Search for A*

Exams - we all have to do them at some point in our lives.

For 16-year-olds, it's all about passing those GCSEs.

Hi, I got all A*, apart from German and RE - I got As.

I'm Wynne Evans, opera singer and broadcaster,

and nowadays my exam connection is through my children,

telling them to knuckle down, get on with their revision

and that all the hard work will pay off in the end.

-Bore da, Miss.

-Bore da.

But, how would I get on sitting a real GCSE myself?

-And you have five minutes remaining.

-Thank you.

Didn't need it.

If this exam was your real GCSE,

I'm afraid to say it'd be unclassified.

You're joking!

So, three people whose school days are well behind them

are putting themselves through it all over again.

These are proper exams under proper exam conditions.

Just like the other 270,000 GCSEs which are sat in Wales each year,

and only 6% of them will be awarded an A*.

MUSIC: Wishing On A Star by Rose Royce

So, joining me to search for A*

are weather presenter Behnaz Akhgar and stand-up comedian Omar Hamdi.

We'll be taking our exams at Whitchurch High School in Cardiff.

It's the largest school in Wales

with around 3,000 GCSEs being taken every year,

10% of which turn out to be A*s.

It's got a strong academic and sporting pedigree.

Former pupils include Sam Warburton and Gareth Bale.

-So, have you got that first-day-in-school feeling?

-Yes.

-I've got the shakes.

-Have you really?

I've got the first-day-in-school shakes.

I was walking going, "No-one wants to be my friend!"

I had flashbacks and everything.

Omar the teenager at school was weird.

There wasn't anything actually wrong with me,

it's just I wasn't geeky enough to be with the geeks

and I wasn't cool enough to be with the cool kids.

I feel like I want to be a child again.

I'm looking at all of them thinking, "God, I feel so old."

That was such a good time, and I didn't realise it at the time.

The last time I sat my GCSEs,

my hormones were raging, I was boy-crazy,

and the last thing I was thinking about were my exams.

I was quite naughty in class.

You look like you've just made a fart sound or something.

-Those are my favourites sounds to make!

-That's it!

HE BLOWS A FART SOUND

Typical comment on my school report would've been,

"Needs to stop talking in class, needs to try harder,

"needs to concentrate on his work instead of acting the class clown."

But look where it got me.

What GCSE are you going to be sitting, Behnaz?

Well, I'm going to sit mathematics.

I know I'm crazy.

I got a C at GCSE,

but I've always thought, now I'm a little bit more calm and settled,

I think I could do a little bit better.

I was in set four before my GCSEs because I was so naughty,

so I was in the naughty class where we just messed around.

But when I started to feel like,

"OK, I want to do something with my life,"

I started to work really hard,

and then I moved up to set three, two and then set one.

Aiming for an A* and definitely will get a B.

-Omar, which one you going to be doing?

-I'm doing history.

Why history? That's a massive subject.

Yes, but you can blag it, I think. You can blag it.

I didn't do GCSE history before.

Obviously, I'm Welsh - we've got a great history.

I'm Egyptian as well - Egypt's got a big history.

I mean, in Egypt, history's all we've got.

You know, like, Egypt... Egypt peaked early.

I think I've got the easy one cos you can't blag maths,

whereas with history, it's basically there was a king

then there was another king.

I'm going to do Welsh.

Oh, my God. You'll be amazing.

I can speak a bit of Welsh,

but I've never, ever, ever written a word of Welsh.

My mother's family were from Belgium,

my father's family were from Carmarthenshire, from Llangynog,

and I didn't really have any Welsh at all.

I had no interest in learning Welsh until my father died,

and then it was kind of like,

well, my children speak Welsh, my father spoke Welsh,

and yet I was like a lost generation,

so I decided I wanted to learn Welsh.

-Are you nervous?

-A little bit now.

-Hm.

'Our mentor is deputy head Mrs Ford.'

First of all, you have got to understand this -

it's real hard work.

These are gateway qualifications, these are life chances,

and you do need that adrenaline, that hunger,

to really drive yourself to the highest grade.

If any of you were sitting there and thinking, "This is a breeze,"

and you're going to sort of walk this, forget it.

