School And Other Swearwords

Brief history: I swapped schools a fair bit as a kid, but got most of my "qualifications" from the Royal Grammar School in Jesmond, Newcastle. For God's sake, don't send your kids here. It's bloody awful. Even after you've left, they try to squeeze more money out of you. It's outdated, old fashioned, too strict, miles away compared to most local comprehensives and one of the worst learning environments I've ever had to suffer. Oh, and it's "boys only" so you can be sure that most lads coming out of there will be stunted socially. I know I was. The lesson to learn here is that when parents say that they know what's best for you, they're talking crap. Enrol yourself in a local school or college instead.

At least I managed 10 GCSEs, one AO, one AS and 3 A-levels from the place. Mind you, I resat the A-levels the following year at Gateshead College which was much better. I went up by two grades in biology and physics and one in chemistry. A lot of this was down to the exam boards chosen (the College deliberately went for the easiest boards it could find - which makes sense. The RGS went for the most difficult - which doesn't) and the pure attitude of the place. It was a lot more relaxed and for the first time in my academic career I was treated like an individual, not just some faceless bag of pound notes in a blazer.

Next stop was the Biomedial Sciences department here at Bradford University. I lasted a year, but decided it wasn't really what I wanted. After taking a year out, I swapped course onto Computer Science which suited me much better, even if it involved paying my own course fees for the first year. Bloody local council. My first year average mark was 67.1% which cheered me up no end as it's a gnat's chuff off the first-class degree target of 70%

Second year posed more of a problem. With my student loan serving to pay off most of the previous year's debts, work not being as prevelant, not getting a grant and my dad losing his job it was been kind of hard to concentrate. As a result, my average mark from the results of semester one were right down. Around 26%. A good 15% short of a pass grade. Semester 2 wasn't much better as I had to work 9-5 to make ends meet up to and including the exam period. So I had a shedload of resits to do.

Me being me, I spent all my time working and flunked most of them big time. The end of my academic life? Not quite. Even though I've dropped off this (my decision - I could have resat), I'm ploughing through some MCP courses and other bits of work purely so I can get some pieces of paper proving I can do stuff I know I can do. Administering Windows 95, building and maintaining PCs, programming Delphi and so on. Hopefully we'll be seeing new lines on my CV on a regular basis. I might not be able to get my priorities right at times, but I'm no shirker!

Mail me (webmaster@moshville.co.uk)

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