Results Day Melt Downs All Around

So it's that time of the year again where every 17 and 18 year old in the UK is stressed out about tomorrow.

And why might you ask?

Is it because the sky is falling? Nope, something much much worse to face up to.

Results day.

Yep the do or die of education, where the night before we frantically take down clearing numbers and email addresses and weep at the thought of failing in front of everyone else.

And I'm no exception, I've had a lot of weird things going on in my life of late- some terrible some great and everything in between. 

But the stress that is put on young people today is awful. I know a lot of the older generation may think we are exaggerating but years of revision and studying exam boards (which are ever changing may I add) means that if we forget to write in a certain style, or our writing doesn't flow the way the examiner had envisaged or even if they just disagree with the conclusion we reached can make or break our future.

And in a day and age where university is everything - even if it lands us in heaps of debt and we'll be living off of baked beans for three or four years- tomorrow is truly terrifying.

Because the truth is I have no idea if I've gotten into university or not! I worked myself to death doing five hours of revision a day for an entire year and although you would think that would mean I was in for a good shot the weight of that pressure literally caused me to have breakdowns and panic attacks during my exams.

No I don't mean the day before or after I had one but literally in an exam.  

Yep, the nightmare of every student happened to me. 

And it was due to the huge amount of pressure that exam boards place on kids today. I woke up today to hundred of tweets about grade boundaries going up and all I could think was oh well I am passed the point of caring. 

Another thing would be that there is a serious lack of support at points, such as the fact that as an English student I was physically unable to do pass papers online because they were all copyrighted. Do you have any idea how frustrating that is?

So my plea is this; stop worrying about the grades and start worrying about the enthusiasm of the students. Because if I'm honest- just from my own experience- the stress of exams nearly discouraged me from what I wanted to later in life.

And for all of you out there awaiting results, good luck and don't think it's the end of the world if you don't get what you wanted. In fact it may just be a godsend opening up a door for another opportunity.

I'll try and update this blog tomorrow with how everything went. It may go well or it may go terrible... who knows? I'll either be celebrating or drowning my sorrows!