The Big Day

After a wonderful few days in Derbyshire, today I returned home with a bang, because it was finally time to find out my A-level results. The last two years of my school life had been leading up to this day, so I was naturally nervous last night. As planned, I logged on to UCAS Track at 8:00 am, and I was delighted to find that the University of Bristol had confirmed my place to study MSci Pharmacology with Study in Industry! With that weight off my mind, I wolfed down my breakfast and headed to school to find out my exact results. The common room was already pretty busy when I arrived; I quickly spotted my envelope (yes, the school has finally invested in envelopes!) and tore it open eagerly to discover my grades, which were:

Psychology: B
Biology: A
German: B
Chemistry: A*(!)

I'm so happy with the A* in chemistry; I didn't get my fingers trapped in the door in vain! My Biology result was also very satisfying, and the B in German was expected, although I was only 4 UMS points away from an A. I had hoped to get an A in psychology, but I'm happy with the B. So far I've done little to celebrate, just ordering the Eurovision 2008 album on Amazon, but hopefully I'll do something soon.

Results day 2013

Today I received my AS exam results, and they were better than I thought they would be! Yesterday evening I was feeling rather jittery and anxious, so in order to relax, I painted my nails, using the polish "Galactic" from the Revlon Moon Candy range.

By morning, the nerves had gotten to my appetite; I could only stomach a handful of black grapes for breakfast. To keep my spirits up, I chose to wear my shimmery lace navy dress to school, despite warnings of wet weather. A little after 10am I left the house and walked up to school with my sister, who'll be doing the same thing next week to find out her GCSE results. Em was the one who spotted my name within the piles of paper; she lifted the sheet out, and we found out that I got 4 As! I'm really pleased with my results, but I know I need to put in maximum effort in year 13 so that I can feel joy like this next year too!

GCSE results day

At 8:00am today, most of my jitters from last night had subsided, and I only had one hour to wait to discover my GCSE destiny. The minutes passed swiftly; before I knew it, I was at school, nervously approaching the results desk. Overhearing somebody say that the documents were organised in alphabetical order, I slowly gravitated towards the left-hand side, and landed directly in front of my name. That was all I noticed as I snatched the stapled sheets and held them closely to my chest. Eventually, I summoned the courage to look, and was flabbergasted to find this:

• History: A*
• Religious Studies (full course): A*
• Biology: A*
• Chemistry: A*
• Physics: A*
• D&T Graphics Products: A* (I didn't expect this at all; a B would have been great)
• German: A*
• English Language: A*
• English Literature: A*
• ICT: Distinction
• (and Mathematics A* from March)

In total, that's 10 A*s and 1 Distinction, which is the highest grade attainable on the OCR national course and has the point equivalent to halfway between A and A*. I am absolutely delighted with these results; when I began Key Stage 4, over 23 months ago, and even as recently as May, I was rather frustrated by my high target grades, but now I have actually achieved them! My friends did very well too, getting lots of As and A*s between them. I'm especially happy for Jasmine, who has overcome a lot to become one of only 1.6% of students in the country [x] to achieve an A* in Health and Social Care. Now I have A levels to look forward to.

Pre-results day jitters

Tomorrow, in roughly ten-and-a-half hours time, my fingers will be grasping a crisp, freshly sealed envelope and battling against the shaking that will most likely overcome me, to tear the seal and discover my destiny. I'm feeling very weird at the moment, a bit light-headed, chatty (very unusual), energetic and shaky. It's reminding me of the night before Em's operation; I think being over-nervous manifests itself in this way with me. I'm sort of giddy, it's really weird. I'm looking forward to being on the other side, but I don't want to go through the difficulty (or discovery) to get there. It feels too soon, too big, too scary, too imminent. But it must happen. It's got to happen, and it will happen.

I will find out my GCSE results tomorrow, once and for all.

EDITED 2012-08-23 12:43PM: There was no envelope.