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Thread: Can you pass a GCSE?

  1. #1
    Master
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    Can you pass a GCSE?

    Found this a bit of fun...I got 9/10 but there were some caluculated guesses in there:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zn7hd6f

  2. #2
    Craftsman Adge's Avatar
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    Nice, also got 9/10 with the only wrong one about Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.... Which I never read and know nothing about!

  3. #3
    Master
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    6 for me :S

  4. #4
    8 for me - No idea about Shakespeare and Missy Havisham.

  5. #5
    Craftsman
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    9/10 - never read great expectations

  6. #6
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    9/10, and my 20 year old daughter who has a brain the size of Lake Michigan, & knows it, got 6/10…Tee Hee! :-)

  7. #7
    Grand Master MartynJC (UK)'s Avatar
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    6 - after a couple of glasses
    “ Ford... you're turning into a penguin. Stop it.” HHGTTG

  8. #8
    Grand Master Chris_in_the_UK's Avatar
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    After a bit of head scratching - 8/10
    When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........

  9. #9
    Master Templogin's Avatar
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    7 - must be thick!

  10. #10
    8/10. Never studied literature and so those were my incorrect answers

  11. #11
    Grand Master hogthrob's Avatar
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    7, despite knowing nothing about literature or biology.

  12. #12
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    8 for me but not needing to recall any of that information for multiple decades makes me question why we were taught it in the first place.

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by tango View Post
    8 for me but not needing to recall any of that information for multiple decades makes me question why we were taught it in the first place.
    I think similar about 90% of my dentistry degree…you mainly need to be able to do miniature carpentry

  14. #14
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    6 for my guacamole brain.

    Regards
    V


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  15. #15
    Some of those questions, especially literature, are very specific to the syllabus studied.

    Even with the lower scores posted here, no doubt we’ll all get a top grade (1 I believe it is now) as most students seem to nowadays.

  16. #16
    Craftsman
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    7, fortunately partner also got 7, but different 7.

  17. #17
    Craftsman
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    I got six on the punctuation one!


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  18. #18
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    Sorry and a six in the GCSE one. I never liked Shakespeare anyway!


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  19. #19
    Grand Master wileeeeeey's Avatar
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    I got a 5 which is probably the lowest for this thread so far but my wife and my sister in law who has a PhD only got a 6 so I feel a bit better.

  20. #20
    Grand Master markrlondon's Avatar
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    7 out of 10.

    Got the three lit questions wrong. Must try harder at remedial English lit.

    It was 35 years ago (in fact the last year of O Levels before GCSEs took over) but I seem to recall I got a B in English Lit.

    I won't forget the "pathetic fallacy" one.





    P.S. It occurs to me that the "pathetic fallacy" one is more English language than lit.
    Last edited by markrlondon; 22nd May 2022 at 16:26.

  21. #21
    Grand Master Neil.C's Avatar
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    8/10

    I'd forgotten Pythagoras' theorem and I'd never heard of pathetic fallacy!
    Cheers,
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  22. #22
    Grand Master hogthrob's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Neil.C View Post
    8/10

    I'd forgotten Pythagoras' theorem and I'd never heard of pathetic fallacy!
    I worked it out, then realized it was a 3, 4, 5 triangle, so didn't actually need to work it out.

  23. #23

  24. #24
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    7 out of 10 for me. Know little about Shakespeare and less about classic eng lit.

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  25. #25
    Master daveyw's Avatar
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    Five. Pathetic phalussy!

  26. #26
    Master animalone's Avatar
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    10/10 But I didn't have a clue on Havisham question that was just a very lucky guess

  27. #27
    7/10 - didn't know answers to all three English Qs

    No chance with the Dickens and Shakespeare questions. Perhaps a philistine, but they never have appealed to me except when the BBC serialises Dickens.

    By some amazing feat I got an A grade for English Literature O-Level even though Dickens and Shakespeare were compulsory parts of the course. Predicted a fail at mocks.

    All I remember is writing about class chasms and gushing other socialist nonsense rhetoric, straight from the mouths of my parents. Must have hit the spot with the exam marker. The content would certainly have been different from the rest of the kids.
    Last edited by BillyCasper; 23rd May 2022 at 11:28.

  28. #28
    7 out of 10, failing on the two english lit and the english language question. I sat my O levels in 1986. Interesting that so many of us are failing on the same questions. Are we of a smilar age?

  29. #29
    Grand Master Saint-Just's Avatar
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    The pathetic fallacy was a lucky guess for me, the rest was fine, in part due to a distant memory ("this option rings a bell") for the English Literature questions.
    Coming from the French education system I gave myself a pat in the back, and enraged my daughter who is going through her own GCSE at the moment.
    'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.

  30. #30
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    9 for me but there was some guessing along the way😁

  31. #31
    6 out of 10 D minus! Sorry sir the dog ate my homework. My son is working hard through his gcse exams at the moment so for a split second I felt like I was under some pressure!

  32. #32
    Grand Master markrlondon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BillyCasper View Post
    All I remember is writing about class chasms and gushing other socialist nonsense rhetoric, straight from the mouths of my parents. Must have hit the spot with the exam marker. The content would certainly have been different from the rest of the kids.
    Hehehe, well done for gaming the system.
    Last edited by markrlondon; 24th May 2022 at 07:53.

  33. #33
    Grand Master markrlondon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by mikeveal View Post
    I sat my O levels in 1986. Interesting that so many of us are failing on the same questions. Are we of a smilar age?
    I think many of us here are likely to be of a similar age. Clearly you and I are of similar age. :-)

    But I wonder if the failure on the English lit questions might be due to a predisposition to being technically oriented, perhaps. I've noticed that collectors of technical things often tend to be oriented towards technical, detailed, factual, subjects and reasoning, and not subjects like English literature.

