I am very happy for all those who have received the exam results they were hoping for, and are now looking forward to university, apprenticeships, or the world of work. It doesn’t feel like forty-six years since I was in the same position. After A levels and the summer holiday, I went back to school for seventh term, where I and a few others worked through past Oxford and Cambridge entrance and scholarship examination papers stretching back to the 1920’s. I recall the agony of working in bushels, ergs and a vast array of nonsensical imperial units. God bless the metric system I say!
I posted recently about getting the news that I had been offered an exhibition to St. Edmund Hall, Oxford. I forget exactly when that was, but I think it was sometime before Christmas. I seem to remember that it was the best Christmas present I ever had. I then had ten months in which to earn some money.
One of my father’s friends from the local pub got me an interview with the Shell Research Centre, which I think was not far from Stanlow Refinery, near Chester. It was an interesting interview, but I was not offered a job. I recall talking about the finite quantity of oil, and the Shell scientist said that the last drops of oil would probably be used for lubricating watches. We had no idea that clockwork watches would virtually disappear long before the oil ran out. Nor was climate change widely spoken about, although scientists such as Fourier, Tyndall, and others were drawing the appropriate conclusions. The world just wasn’t taking enough notice.
Another of my father’s friends from the pub got me a job as a warehouseman at Canada Dry. It was very hard physical work doing 06:00 to 14:00 shifts one week, alternating with 14:00 to 22:00 the next week. The money was good, but after about four months of that I got a job at the CEGB scientific research centre in Gravesend. My exhibition had been sponsored by the CEGB and I worked for them during the university vacations.
The transition from school to university and / or work is a right of passage. I wish every school leaver the very best of luck with whatever lies ahead. Since we are talking about exams, I looked examination up in the dictionary. It comes from the Latin examinare, from examen, which is the tongue of a balance. The tongue of a balance is the pointer. An exam weighs us on the scales of knowledge.