Tuesday 20 March 2012

D for dunce?

My Italian course finished for the Easter holidays the Friday before last.  It's an odd facet of the way the course is structured that you "pass" (and thereby qualify for progression to the next level up) at the end of this second term - with the third term consisting mainly of extra practice, consolidation and revision: you don't actually learn anything "new" as such.  Although you do have to attend all three terms to get the official course certificate.  Anyway, with that in view, I get an email yesterday from the tutor telling me I'd passed - the sting in the tail was that it was with a grade D!

I'm not exaggerating when I say I was gutted.  I'd got an 'A' last year and was naturally hoping for another this year, although I think I've mentioned at some point in my periodic ramblings on here that I've been finding the aural comprehension exercises very difficult.  So I wouldn't have been surprised at a 'B' on the basis of that.  That said, I may be, and probably am, attaching a negative significance to the grade which it doesn't actually have - it's not shown on the certificate or anywhere other than the email.  In fact none of our work is marked, so I don't even know how it's been arrived at or indeed what the possible grades are (A to E, like A levels perhaps?).  I'll have to try and find out from the tutor by next term: the email did say the extra third term would give me the opportunity to improve it.

The last time I got a D for anything was for mental arithmetic at Junior School, aged eight: coincidentally that was the Easter term, too.  I did also subsequently fail three O levels!  So there are precedents, and I guess it's just wounded pride I'm suffering from more than anything else.  Still, I daresay that's as good a motive as any to try and improve my performance?