Happy (or is it?) results day!

My Facebook feed is awash with good news and celebration - that means it must be results day! Fellow Open University bods are status-updating their achievements left right and centre and, I tell you, there are some very happy people in OU land today.

I didn’t realise it was results day myself, so it was only upon seeing the proclamations that I thought it wise to check my own StudentHome page and lo-and-behold I’ve passed T227 which means I can now claim the Professional Certificate in ICT Practice. Yey me! A mini celebration is in order tonight I feel.

A day like today is especially nice when you know some of the other students and have met them in person because you’ve had a chance to hear their stories and you know what they’re going through. A particular student I know has finished her BSc now - having received her final results today - and is moving on to do an MA which is superb news because she’s got the intelligence and drive to do really well. Another student has just finished his third - yes THIRD - BA and is moving on to do a BSc in his lifelong learning quest. Such amazing students and some incredible achievements floating around the Facebookosphere today.

It would be utterly heedless and negligent of me, however, to prattle on about all those students who have passed without mention of those who haven’t had such fortunate today. There will, undoubtedly, be students today who have either failed modules or simply not ended up with the grade they either sought or needed.

It has happened to me before - any regular readers will know that I failed a module only last year which just so happened to be the final module of my BSc. That sinking feeling upon realising you’ve not passed is just utterly engulfing. I use the words ‘not passed’ because ‘fail’ is such a negative way to look at it, and if there’s one thing I learned from failing it’s that it’s far from the end of the world. Given a bit of hindsight I find things always make more sense. When I failed that final module I thought my world was caving in, but I got the chance to resubmit and now it’s something I can shrug off and put down to experience.

I feel for any student who hasn’t achieved what they planned for today. This is not always an easy thing to do so I tip my bonnet to each and every one of you who has had the guts to at least try - it’s people like you who inspire me, not the natural super- academics who always get first class everything but those who are putting in the graft and really trying. There’s a motivational motto I picked up from running which is really appropriate here when put into a studying context: “No matter how slow you go, you’re still lapping everyone on the sofa”.

Grades aren’t everything; they count for something, obviously, but don’t fixate on them. After all, you’re doing far better than anyone who thought about registering but didn’t.