Aspies For Freedom

Did anyone find the GCSE hard? I'm struggling like hell. I've discovered that I lack empathy and thoughts and feelings and stuff. It's doing my head in !

First time I took GCSE English I got a grade D...second time a grade D...third time a grade D. Fourth time...persistence seemed to pay off and I got an A.

My GCSE grades...first time around.

English...D
Mathamatics... *Ungraded*
French...G (I didn't even know it was possible to get a 'G')
History...F
Geography...F
Cookery...F
Science...F
Art and Design...E

Eventually however I did manage to get to university...god knows how I managed it.

English D
Maths U
History C (no CW)
Geography (no CW)
Science A*
Double Science A*
IT..wasnt allowed to take the exam, the teacher was a complete jackass
Business D

and I did no coursework for Geography or History, but I did for English and Business...go figure?

I did okay at GCSE but I went to a very good school where teachers were very strict and gave lots of homework which worked well for me.

The only thing that I really struggled with in English was having to give presentatation in front of the class. How exactly are you supposed to give a confident articulate presentation in front of all of the people that bully you and generally make your life miserable?

I would have preferred to give my presentation in front of a group of teachers or a panel of examiners who I didn't know and would never see again and who were not the people who bullied me daily.

oh. I'm really screwed cos, I've been informed by connexions that if i get a D, then i won't be able to go to uni as well as college as most colleges require a C in English Language. I'm hopefully going to Henley College {Oxon} and 98% of courses need english language:

My original choices:

French
Spanish {GCSE}
Computing
RE

Now because of the D i'll likely get, the new choices are:

French
Critical Thinking
RE
Ancient History

It's so horrible. You don't want to be me today... :'(

ah...thats not true.

GCSEs are completely worthless.

look, if you really want to get in, ask for an interview with a tutor from the course. if you know your stuff, they should let you on.

A word of warning.
is it a BTEC First Diploma, National Diploma et al?
it is USELESS.they only lead onto the next BTEC qualification, and are not really internationally recognized. also, they are very, very basic, and coursework centred.

if you want a USEFUL qualification, start looking at Cisco Systems CCNA, COMPTIA's Network+ and A+, and the Microsoft MCSE.

bearing in mind that I am advising you from the standpoint of someone who is going into hardware and networking. if you want programming or Game Design, then disregard the above.

oh ok. Ye it was, thats what they sed, btec first diploma. Cheers for that.

welcome.

its all basic stuff, and my tutors actually told me to  not go into so much depth on the CW, because its just not worth it.

its mostly (at first diploma level) basic skills; Office, installing an OS (typically XP), identifying basic computer components, proving you know what plugs in where, some basic HTML, some Java IF you are lucky, mobile communications and a little bit on security; all basic stuff. you will be bored.

the next level up covers a basic bit of C++, the SSDAM, goes into a little more depth on hardware. second year of that then covers more in depth programming, networking et al. I dropped out at the end of the first year though.

the annoying thing?
I could have gotten a useful qualification, like a CCNA or a network+, in a little under a fortnight.

lol. Thx again, it says in the prospectus that it aims to combine Computing and ICT together, its like 80% IT 20% computing... haha

I've always found English a hard subject. I love reading and in class I would do well but i've always been bad at the exams. I got better during GCSE because the subject was more structured. I managed to get BB in English (& English Lit) which is extremely well for me since my teacher couldn't control the class and therefore I spent most lessons bored and played games on my laptop because the teacher made us wait for the people to stop talking before doing any work. Which was a poor attempt at discipline because they wouldn't. Also because of the lack of proper teaching I didn't not know about one of the English exams until the morning before hand.

My other GCSE results:
Maths-A (1% off an A*,grr)
Classical Civilisation-A*
Business Studies-B
Double Science-AA
Art & Design-A*

I got to drop Spanish because I was so bad at it. And I didn't do IT because my school forced you to do a BTEC, however I got around it by my parents refusing to pay the £60. I got 3hrs worth of free periods a week which helped me concentrate on my other subjects.

I got an A in English - Standard Grade (Scottish GCSE) and A at Higher (Scottish one year A-Level). I found writing a lot of meaningless crap really worked; English seems to be about stroking egos. I went to uni originally intending to do English Lit but the sheer pretentiousness of the department made me want to projectile vomit... I remember being in one lecture, and the lecturer was saying "so... Jane Eyre... her name is related to the word 'eye'... because she is all seeing". Wtf? Its a pants book. I'd be in tutorials and the lipgloss girls would be all 'ooooh' and 'ahhhh' over it - asking "why don't they just admit they fancy each other?" I answered (and I didn't know I had Aspergers at the time), completely deadpan, "because then we wouldn't have to endure 300 pages of shite at university level".

History was always my favourite subject at school... oddly enough I hated computing, but that was because of the idiots in my class. But then I developed a special interest in the Nazis... ho hum.

We don't have a government-mandated national test of any sort over here, certainly nothing like the GCSE.  No certification at all is awarded at that level.  Local school districts have the option of issuing different levels of high school diplomas.  Very often, they break down to "college-oriented", "made it through", and "here's a piece of paper for you, just go away".

When I retook my GCSE's at college I got...

3D design A*
English A
Maths C
Biology B
Sociology B
Psychology B
Art and Design B

I second that... but my problem isnt in English... its in Spanish...
I always got D and F in Spanish ... now that I'm in college I've got to take 3 Spanish classes (drat! I dont wanna lower my GPA... I almost have it at 4.00! I hate Spanish... funny thing too cause its my "native" language)
... but I've a question... what's GCSE?

oh btw... my first oral presentation in college was for my Child Development Psychology class... and I chose to do it on Autism ... I've since had to correct a few errors (hey thats what you get when you take info outta autismspeaks or autism.com) lol

TTFN
Me