O-levels query

[alliekiwi.livejournal.com]

I was re-reading The Attic Term today and got a little confused as to the period over which Patrick took his O-levels.

For example, a page or two before the end of chapter 10 is the following passage:

~*~*~
Being anything but reckless, Ginty had meant to let at least two weeks go by before phoning Patrick again: and then, on the Monday evening, listening to the other four deciding to play ping-pong in the gym and mentally preparing a plausible Cat-That-Walked withdrawal, remembered that Patrick's O-levels began tomorrow: she ought - she must - phone and wish him luck.
~*~*~

Following that we have half-term which is when Miranda and Tim write the short Christmas carol for Nick to sing etc. Patrick has his half-term the week after Kingscote, and then along comes Chaper 13 and the fateful Maths O-level paper debacle. The chapter starts:

~*~*~
In the summer term, the sitting of O- and A-levels was something of an occasion: Miss Keith announced their commencement during Assembly and wished the candidates well on behalf of the school. But in the winter term, when a mere handful of unfortunates was at risk, the event was hardly mentioned, and it was only because Ginty was sitting-in on the Tutorial fifth's Latin revision that she knew when O-levels would make their delayed start as soon as Patrick did. Telephoning him that evening, she found him depressed and edgy.
~*~*~

Why is Patrick 'starting' his O-levels twice like that?

Comments

[rosathome.livejournal.com]

Well I don't know and I haven't got the book to hand, but it's quite possible that practical exams for things like physics or art or music would be held some weeks before the main exams began. That's fairly normal and you could easily refer to both times as O-levels 'beginning'.

[rosathome.livejournal.com]

Oh, and if that were the case, I'd certainly expect Miss Keith's announcement to herald the start of written exams. Before that, if you had a French oral or something, you had to miss a lesson to take it. But during the written exams, you wouldn't have lessons at all. It's a distinct exam period.

[nicolap.livejournal.com]

Didn't the papers get hijacked, thus causing a delay?

[coughingbear]

Yes, that's what I remember. She rings him to wish him luck and he tells her that the exams are going to be delayed because the papers have been lost or stolen.

[helixaspersa.livejournal.com]

Exactly. That's why the last quotation apart mentions 'their delayed start'.

[alliekiwi.livejournal.com]

I just went back and read that...idiot me - it was on precisely the next page! I always skim the Ginty and Patrick conversations because they annoy me (esepcially the Rosina and Rupert mushy bits). Shows I should actually pay attention!

[(Anonymous)]

He's sitting them just before Christmas - he makes some comment to Ginty earlier in the book about his school being weird and having them in winter instead of summer.

[(Anonymous)]

Winter exams were usually resits - I think Ginty says that about the Kingscote people who are doing them. Patrick's school seems to have taken the option of them all taking them in the winter - so his lot could presumably then do resits in the summer if necessary. This however wouldn't work for literature papers where the set books would be different - they'd be same for summer and winter sets of papers, but different the following summer.

[richenda.livejournal.com]

>>>>This however wouldn't work for literature papers where the set books would be different - they'd be same for summer and winter sets of papers, but different the following summer.

Thank you ! I now understand why only Maths and Science papers were taken early (in December) and other subjects weren't - I've never thought of that explanation before.

[ex-lizzzar998.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that it is unusual to do all your exams in the winter, and Ginty mentions this. I wonder if AF decided on Patrick's school allowing it
just to fit the setting of the story, although I also remember that Patrick is OK with it as his aim is to leave school as soon as he can get some basic qualifications (his father thinking differently).

[ex-lizzzar998.livejournal.com]

Presumably he will have to re-sit any exams he fails in the summer, but is very much hoping to avoid this. I wonder if the fact that he is effectively expelled at the end of the term means he would have to finish the year at a tutorial, but I guess this is a minor point. I always felt sorry for him possibly going on to the tough school, as it sounded unsuited to him.

[rosathome.livejournal.com]

Nope. In Run Away Home he goes for an interview at a boarding school where they'll make him take proper subjects but they do at least have a Falconry Club.

[rosathome.livejournal.com]

Unless you meant that was the tough school and I'm confused? And I don't know what you mean by a 'tutorial'. In my experience that's a one-hour class with very few students and one professor. How would that help Patrick?

[ex-lizzzar998.livejournal.com]

I meant a London school like Mander Portman Woodward or Collingham, although I think he is mentioned as having private tutoring for Maths in The Thuggery Affair. I thought Patrick might do OK in a tutorial school as he could just concentrate on academics without the rest that he doesn't seem to like so much. I don't have Run Away Home with me but I thought that a scary sounding school was mentioned which said that it might accept Patrick if he's passed his Maths but only to do languages as English and History are 'easy options' or something. Patrick does not expect to pass and does not seem particularly suited to the school despite the falconry. In an Girls' Gone By introduction (which I don't have with me,sorry) Sue Simms said that AF had difficulty with Maths and with languages. Her spelling is also weak in the letter published in The Marlows and Their Maker (as is mine sometimes if I can't be bothered to check).

[ex-lizzzar998.livejournal.com]

I'm sure that Patrick mentions that his preference would be to study English and History on his own in Run Away Home, and he certainly seems to have a genuine interest in them, although I think he could benefit from at least some conventional teaching. His father is pushing the tough school and Patrick appears to have given up fighting about it; he is trying to make the best of things with the falconry club.