Question: What gcse results did you get in science?

Fiona Scott answered on 4 Mar 2019:

I didn’t do GCSE because I lived in Scotland while I was in high school and we do slightly different qualifications. During the equivalent year when I was 16 I worked really hard and got the following grades:

Standard Grade English (1)
Standard Grade Mathematics (1)
Standard Grade Chemistry (1)
Standard Grade Physics (1)
Standard Grade German (1)
Intermediate 2 Modern Studies (politics etc.) (A)
Higher Classics (A) – I moved school and needed to pick an extra subject so I was given the option of doing a higher a year early
Higher Music (A) – I did this a year early because I had been receiving music lessons outside of school and wanted the opportunity to do more highers the following year at school

What’s REALLY important to note though is that having good grades isn’t all you need to be a good scientist. Having patience to do the same thing over and over again, good resilience for when things go wrong and a curiosity about how the world works are far more important than being able to do well in exams.

Chemistry is more of a practical subject. I had coursemates at university who could get 90-100% in exams but wouldn’t be able to tell you why they had added a particular chemical to their reaction. Similarly there were people who did really well in the lab but struggled in exams, but they often did better overall because of the importance of lab work.