Which is great. Really great. I'm being bitter and sarcastic if you can't tell.
I've just done my GCSEs, I haven't got the results but the exams are pretty much done. Hopefully I'll do well, and that'll be an achievement that is recognised as "Look! I'm clever. I CAN do things!" Except not everyone sees it like that.
Just as I approach my exams it seems the media is full of people telling "Back in my day..." stories where they tell us just how hard exams were back in their day, how difficult O-levels were, and how exams just keep on getting easier.
I could argue with them but fine, let them have that. Maybe the exams were harder. Taking them all in one go at the end of 2 years of studying does seem harder than doing half in year 10 and half in year 11.
But I have always counted on the fact that exams were getting easier. My GCSEs might mean less than the previous generation's O-levels but at least I knew the next generation's academic accomplishment's would stand for even less; my GCSEs would make me look like a genius in comparison and I could smugly gloat over them and tell them "Back in my day..." stories.
However with Mr Gove's lovely new reforms future students' exams will be harder. And their exams will mean more. And I will be one of the unlucky few who have GCSEs and who are condescended on by both the older and younger generation.
And I'll never get to tell my "Back in my day..." story.
