'Forget about style; worry about results'
A quote from Bobby Orr.
For students the latter part of this quote is very well the feeling that sends a chill down their spine. The moment someone says the word 'results', only one day is triggered in their mind.
So I was thinking, as today is in fact the dreaded day for many A-level students, is this a day for celebrating a year of working hard for a specific letter associated to the grade you have achieved to be printed onto a certificate or is this the most stressful day of the year?
Some people will probably say, it's only a time of celebration if you got the results you want. Others might say, we can celebrate even though we may not have got the results we wanted but still managed to pass the whole year, or get into our chosen university.
This I understand greatly. I still remember this time last year I was finding if I got into university and what my A2 results were.
I remember waking up at 6am. Okay I didn't wake up intentionally, how could I with the thought of wanting to know my grades and whether I made it into university or not. The university was the most important as I really wanted to get in and fulfil my wish to study Magazine Journalism.
So there I was lying in bed, feeling extremely tired as I had little sleep and really wanted to go back to sleep but I knew that if I did that, I would probably wake up and UCAS Track would have about as much traffic as the M25 rush hour every morning. Something I really didn't want to endure.
So I decided to go for it and retrieve my laptop off my bedroom floor and find out if UCAS has updated my Track telling me if I have got into university. My heart was beating a million beats per minute as I waited for my laptop to fire up. Once I logged myself in and got the internet browser, I thought to myself 'This is it!'.
The next half an hour was the most stressful I have ever felt. I didn't want to go on Facebook or Twitter because I really didn't want to see if anyone else had found out their result for uni. It took me at least three goes before my screen loaded with the UCAS Track homepage. Funnily enough it loaded parts of the page from the top of the browser from the bottom.
And there it was. The words I wanted to see - even though I truly convinced myself that I was going to see the dreaded UCAS Clearing information.
'Congratulations! Your place at Southampton Solent University to study Magazine Journalism and Feature Writing has been confirmed'
It was one of the best feelings in the world, to know that I had got into my chosen university to study the course I really wanted to do. Obviously the next step was waiting for my college to open and for me to get my results, however I was not as nervous as I was for finding out my university place.
Thankfully I wasn't really bothered by my results as I knew I had got into university but I still managed to achieve a BBD.
For me I managed to make results day into a positive experience. But what about those students who stay quiet on social networking sites while they frantically phone up universities because they have been given the dreaded Clearing number. Or to those students who aren't going to university but didn't achieve the results they wanted.
There is a lot of pressure on students to do well. From the university side, there is a lot of pressure to make sure they get the points they need for a place at uni whilst competing with many other students from across the country and overseas. From the results side, it has become a big 'competition' to see who gets the highest grade possible, especially as last year was the first year the A-levels included the A* grade.
It can be a divided topic and for someone like me, I will never be able to empathise with those who may be spending results day stressed and upset because they recieved the news/results they didn't want to hear. And it is these people who will say that results day is the worst day of their life.
It is all about making sure that whatever result you acheive is not something to be ashamed of. Okay, if you didn't get the A grade but managed to get a B or a C is good. It is not that you have failed, it is this pressure of wanting to boast or impress other people or friends that you managed to get a higher grade than them.
This is why I get annoyed when all I see on Facebook or Twitter is people going on about the different grades they got, just so they can say they are 'smarter' than others. I try to find out which subject it is before getting impressed i.e. someone who got an A in what some people might call the 'Mickey Mouse' subjects would not be as impressive as those who got an A in the traditional English, Maths or Science.
At the end of the day, be proud of what you have acheived. But don't go to the extent of building yourself a pedestal just so you can show off to other people how 'smart' you are. At the end of the day, you may be having the best day ever while someone else could be having the worst day, fighting for a place at uni or fighting back the tears of their results.
So all I can say is don't make results day something to be stressed or ashamed of, make it day of celebrating what you have achieved because remember, you still achieved an A-level in whatever subject you studied. For those battling for those last places at universities in clearing, don't give up hope! You are still in with the chance of going to university!
