Last week the A level results came out, and thousands of students across the UK found out whether they had done well enough to get in to their chosen university course or job.
And I was one of the students collecting results this year…
I got 3 Ds in my German, General Studies and ICT Applied A levels, as well as a Distinction in BTEC Music Tech (a distinction is equivalent to an A), meaning that I got in to the University of Gloucestershire, where I will be studying Radio Production from September.
I’m looking forward to moving in to Cheltenham and doing 3 years of things to do with radio, and have already managed to contact a few people who will also be doing the course through Facebook.
I’m not quite sure what to expect – and as I’ll be living in halls, I’ll have to learn to find my way round the supermarket to find the bread, the milk and any other food… and I’ll have to manage my own money. That could be interesting. 😐
BBC Radio Gloucestershire
Last Wednesday, after mentioning on Twitter that I was looking forward to getting my results, I had a message from the BBC asking me to call them. I did, and made arrangements for a reporter to arrive between 7 and 8 to talk to me on the radio, before going up to college to get my results.
I made the arrangements, then realized, although confident I would get what I needed, that if I’d failed all my exams, it would be very public. 😐
Andrew Vincent, a reporter from BBC Radio Gloucestershire‘s Breakfast Show arrived at 7ish on Thursday morning, and he set up the VERV (or V-Sat Enabled Reporter Vehicle* :P) so that we could broadcast.
*Its amazing how I can remember something I learned last September, but can’t remember where I put the oven glove 5 minutes ago….
I noted how it didn’t work from our driveway – because there was a tree between the satellite dish, and the satellite it was meant to point at. So after a lot of “Can you hear me?” “Is this OK?” “I’ll try another set of batteries” and “Its still not working“, we managed to do a short interview just before 8, and then we went to college to get my results.
When we got to college there was more of “Its not working” and “I’m in the middle of a field, and it still won’t lock on to a signal“.
Apparently the clouds can sometimes effect it. That’s great! Its cloudy 99% of the time in the UK and the new multi-million pound studio equipment doesn’t work when its cloudy.
It slightly reassures me that, when Corinium Radio’s equipment doesn’t work, the BBC, and presumably the commercial stations, are also having problems.
