The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

GDB2222

michaels wrote: »

Apparently the hardest year for a levels was 1988 so getting 5 a s then would make someone fairly bright...

[STRIKE]I have just filed away for future reference that Michaels was born around 1971 and apparently sat 5 A levels! </stalking>
[/STRIKE]


Umm, well done!

PasturesNew

I did an A level, in peculiar circumstances, in ~1990 or so. It was a 1-year evening class of 2 evenings/week... I went the first term, but then lost my job, so didn't really go much after that. It was Computer Science and one part was programming, which you were left alone to work out/choose your programming language. I wrote a simple meeting rooms/resources booking system for that bit, using dBASE IV and III (couldn't make my mind up); also had to write a User manual for it I think.

The class was intended for "students who have previously done this course and failed the exam", which is why they "left you to it mostly".

So, I didn't do the homework, I stopped going to classes - but, by then, I'd already paid to sit the exam. So I read the book and decided that as I'd paid for my bum to be on that chair I wasn't going to waste it - and I turned up.

I got a B, which apparently, that year, was one of the top marks for the College.

I guess if I'd been taught, present, done the homework ... I'd have got an A.

I did it as I'd signed up for the OU, but the start date was the following year (back then if you missed a cut off date that was it and you had to wait >1 year sometimes) .... and as I was going to do Computing of some sort, I figured it wouldn't hurt to do that A level, so I had a bit of a clue before I started.

Back in those days you could do that - things called evening classes, in "proper subjects" and sit exams, reasonably "affordably". That all seems to have disappeared in the last 20 years. I doubt I could do an A level Computer Science now at an evening class.... I'll go and have a look (and, if it exists, then be suitably horrified at the cost).

chris_m

This reminds me of an episode of Only Fools and Horses, where they said that Delboy had got 5 As.
Everyone was celebrating until they found out that A stood for Absent and he hadn't actually turned up to sit any of the exams - he had been down the market, of course:rotfl:

PasturesNew

I give up... no A levels apparent.

It's very confusing trying to work out who does courses, where, what etc... all these strange acronyms and talking about "Level..." and "Level...."

chris_m

Got sent an interesting bit of news today.

Yesterday the former Cooper Racing Works in Surbiton was awarded an English Heritage Blue Plaque - marking the history of the building, from where the cars were produced that gave Jack Brabham and Cooper-Climax the 1959 and 1960 Formula One Championships.

It's of interest to me because my uncle was the chief designer of those cars, the first to win the championships with the engine behind the driver - an idea concocted by Charlie Cooper and my uncle.

They also utilised an idea my uncle had "accidentally" come up with for their earlier, non-F1, cars - namely the curved tube chassis design. As the story goes, he came up with various designs, each time to be told, "Nah, Whiskers, that's not it, try again". (Whiskers was Charlies nickname for him because he sported a beard, everyone else just referred to him as The Beard".) Anyway, he went off a bit fed up and, as a joke, drew a chassis design where every single tube was bent - to be told "That's it !!", so that's what they used, initially in Formula 3, then F2 and finally F1.

The plaque is of further interest to me because the building itself was designed by my grandfather who, as a tribute to his son's curved-tube chassis, gave it a curved frontage.

I wasn't even aware that the building still existed so I looked it up on Google maps and Streetview to see that it's hardly changed (externally at least) since it was built - it no longer has petrol pumps on the frontage and the roof edge has been given safety rails. other than that, I can't spot any obvious differences. It still has the 1959 windows across the curved frontage and even the workshop doors look unchanged. The only difference that I can see is the signage for the present owners that has replaced the original Cooper sign.

PasturesNew

chris_m wrote: »

...

Well there's a new type of Posh Alert - this needs a new category...

LydiaJ

Pyxis wrote: »

Forgot to say, Lydia, that my test kit has arrived, so I'll send that off today.

Many thanks for he heads-up, and for all the research you put in to arrive at the recommendation.

I don't think you mean me, do you?

PasturesNew

Just looked at Unis.... why can't I do a degree in genealogy (locally)?

I guess a lot of it comes down to "everything's in London .... all the archives, etc etc ... so too hard for most to get to often enough"

You'd probably also need Latin as a starting point ... which most peasants don't have... and there are fewer ill-educated peasants in London or with access to London

chris_m

PasturesNew wrote: »

Well there's a new type of Posh Alert - this needs a new category...

It's not me who's got the blue plaque, only the building - which happened to have been designed by my grandfather and where my uncle worked. They aren't even mentioned on it

PasturesNew

chris_m wrote: »

It's not me ..... my grandfather and where my uncle ....

It's the trickle-down effect and #BloodPrivilege

Same blood .... Posh Alert.

Not backing down ... definitely a posh alert. Fact.