In fact, I'd like to say go now,

because you're either signed up to get an A*

and do your damnedest to get it,

or I don't think you should be here.

You still going to get an A*?

Well, I'm aiming for it, but I'm a bit scared now.

I'm worried, I'm worried.

That was intense, mate. That was intense.

That was like the schools you hear about in China

where it's, like, military.

-Omar, you have a question?

-Yeah, I'm doing history.

I think it's a little bit blag-able.

There are kings and queens...

-Omar, you couldn't blag it for a C.

-Are you sure?

You're certainly not going to blag it for an A*.

'It's not just getting a grade, it's an A*,'

and that target is incredibly challenging.

-Yes?

-Miss, I failed my English three times before I passed it,

and I firmly believe it was because my spelling is atrocious.

Have things moved on now that

you can be a rubbish speller and still do really well?

You won't.

It's not just the thinking skills,

it's actually the organising and structuring them

as well as the technical accuracy.

I've now become really nervous because she talks about accuracy,

and if I don't get it really accurate,

I'll end up with a C and not an A*.

Jenny's now made me a bit more nervous than I was.

-Bore da, Miss.

-Bore da.

So, Wynne Evans, 43 years old - I know, I don't look it -

is joining in a year 10 second-language Welsh class.

OK, can we settle? Bore da, blwyddyn deg.

Bore da, Miss Batten.

Diolch yn fawr. Right, can we get your books out.

This feels good,

but already, I'm regressing to my childhood.

-A B?

-There you go, Morgan. Usman.

(I want to get an A*.)

My school was a good school, actually.

Sometimes they would let me do the Tannoy.

So, when they wanted to call somebody in, if I was passing by,

they'd say, "Hey, Wynne, you're good at doing this kind of stuff."

And so I'd go in and go... IMITATES TANNOY BEEP

"Could John Wallis Evans please come to reception, please."

I used to love doing that.

Who can give me a sentence in Welsh beginning with dydw i ddim yn...?

Go on, then, Wynne. Go for it.

Dydw i ddim yn hoffi llawer o gwallt.

Dydw i ddim yn hoffi llawer o gwallt.

Very good sentence. Do you know what it means, Eamon?

-I know the end bit - hair.

-Well done.

'Yeah, well done, Eamon. He'll go far, that lad.'

Eamon, finish it off. Where can I say I've gone?

I went...

Es i...ganolfan hamdden.

Da iawn. Es i i'r ganolfan hamdden. OK?

Nailed it. Nailed it, Eamon.

'I'm enjoying this. Probably too much.'

My problem though, again,

why am I sitting in a class with a load of year 10s

being the class clown again?

Talking to the bloke in the back?

-Eamon, what did you get?

-Me?

-Yeah.

-She still hasn't marked it.

You're joking.

-What did you get?

-Five out of five.

-Ten out of ten.

-Ten out of ten.

Ten out of ten. Cracking.

This is just the start of things to come.

I'm feeling confident.

Dwi'n teimlo hyderus.

Was that right? Was that right? That was right, was it? Yeah.

Well, having met Wynne and spoken to him,

my impression is that

we're probably going to be on that sort of C grade.

Ah, thanks, Mrs Batten.

Meanwhile, Omar's meeting history teacher Mrs Hall.

He'll be studying the American Civil War

and the Russian Revolution.

-You're doing history GCSE?

-I'm doing history, I am.

I spoke to some pupils this morning who did their GCSE in the summer

and mentioned what you were doing,

-and one of the girls said to me, "Oh, I'll say a prayer for him."

-OK!

I was one of those really smart kids who just doesn't do any work at all

and just relies on talent over hard work,

and I was... I remember the night before my maths GCSE

sitting in my room playing video games the whole night

and then revising for ten minutes and falling asleep.

Any idea who this guy is?

Either Lenin or Stalin. Lenin.

-And what about the guy on the left?

-Is it Archduke Ferdinand?

No, that's Tsar Nicholas II,

so he was overthrown during the Russian Revolution.

He looks a lot harder, doesn't he?

In a fight, he would win.

It's like Alan Sugar versus Prince William or something.

-LAUGHING:

-Yeah.

