GCSEs
I hate waiting. I am initially very good, but the nearer the date, the harder it becomes to contain my frustration, particularly when it is something important, like going back to university.
In 2024, I decided that I wanted to become a teacher/lecturer, either in college or university, helping students to become better photographers.
I doubt that anyone would say I am the ideal educator, but because of my life experience, knowledge and passion for photography, I believe that I can make young photographers lives better. But there was a problem. When I say that I am not the ideal educator, I am not saying this looking for compliments. I am being a realist, with the knowledge that all my various special educational needs, do provide a significant obstacle in me becoming a teacher.
The first issue, was my lack of a GCSE in maths and English language. To become a teacher, you need to have a GCSE level 4 (C grade) in both qualification, and I had neither.
This would prove to be a significant problem. Whilst, I am able to do the maths I need in life, when it comes to maths GCSE, I was no-where. The basic issue with maths, is it helps to have an excellent memory, both short term and working, neither of which I have. Also, the fact that I have dyscalculia really doesn’t help. What made things harder was I only had 9 months to learn everything and there are around 180 topics. A challenge to anyone.
English would in many ways be a little easier, but still very challenging. My dyslexia and dysgraphia, makes reading and writing challenging.
But I had some positives. Firstly, I was able to take time off of work, to solely focus on learning. Also, I put more effort in than most, and lastly, having done a degree and master’s, I have a lot of experience in education.
Now, I am not going to go into all the details of the last year. I could talk about going through titration and how challenging that was, or how I did over the year, but it is easier to sum it all up, in a couple of sentences.
I was convinced that I was going to fail maths and thought I stood a decent chance at passing English with a level 4.
GCSE maths exams
As I had expected, my memory proved to be the big challenge with maths, and in the two months before the exam, I almost focused exclusively on that subject. I did all the past papers available and watched a huge amount of videos, particularly those of The GCSE Maths Tutor, who’s videos I would say are essential for getting a good maths grade.
Coming up to the exams, though I still thought that I would fail, and fortunately the manager and staff at Medway Adult Education centre, were incredibly helpful, agreeing to also put me in for Functional Skills level 2 in both maths and English, which would also guarantee my place in university. Though GCSE’s are preferable.
I have to say that all the staff at Medway were incredibly helpful, in what are challenging times for education, and they put in a lot of effort to help me. Including giving me an hour’s extra maths tuition each week, and I was able to use a computer to write my English exam. This was a mixed blessing. Whilst I was not faster at writing, and in some ways slower, it did mean that I was able to correct my spelling and grammar much better.
Of course, I had to put the time and effort in, and my teachers Di, and Becky could see this, even during the depths of titration, when I was having huge problems, I would always do my best to get the work done and to go into class each week.
In the run-up to my maths exam, I tried to regularly do foundation past paper to help guide me through what I would need to learn. In total, I must have completed at least 20 papers, and I was slowly improving, averaging around 35-45 marks each paper, with a couple around the 50 mark.
With foundation the highest mark a student can get is level 5, and the exam marks are not fixed, changing each year with the difficulty of the exam. So a pass of 141 get a level 4 grade one year, and 147 another, with the total marks being 240. Maths is also split into 3 exams, each worth 80 marks, the first a non calculator paper, followed by 2 papers where a calculator is allowed.
After the first maths exam, I thought I had done ok. I had completed all the questions and suspected I may have got between 40 and 50 correct. The second paper, proved much more challenging, I either didn’t answer or only partially answered around 5 questions. I thought everything was over, and if I got 40 marks, I would have been amazed.
Going into the last exam, I really put all the effort I could in, and I would say the big difference was watching the GCSE Maths tutors paper 3 predicted questions video, which turned out to be incredibly accurate. I was able to answer every question, and I thought I had done well. I suspected that I may have got at least 50, and I could have got up to 60, which would put me in the ballpark of passing.
GCSE English Exams
Meanwhile, whilst I was revising for math, I was also getting ready for English language. Unlike maths, English where I was doing foundation with a maximum mark of 5, with English I would sit the full exam, with a maximum mark of 9, with again the grades being flexable. English language was split into 2 exams, with a maximum of 80 marks each exam. The first exam focusing on ‘creative reading and writing’, whilst the second was more ‘writers view point and perspective’. Language features would be a challenge, whilst I knew how to employ language features, remembering their names and which was which proved to be much more of a difficult, and I spent a lot of time in the run up focusing on this area.
Whilst I am creative, I am not the best at story telling with in a time limit, and I found that I was running wildly over time, with the complexity of my stories. I am also not the best when it comes to descriptive writing. I am very literal, whilst to do well in English you really need to be able to use language in a flowery way. Fortunately, I was better with the second paper, and was much better at answering the questions. Though I still had issues with keeping in the time limit.
In the run-up to the exams. I watched a variety of videos, from Mr Bruff, to First Rate Tutors, and most importantly Mr Salles Teaches English, who really emphasise working fast, an area I was weak at. Also, I have to say my tutor Di was very good at preparing me and many others in the class for the exams.
