Re: Kate and Exams

[Geoff Clare <gwc@root.co.uk>]

Neil Calton <nbc@inf.rl.ac.UK> writes:

>>From: IED0DXM@MVS.OAC.UCLA.EDU
>>   She also took her "mock A-level exams", for which she returned to
>>   school for a day, after having dropped out.  That's all any of us know.

>Since the real A-Level exams were usually 2.5 or 3 hours long,
>it is unlikely that Kate took more than one or at the very most two
>in a day. Either that or her school set very abreviated versions of the
>exams. In terms of allowing the children to revise properly it is very
>unlikely a school would schedule more than two subjects per day.

>So should we assume Kate came back for one mock exam and either did
>not feel she was going to do well, or was so put off by the whole
>experience that she decided finally that her academic life was
>definitely over and she would dedicate herself to music from then on?

I don't know where IED got that "for a day" from.  The only definite
fact I know on this subject is from the 1980 "Nationwide" interview:

     Q: Did you take your A-levels?
     A: Well, I took my mock-A's ...
 
This seems to indicate that she took all her mocks, which means she would
probably have returned on several days over a couple of weeks.  In general
schools try to make mocks as much like the real thing as possible.  This
includes setting a similar timetable.  Due to the large number of subjects
which are examined at A-level, the (real) exams are spread out over the
month of June (held on dates specified by the examining board).  Depending
on the subjects you take you might be lucky and get them all over with in
two weeks, but most people end up with a spread of three weeks.  For
example here is my A-level timetable from June 1979:

Mon  4 PM Physics paper 1
Wed  6 PM Chemistry practical
Fri  8 AM Physics paper 2
Tue 12 PM Physics paper 3
Wed 13 AM Maths paper 1
Thu 14 AM Chemistry paper 1
Fri 15 AM Maths paper 2
Mon 18 PM Chemistry paper 2
Wed 20 AM Further Maths paper 1
Wed 20 PM Chemistry paper 3
Thu 21 AM Maths paper 3
Tue 26 AM Further Maths paper 2

Any one school only sets mock exams for a subset of the full set of
A-level subjects, so the mocks wouldn't be spread over quite as long
a period.  For example my mocks only lasted from 15th to 29th January.

I hope I haven't bored people with too many details, but I'm trying to
present a good case for believing that Kate did not return for just one
day, but more likely several days over a period of two weeks.
-- 
Geoff Clare <gwc@root.co.uk>  (USA UUCP-only mailers: ...!uunet!root.co.uk!gwc)
UniSoft Limited, London, England.   Tel: +44 71 729 3773   Fax: +44 71 729 3273