Results

For the past 6 summers (this will be the 7th), I have subjected myself to a very painful experience, also known as 'results day'. Results day consists of receiving a series of letters and numbers which don't mean much without a context, these numbers representing a year or more of work assessed by a few hours of exams. This year I'm due to recieve what could be arguably the most difficult and important set of numbers and letters, and most of my friends are receiving their last results. EVER.

So I've described it as a 'painful experience', so why do I do it? I love learning. However, it has to be said that a lot of the things I really know about have nothing to with my degree and are pretty much useless at this point. I can name many of the bones in the body and their various foramina, processes and malleoli, but the only thing I really need to know about bones for my degree is about the immune system and other things that I don't know and I don't understand. So there is technically no point in putting myself through the pressure and stress of exams and results, because anyone can learn anything at home if they really want to.

Another explanation is that I just really enjoy it, and I do. I love the build-up, the pressure, the stress, the anticipation, the nerves, everything. One of my favourite moments of the year are those precious few seconds before the results are actually official and one could have achieved AAA or 70% or whatever it is that you really want or wish for. I think out of all 6 sets of results I've ever received, I've never achieved anything excellent, no full marks, no sets of top grades. There is really no reason for me to think that I ever will, yet every year I feel an overwhelming sense of hope, and this is probably why I do it. The same thing happened to me when using UCAS - I applied to University three times, and I think it's because I really enjoy putting myself down on paper and then feeling hopeful that I've done it to my best capability. It's kind of like gambling, no matter how much anyone says that 'exams aren't down to luck', for me, they are.

The science behind all this is available out there, and there are a lot of educational psychology journals investigating the effects of exam results on students. One that I found particularly interesting suggested that there are two frames of reference for this kind of thing; one where we compare ourselves to our peers and one where we compare ourselves to ourselves. Essentially, we expect certain things from our results based on prior knowledge. In my case, I know that it's true that I have certain expectations about my results based upon results that other people got; if I get a 60 on an essay and another person got a 70, I would expect that I would score lower than them in an exam on a similar subject. I know I rely fairly heavily on this, and having discussed this today it seems obvious that other people have certain expectations and we all place ourselves in a kind of academic hierarchy. I also have certain expectations of myself (which are unrealistically high) based on things I know about my brain from it being an inside job. Basically, we all have a rough idea of how our exam results are going to be, regardless of how well we did on the actual exam.

There is also a difference between males and females when it comes to results. Males tend to rely heavily on luck and predictions, whereas females tend to be more prepared and rely less on others when it comes to both exams and the results. Males are generally, therefore, further off when it comes to predicting their exam results and tend to feel less nervous, because they're relying on a gambling process (we expect good things to happen far more than we expect bad things - see http://twitter.com/#!/search/euromillions for an example). I can firmly place myself in the male category here, as I rely almost totally on luck and predictions and I'm really bad at predicting my exam results.

Having said all this, there are also thousands of articles debating just how much exam results actually measure. Again, I fall into the 'luck' category, which is illustrated by my friend Toby being told that an essay of his was actually worth a whole grade boundary more than it received during marking. Not being an expert, I have absoloutely no suggestions on how to 'replace' exams, because I just wouldn't know how to start.

Anyway, if anyone else is receiving any results soon, please let me know how they are (I'm nosy), and tell me any opinions YOU have on exams, results day, or preparing for the summer post-results.