It looks like a lot, but there's a lot of blank space in there,

there's lots of pretty pictures - it's fine.

Can do it in a weekend, I think.

He likes to play the fool a little bit,

but I think he's up for the challenge.

I think that he wants to do well.

We shall see.

Behnaz has gone down a different road.

She's enlisted the help of maths tutor Paul Hughes.

It's not going to be easy.

She's got to get to grips with all the areas of a maths GCSE

in just ten weeks.

Behnaz is doing OK.

The biggest problem she's got is she hasn't done maths in so long,

and even when she did it, it was at foundation level,

so all the work we've got to do is new

and it's in such a short amount of time.

I just wanted the challenge.

It's just really nice to take myself out of the comfort zone

and do something completely different, which is this

and to set the challenge of getting an A*,

I mean, most of my friends think I'm crazy,

but I think I can do it.

Why can't they just put numbers?

I get really confused when they put letters.

-I know you say it's like 1x is like one apple.

-Yes.

She's learnt her tables - that's a start -

but we had to go over fractions,

so we've got to do the basics before she can move on to the higher work.

-If we don't see a sign, what is it - plus or minus?

-It's minus.

No, no, think now.

-If I say it's five degrees outside, is it plus or minus?

-Plus.

-Plus.

I'm not finding maths easy at all.

It's extremely hard.

Even the simple things that you think you use every day,

the way they question it in an exam, it becomes difficult.

I think Behnaz has got a mountain to climb here.

She once said to me there are three types of weather presenters -

those who can do the maths and those who can't.

But that's only two.

Ah, good one, Paul.

Now, the exams that all three of us are sitting

are devised in this fortress-like building

on the outskirts of Cardiff -

the headquarters of the WJEC.

It's the only exam board based in Wales.

It's a massive high-security operation

with tens of thousands of GCSE and A-level exams set and marked

each year in both English and in Welsh.

I feel like I'm in the headquarters of MI5

because I'm sat here with Q,

the Chief Executive of the WJEC.

-You may not be able to answer this question, right...

-Mm-hm.

How do you keep it all a secret?

Right, there's a major security regime around the question papers

throughout their lifetime.

Our printing is in-house and therefore it's secure

and our premises are highly secure,

and when the exam papers reach the schools or colleges,

they also have to be secured there until they're used.

Talking about grades, and every year they say exams are getting harder

or they're getting easier,

have you got a set amount you can give out

just to kind of safeguard the amount of people

that are walking around there with As?

We don't work to a set figure of grade As or grade Cs every year.

If, typically, there's a 15% getting a grade A in a subject,

that's not going to suddenly jump to 25%,

but you could well have variation depending on the quality of work.

So, we don't have to draw the line

-after a certain number...

-OK.

-..literally...

-You haven't got 55 A*s to dish out?

-No, no.

So, while I'm in Cardiff,

Benny and Omar have both flown the country.

Benny's gone to Thailand.

Hello, it's day 11,

and I'm just about to start doing some revision on the beach.

This is the first time I've brought my books to the beach

because I've been busy having too much fun

and most of my revision has been in the hotel room.

But today I decided to change the vibe a little bit.

Just take a look at this view.

And Omar's totally immersing himself in his subject of Russian history

by actually going to Moscow.

Although we couldn't quite make out what he was saying,

so A* for effort...

and an E for selfie sound quality, Omar.

-MUFFLED:

-..and I'm in a very, very cold, snowy, wintry Moscow.

Back in Cardiff, I'm meeting the person who's responsible for

the exam I'm actually sitting.

Time to turn on the old Evans charm.

-Sian.

-Bore da.

SINGS: Siany, Siany!

Come on, let's cwtch it out.

Sian, if I can't get an A* properly,

I'm thinking I could just appeal to your better nature.

We shall see.

Ah, not a good start.

Are there techniques that would help me in this exam?

-Ymarfer Cymraeg.

-Just practise Welsh?

Practise Welsh and, as well,

when you come to the question papers,

read the questions.

Make sure you've got the basic sentence structures correct,

and you've got to do everything within one hour.

As an examination technique

you need to practise before you sit the exam

-to ensure that you can cover all the four questions.

-OK.

