By Claire Yip (13A01A)

The Year 5s have just gone through their first round of Common Tests (the Year 6s must be seasoned old chaps by now), and results are filtering back slowly. The long process of returning papers is torturous for some, and strangely satisfying for others, but for all students, the most common question before and during lessons is: ‘Are we going to get our papers back today?’

And the second most common question: ‘How did everyone (by everyone, I really mean myself) do?’

Because this question is often evaded or answered unsatisfactorily by teachers, the Year 5s have had to resort to answering it themselves. We bring you some evaluations which have been floating along the RI corridors of late.

Rumours
N.B. unless otherwise stated, these are unverifiable stories from students and should not be quoted as fact.

General Paper and Chemistry, the second and fourth most common subjects respectively, appear to be the two most worrying subjects for students.

GP

1. 70% of the cohort failed GP

Mr Caleb Liu, GP Teacher, on this statistic: ‘Ludicrous — and completely unfounded!’

2. Those who attempted the essay questions on gender and media did especially badly

Chemistry

1. 57% of the cohort failed Chemistry
2. The median score is 33%, or 26 / 80
3. Although one (unnamed and unknown) student did get 77.5 / 80
4. But we have the countervailing examples of two classes:
   a. an unknown class in which there was one ‘A’, one ‘S’, and ‘U’s for the rest
   b. only three members of 13S06O, the RA Chemistry class, managed an ‘A’

Economics

1. The cut-off grade for the Dean’s List is an ‘E’
2. Though not a rumour: within an hour of release, the essay score of one Humanities Programme student had spread far and beyond, even pervading the science classes. (He received 23 / 25 for a ‘first-class essay’, practically unheard as far as Economics grades go.)

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How amusing the grapevine is. The marking deadline is only next week, which means that though some papers have been returned to students, the grades for other subjects, such as GP, have not even been tabulated yet. Fret not, young ones. As a wise Year 5 once said, ‘CT1s make up such a low percentage of your final grade; they are only for Dean’s List fame anyway.’

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Amendments: 13S06O had three, not two ‘A’s for Chemistry. (The tutor miscounted.)