As today's A-level results day it meant I read through the Clearing list for Physics carefully and I see that, as usual, Warwick has no places. Reading did. I'd mention this to my sister but she doesn't care; it's just me and my dad being smug. Although sadly, when we looked last year we found they don't do my course any more. Can't imagine why - we certainly did our best to put people off doing when we were there.

There was the usual stuff in the paper about A levels getting easier and a piece on there being fewer people doing science subjects because they're 'hard': Sir, can we do something easier?

This is something that I can never quite understand because A level Physics has got to be easier than A level English Lit, for example. For Physics all you had to do was learn the formulae and the situations you applied them, and the definitions. That's it. English you have to read a load of books and write essays. The idea of essays without formulae, headings, diagrams and graphs is just odd to me now.

To illustrate their point (I assume) they've got a science quiz in there, which includes the easiest questions ever. For example:

6) What is Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection?

Frankly, if you don't know that you should be taken out and shot.

7) In what order are the planets arranged in the solar system?

In all fairness, there's been a bit of an issue over this recently but everyone should be able to manage the basic nine. I remember in secondary school our class coming up with a mnemonic to remember it. The only way I could remember the mnemonic was to first think of the order of the planets. (The mnemonic was, BTW, Mark Versus Emma. Mark Jumps Sexily Undoing New Pyjamas - there was a girl in the class called Emma who was going out with a boy called Mark at the time).

I gave up reading them after that because I was too busy laughing.

The most interesting, and true, part of the article came at the end:

you shouldn't have to work that hard to make physics exciting, because [...] it is exciting

Too right. I mean, you get to find out how things work. You don't get that in english lit.

(It was so nice the other weekend to be with mostly physicists and mathematicians, I'm surrounded by arts students at work, it's terrible.)

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