If I just took an imprint of my credit card

and put it on the bottom,

that would be all right, wouldn't it?

How did you do in your GCSEs?

-A long time ago by now.

-Yeah?

-Yes.

So, what's the answer to the question?

-SHE LAUGHS

-I did my GCSEs,

I did A-level, I did a degree as well.

You just haven't said how you did, though.

You've just said I did some.

-Yes. I did quite well in them, yes.

-Quite well?

-Yes.

What did you get in Welsh?

I think I had an A.

I don't think there was an A* in those days.

-Oh, yeah.

-Yes.

Are you marking my paper?

-Oh, I'll mark your paper, don't worry.

-Thanks.

-Yeah.

Do you want to go out for dinner any time?

No, seriously, cos I'm free most nights.

We can just go,

cos if Behnaz beats me, and Omar, I will be furious.

It's the halfway stage,

and two out of three of us are just about to sit our mock exams.

-Right, there's your mock exam.

-Thank you.

You have one hour to complete your exam.

Give it up for Omar Hamdi!

-You've got two hours to do it.

-OK.

-No calculator.

When I say go, you can turn over the page and begin.

-AUDIENCE:

-Hello!

-Hello. How are we doing, Cardiff?

If you make a start...now.

Go.

Right, this is brilliant. I am from Cardiff, I am from Cardiff.

My parents are from Egypt,

though, in the '70s, they moved from Egypt to the Welsh valleys.

They wanted to get away from

the poor education system and the poverty.

LAUGHTER

HE SIGHS

Now, there's a travel agent in Cairo who's got a sense of humour.

"Yes, yes, go to the valleys in Wales -

"it's great, it's great.

-"Full employment!"

-LAUGHTER

"And 365 days of sun. Enjoy!"

So, what did I get?

Well, if this exam was your real GCSE...

I'm afraid to say it'd be unclassified.

You're joking!

And it'd be unclassified because YOU, you big dummy,

didn't put your name or your candidate number on it

so nobody would have a clue who you were!

-So, do you really want to know?

-Yeah.

-You should be really pleased.

-HE GASPS

-You got...

-Ohh, get in there!

Hang on. Before you get too excited, it is an A grade, it is 81%.

To get a secure A grade,

-we probably need to be upping it by a few marks...

-Mm.

-..because it will come down to the wire...

-OK.

..if you want to be an A* student.

-I understand that.

-Well done.

Thank you, Jenny.

-Come here.

-That's very inappropriate.

I kissed the teacher!

-Hi, guys!

-Hi!

-Hello!

-Hello!

-Hiya!

I sat my mock paper and I had my results today.

Oh, how did it go?

-What do you think I got?

-I think you got a B.

I think B as well.

I got an A.

-Oh!

-Oh, my... I don't believe you.

-Only just. By one mark.

-You legend.

-Have you done any past papers?

-Yes, I sat my mock exam yesterday.

There was a lot of blank pages that I couldn't fill in,

and where there was, like, four marks,

I was managing to get one or two marks.

I'm not giving up on that A* just yet, Wynne.

On the questions we've covered, it's not so bad.

It just it's just shown how much she's still got left to do.

Omar, have you done any past papers at all?

No. I've flicked through the course books.

Why doesn't anyone have confidence in me?

So, I can't believe you got an A!

I'm still not over that, literally.

It was unclassified because I forgot to put my name on the paper.

Classic mistake. Don't they know who you are?

I know. I went, "Hello!"

The final stretch, now, and for me and Behnaz,

we're cramming in the revision whenever and wherever we can.

What made you agree to do a GCSE in maths?

It's good to challenge yourself, Sian.

Step out of the comfort zone.

'My family, and most Iranians, are really big into education,'

so the pressure was on when we first came from Iran

that you have to do well, you have to do well.

I think that's why I rebelled a little bit

cos I was like, "Well, no, actually, I'm not going to.

"Why did you bring me here? I want to be in Iran."

But in time I started to realise why they were saying it,

so I was, like, "OK, I'm going to do well."

They've given up everything, their life to come over here

so I would have a better life,

and I'm going to make sure I do well.

..so we can look forward to more dry and settled weather,

but still a serious shortage of sunshine.

