Stars including Jeremy Clarkson and Matt Haig have written to encourage students to look past their A-Level grades if they’ve failed.
Pupils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland received their A-level results on Tuesday morning, after exams were cancelled for the second year in a row due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Teachers in England submitted pupils’ grades - drawing on mock exams, coursework, and in-class assessments using questions by exam boards.
There were concerns ahead of results day on how fair this process would be and how difficult it would make it for universities to select students accurately and fairly.
But former Top Gear host Clarkson shared a message to his followers in the early morning , writing: “If the teachers didn’t give you the A level results you were hoping for, don’t worry.
“I got a C and 2Us and I’ve ended up happy, with loads of friends and a Bentley.”
If the teachers didn’t give you the A level results you were hoping for, don’t worry. I got a C and 2Us and I’ve ended up happy, with loads of friends and a Bentley.
— Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) August 10, 2021
The now annual post is usually met with ridicule online, and this year was no different.
One person said: “Anyone know Jeremy Clarkson’s A level results?” asked one person, alongside a screenshot of seven previous times Clarkson had tweeted about his A Level grades and current expensive possessions.
Good luck to everyone getting their A-Levels. Hope you get the ones you wanted. I was pissed off with my A Levels. But a month later at my not-top-choice university met an amazing human I’d one day marry. Present bad luck can be future good luck in disguise. Hope it works out.
— Matt Haig (@matthaig1) August 10, 2021
Novelist Matt Haig also jumped on the motivational bandwagon and tweeted: “ Good luck to everyone getting their A-Levels. Hope you get the ones you wanted.
“I was pissed off with my A Levels. But a month later at my not-top-choice university met an amazing human I’d one day marry. Present bad luck can be future good luck in disguise. Hope it works out”
But Gary Lineker shared his own pearls of wisdom and encouraged students not “to get too pissed off with those telling you how brilliantly they’ve done in life regardless of getting rubbish results themselves .”
Comedian Matt Watson had an altogether different take:
This general sentiment is probably the best thing to say to people getting results today, rather than 'don't worry, learn from *my* A Level experience, which by the way was 34 years ago in an utterly different landscape.' https://t.co/WMKbGxvfom
— Mark Watson, the guy with that book, 'Contacts' (@watsoncomedian) August 10, 2021
