

[Macca]

Never found exams that hard to pass (class of '75), didn't do much revision either but ended up with 7 O levels at good grades. Never stayed on for A levels, wanted to start earning some dough to buy 'hifi'

Other half's grandson is 14 and his homework is far from 'piss-easy bollox'.

I did O level in 1985 and they would give us past papers going back to the 1970s to practice on. The 1970s papers got harder the further back you went and were more difficult than the 1980s exams. No idea if that trend continued though. Leaving school was for a long time the happiest day of my life, trumped only by leaving Vodafone in 2004.

if you've ever seen the film 'The Hill', that was my school. They got very good exam results though.

[guy]

Never found exams that hard to pass (class of '75), didn't do much revision either but ended up with 7 O levels at good grades. Never stayed on for A levels, wanted to start earning some dough to buy 'hifi'

Other half's grandson is 14 and his homework is far from 'piss-easy bollox'.

Pretty much the same here (class of '73), lucky enough to get a job in chemical industry with "day release"

[guy]

I did O level in 1985 and they would give us past papers going back to the 1970s to practice on. The 1970s papers got harder the further back you went and were more difficult than the 1980s exams. No idea if that trend continued though. ...........

I think the trend continued (at least in science) until the new GCSE about five years ago, higher level papers demand very good understanding (and maths skills now).

One of the biggest stumbling blocks for my pupils was the ability to read and interpret the question - I have sat with pupils and talked them through mock papers and they would regularly say "oh that is so easy, I didn't get what they were asking for"

Talk about thread drift