In England we are allowed to choose what subjects we do. Some subjects are compulsory at my school up to the point I am at but then we can do whichever four subjects we want in the last two years of school. I do not care how much choice we have (as long as I am not forced to do subjects which I can't to a ridiculous level), to me what matters most is what is in the exams.

The scientific curriculum I have just finished studying (I am about to change courses from GCSE which has 9 subjects to A level in which you can chose whatever subjects you like and usualy people do 4 at my school), when put into booklet format, amounts to 269 pages. We have to study a similar amount for six other subjects at the same time.

I can tell you what pressure and temperature is used in the direct hydration of ethanol, the production of ammonia and the production of sulphuric acid as well as what the latter two final products can be used to make. Do you really believe that knowing I can make nylon out of ammonia is going to be usefull? It could be argued that such processes demonstrate chemical but do I need to know the tempurature at each end of a crude oil distillation tower?

I enjoy learning sciences but there is a point where it stops being scientific and start being random facts. I am sorry if this post sounds quite aggressive, the tone is unintentional. It is easy to think that GCSE is basic because the actual science we learn us basic, but it is no longer only science we are tested on. One of the questions in my physics paper was about how hurricanes form (it makes sense because it is convection but such questions are confusing for geographers because the diagram in the paper was incorrect).

This is why I like maths and liked physics so much. Maths requires nothing but logic, all the answers are there but you have to present them in the right way. Physic equations are usually common sense. However, the exam board is trying to make the science papers more writing based than equation and knowledge based, which is probably better as a test of intellect but which make physics much less enjoyable.

You talk about education before university like it doesn't matter but exams are what decide who is good enough to go to which university so they are inseparably linked.

Keep in mind that the knowledge I have told you we require is only for GCSE, this will still be considered as easy when we move onto studying for the next set of exams, A levels. I probably sound really defensive and offended in most of this post so I think it us worth pointing out that my pride was not dented by your slander of my current studies and I am not writing this to regain confidence in my intelligence.

I hope that covers everything and makes some sort of sense. Thank you for reading. I am going to do some more revision for the chemistry exam I have in about 5 hours from now.