Congrats man...nice going. And to think you were mildly panicking on that one other exam.

Are you seriously thinking of a Phd? That's pretty useless in a work environment, I'd say. Not to mention being some professor's buttboy while writing your doctorate...assuming you haven't saved up enough by then to independently write your doctorate by then.

Macroeconomics... sounds... specialized. And you got an A for that Congratulations
Last year for me on my current school, then off to university. Haven't got a clue what to do though My results are good enough and I have too many subjects (still have 9 I think, not counting PE , and finished 6), which leave (almost?) every study open. It isn't really helping. How did you lot choose what you chose anyway?

Hah, I'm afraid i'm not a great reference for making choices....I only decided what I was going to do when I stepped into the inscription office. Not kidding you...then I spent half a year thinking 'this course sucks', before settling in and attending some classes sober. Well, that's the general idea anyway. So I recommend you do it differently.

Try to pick something that is both interesting and professionally useful, is my main tip. Look at me and J, abstract academic bums. And what do you love best of your current courses, or comes easiest to you? Math, languages, geometry, biology...anything really?

I'm studying networking technology. Computers (duh) and Networks. Basically, shit I was fairly good at. I took Cisco courses because I thought they were cool, which ended up with me being pretty damned knowledgeable about networking. A networking technology degree only made sense after that.

And yea, what Ox says. Choose something interesting. When I first went to college (12 years ago...sigh) I was actually after a civil engineering degree. Bleh. Talk about boring.

Something interesting... that's already on the first place of my list. Whenever I find something interesting (well, something I feel less indifferent about compared to other studies) I tend to check what kind of occupations you could practise with it, predictions about the demand of people with that study in five years time, current unemployment rates, etc. There are certain studies I visited at universities (and which I liked), but they all have disadvantages. Psychology is just too popular, it's becoming the study for those who don't know what to study and there just will be too many of them when I graduate. Then there is 'Life Science & Technology', or in other words looking at (human) cells through a microscope and editing them, but what could you do with it when you finish? Research probably, but then there's the question what could you research with it? That question applies to every study with a 'research future'. And then there is economics. I like trade, I like business, but learning five years about Lorenzcurves and social security isn't really interesting. I've taken loads of tests about career choice as well, but don't think I've ever had the same answer twice. One said I should make schedules for an orchestra Maybe I should do that

If I were you, I'ld watch out very carefully for studies like "Life, Sciences and Technology" That one is a good example of a "fashion" study. It's very fashionable nowadays to do a study combining a number of different fields, and I have the idea that in a year or five employers have no idea what to do with such people. You're better off with a more traditional study like medicine or engineering, and then you can still end up with a job in the life, sciences and technology category.

What's your "cijferlijst"?

Well they base it on the number of lectures (we have lots, about 35 hours a week last year i think, i was basically in college 9-5 everyday with a couple of free hours here and there), the amount of coursework (also lots) and the variety of subjects (we do 10, some damn tricky ones, i.e. fluid mechanics) we have to learn. Students from the Mechanical Engineering department at Imperial College are very highly sought after.

I guess i chose mechanical engineering because i thought i'd be good at it. I mean, i did a-levels in maths physics and chemistry because they were my best subjects, and from there i pretty much knew i was heading down the science route rather than the arts route, so i thougth pure maths would be boring, same for pure physics and i couldn't stand chemistry. So i figured i'd do something like engineering and decided that mechanical was the most interesting of those, mechanical engineering covers a massive spectrum of topics and has a bit of each of the more specialized engineering subjects within it.
The thing with engineering is that whichever type you take you can invariably do any job you want when you've finished. If you have a degree in engineering it shows your not an idiot and most employers will consider you for a job. Half the graduates from my course go on to become accountants and stockbrokers... not exactly engineering. I still have no idea what type of job i want out in the real world...

No offense (God knows my course wasn't exactly rocket science, for one), but long days and tons of coursework indicate more an ability to work and focus from the students than that it means that the course is ungodly hard per se. But that working force and stuff is probably what you mean with being the employers' favorites etc.

On the whole I feel like a lot of academic degrees are about showing a certain lvl of capacity rather than being a goal as such. Take J and me, guys with our degrees only usually become teachers, there's no specific profession linked to our degree...so it's more like a general indication of intelligence, imho.

Yeah Rinox it's possible to take archaeology at high school at GSCE then at AS and A-levels which I did at college. Anyway I live in the north (North-west round Manchester) so not exactly banding together to much than before.

I'll keep that in mind.


