Bry

thats depressing isn't it. poor poor girl - when you see stuff like that you wonder why people start taking drugs - i appreciate that once you started its a slippery slope but stuff like this puts me off for a life!

me too - it always looks wrong. like it for you this time though :)

the real Howard Donald?!!! sounds great :)

here is my first go of the week...i'm sure i'll change my mind soon enough! http://img39.picoodle.com/img/img39/9/8/20/f_maximoparkm_cc22ea7.jpg

Well done guys - the top 3 were so so close!!

Fantastic name - love it!!

The album is fantastic - they played loads of new stuff on tour and it's great - like you say back to vehicles and animals which is their best move ever :) their tour fairly much consisted of new stuff, mixed in with vehicles and animals and a couple from the second album - wires, half light etc

Sorry to hear that Jake. but I don't think that people are joining the site just to defend Orson; although to be honest, so what if they do? Everyone has a right to do what they want and everyone can post where they want. There are a number of bands/artists I don't like, but I simply don't go in their forums/threads - I would have no interest to!

D - 10 pts J Q A C G H I P F - 1 pt

I don't know - I'm doing an English degree so maybe it is different, but what was one of the most important things for our statement was spelling, grammar, syntax and our general expression. Sure, it was important that we could blow our own trumpets, but it also gave the university a good measure of what standard of work we could produce. We were also asked to send 1 piece of coursework along with our statement.

people often write embarressment not embarrassment! i don't go to a god-like uni and i had to write a personal statement...but that was a few years ago.

my cover http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb126/bearw07/wino.jpg

I think it makes sense to clear the deadwood as it were. I think we should still have the/a Hall of Fame type thing where the best artists from this period are recognised; but it makes sense to start again every few months like you say :)

i've done two - i'll decide which i use later :) http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb126/bearw07/kanye.jpg or http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb126/bearw07/wino.jpg

I love your sig belfrygirl :D very clever :)

I know what you mean! I suddenly feel very aware of my grammar and punctuation! I love Eats, Shoots and Leaves too; it's a very well written, funny book.

I think that this is a good idea :)

I've seen them live x 3 and they are amazing. I love them! It's so good to sing along to them :D

i'm really relieved because i was just going to comment on that :lol: i got invited to join a facebook group "dont abolish grammer schools" - i almost died!!

i do think that something that puts people on a slightly fairer start...although to be fair the high scorers well deserve their places and no matter what i do i'll always get rubbish marks - some weeks i put next to no effort in (this week) and some weeks i'll work hard and be proud of my cover and it makes no difference. people don't vote for me :lol: still haven't decided on my cover yet!! http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb126/bearw07/wino.jpg

N - 10 pts O H G D B A C E M - 1 pt

I go to Reading University - which is in or around the top 25 universities in the country and I wouldn't say any of my friens are scraping bad grades. I think that the main reason student's are struggling at university is not because of the level of work, but firstly because of the work load. Whereas at A Level you study (in English) one or two novels, a play and a book of poetry in a term, at degree level you study one novel, one poetry anthology and one play every single week. Also, there is noone to stop you not doing your work until its too late and you've come around to exam time and you regret not working! Another thing is that there is so much made of going to university for the experience and people are so caught up in having left home and being able to go out drinking whenever and do whatever they like they lose focus on why they are spending £3000 a year on education. For foreign students and mature students it is so much more important for them to suceed - they are going to uni to get a degree first and foremost whereas kids seem to think they will get a degree on the side.

But the grade boundaries are not set - they change every year as the standard is set - therefore, if there are a lot of poor results the grade boundaries will be lowered slightly and if there are lots of amazing results the boundaries will be made higher. is this fair? probably. does it give us a good measure of whether this year was better than the last? No. And as ICR said - it's insulting to the hard working students that hear year on year that their results are fine, but the exams were easy anyway. I think that the main reason that results are better is because everything is now geared towards passing those exams. You are taught to pass exams to learn independantly.

I think that there are a number of factors. Firstly, having the exams split up into AS and A2 affords far less time to teach kids these days, so teachers and students both learn how to cram and also they got taught how to pass the exams and not necessarily anything outside of that. Also, by making it possible for students to resit, of course that allows for better results. Thirdly, the expectation is far far greater that you will continue being in education until you are at least 18. Many of my friends who barely got any grade C's at GCSE carried on to A Level - surely there would have been a more suitable route for them? The grade boundaries differ each year once the standard has been assessed. Therefore, if you have huge numbers of weaker students it will bring the grade percentages down. And as for soft subjects - I took A Level Politics which is supposedly and I got a D to my other 3 subjects where I got B's. Often these so called soft subjects are slightly unusual - but becoming ever more popular for those who want to go to university for the 'experience' or whatever...for example, journalistic studies - I believe that there are far more direct ways into a job in journalism. It's all relative - I'm finishing an English degree with the plan to convert it to a PGCE in Secondary English. I joke to my friends that their sociology degrees are soft, but then my medic friends endlessly do the same to me. I did my first year of my degree in English and Sociology and I felt that Sociology was simply repeating A Level material which bored me to be honest. For me, the jump from GCSE to A Level in English was massive. From A Level to Degree it is more the sheer volume of work that is so different!! What we would study in a term at school; we cover in 1 lecture and 1 seminar/workshop. I feel that the reason children are doing so well is because they are being taught to pass exams not taught about subjects. The curriculum is so exam ridden now that they cannot afford time to let them enjoy and explore subjects. And the main reason (in South Bucks Grammar schools anyway) that pass rates are so high is that it is a well known fact that if they think the student will not do well; they don't sit the exam. End of. :puke2:

LOL!!! Mikey - I was thinking something similar :lol: this week I have gone for a band who are a bit unknown this week and i also chose to use some of my own photography! http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb126/bearw07/245603770_6092dea3ee.jpg