The first English exam, didn’t go particularly well. Different questions are worth different marks, and I spent too long answering a couple of the lower mark questions. I also felt I didn’t do particularly well when answering question 5, which made up 50% of the mark. Coming out of the exam, I knew I had not done well, but speaking to others who had done the exam, they also said the same thing. Nobody, liked the reading and they all found questions 1 to 4 hard. This was not much of a consolation, as I really wanted my classmates to do well in the exam, even if I didn’t.
The second exam proved to be the opposite. I knew that I had done much better, though I had only really answered 3 questions, but these were the higher mark questions, with another partially answered and the last barely touched. I know that others enjoyed this question much more, but I had no idea how I had done overall, and I wouldn’t know until the 21st August when the marks for both GCSE English and maths were announced.
Functional Skills exams
The same day I did my second GCSE English exam, I had my first Functional Skills English class, where I would take a practice exam. Fortunately, I did quite well and combined with a second exam I took the next day, I received 90%, which would be an easy pass. A few weeks later, I did a second exam, where I averaged 83%, again an easy pass. In the meantime, I had to do a couple of oral exams and these went very well. I must admit that when the English functional skills exam took place I was very confident, though at the back of my mind, I was paranoid that I would somehow manage to mess it up. Even after, whilst presuming I would pass, I couldn’t get the idea out of my mind that I had failed.
In comparison to English, Functional Skills level 2 maths felt much harder. Whilst, there were far fewer topics compared to maths GCSE, the questions were much more wordy, designed to trick you, if you do not read them right.
I found it incredibly hard to get back into revision. I was in burn out after the maths GCSE’s, and I really struggled to revise for Functional skills maths, only really starting to be able to focus in the final weeks build up to the exam, and when I did the paper, most of the areas I had focused on were not covered. This left me a little worried. I was going a lot on memory from what I had learnt during GCSEs, though I had still made sure that I had done 10 past functional skills papers, before the exam, with very mixed results.
Functional skill, would take a maximum of 28 days to mark, and I would get the maths mark on or before the 19th and the English by the 20th.
Results
As I have said at the beginning, I hate waiting, but I am normally OK with it. This weight felt different. I was in limbo. I had no idea if I had passed any of the exams and there was very little I could do, not knowing the results. The 28 days between the maths exam and results dragged on. I started to get worried with a week to go, that the exam board lost the results, so a few days before I messaged to see if the results had come in. A couple of hours later, I received an email. The maths results was in. It is important to realise, I was convinced that I had failed GCSE maths by this point, so this was my lifeline. I opened the email in trepidation. Had I passed? This would be the point in East Enders where the drum beat would hit, and you would have to wait for the next episode.
78%, a good pass. I was ecstatic, whilst I could not say for sure I would be starting university in September, my chances had gone up dramatically, all I needed was my English result, but that wouldn’t come in for another 5 days. By the Tuesday I couldn’t contain myself, I email again but was told that the exam may not come within the 28 days. This got me a little worried. Fortunately, on the Wednesday afternoon, I received another email. This time telling me I had passed. University, here I come. It was a massive relief, and technically my GCSE results no longer mattered, but it would still be nice to get a pass, particularly after all the effort I had put in.
I was told, that the GCSE results could come in some time in the afternoon. So it was a very pleasant surprise to see an email, sent from the exams officer at 9:31. I was the first in my English class to receive my results. I opened the email, pressed on the first attachment. It was my maths result: 156/240 4 (four). I couldn’t beleive it, I had passed maths with a good level 4, with minimum grade boundry for level 4 being 144.
A few excited seconds later I clicked on my English results. Again a surprise: 95/160 6 (six), a very good pass, in old school a ‘B’ grade. I recieved 39 for the first paper, and 56 for the second paper, with the grade boundry for level 6 being 91, and 100 for level 7.
Meaning
The picture at the top, is me contemplating, my sister asked if I was praying, I wasn’t but the pose is known as the prayer pose in photography, and was heavily used by Yousuf Karsh, when photographing world leaders and important people. Not that I see meself as an important person, but it fitted the image I wanted. I added a green tone to the image, to give the image a bit of an sick feeling, though the Dan Winters often uses green because it is a calming colour. A well known photographer I know always says never use green as a background, as it is harder to sell an image. Green has a lot of different meaning, and this is important, to why I want to be a teacher, so I can pass on knowledge like this to the next generation of photographers. I want to tell them to remove the holes in the blinds from the image.
I am not an expert in math, I am not an expert in English, I am an expert in photography. I wrote on a dyslexia post which was talking about exams and how they are prejudiced against dysexics. I didn’t think my comments were controvercial. Pointing out that maths was all amount memory, and that AQA English was all about writing speed. I was not expecting any replies but they did come and many were rather condersending. I was even told by someone to “please, please, please do not become a teacher”.
GCSEs were a hurdle for me, something I had to pass, to get to the next stage. I am delighted to have passed but in the long run they are just the first hurdle, on a path where I will find many more. I have spoken to many teachers, and lecturers over the last couple of years. I know that the path is not easy, full of hurdles that I need to get past, if I am going to succeed. But I am going to do everything I can to pass and make many peoples lives better in the future.