I did A-Levels in 2008,I want to talk about how the experience that this year's cohort are having is a longstanding, systemic issue, because some of you think this year's horror show is *new*, and not a horrific extension of an existing problem. This was my experience. /thread

There are two major 6th forms in Cambridge. Hills Road takes the 'high achieving students', Long Road is known for taking 'the rest'. I was out of area, desperate to leave my school. I didn't want to risk not getting a coveted Hills place as an out-of-area student, went to Long.

I had excellent GCSE grades and worked hard. I did well in my AS year. In my psychology paper, I only dropped a single mark, for example. It was a clean sweep of A grades.

Come second year of Psychology, I did my first set of exams, and I got a D. I was devastated. I'd studied hard, and got As in my mock papers. I asked to see my exam paper so I could work out where I had gone wrong, and retake in the summer exam session.

I got the paper back, which consisted of 2 essays. The first essay had a single line through every page, and was given zero marks. The second essay got almost full marks. There was no explanation or justification for the zero - I hadn't answered the wrong question or something.

I passed my expensive photocopy of my exam paper to my Psych teachers, who reckoned the first essay was a borderline A/B. I contested the grade, when our class realised that something similar had happened to ALL the A grade students.

Meanwhile, the students who were averaging a C or below got exactly what was expected. I was quietly told that the papers had been marked by a 'head examiner' in the area, and that she felt we had simply done 'too well' for students from Long Road and were marked down as such.

I was beyond furious, but was told by my college there was nothing to be done. I retook the paper in the summer (revising for an extra exam on top of all the others because of an unfair grade - yay!) and I did well. Off the top of my head, I think I got a B in that exam.

It didn't knock my grade average, which remained at an A.
This was important, because I had an offer to Exeter University of AAA.

Now for French class.

I got an A in every single French A2 exam. My coursework got a low D.

So a student who aced Reading, Writing and Listening exams, somehow managed to so completely miss the mark, she produced a piece of work at a D grade.

It didn't seem likely to me.

Again, we asked for more info. We were told that moderation would be a 'one gets it, you all get it' job. The external marker would get a sample and decide whether the first marker was lenient, stingy, or about right. Every student would have their grades shifted as a cohort.

Long Road examiners' office was very busy that day. The college decided to ask for more info on the cohort as a whole, rather than leave it to individual students to PAY to see the details of their assessments.

It emerged that again, students with high grades were affected, while middle-to-lower attainment remained untouched. Those of us who had done well were moderated down to D grades. B grades and below were untouched.

That D was enough to bring my French grade overall down to a B. I didn't get to take my place at my chosen university. I appealed, but it wouldn't come through in time to save my university place.
Devastated doesn't come close. I spent a very unhappy summer fighting my grade.

I then went to my second choice uni (where I had a WONDERFUL time and a great education - big love to Sheffield!) and decided, for the sake of my own pride, to resubmit my French coursework while doing my first year of undergrad.

I couldn't stand that I had worked so hard, just to have an unfair grade on my permanent record.

The college was initially supportive, but withdrew support of my resubmission because they felt it would harm my undergrad studies. I was furious.

I then got a letter about my appeal of my grade - to say that the exam board had accidentally destroyed my paper early and therefore there was nothing more they could do.

I still have a 'B' in A Level French.

This is not for one second to say that this is a bad or unworthy grade. It's just NOT the grade I got.

I was lucky. My grades were good enough for my insurance choice, and it worked out great for me. But it was infuriating and humiliating, time consuming and expensive.

It destroyed my faith in our education system's promise that you could just work hard and it would be enough.

Our exams system is opaque, it's expensive, and it's a shambles. I hate it with a passion. It penalises 'rubbish' schools and validates 'good' ones.

I want better for the kids like me that went from one state school to the next and who thought they stood a chance.

So while you are all rightfully horrified at the injustice that was done to this year's A Level students, please, demand that the system as a whole is overhauled. It's been broken for a very long time. It's just this year, they didn't bother to hide the prejudice.

P.s. Chatting with a mate, I'm just now reminded that one of my A Level English lit exams came back at a D. Which is kinda wild given that I was otherwise a straight A student who also passed an Advanced Extension Award in the subject as an extra exam during my A-level finals.

Given that it was the medieval/early modern lit paper that I dropped to a D and I'm now doing a PhD in early modern lit... Yeah I'm gonna say that it was a very suspect anomaly that has more to do with the institutional crapshoot than my ability.