A time of high emotions.

Maybe you got the results you were expecting.

Maybe you did far better than you were expecting.

Or maybe you only made it through to one exam

before paralyzing your arms, being rushed into hospital,

and told by a consultant that you really

couldn't continue with your exams

because it would probably kill you.

Relatable content, huh?

Subscribe if you haven't already.

There are lots of amazing stories on YouTube

about people studying really hard

and achieving amazing grades.

I recently made friends with some absolutely

lovely StudyTubers, Eve, Jack, Ruby, and Jade

who do a podcast together called The Wooden Spoon.

And who are delightful human beings.

What I'm not seeing is a lot of content about

what happens when things go really wrong

and how you can actually recover from that.

I mean, not everyone has a smooth journey in education

or even in life and it's important

that those of us who didn't complete every year

like we were supposed to or took a very winding path

to where we wanted to be or even just

dropped out and went off to do something else

know that we're not alone.

So I sat down with my wife Claudia

who had an academic journey that looked like this.

(light music)

Compared to mine which took like this (airplane rumbling).

To have a conversation about how we find

the happy places that we're in today.

I really want you to share your stories

in the comments as well and if you're feeling like,

oh, no, no one else has ever been in my position before,

I can guarantee you that someone else

will probably be able to relate.

Don't be shy and if you see someone who needs

some kind words, please go share a little love at them.

Remember, you are not alone and having a wonky education

is not the end of the world.

You will find your way.

So, on with the conversation.

Hi, wife. - Hi, wife.

- So I decided that we should have a little chat

about exam results because we have

incredibly different life histories

when it comes to school and results.

Because how many schools did you go to?

- Two.

- How many schools did I go to?

- Seven. - Yeah.

I apologize, also, for my voice.

I am very ill but.

So, I think it's really important to talk about

because a lot of the stuff around exam season

and people getting results and it's all like,

wow, amazing, how exciting!

You know, the kids, they always take pictures of

on exam results date and they do the jump

because everyone has to have a jump photo

for some reason. - Oh, I see, yeah.

Like, woo-hoo, free! - I bet you were

in a jump photo. - No, I was not.

- I bet someone would have wanted

to put you in a jump photo.

- Probably, seeing that I was

probably one of the only ethnic of the--

(Jessica laughs) Whites in the school.

I was often in the school catalog

for that little bit of representation.

- Just bring you out.

Oh, it's Christmas. - Yeah.

- Wait, make her Mary.

- No, I think I did feature-- - We're diverse.

- I think I actually featured on the front cover.

- Sure, Surrey's a diverse place.

They want you to know it.

- Yeah.

Talking of which, that is one of the reason

why my sister and I got sent to a nice, little

private primary school.

Yeah, we were like, why did you send us

to a private primary school?

Like what is the point of spending money

on primary education, you know?

Especially when you don't have that much money.

Dad was like, "Oh, look, well, Dad was bullied

"when he was little." - Yeah.

- And he just thought, he grew up in Dover

and anyone who was not white was picked on

'cause it was quite racist in his day.

- This story needs to point out

that your dad is the white parent though.

- Yeah, my dad is white, yeah.

He was bullied for being a boff,

I guess. - Aw.

- I mean, maybe he wasn't bullied,

but he always, I don't know, I just assume he was.

(both laughing)

He said that was the main reason

he sent me and my sister to a primary school

because he thought the class sizes are smaller,

the teachers are less likely to

pick on the kids in that sense

and also the other kids would then less likely pick on.

- So, then, would you say you had a pretty smooth

educational history?

Like you went to primary school,

you just changed to a secondary school.

- Yeah.

- They taught you stuff.

- Yeah, I did the-- - You passed some tests.

- Yeah, so-- - Do you even remember?

What were your exam results?

- For what? - GCSEs, what did you get?

- Well, let's start earlier.

For, what are they called?

- [Both] SATs.

- Quick explainer for those of you who aren't British,

we go to primary school from the age of five to 11

and secondary school from 11 to 18.

We take SATs at the end of primary school,

that's 11 years old, and at the end of the first

three years of secondary school.

So that's 14 years old.

There are then two years of working towards

our GCSE exams from 14 to 16

where you'll do between five to 10 subjects

followed by two years of A level exams,

that's 16 to 18, where you generally narrow down

to three or four subjects.

- For SATs, I think I got, what is it,

like, five, five, six or something?

Is that even a thing? - You got to do six?

You got to the six paper? - Yeah.

- They didn't have that in my school.

- I think it was like five, five, six.

I think six was in science

and the five and five were in math and English.

Is that how it worked, I can't remember.

This is a long time ago. - Science, what?

- I swear we did the science-- - This was a while ago.

- I might be making this up.

I was only 10 or 11 years old.

Yeah, so I might not have got a five in maths

'cause that maths was pretty bad.

- Your maths is terrible.

- My maths has got worse with age.

I actually was gonna do maths a F,

a S level, can you remember AS levels?

- Yeah, but also--

- Yeah, I was doing maths and statistics

and I started to do that, God knows why,

and there was only three other girls

because, again, I went to a very good

secondary private school

where there weren't many people in the school.

Anyway, there were only three other girls

doing this class. - Yeah.

- And the teacher was like, I've kinda diverted,

I've gone on a bit of a tangent here.

And they were like, "Okay, so to warm you up

"after the school holidays, we're gonna do some GCSE level,"

what are they called?

Equal? - Equations.

- Yeah, equations (laughs).

There's a name for them, though.

That type that you find out what the,

you have to prove what the answer is.

Some apparently very simple GCSE level equations

and, anyway, I realized at the end of this class that

I needed to not be in this class

(Jessica laughs) because

I was on question three and everyone else

was on question 16, 17.