Some old my oldest friends are just that. Our human rights world is jam packed with them as it is. But I have not seen you flag waving for Israel, which is an entirely different thing.
Debra, 1966 is a long time ago. Up until 1964 I did classical Greek as well. I did ANYTHING known to humanity to get out of physics, chemistry or anything else scientific especially if it involved maths in which I never saw the point of algebra, calculus or geometry so simply did not learn a thing. Ironically, a large part of what we read in Greek was science and maths because those there philosopher blokes did those too, curse them.
You reminded me of how far the rules are/were bent. I did not even sit 'O' level maths because the teacher thought it was not worth wasting the examiner's time. he had long given up on me, so that was a non sequitur anyway. At my interview I experienced a 'miracle'. One of the crusties who was doing the third degree said something to me in Latin. I answered correctly. I think it was along the lines of 'Vis calicem tea?' to which I answered 'sic placet, obsecro absque saccharum et lac'. Whatever it was, a servant came along and gave us all tea but responded to the elderly scholar's instruction in Latin. I got the correct tea (too strong I remember). No mention about the qualifications on my application but my hand shaken by the admissions tutor, bursar and two fellows and 'Be seeing you on X October' as I rose to leave.
Talk about gobsmacked. Nobody at school (staff) had expected me to get in anywhere!
Latin. Shmatin.
(and before someone accuse me of being Semitic, my dad is Jewish)
Not disputing it Debra. I am just saying there is no golden formula. Requirements and rules are bent in the academic world as a matter of course. How on earth do you imagine the offspring of influential people who are as dull as dishwater and less intelligent get in so easily? Anyway, you also referred to UK universities where rules are made to be broken. Having never been to a French university but only having had colleagues who were a product of them, and a couple from école normale supérieure as well, I can only surmise that the same applies from what they have said over the years.
I think we are singing from the same hymn sheet here :)
Hope you are feeling better btw? x
I meant if you actually did get 2 Es & that's it, that you might go, but not last very long ;-) if you didn't mend your ways ;-)
No no no Veronique - the 2 E's offer was a big deal back in the day. It meant that if you cocked up your A levels ( as I did) they still wanted you. ( About the last time in my life someone did but hey - ho...!) And yes, you did still get in. Albeit with a bollocking :)
When I went to university in the UK in the 80s the only 'absolute' requirements were O level English, Maths & Latin. I'm sure the rules were bendable... I also got a two Es offer at A level: I think, however, that HAD I turned up with 2 Es I would have been out on my ear PDQ.
Most companies can’t print money William.
Personally I was in favour of building a wall and letting them get on with it! I causes me great pain to see Adams strutting around our parliment.
Sctually Ian he was the one that agreed to partition. A pragmatic action that unfortunetly screwed Ireland for fifty or more years. We ended up being run by shisters and the Irish Catholic Church. At least the Church has imploded but we’ve still got more than our fair share of shister politicians IMHO.
I bet you would David. I costs the UK a fourtune. Nobody with any sense in the Republic cares about NI. It yesterdays issue.
Not being funny but if most countries were businesses they would be closed down by their creditors…
Not necessarily Debra, I had research MA students who were very proficient in English but did not have any qualification in the language along with others who had the highest possible grade in English where they came from who could not string two words together.
I was accepted myself without English which in 1966 was said to be IMPOSSIBLE. However, I had German grade a, Latin and French grade b and English literature at c in 'O's, plus German at a, French and English literature at c and three other 'A's. At the time three 'A's was entry level, double it and one walked it. Nobody even blinked on no English. It has not absolutely changed. Pascal Boyer, a well known anthro of my generation, has a chair at a top USA university, has taught at Oxford and done research at Cambridge. He has no qualification in English because a second language other than Latin for university entrance in various subjects was not required in his time. There is a set of mythologies about requirements for university than people should simply never be overawed by.
Thank you Liz! A wonderful antidote to Daily Mail inexactitude dressed as absolute gospel.
You've got the wrong end of the stick Sean ;-) I'm talking about the level of FOREIGN language skill needed by pupils (who are assumed to be native French speakers, because this is France & French is our language) for the FOREIGN language exams in the Bac - I entirely agree that you have to be a competent native speaker ie off the EU scale, to deal with the other exams. A candidate with B2 in French is going to crash & burn in French/hist./geog. etc etc etc. May I point out that I teach in Lycée général, and I am a Bac examiner: so I do actually know what I'm talking about.
I think you may have got me mixed up with somebody else as I have said all along that a foreigner whose level in French is B2 is on a hiding to nothing in the Bac.
Frances- apologies if this appears above what you said, rather than below. In any exam you aim at a particular level. If you hit - or exceed - that level, you get 100%.
If, like many people you don't get everything right, ie you get a lower percentage of things right - you get a lower level. Obtaining the Bac is as I said based on about 11 subjects, the marks are added up, with weighting according to Bac speciality. So someone could be at 100% in sciences, say, and at 30% in languages, and still get the Bac overall.
Everybody HAS to do 2 languages for the Bac, they may not be any good at those languages: still, they have done them, been examined, and you can see what result they got. B2 is the target for the Bac. Not everybody hits the target.
Having the Bac means you can go to university to study whatever you want, so you get people who are hopeless at maths/physics/chemistry/ biology deciding to do medicine - oops, they will fail. Tough. They should have been more realistic - that said, it is absolutely their right to make an ass of themselves.
I'm sorry if this is difficult to understand or seems crazy and meaningless, it is how the system works.
Can you provide evidence to support your assertion that the EU accounts have not been signed off for 19 years. I just checked and it took two minutes to find out that the opposite is the truth. I would dearly love to know what your sources are? The situation is that the accounts are checked and errors are found in the distribution of funds by Member States, these errors are reported by the auditors. It is not the case that the auditors 'refuse' or 'reject' the budget, but that they point out these significant errors.
Whilst on the subject of the EU, it never ceases to amaze me that people refer to 'the EU' or 'Brussels' as if it were some sort of extraneous organisation that imposes dictats over the unwilling populace of Europe. The EU is made up of 28 states, each of which has a say in its running and representation in the governing bodies. The Uk is one of those 28 states.
Well if you must share those initials! 'Pass the port vicar', 'Oh, I'll have another large one too architect!' :-D