> Everything I know about algebra is what little I've been able to figure 
> out for myself and scrape out of library books.

Do a maths evening class?  You should sail through the GCSE, the A-level 
might take a little bit of work to fill in the gaps of your knowledge.  For 
even further the Open University probably offer something.

> What happens is that every single year, the pass rate either goes up, or 
> it goes down.

There is a strong upward trend though in the results:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_mJmwQtPmusk/Rt8ZqfEnvyI/AAAAAAAAA2U/TIGBotspDds/s400/gcse-scores--ns-2007.jpg

> I haven't had the opportunity to try that, so I really couldn't say.

Maybe one of your parents has an old text book from school? I also got my 
dad's A level physics text book, and it went in to so much more detail about 
*everything* that we did in A level physics, if I wanted to read further 
about anything in school I used his books.

> When I did my exams, I didn't think they were especially easy.

I'm not talking about individuals, I'm talking about the entire population. 
When something stupid like 40% gets an A grade, how is anyone meant to tell 
the difference between the hard working kids and the really clever ones? 
They introduced the A* grade at GCSE, but the % of people getting A* has 
been steadily rising.  How are Universities meant to choose the best 
students when more and more are applying with the highest possible grades?

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