That's your forecast.

Today's picture is from Jason Davies.

Thank you very much for sending that in.

The solution to any quadratic equation -

Ax2 + Bx + C = 0.

Oh, God. "Diflas pam."

"Naethon ni ddim...yn canu nac yn gwrando."

When I was in school,

they say one teacher can influence the rest of your life,

and that's exactly what happened to me.

I loved singing, I loved musical theatre,

and then I met a teacher that introduced me to classical music.

She would say to me, "Go into the store cupboard will you, Wynne,

"and get some manuscript paper." "Yeah, OK, Miss."

I'd walk in, and then she'd shut the door behind me

and lock me in and shout through the door,

"And you're not coming out until you finish your homework."

And all my homework would be set out on the desk in the store cupboard,

and I did it.

-Can I have a chamomile tea, please?

-Yeah, of course you can.

This is my kind of day - just sitting in a cafe, chilling out.

Not really chilling out - I'm always doing something.

It's so important to me to sort of keep my brain active.

My parents expected me to be a doctor, or at least an engineer,

which is like the consolation prize if you can't be a doctor.

When your dad's a professor,

you have to at least get a 2:1 in a degree,

otherwise you're just not his son any more.

I haven't revised at all.

I've looked at my revision books...

and I've thought, "They'd make a nice armrest."

HE LAUGHS

So, this is it, what it all comes down to -

the day we take our final exams,

and as each subject comes in several parts,

we've sat some papers already.

Omar has the most - three exams,

two of which he's taking today,

plus he's already completed two controlled assessments.

These are assignments done in class

with a teacher watching over you just to check you're not cheating.

The controlled assessments were interesting,

because one of them you didn't have to know anything

about the actual subject -

it was just critical thinking, which is brilliant,

cos I can critically think all day long.

I can critically think for Wales.

In maths, Behnaz needs to sit the second of two two-hour papers.

I feel really sick today.

I feel really anxious and...nervous,

and I feel like everything's just gone blank in my brain again,

but I'm hoping that once I go in and see the questions,

everything will start to come flooding back.

I just want to get it over with.

And I've got two written papers and an oral test.

If I'm honest, the worst thing that could've happened to me

is to have got an A in the mock,

because since then I've gone,

"I got an A in the mock. I'm going to be OK."

And, actually, I've done nothing, really, since the mock.

Morning.

So, it's time to reach for our A*s,

and our invigilator, Miss Price, is laying down the law.

Please ensure you have no mobile phones on you,

and they are switched off if they're in your bags.

No Tipp-Ex or highlighter pens in any of your answer books either.

So, it's 9.20, and you can start.

"Your class has been on a trip to the Welsh Folk Museum in St Fagans.

"Write a story in Welsh for the school magazine."

This is the actual paper that Wynne will be sitting.

Most probably question three and four

are going to be the most challenging questions for Wynne,

and if he's looking for an A*,

then he needs to do really well in question three and four.

"The journey from Edinburgh to Dundee

"takes two hours 30 minutes by car.

"Calculate the average speed of this journey.

"Give your answer in kilometres per hour."

In the maths paper, it's a mixture of long and short questions.

It's well worth looking at how many marks are available per question,

and that gives a guide on

how much time it's worth spending on a particular part.

"This question is focused on

"the causes and impact of the Civil War 1918-1921.

"Study the source below and then answer the question which follows."

There's three questions per paper where there's a need to reflect

on an extract or a quote from an author,

or sometimes the question asks for reasons for something.

Quite a lot of joined up thinking is needed

to meet the requirements for the question.

-MISS PRICE:

-Wynne, you have five minutes remaining.

Thank you.

Didn't need it.

'Yeah, I don't want you to think that I am being overconfident.

'I did finish a bit early'

so I'm just hoping the next paper is just as easy.

Easy? That sounds...

When I say easy, I didn't mean easy.

What I meant was just as comfortable.

While Behnaz continues to tussle with algebra and trigonometry,

Omar has finished his paper on Russian history,

and I'm about to start my second written Welsh exam.

'It was all right. It wasn't fun.'

-HE LAUGHS

-I should have done more revision

and had more sleep.

