“Trailing clouds of glory, having achieved a brilliant 80pc in his Leaving Cert physics, the first-year science student is handed the results of his mid-term exam, his first test since entering university. Eleven percent! How could this be? This is how recently elevated schoolboys and schoolgirls were shocked into realising that they had entered a new world in which they would be treated like adults, in which exams were unpredictable and where spoon feeding was confined to the canteen …” (more)
[Independent, 13 June]