Good luck!

I remember my school did a similar thing. Constantly allowing people to retake their coursework so that the school average or pass rates became acceptable. It's less about teaching people useful information and more about allowing them to pass a pre-set syllabus, this might be useful for some people who are planning to say take English onto college but for people like me who leave school and don't go on to higher education you effectively have nothing. To an employer GCSE's are nothing important and in terms of lifeskills I was taught (things like how to manage your finances and pay bills, how to make a bank account, what a timesheet is, how to find employment etc) at school, well those were not taught. Hence my dislike of the GCSE/Education system.

I am not talking about further education here just the high school system from my experience and I left school two years ago so it may well have changed by now. I just think in terms of what is useful for kids leaving to find work and such the system does not really prepare you for real life. It seems more of a preparation for further education. So hopefully these things will be addressed because I know many people around my age group who are all unemployed, have been unemployed since school and we are in the nice group of 'no hope of employment ever' i.e your [censored]

Well I got them, and they are ok I suppose (not so good compared to others):

French: C
English (one exam): A*
Maths: C
Geography (one module, two exams): B, B
Science (one OCR module): B

eek ten years ago now...

There's reports going round about how pass rates have fallen compared to constant previous rise.

I worry a little that they will now be dismissive and critical because of this. You can't expect things to constantly rise and rise. Well done to all who are getting their results. When do the as/a-levels come out now? Or have they already came out?

Ugh, the ACT and the SAT were such pains in the ass. I had to take the SAT twice since my math score was a little lower than I wanted. At least the state let me skip most of my Maryland High School Assessment tests.

Hmm, interesting. Guess that's what they based those goofy OWL and NEWT things in Harry Potter on (which makes sense, given where it's written and based).

Don't recall anything like that from when I was a high school student in the US, but that was before they started throwing around all the "No Child Left Behind" standardized tests. I suppose, from a "AAAA! Hope I did well/this is important!" standpoint, the SAT (pre-college) tests would be the rough equivalent - so, good luck!

A-levels were last week I do believe. I got my second year university exam results back in June. They must do things early.

Just heard from my brother. He got one A*, one A and seven Bs. He's off to a mates' to celebrate apparently.
Good luck to anyone else!