January 23rd 1974

“TD2 -> Easy”
Ooh, a day of cocky nonchalance about the exams!
What’s the betting it blew up in my face?

January 4th / 5th 1974

• “Revision done mainly Physics”
• “Didn’t go to work – Revised (ha-ha!)”
Do you feel – like I do – that the scribbled addition of “ha-ha!” somehow undermines my utter conviction to the revision process in 1974?
The fact that I can’t even recall what revision consisted of is perhaps added testament to my indifference. Surely if I had [...]

January 1st / 2nd 1974

• “Day off – did nothing except revising really”
• “Revision in morning – not much rest of day”
Here we go then…. a brand new year and…..
Oh…… revision. Boooooooring!
I was cramming for the “mocks”.
My real GCSE O-Levels were looming in June, examinations that were supposed to ‘define me’ and show where my skill sets were. These mock [...]

September 3rd 1973

“Got ‘ome at 11 – went to School and found GOT ME O-LEVEL!!”
Got off boat, got on train, got off train, got in taxi, got out of taxi, got in train, got out of train, got in taxi and…. home!
Then to my school to evidently found that all my hard(ish) work in my recent examinations [...]

June 29th 1973

“R.E. <- Har Har”
I swear I am not making this up….
The comment I made in response to my Religious Education exam was….
“Har Har“
This despite going to church and despite everybody’s efforts to make me believe in all that bible palaver.
At least now my religious friends know that even back then I was already looooooooooooong beyond [...]

June 28th 1973

“History <- Quite Hard. Went to meditation”
First time I read this I thought I’d written “went to mediation” – and wondered what trouble I had gotten into!
Meditation? I did meditation? Exactly where and with whom did I do meditation?
Did I need to calm down?
Answers on a postcard to “that angry teenager”

June 27th 1973

“Geog Reg <- Hard. Done great amount of revision for istory in evening”
How did we ‘revise’ exactly?
I’m buggered if I can remember. Did we read through all our year’s notes, essays etc? Or did we read text books crammed with information that may or may not turn up as a question on exam day?
How do [...]

June 25th 1973

“French <- Hard -> Eng Lit. Nig came up, we went out on bikes tracking over woods”
Comedian Jimmy Carr once said “the problem with Canada is that half of them speak French and the other half let them”.
I’m in agreement with that. French is a horrible guttural language – not the ’sexy’ number many women [...]

June 22nd 1973

“TD2 <- Easy. Geog (Phys) <- Easy.”
Another day of exam cockiness. Technical Drawing and Geography both proving easy.
My wife will doubtless comment about me finding that second one ’easy’
Let’s just say that after moving to America I have found myself almost permanently lost and am somewhat ”geographically-challenged”

June 20th 1973

“Economics <- Easy. T.D.1 <- Hard! – Went up Nigs + write stupid, idiotic, moronic letter to Sue”
Yes, I have usually found things to do with money – i.e. Economics – simple to understand. I’m pretty good with numbers and I’m a better ‘economist’ than I often give myself credit for these days, managing to [...]

June 19th 1973 (I)

“Physics <- Hard. Started to rain. Had to sit all way through B10 exam in afternoon/ david Bowie – Guildhall”
Despite being #1 in the class in the subject in 1972, I couldn’t even tell you what physics involved these days.
Wikipedia describes it thus:- Physics (Greek: physis – φύσις meaning “nature”) is the natural science which examines [...]

June 18th 1973

“EXAMS START – Morn – English Lang. <- Quite Easy. Done some physics. Went into Eastleigh after school”
We now proceed with a number of boring diary entries, mostly concerned – it would appear – with my exams.
I can’t remember a THING about sitting down and taking these tests. Not the process, the procedure, the content, [...]

June 11th 1973

“Not much done in the way of revision”
Nice to note that I am taking my upcoming examinations seriously isn’t it?

January 10th 1973

“1st Maths Mock O’level – multiple guess choice – VERY HARD!” / “Decided to buy Moving Waves by Focus by selling ticket” / “I think I have got the flu – have got very bad frote”
Ah, that was why I was doing all that swotting!
I think I have already said that I had been chosen as [...]

December 4th (II)

Told that I would take Maths O’Level
No, Maths O’Level is not the imaginary vocalist in an Irish rock band.
More correctly, an “O-Level” refers to one of the set of GCE (General Certificate of Education) exams we took at school in the 70’s.
We all did a set subjects through our (high) school education and at age 16 [...]

June 19th – 23rd 1972

June 19th “Geography (QH) / “English Language (QE) / French (QH)”
June 20th “Maths (VH)”
June 21st “Physics (VH) / Chem (VH)”
June 22nd “Bio (H)”
June 23rd “English Lit (QE) / T.D. (QE) / RE (VH)
Thrilling diary entries as promised a few posts back.
School exams.
Acronyms in brackets standing for “Quote Hard”, “Quite Easy”, “Very Hard” & “Hard”
Surprising that [...]

June 9th 1972

“Rained down hard. Tidied up room in readiness for Exams (ugh)”
I ask you, do famous people EVER include such insightful heartbreaking comments such as this in their autobiographies?
No, and I’ll tell you why not.
Because they’re scared of giving too much of themselves away.
If this is the first entry you’ve read in this online blog of mine, I’ll [...]