How edumacated are you?

[coffeejo]

I remember reading a colleague's essay at university (not peaking, I was asked to!) and her ease with the subject matter was astounding. It almost made me want to give up on the spot.

I used to think I was reasonably bright (I had decent school results) but that fair put me into my place.

One of my exes went to Oxford - she (deservedly) got there after years of hard work at school but got to know lots of people who were that good without trying but, since she's the sort of person she is and made friends with like-minded people, also put the effort in and my word! Sitting round a pub table with them was an eye-opener. They've all gone on to do great stuff but I wish they could be cloned and sent into secondary schools as they weren't just knowledgeable, they were passionate about knowledge and knew how to share it without being patronising. Teachers, in other words.

 

[subaqua]

I must admit despite the fact I wasted my time at school I am very pleased our 3 sons have all used school time far better. 2 with maths degree's one of them a masters as well. The middle son is a very highly qualified plumber who now enjoys living down in the South of France.

Even better is all 3 enjoy riding bikes.

ah so he went past basic plumbing skills of

waters wet
S4!t runs downhill
payday is Friday

onto
rubbing chin whilst sucking in air through teeth

followed by

's'gonna be expensive





an yes I know all the ones about Sparks

 

[Trickedem]

I was a lazy little toerag at school, but managed to get 100% of the O levels I was allowed to sit (six). I joined the Army at 16 and then spent the next 13 years doing what seemed like full time education and have an long list of mainly meaningless qualifications to by name. However I did get an HND and a professional IT qualification as well, which set me up for my career in IT. At the age of 40 I started an MBA and my teenage laziness kicked in again and it took me 4 years to complete, although I did most of my dissertation in about 3 weeks after procrastinating for nearly 2 years. I think my academic endeavours are over for now.

 

[subaqua]

BSc here often feel it was a waste of time.

Bowed to pressure from my dad who said I must do my a-levels then could do as I wished. As I finished a-levels all my friends were going to uni so it seemed the logical next step. Picked a course I was good at & didn't put much thought to what I actually wanted a career in.

Spend most days eyeing up engineering job ads! In retrospect I wish I'd done an engineering apprenticeship.

that's almost the way I did it.

I got bored with a levels academia and asked to do them a year early- I struggled and got the Physics and Chemistry at C and Maths at D, then went and did my Electrical apprenticeship where the Physics A level and the basic Alevel maths proved worthwhile.

got my C&G with distinctions ( I have the award for the top marks on the course for my year and will post a pic when I back in London next week) for level 1 , I wasn't awarded the extra money by by employer as I should have been so coasted ( Yes I am a Muppett) , then did the "c" certificate and did that as Pass as I switched off as my employer was a twunt.

22 years later I am the national inspection manager for electrical engineering for a rather large multinational construction company having worked damn hard to get off the tools- hard when you are good at it ! . have done more vocational C&G and other qualifications than I care to list here.


in retrospect I sometimes wish I had done the BEng as I could get my CEng rather than , in the eyes of some snooty CEngs , the lower IEng.

 

[vernon]

Leaving aside the matter of a whole school for just the one girl, I was wondering why the gender of the school was relevant?

He ended his career in jail for sleeping with the enemy.

Has that satisfied your curiosity oh feisty and punctilious one?

I'd left that detail out but you did ask.

 

[srw]

Most proud of my MA which involved not being dead, not having divorced and not having gone to prison.

And £15?

 

[Fnaar]

MA, BA, PGDip, PGCE.
I went to uni because I was the first in the family to get to do so (mum and dad both had left school at 14), and it made my parents very proud (they both had rather disadvantaged upbringings).
I had no real idea what was expected of me at uni, to be honest, I was a bit of a fish out of water, but I did OK, and had a three-year holiday, to boot. The degree I took was of no genuine use in any of my jobs (I tried a few things out before getting into what I now do), but I guess I learned some skills that have proved useful, in retrospect.
That was the BA... the others I did in later years, while working full-time and studying part-time, in order to try and get somewhere in my job, which then turned into my career. Have done OK on it, can't complain really, but I'm wary of the value of many subjects in subsequent employment, I wish it wasn't an expectation, there are so many other valuable ways youngsters can learn things which will more directly help them. Having said that, my eldest is at uni, and I have 2 more hoping to go... (and paying the eldest's rent = a half-decent bike every month )

 

[Jayaly]

BSc (Hons), MSc, wish I'd gone on to a PhD because most of the people I work with have one and I feel left out . Can't afford it, can't see it ever happening. Oh well.

I was bone idle for most of the first one straight from school and did just enough to pass. The second one I did as a mature student on day release and I wasn't wasting a second of someone being paid to help me learn things. I used to get really irritated with the kids who were just like me the first time round, and who thought the tutor being away for the afternoon and leaving work for us to do was a golden opportunity to go to the pub.

In hindsight, I should have studied something else for my first degree, although I ended up in a good place after a career change using the results of the second degree. I was temperamentally unsuited to my first career as an environmental health officer. Careers advice really should have focussed less on my interest in the environment and more on how well I could deal with conflict management and being loathed by at least half the people I met on a day to day basis. I suspect they didn't actually know much about the job and just ran with the word environmental.

 

[yello]

I said earlier that I thought of going further once I'd finished my undergraduate degree. It struck me though that whilst I was interested in the subject, sufficiently so to read about it out of choice, I did not have the burning desire that was apparent in others. Neither was I particularly gifted as a scholar.

I reckon you can get an undergraduate degree either by hard work or by being bright. Not so postgraduate. I reckon you need both. In spade fulls. And I had neither, nor the passion to drive me.

Fortunately, a life in ivory towers did not appeal.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

...I reckon you can get an undergraduate degree either by hard work or by being bright. Not so postgraduate. I reckon you need both. In spade fulls...

I managed it and when it comes to school work I'm as lazy as it gets. I had a full time job and a young family, If I'd really thought about what was involved I'd never have done the course. When I started there was an option to continue for an extra year and 'convert' the PGDip to an MA, that idea soon went out of the window.

 

[young Ed]

i don't need no edumactions!

currently just finished my GCSE's and now moving onto agricultural college for the next 2 years (i've got to stay in education until i'm 18), but to be honest i learn more working on farms about
i plan to end my education at 18 when i've finished college and will hopefully be self employed and working before i leave college
Cheers Ed

 

[Racing roadkill]

I went as far as Ph.D. They seem to hand 'em out like smarties nowadays. Ah well, that's progress I s'pose.

 

[Rural Spaceman]

6 O-levels (2nd time around)
1 crap A-level
BA Hons 2:1
TEFL (never used)
C&G Bicycle Maintenance

But The University of Life saw me get the best education I could have wanted.

The University of Life was just The Polytechnic of Life in my day.

 

[Yellow Fang]

I'm very well edumucated, but does that make me any cleverer? Well I suppose it might a bit, but not by all that much.

 

[Gravity Aided]

Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, worked my way through graduate school, met a cute little undergraduate and married her. She finished an M.A., and it was much more valuable than mine would have been, had I finished it.