Judgement Day...

So today was results day... the day that every student dreads all year; the day that they work for, and the day that makes or breaks them. So many students work day in, day out for this day... they stay up late at night finishing work and revising; they decline invitations in order to finish their work - purely to achieve the grades that they wish to on results day.

For some people, results day is the day that makes them. It is the day that they achieve the grades that they wish to and get into the University that they would like to, to study the subject of their choice. However, no everyone is quite so lucky. Some students work their butts off all year, day in, day out... essay after essay, living and breathing school... but, they do not quite get the grades that they wished for.

These are the students that miss out on success... they may have put the work in and done every single little thing that they possibly could have - but, they still didn't achieve what they would have wished to. They may have missed out by a slither; however, they may have just not been good enough. These are the students that get bad press - from their grade sheet, it appears that they have not worked hard enough - or they are not clever. However, who says that they didn't spend that extra time working - just like the others? Who can say that they didn't just have an 'off day?' They may have been ill - or just not quite on point; and their grades have been decided because of that one and a half hour paper that they completed with a heavy cold two and a half months ago. Their future is all down to that one exam - is that really fair?

It now gets worse ... the decision after receiving their results is the difficult one! Do they resit the year? Do they resit some exams? What do they do? Because the rest of their lives are going to be based on this decision - and it for sure is not an easy one.

Students really do have complex lives... not everyone realises the struggles and pressure that they face on a daily basis. Expectations of them are impossibly high - not everyone can achieve top grades - such as As and A*s - some of us are just not good enough!

So please, spare a thought for the students like myself this results day ... the students that worked as hard as they possibly could have and just didn't get what they had hoped for... the students that have been left heartbroken after looking at that dreaded piece of paper - that essentially has their whole future concealed in that one centimetre squared letter sitting there looking up at them!