I got an A* is my Latin GCSE. For those not from Britain, a GCSE is a basic qualification which, at this point, there is no point in me having other than self-satisfaction. Ho hum.

I've bought a few Discworld books from charity shops, which seems slightly foolish as I'll now want them all and there are about a gazillion of them to collect. The Light Fantastic, Equal Rites and Interesting Times are what I've got. I like Pratchett; I'll be taking them to uni along with the hitchhiker's guide because i think i will desperately crave some comic relief.

Apparently Children of Men was a book before it became a film. Has anybody read it? If so, what do you think of it? If not, on the premise that, no matter how good the film, the book is always better, I think I'll read it first.

Thanks for everybody who offered their congratulations. I'm really, really happy, quite obviously. Aman and Ang are also into their respective colleges, so yesterday was a grand day for the Downs.

In more detail, my grades were:
Psychology 551/600 = A
French 539/600 = A
Further Maths 507/600 = A

And, for the record, last year:
Maths 517/600 = A

To answer Encai, my immediate feeling was actually relief. After succeeding at interviews and tests, it would have been so painful to have it all taken away at the last moment. So I was simply relieved!

All my friends also did well, getting into their second choices if not the university of their choice. Annie, who introduced me to LJ, got into her top choice, Kingston. Everyone is rather happy really.

As per usual, most people celebrated by going clubbing and drinking in excess. As I don't drink much, can't legally drink anyway, and am unable to dance, I wasn't there. My celebrations consisted of spending the day with Annie picking blackberries (we've been waiting for a year), watching Trainspotting and playing Medal of Honour. *nerdiest person ever?* I took advantage of my parents' joy by making them promise to pay for my books. :D

It felt very odd, collecting my results, knowing that it would be the last time I'd ever see 90% of the people there. It's sad leaving the people I grew up with, from tiny imbeciles to adults, but then there are exciting things ahead. I have lots to do... Oxford-related news will come later.

*happy*

I had my last exam today; probably the most important one of my life as Oxford hinges on it. I'm pretty sure I did well in it, but it all depends on what I got in the oral and the overall grade. Anywho, I'm trying to put it out of my mind now until results come.

I now have a problem in that I literally have nothing to do for months. No school, obviously. Nobody will give me a job. All my friends live too far away for regular visits. There's no space on my PC for games. I suppose I'll have to get a lot of reading done...

I have a dentist, doctor's and hospital appointment in the next 2 weeks. I think that's a personal record.

EDIT: I've just realised this means I can read in English again! Hourra!

I went through two town centres hunting for a job today. Considering Luton had a population of 230 000 people, that is a very large town centre.

How many suitable vacancies did I find?

Yes. One. I have handed my CV in... let's just see what happens now.


In other news, my statistics exam today went well - I'm predicting myself anything from a very high B to a high A, which means I can afford to lose some marks in mechanics, which is very difficult!


In yet other news... er... French politics. Yes. I'm shamelessly sneaking it in now that you've already started reading. The right-wing party has kept its majority in parliament with 311 of the 577 seats, but it lost 58 seats compared to last year, compared to the Socialist gaining 70 seats! Which is an unexpected and wonderful swing to the left, but unfortunately not enough to stop Mr Sarkozy turning France into another UK.

Sorry to steal your word, Rikae, but it is brilliant.

My psych exam is one day sooner than I thought - on Tuesday - which means I've lost an entire day of revision.

Which is very bad, considering I hadn't ever started revising psych before today. I thought 3 days of panic revision would be fine - 3 days is usually the panic-cramming period before an exam. Suddenly it's been compressed into 2... Eek. I've drawn up a strict timetable - no fun for me today! It could be worse though... I know somebody who lost a week of revision. :|

Also, it's the French legislative elections today - that's for their MPs/House of Commons equivalent. I already know the left is going to do disastrously... *sigh*

Exam season has just started for me. I had the first of four GCSE Latin exams yesterday; I think that went very well, hopefully full marks. The results don't really matter because I'm only doing Latin for "fun".

Today I had my French Oral exam which was really quite disastrous. There's meant to be five minutes of talking about a chosen issue (gay marriage should be legalised) followed by 10 more minutes on further issues. I felt I was very strong for the gay marriage part, but I came apart a bit afterwards. The teacher asked some pretty random questions which I hadn't expected or prepared for, so there were long silences. I'm not feeling at all confident; I got a C last year, so I'm anticipating a D this time round.

Then I was told that my French coursework wasn't as good as my teachers expected; I only got 102/145. For a while I got very worried, thinking this would be a C. I need an A overall to get into Oxford, so not making the grades in French would absolutely crush me. Then my teacher checked for me and found that it was a very high B, only one point from an A.

So, presuming a low D for the oral exam, a high B for the coursework, and my results from last year, I need about 97/120, that's a low A, in my Reading/Listening/Writing exam to get an A overall. The dream is not completely out of reach! I am so relieved. So much hinges on my grade in French which, obscenely, is the hardest subject to score highly in.