-OK, Behnaz, your time is now up. Please stop writing.

-OK.

Make sure your details are on the front of your paper.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

It actually was one of the most enjoyable papers I've done.

The biggest barrier for me was algebra,

and I spent a lot of time on algebra,

and it just made sense today.

Wynne, you have five minutes remaining.

HE SIGHS

OK, Wynne, your time is now up. Please stop writing

and make sure your details are written on the front of your paper.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

Still intact.

That was harder. It was much harder, that one.

Didn't get a chance to read it all through,

ran out of time a bit at the end.

We'll have to wait to see now.

-Hello.

-Hello. Dewch i mewn. Shwmai.

'But it's not over for me yet.

'I've got to do my third oral test with Mrs Batten.'

Yn y gorffennol,

pan dwi wedi coginio,

dwi tipyn bach yn...

y, beth yw hwnna? Scared.

-Ofnus.

-Ofnus!

-Right.

O...i gwneud rhywbeth gyda pysgod.

-Ie.

-So dyma'r cwrs - sut i paratoi pysgod.

That's the bit of Welsh I like -

the talking of Welsh,

the kind of just going with it, making some mistakes,

but actually communicating - not the written bit.

So, I think that went well. 90%, though, to get an A*.

Doesn't give you much leeway, so...argh!

That's me done, and Omar is also finishing his final exam,

where at one point, he was having a bit of a mare.

At the start, I didn't read the instructions

where it said you answer one question from section A

and two questions from section B,

and there was a moment of terror.

There was a moment when, like,

I'm not even vaguely aware of what they're talking about.

This wasn't even in the notes they gave me.

This isn't... This isn't...

What's happening here?

(I just realised you don't have to answer every question.)

So, the exams are done, and there's nothing more we can do.

Now, normally, it would take several weeks

for the results to be sent to the school,

BUT ours are being marked on the same day,

so it won't be long before we find out our fate.

A few months before, Mrs Bond was sharing the results

with the real GCSE pupils at Whitchurch High.

-I can't believe that.

-You worked so hard, so congratulations.

Thank you.

Now it's our turn.

It's quite a hard job telling them.

They've worked very, very hard,

and I know they are very, very, very anxious at the moment.

So, with the head teacher and the staff who helped us watching on,

the moment has finally come.

We have your results from the WJEC.

They've been checked and verified,

and I've been told I can give you these results.

Omar, you did a history GCSE...

..and your result is...

..an A grade.

-No! Are you sure?

-Well done, mate.

-Are you sure?

-Yes.

-Well done, mate.

No, you should remark it!

Thank you very much.

I'm buzzing.

Behnaz...

you did a maths GCSE.

You achieved...

-..a C grade.

-SHE GROANS

-It was the hardest by a mile.

-I'm gutted.

Maths is something else. I couldn't have even attempted maths.

Wynne...

..you did a Welsh second language GCSE.

You achieved...

-..an A*.

-Yeah!

APPLAUSE

You smashed it!

Well done.

Thank you, Jenny. I'm going to be inappropriate again.

There we go. OMAR LAUGHS

Aw!

I think I'm just really tired.

I'm sure if I work a little bit longer at it,

I could get a better grade.

I am just gutted, I'm really gutted.

We've got the results, and Behnaz got a C.

Behnaz got a C?

Yes! Get in there.

I think she'd be pleased. I'm really pleased with that.

If she had more time, she could do really well here.

I haven't even touched the textbooks.

I looked at the revision notes for two hours this morning,

and I was completely blagging it,

and I was ready to be taught a lesson,

but the blagery continues!

Any pupils watching this - don't you dare try and blag it

or you'll suffer the wrath of Mrs Hall.

Once a blagger, always a blagger. Whey!

An A* is quite difficult to get -

you've got to give that little bit extra.

I'm absolutely thrilled for him.

I can see that he's really pleased as well. Really delighted.

I thought I'd get an A, but I didn't think I'd get an A*,

cos the margins are so tight on it,

so I was just, I'm just so over the moon.

You've pushed yourself to the very edge,

it's almost perfection, it's a level of sophistication.

Yeah, it's amazing. To get an A* is an amazing, amazing achievement.

Ahh! A*!