{"id":27297,"date":"2018-12-15T15:00:46","date_gmt":"2018-12-15T15:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/?p=27297"},"modified":"2023-05-30T23:59:10","modified_gmt":"2023-05-30T22:59:10","slug":"dont-write-off-academic-slow-starters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/2018\/12\/15\/dont-write-off-academic-slow-starters\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t write off academic slow-starters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Despite getting a C, a D and a fail in my three comprehensive school A-levels in 1980, I gained a good degree and a PhD in mathematics.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><!-- GUARDIAN WATERMARK --><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/education\/2018\/dec\/14\/dont-write-off-academic-slow-starters\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/image.guardian.co.uk\/sys-images\/Guardian\/Pix\/pictures\/2010\/03\/01\/poweredbyguardian.png\" alt=\"Powered by Guardian.co.uk\" width=\"140\" height=\"45\" \/>This article titled &#8220;Don\u2019t write off academic slow-starters&#8221; was written by Letters, for The Guardian on Friday 14th December 2018 16.27 UTC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Despite getting a C, a D and a fail in my three comprehensive school A-levels in 1980, I gained a good degree and a PhD in mathematics (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/education\/2018\/dec\/13\/university-acceptance-rates-for-students-with-lower-grades-on-the-rise\" title=\"\">Concern over university places given for C and D grades at A-level<\/a>, 13 December). Since then, I have had a satisfying career in industry and academia, living the high life in various places in Europe and China along the way. In 2014 I was the overall winner of a Space Oscar, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.copernicus-masters.com\/\" title=\"\">Copernicus Masters prize<\/a>, which has led to the creation of a successful technical startup company in my home town of Nottingham, which keeps me off the streets, I guess.<\/p>\n<p>My reason for poor A-level results? I was a normal working-class 18-year-old with more hormonal imbalances, distractions and self-doubt than you could shake a stick at. I cannot thank Leicester University enough for offering me a place back then, as it did everything it said on the tin and really changed my life. To any university that is \u201cmindful\u201d of accepting candidates with lower grades, I offer nothing but raspberries.<br \/><strong>Dr Andy Sowter<\/strong><br \/><em>Nottingham<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u2022 Join the debate \u2013 email <\/em><\/strong><a href=\"mailto:guardian.letters@theguardian.com\" title=\"\"><strong><em>guardian.letters@theguardian.com<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u2022 Read more Guardian letters \u2013 click here to visit <\/em><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tone\/letters\" title=\"\"><strong><em>gu.com\/letters<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u2022 Do you have a photo you\u2019d like to share with Guardian readers? <\/em><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/artanddesign\/2018\/jan\/15\/share-your-best-photographs-of-the-week-with-us\" title=\"\"><strong><em>Click here to upload it<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong><em> and we\u2019ll publish the best submissions in the letters spread of our print edition<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>guardian.co.uk &#169; Guardian News &amp; Media Limited 2010<\/p>\n<p>Published via the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/open-platform\/news-feed-wordpress-plugin\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Guardian plugin page\" rel=\"noopener\">Guardian News Feed<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/wordpress.org\/extend\/plugins\/the-guardian-news-feed\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Wordress plugin page\" rel=\"noopener\">plugin<\/a> for WordPress.<\/p>\n<p><!-- END GUARDIAN WATERMARK --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As an 18-year-old with hormones raging, <strong>Andy Sowter<\/strong> didn\u2019t get great A-levels. But he\u2019s certainly made up for it since<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27298,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10220698900476085_349663338397715":"","twitter_1370559253_1370559253":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[555,61,29,425,348,554,141,145,556,63,142,65],"class_list":["post-27297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-a-levels","tag-article","tag-education","tag-exams","tag-higher-education","tag-journal","tag-letters","tag-schools","tag-sixth-form","tag-the-guardian","tag-uk-letters-and-leader-writers","tag-uk-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}