ANOTHER set of good A-level results and instead of praise, the critics have yet again come out of the woodwork attacking any pride students have in their results.

They inform us that it couldn't possibly be the fact that the young people and teachers have worked hard to achieve the grades but instead - silly me to not think this - "the exams are getting so easy"!

I find this so irritating. These critics have no idea about the stress the exams cause to the students, teachers and parents.

On Thursday I will get my GCSE results and no doubt critics will strike again. In two years' time, when it's thought A-level exams will have a 100 per cent pass rate, I'll have to remember that, as I receive my A-level grades, all the hard work I've done will be pointless in the eyes of critics and simply the results of an easy exam paper.

It seems the words "well done" no longer exist, or maybe they are too harsh for critics to use.

Sarah Howat,

Towthorpe Road,

Haxby,

York.

Updated: 10:25 Monday, August 19, 2002