Err my end results of last year (subjects I still have this year) were
Dutch 8
English 9
Latin 8
Economics 1 8
Management & Organisation (something like accountancy) 8
Biology 1, 2 8
Maths B1 7
Physics 1 8
Chemistry 1 8 (thinking about picking up chemistry 1, 2 this year)

Results of exams I've had are pretty much similar

And finished
Sociology ('Maatschappijleer') 7,9
History 8,9
ANW (litt. 'Common Nature Sciences'. Seriously, I learned how a toilet works here ) 8,2
French 7,8
German 8,5
KCV (About ancient Greece and Rome) Not sure yet, it's 8,5 atm and I'm still expecting my last result.

Which will be round off to 8/9/8/8/9/8(or 9). Chose these subjects so I'd have a bit of everything, since I didn't know what I should choose back then. Don't really like one of them better than the others. Choices, choices...

What the...that's an average of about 80%, wtf is wrong with you guys. I'm gonna try and find my final results for my final year in highschool, that's gonna be a great laugh. I think i flunked math back then, like, overall. They let me pass though, cos I'm sexy. Or for some less apparent reason. Erh, I'll be back with the grades, I promise!

Wow that's a great list. The only nine I got was for English, the rest were 6-es or 7s. A shame you didn't pick Maths B2 though, it isn't more difficult then Maths B1, and I liked it.

Might want to tell them that though.

Well the biggest problem with choosing subjects was that I didn't really have enough time. You needed an X amount of hours and I think I had 350 hours above that, because I chose two extra subjects (which nobody did, ofcourse), economics and M&O. And had Latin because I did Gymnasium. Last year I had 35 hours a week (out of a max of 38, since tuesday afternoon is reserved for teacher meetings), plus two afternoons (till six-ish) for theatre, which resulted in a few moments of desperation. I could've chosen Maths B2, Physics 2 or Chemistry 2, and as I write this I wonder why I didn't. Anyway, I'm thinking about picking up Chem 2 this year since I've got some gaps in my schedule. Maths is probably my worst subject, followed by Physics, but never had any real trouble with Chemistry and heard 2 wasn't a lot more difficult than 1. Don't know if Maths B2 is still possible, but that might be a bit too much (still have my 'profielwerkstuk'). And I'll be lucky if I get a nine for my English exams. My teachers doesn't like me because my pronounciation is better than hers (same goes for the rest of the class) and I tend to mix up the grammar times. I might ask her for some tips and actually pretend to be listening this year. Would be kind of ironic if I finish the subject I've always finished with a 9 with an 8 this time. Teachers...

As promised, here are my (final) results in my last year of highschool. All in %.

Latin (4 hours a week): 61%
Dutch (4): 68%
French (4): 60%
English (3): 56% (lolol)
Math (3): 39%
German (3): 58%
History (2): 71% (w00t)
Physical education (2): 74%
Religion (2): 56%
Chemistry (1): 38%
Biology (1): 69%
Geography (1): 62%
Media (1): 76%
Art history (1): 52%

And a grand overall of 59% So they passed me with two serious fails, one in a pretty crucial course.

Other interesting statistics: during the year (monthly report sheets) I didn't manage to pass math one single time. The count goes:

1) 17%, 2) 7% (LOL), 3) 31%, 4) 19%, 5) 46%, 6) 49% Well, at least there's a noticeably improvement, right?

As a bonus I will translate monthly teachers' remarks!

1) 'Look out (name replaced with) Rinox! Rinox doesn't grasp the elementary basics of French grammar.'

This one's awesome, especially in the light of me graduating 2 months ago:

2) "Because he's always putting everything off until the last moment and has only been studying for his exams for years in a row, Rinox lacks the basis (was underlined) for a higher education. That's a painful realization."

haha, I showed them!

3) "Five math tests: 0,3,0,1,2....each time on a total of 10. That's gót to change. Still, hang in there."

4) "The math grade (31%, ed.) was an average of 3 tests. Draw your own conclusions."

5)"Lack of enthusiasm and laziness can hardly be rewarded"

6)"Rinox 'loses' an important task and doesn't think it necessary to redo it. He needs an iron hand to guide him". hahaha


Oh man, I didn't realize it was gonna be THIS funny. Good stuff, looking where I am now. I'm actually scoring a good 15% higher in college than in high school, college hard? Naah!

For the record: I didn't change words or leave anything out with the teachers' remarks. Which means that the only 'good' remark they gave me during the entire year was "hang in there", and potentially "watch out!". It wasn't my best year, heh.

rofl...that's pretty damned hilarious. Not to make light of your plights or anything. Nevermind, it's all your fault, it's ok to laugh at you. :p

I'm still awed that 52% is apparently a passing grade.