She took a year out to work before taking up maths, physics, computing and media studies.

Six months have gone by, and have things changed much? Well, the education system is much as I remembered it was, only with the added surprise of some really great friendships made.

Things got hectic over the holidays though, as I, like many others, tried to get all the revision I could for the January exams.

They are mostly mocks, but one of them (the computing) was for real this time, and I started to feel the pressure.

The things that I have always really hated with exams has to be people's expectations of you

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I'm not sure how I will do in this at all, but there is always the knowledge that you can re-sit again in the summer.

The things that I have always really hated with exams has to be people's expectations of you, and then the effort of trying to achieve them.

You get told that the only reason that you are doing this is for yourself; you should never try and do something just to please other people.

Yet the lecturers have their opinions on what you should be achieving, parents and friends have theirs, and then there is your own opinion that get involved.

It can make you feel worse because you are now failing everyone.

You can do your best, but if the exams are then not marked fairly - what is the point?

Well what if I don't manage to achieve the grade I want this time round? That is what the mocks are supposed to be there to show you.

After the mess-up last August with the exam results, I am still worried about what will happen.

You can do your best, but if the exams are then not marked fairly - what is the point?

At least one of the exams that I will be taking is with a board involved in the disruptions.

Whilst I know they promise to do their best, and the error limit is only 1% or so, what is 1% for them is 100% of a year's hard work for the student whose work is being marked.

It doesn't seem very fair to have even 1% error, does it? But I have confidence in the exam boards that they will do as best as they can to give me what I deserve.

Coursework, revision, and more hard work are all that seem to be filling the days.

Trying to fit in a part time job with this is proving more and more difficult, as I try and save weekends for socialising, nights for working and college homework, and then college during the day - I am really feeling the stress.

Brilliant lecturers

The lecturers are doing their best though. When I get one offering to give up what free time he has to help me, another phoning up on 2 January to check that things are going okay for my exams. The others helping with extra time, lessons, and just being there to talk to.

All my lecturers are brilliant, and I couldn't ask for anything more.

The computing staff went on strike a while back, over pay, and looking at all the work they put in - the qualifications and time they have to spend doing these jobs, I back them all the way.

I just wish things could be easier - for everything going up, something must lose funding, and seeing where you can take it from must be difficult.

News just in

Finally - a question prompted by this week's news items. Anyone got any answers?

The government are considering scrapping GCSEs and A-levels then doing something completely new again.

These qualifications that everyone has spent so long trying to achieve, all that hard work, what is it for in the end?

It seems that no matter how hard people work to try to keep up with the government's expectations on grades and standards, they want to change the boundaries again.

What is the point in carrying on with any of this, when it all just gets ridiculed by the people in charge?

What does it mean to get GCSEs any more? Well once it meant that you were very bright, and were worth employing.

Now - people expect you to have it. A-levels were once a very high standard of education. Now with the government pushing more and more people into doing them, they are meaningless again...

Degrees

There was a time when holding a degree meant a lot. It showed that you were one of the brightest people in the country, to be able to get to that standard.

Now? the government want 50% of the students to end up at university. Flooding the world with a lot more people who have degrees, devaluing the ones that worked hard to get there before.

We have the current system - �1,100 maximum fee, then you add on loans which cover living costs for three years. That is a lot for young people to deal with.

Changing it to �3,000 per year? What about people on long courses, or those who wanted to go back to university and try something they are more suited to?

�50,000 debt for people training to become a doctor, then the poor working and pay afterwards. One reason I will never go in that direction.

Why bother?

Before, there were fewer university places and things were funded by the state - It may have been horribly expensive for the government, but there were some people out there who were some of the best minds that Britain has ever seen.

Now these people will think twice about applying to something that will land them in more debt than they can pay off easily, getting swamped by overcrowding, in one case having to sit in the aisles of lecture theatres.

Why will they bother when you can get a perfectly good job, straight away, with no debts building up?

People need to think twice about what is going on, before we end up with far too many brilliant people wasting their lives away, working dead-end jobs, because they could not take up that opportunity.

Well, wish me good luck for the exams anyway and good luck to everyone else. A huge thank you as well to Sue, Pete, Jackie, Claire & Felix - the lecturers who have got me this far.

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