>> 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.

My mum suggested I do a maths A-level. Personally, I'm not sure where 
I'd find the money or the time. Nice idea though...

>> 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:

Is this a fact, or just hype? It's hard to tell just by listening to the 
news. (If you believed them, bird flu is a deadly world-wide pandemic 
which is killing everything in sight...)

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


This isn't grades, it's point scores. You can get a higher GSCE point 
score by taking more subjects.

>> 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.

I have my mum's O-level maths books. (Plural.) And her logarithm tables. 
(They're very brown and crumbly.) The books talk about a lot of stuff I 
either already know or don't understand. I guess because I don't know 
the stuff that's supposed to come *before* an O-level. The books talk a 
lot about trigonometry and triangle rules; damn, at my school, maths 
classes didn't even mention triangles!

> When something stupid like 40% gets an A grade

It's that high??

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