In the UK at age 16, we take exams called GCSEs now, but back in my day (1976, this was) they were the O-Levels. It was a blisteringly hot sunmer (following a really bad one where it snowed in June) when sitting in some exam room was the last thing anyone wanted, but I came out of it with 5 As and 7 Bs. These days the A grade is subdivided into A and A* - I don't know where my As would have stood.
I stayed on at the same school (which was starting to become a sixth-form college)to take the A-Levels, which is what you need for University, and got A in Chemistry, A in Biology and B in Pure and Applied Maths. But, behind those results is a story.
It was a story of rivalry. In Biology, Vinod Patel (who I've mentioned before) and Greg Evans were the people in question - I was always behind the former and just ahead of the latter in every test going. In those days there was a thing called the special paper which top students could do; Vinod did it but Greg and I did not. And we were glad: Vinod passed the damn thing but only got a B in the main A-Level. Greg and I got As. The year's prizes, though, were to Vinod for the main Biology prize and to myself for the Owen Wilshere Natural History Prize for the best write up of the Biology field trip (okay it was virtually the only write up...).
In Chemistry I was always behind two guys called Joe Liebershuetz and Chris Le Bas, but in the A-level year (1978) I nabbed the Thirlby Chemistry Prize from them. Even better, Joe and I both passed the special paper without the extra pressure compromising our performance. We got A grades, as did Chris (Joe and Chris got the Maths and Physics prizes).
I applied to do Chemistry at University, where my choices were Birmingham (England, not Alabama), Nottingham (where I ended up), Leeds, Newcastle and Southampton. Oxford and Cambridge were not for me. It was a strange thing that 34 years later my son, Jamie, also went to Nottingham, though he is a physicist.
Jack Orchison, 18 January, 2014.
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