Schooldays - Polls

Had a general studies course at some point (can’t remember if it was GCSE or a-level) but it wasn’t offered as an examination subject.

Basically it was just a chance for the staff to indulge themselves - they all just taught something they were interested in and we could choose a course to take. I did one on conspiracy theories taught by the stoner geography teacher. It was brilliant.

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Don’t think general studies existed in Scotland

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Did theory of knowledge which I think was similar

we had to do General Studies, Critical Thinking or Personal Finance (??) for AS level

I did Critical Thinking. the hyper-serious girl I sat next to in lessons cried at a house party because she found out I got a B despite barely doing any work, and she got a C

Ours was 45 minutes a week on whatever was happening in the news at the time, and then an exam at the end of the two years.

The lessons themselves were on essay writing and how to critically judge evidence and formulate structured arguments, so they were actually pretty useful anyway.

It seemed like an easy way to get an extra A-level.

Did it actually count for uni entry though?

My general studies exam was ridiculous - I have a vivid memory of struggling to control laughter during the exam at the garbage I was writing.

Something about building a shield round the earth to protect from asteroids and in a separate question how indiana Jones was better than star wars.

I got a B

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This except I would go home and play online computer games for 12hours.

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Depended on what university and what course. Mine didn’t, but many others did.

yes, but I didn’t go to a single lesson. played a game of cat and mouse with the babylon all year. they threatened on more than one occasion to throw me out of the college, but I was doing well in my other subjects with low attendance, so nothing really came of it.

edit: I went to one lesson actually, and it was something to do with philosophy and the matrix, so decided a better use of my time would be the history channel and football manager at home with my feet up.

Sixth form was such a weirdly fun time in retrospect. Free periods spent sitting on this sofa outside the common room (meant for guests but hijacked by my small friendship group of weirdoes) talking shit, and doing stuff like trying to make a speaker out of a cardboard tube so we could project Nine Inch Nails albums around corners.

I remember some days were so perfect for having really long free periods where you could just go to a friend’s house and watch a film before coming back to school in the most anti-productively chilled mood imaginable

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aah yes… (gazes into distance)

I think it was called key skills rather than general studies at my college - I didn’t turn up

i had that as well as general studies, had to do IT lessons cos i hadn’t got an A in ICT GCSE i think

i turned up now and then and had two friends in that lesson who i never saw anywhere else, we used to talk exclusively about indie music. many years later one of them came to work in the same call centre as me, i was his manager haha. i bumped into him at an agency party this week actually

Was such a waste of time. I remember having to study Heraldry as part of General Studies.

Anyone who says they found school really easy and managed to get straight As despite doing no work is full of shit really.

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Gave you sweet, sweet UCAS points (don’t think I would have had enough without it)

Or really clever. One of the two.

People who said they did no revision and then magically for all As and Bs :wastebasket::wastebasket::wastebasket:

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I did do iterally did no revision and did get all A’s and b’s for gsce and a level (tell a lie I got one c)

But absolutely do not class myself as intelligent or even much above ‘average’.

I just happened to have a decent memory and be fucking amazing at constructing A level essay answers.
I got massively found out at university and to an extent in the workplace.

Pretty much every day now I wish I’d been crap at that but had a decent work ethic instead.