What exams?

[alliekiwi.livejournal.com]

I was vaguely pondering Karen today, and wondering what exams she would have sat before leaving Kingscote...if we were to do an AF and put the exams in the time of the writing of that novel. Didn't Karen finish school before 1951 when O-levels and A-levels came in?

I have a feeling it was something like School Certificate before that. However I'm not certain what year in school you sat those exams, considering it was 5th Form in New Zealand, with Higher School Certificate in 7th (Upper 6th), and I think some states/territories in Australia still have Higher School Certificate, and they must have got those exams from somewhere.

Anyone know?

Comments

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

O Levels replaced the School Certificate and A Levels replaced the Higher School Certificate. It's hard to equate years, but at that time the minimum school leaving age was 15 (having been raised from 14 in 1944)probably about then, though when O Levels were introduced many pupils left without taking them so it might have been at 16.

[alliekiwi.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that! Amazing what 'the colonies' held on to.

School Certificate here was in the 5th, but the school leaving age was 15 (hence you could also get your driving licence at 15, as you might need it for work) and most people turned 15 in 4th form. So quite a segment of the older population left school without School C.

Another thing Australia, South Africa and New Zealand have is 'Dux' of the school, which again must be a leftover from the days of Empire. The 'Dux' is the all around top pupil of the school, announced at the ned of year Prizegiving. Unlike American Validictorians, the Dux does not know in advance and doesn't make a speech. In NZ, at least, you get a cup/trophy, your name is engraved up on the Honours Board in the school along with all the past names of those who were Dux, and a book prize which you don't get to choose otherwise that would ruin the surprise.

[helixaspersa.livejournal.com]

Not sure though if you'd have bothered with Highers if you were doing Oxford entrance, as Karen was. The only clear mention I remember is her working 'for her Oxford' (in Autumn Term? I think). It's possible she'd already done the Highers at that point (the previous summer), or that having got into Oxford she wouldn't bother with them after that (certainly Oxford entrance at that point did not have the same relationship to Highers as it now does to A-levels - your entrance was not, as I understand, conditional upon certain Highers grades).

[mrs-redboots.livejournal.com]

For a very long time Oxford (and Cambridge) didn't really take any notice of A levels, either. Certainly in my day (late 1960s/early 1970s) entrance was via a dedicated exam, often taken during a 7th term in the Sixth Form; boys usually took it in the 4th term, but entrance, back then, was a lot easier for boys (the colleges were not co-educational, and there were far fewer women's colleges than men's!).

I don't know when it changed, but even now they set their own examinations in some subjects, I believe.

[helixaspersa.livejournal.com]

Indeed. To be quite frank, we still don't care about A levels (or rather we don't care again) - since all plausible applicants are now predicted, and will almost certainly get, 3 or 4 As A-levels are functionally irrelevant except for screening out those who fall below that threshold without a compensatory reason. (I am not an admissions tutor, but I am involved in interviewing and admissions for my college.) The Cambridge entrance exam (as in, the one sat at school in your 7th, and latterly 4th term of 6th form) was abolished some time ago; the last year of the Oxford one was autumn 1995. But it's a fairly academic distinction - pretty much all candidates at both now take 'tests' of one sort or another while up at interview; and increasingly they are being asked to take an exam sat at school as well (eg in law). Sorry, bit of a tangent there . . . but given weird Forest time-scale, I guess Nicola would eventually get round to such things, if she ever did, c. 2008!

[richenda.livejournal.com]

In 1960 people could do Oxford entrance in the December after O levels - but it was more usual to do it after A levels.
However, the point you make remains sound - Oxford entranc did not depend on GCE. People took it who had no GCE, either O or A.

[alliekiwi.livejournal.com]

I'd forgotten 'her Oxford'!

Thanks for that, it definitely makes things clearer.

[ex-lizzzar998.livejournal.com]

The setting of Autumn Term is before O and A levels. It is the late 40s. Later, there is talk of O and A levels but this is to do with AF's updating (starting with The Thuggery Affair). Prior to O and A levels, School Certificate and Higher Certificate were, I believe, an approximate equivalent but obviously I wasn't around then and I can't tell you much about them. Sue Simms, in her article "The Life and Fiction of Antonia Forest", in Children's Literature in Education states that AF passed School Certificate but "could not manage" Matriculation. I assume Matriculation is the same as Higher Certificate. Sometimes I wonder if AF would have liked to go to Oxford, but it sounds as if some of her subjects were too weak for admittance by the requirements of the time.

[rosathome.livejournal.com]

Matriculation is/was a specifically a university entrance requirement. See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matriculation. At Oxford the first ceremony freshers are compelled to attend is their 'matriculation' at which they become members of the university.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Presently reading "Ballet Shoes", and coming across a mention of "combinations", a word that absolutely baffled me (in another book) as a child, I do wish that children's books would contain editorial notes for this sort of thing - not vocab. that can easily be looked up, but notes on custom, political references etc. such as you'd find in an edited Penguin Classic edition.

[alliekiwi.livejournal.com]

That would be an excellent idea. We should suggest it to GGB publishers - maybe they'd consider doing two editions of things? But I suppose that would be far more expensive. Perhaps a companion book, "Readers guide to-" would be a less expensive option, available to those of us who have 'satiable curiosity about such things?

[richenda.livejournal.com]

>>>Presently reading "Ballet Shoes", and coming across a mention of "combinations", a word that absolutely baffled me (in another book) as a child

I remember combinations - and very cosy and comfortable they were! I've never understood why they disappeared

[ex-lizzzar998.livejournal.com]

I've just been skimming my new copy of Autumn Term , and I realize that Karen is described as doing an Oxford Schol., having previously passed Matriculation. Nicola states " she got Matric. with distinction in practically everything (unlike AF). Hazel of the Third Remove also says of Speech Day "It's nearly always the Sixth and Upper Fifth in something got up by Miss Kempe after Matric. and Higher." I'm still not quite clear on the relationship of Matriculation and Higher, I have to admit, but Matriculation appears to be the main pre-university qualification ( presumably additional exams were usually taken for the right to enter Oxford or Cambridge).