    (English language, the subject of technicalities of the English language, may still be of interest though).

  34. #34
    7 for me but I would be lying if I didn’t say that some where little more than a (half educated) guess.

  35. #35
    Quote Originally Posted by markrlondon View Post
    I think many of us here are likely to be of a similar age. Clearly you and I are of similar age. :-)

    But I wonder if the failure on the English lit questions might be due to a predisposition to being technically oriented, perhaps. I've noticed that collectors of technical things often tend to be oriented towards technical, detailed, factual, subjects and reasoning, and not subjects like English literature.

    (English language, the subject of technicalities of the English language, may still be of interest though).
    I was wondering if our group failure was a result of different teaching methods, or subject matter. I'm told the 80's was a long time ago and that teaching has improved (I'm not convinced about either though!)
    You might be right about being technical rather than arty. I'm an engineer.

    Interestingly (to me, it's an anecdote, you can make your own minds up. Or perhaps not - see my previous comment about 'improved' education.) twenty odd years ago I started work in a environment with a large number of Oxbridge grads. There were a lot of PhDs floating about. Anyways I felt decidedly undereducated and uncultured. So I embarked on a mission to read a good number of the classics, a little self improvement.
    What I learnt was that I was not uncultured, I merely liked different stuff. I can appreciate a bit of Shakespeare, but I enjoy a good sci-fi movie just as much. OK, more. Tess is a fantastic book, but when you read Hardy's other books you realise he's just as formulaic as Grisham. Dicken's, Melville and Joyce are god awful. I don't mind classical music, but it's not Friday night's essential mix. If you've not read Dracula, you really should. Similarly, The girl with all the gifts. Or rather, I liked 'em, no guarantee that you will too.

  36. #36
    Grand Master markrlondon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by mikeveal View Post
    I was wondering if our group failure was a result of different teaching methods, or subject matter.
    Certainly Dickens and Shakespeare were on the course back then as I recall (in my case the 'Oxford and Cambridge' Exam Board's O Level course[1]). I recall that almost all of my classmates got As and Bs for English Lit so the teaching can't have been too bad.


    Quote Originally Posted by mikeveal View Post
    What I learnt was that I was not uncultured, I merely liked different stuff. I can appreciate a bit of Shakespeare, but I enjoy a good sci-fi movie just as much. OK, more. Tess is a fantastic book, but when you read Hardy's other books you realise he's just as formulaic as Grisham. Dicken's, Melville and Joyce are god awful. I don't mind classical music, but it's not Friday night's essential mix. If you've not read Dracula, you really should. Similarly, The girl with all the gifts. Or rather, I liked 'em, no guarantee that you will too.
    Yes! This is very much my experience too.



    Footnote:-
    1: This organisation: https://archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk/..._entities/2501. Back then, different exam boards produced different O Levels and schools could enter their pupils for the board of their choice. The Oxford and Cambridge board was, I was told, perceived to be most difficult but was most prestigious when it came to university entrance.

  37. #37
    8/10 for me with a lucky guess thrown in. I have no idea about Miss Havisham and I also got the Pathetic fallacy question wrong. The Shakespeare was a total fluke.

  38. #38
    Quote Originally Posted by clemenry View Post
    8/10 for me with a lucky guess thrown in. I have no idea about Miss Havisham and I also got the Pathetic fallacy question wrong. The Shakespeare was a total fluke.
    Ha - exactly the same 8/10 here.

  39. #39
    Grand Master Neil.C's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by markrlondon View Post
    I think many of us here are likely to be of a similar age. Clearly you and I are of similar age. :-)

    But I wonder if the failure on the English lit questions might be due to a predisposition to being technically oriented, perhaps. I've noticed that collectors of technical things often tend to be oriented towards technical, detailed, factual, subjects and reasoning, and not subjects like English literature.


    (English language, the subject of technicalities of the English language, may still be of interest though).
    Maybe some, but I have always loved watches (and am one of the longest serving members here) but have no interest in technical stuff per se.

    English and the arts have always been my favourite subjects.
    Cheers,
    Neil.

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  40. #40
    Craftsman
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    8 / 10
    Suspect the syllabus has changed as although we did Dickens and Shakespeare, we didn't actually do those particular ones.
    Any questions about Hard Times or a Merchant of Venice though and I'm your man

  41. #41
    We only did AMSND, 16 year old me disliked Bill's stuff intensely. 16 year old me was wrong about a lot of stuff.

  42. #42
    Craftsman
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    Quote Originally Posted by mikeveal View Post
    We only did AMSND, 16 year old me disliked Bill's stuff intensely. 16 year old me was wrong about a lot of stuff.
    We did that one too, and the Scottish play.
    16 year old me couldn't abide Thomas Hardy. While 16 year old me was wrong about nearly everything, 53 year old me still can't stand Hardy.

  43. #43
    Craftsman
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    7/10 here. I don't like Shakespeare and I can't abide Dickens. I've never heard of a pathetic fallacy either. I guess I need to read more!

  44. #44
    Master Halitosis's Avatar
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    7/10 - failed the three English questions - echos of my youth


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  45. #45
    Master pacifichrono's Avatar
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    I was willing to give it a try, but I think my U.S. location prohibited the link from working.

  46. #46
    Grand Master Saint-Just's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by pacifichrono View Post
    I was willing to give it a try, but I think my U.S. location prohibited the link from working.
    Vpn?
    'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.

  47. #47
    Quote Originally Posted by Saint-Just View Post
    Vpn?
    Is that when you can see the outline of her knickers?

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