I haven’t checked recently. It was 10-12% in my day. It’s sometimes argued that a national standard should apply for firsts. If this is the case, and if Oxbridge really do reach the highest academic standards, then you’d expect them to have more firsts.
They used not to separate the seconds into 2(i) and 2(ii), not least because the separation point would be close to the peak of the distribution where a small error in assessment would lead to the maximum number of people ending up on the wrong side of the line. In the case of students with seconds applying for post-grad funding, which was sometimes awarded only to those with 2(i)s, the funding bodies used to contact the university and ask the examiners whether each student was 2(i) standard or 2(ii). One of the tutors in my college used simply to write back in every case saying “If this student had gone to a university which separates the seconds then he/she would have got a 2(i)”.
I’m feckin’ gutted. I could have filled the boxes up with Synergistic Research foo and made enough money to buy a muffin and dream about having the readies for the downpayment on an Astra.
A strange thing seems to have happened with petrol prices in the north east. We’ve been driving to and from Morpeth (Mrs VB’s home town) for 30 years or so. 300 miles door to door. So we fill up down here, grumbling about the price, then fill up again before the return journey. We used to stop somewhere cheap (Ashington, say) and get the fuel for 5-7p per litre less than here (Didcot). Then Morrison’s opened up in Morpeth and their petrol was the cheapest around - typically 7-8p per litre cheaper than here.
This time we left on Friday, filled up at Sainsbury’s (126.9 for unleaded, owww …) got to Morpeth only to find that Morrison’s was a penny a litre more ! WTF ? So we decided to find somewhere more realistic a few miles off the A1 on the way back today. We tried Chester-le-Street. Their Tesco ‘superstore’ doesn’t even sell petrol and the BP station on the edge of town was 133.9 !!! We went into Darlington - BP and Esso were 127.9, Sainsbury’s 124.9 (OK, that’s a bit more like it) and Morrison’s were 122.9. So we filled up. When we got back here we found Sainsbury’s had come down to 126.4.
Perhaps this is a sign that we’re nearing the End of Days …
