English, ok.  I suspect I've forgotten more than I should 

Maths, iffy.. until I worked in a pub and had to add up the bar bills in my head.

I did well in English, but was always crap at maths(or so I thought). When I did my first degree, it had a stats module and I ended up acing that by applying myself properly. I took my GCSE maths a couple of years back, to get on a teacher training course. I hoped to scrape a C, but ended up getting an A, so I am actually not too bad at maths. Definitely more natural talent for English though!

I did reasonably well in English, very well at Maths and outstanding at Arithmetic - in my day Maths and Arithmetic were treated separately. Some areas of English were easier than others, but being proficient doesn't mean passing the exams with flying colours.

Straight "A"s: but I'm sure you all expected nothing less...

Like EFFT, I did Arithmetic as well as Maths, and I think that's something that has been overlooked a bit in the debate about this. If "they" are concerned about all pupils leaving school with certain key skills, perhaps they should concentrate more on the teaching of Arithmetic and English Language rather than Mathematics and "English" (which presumably covers both Language and Literature). Ideally you'd want to do the lot, but Arithmetic and English Language are more generally useful in everyday life...

I was really good at languages and crap at maths until my Headmistress (a nun) gave me a book where I had to solve math equations and whichever conclusion I came to lead me to a certain page, if I was wrong I was directed back, if I was right, moved on, you get the drift. It intrigued me enough to improve my math to the point where I could still help my grandson a few years ago and he's a bit of a child protege. So, I suppose I'm saying that math is important.

PS. My favourite is trigonometry

More importantly - are they relevant to every day life.

We studied Milton but i can't spell.

We studied quadratic equations but i can't add up.

“A” Level (C), “O” Level (B), in English… calculator for the other subject!

I think my year was the last, or last but one, to do “O” Levels

I do have to take specific calculations and measurement in my job from time to time… fortunately all the resources that I require are now at my fingertips!

That's my point about Arithmetic and English Language over Mathematics and English Literature, though. The first two are more generally useful for checking your change in the shops, using train timetables and everyday reading and writing...

In my day, Maths and Arithmetic were separate subjects. I was good at Arithmetic but rubbish at Maths. I was good at English and languages.

In Scotland, we sat separate O levels in Maths and Arithmetic. Nowadays, the subjects are combined into one exam.

was good at maffs, top percentile. .crap at eng lang and eng lit... failed both at O level. .probably would get an A nowadays [ducks]

Was good at picking up foreign languages, the speaking and basic writing of.. [probs due to having a mixed language speaking household growing up], but am pretty sure I'd fail on the official lang and Lit exam side of those too..

I was one of those cherubs that didn't attend school much so did my exams rather later than others although I did do CSE English and got a grade 1 which was equivalent to a grade C O Level.

Anyhoo I have an aptitude for English and got O level Bs for Literature and Language at college later on but point blank refused to do maths as I believed I was useless at it   I now have a degree in English and favour language over literature.  To get into university I needed a grade C maths or equivalent so did the equivalent and thought that would be enough but found a lot of jobs wouldn't accept the equivalency and even in some places of academia it was questioned too, so a couple of years ago I made the decision to fight my demons and I did a GCSE foundation course in Maths and got a grade C.  Couldn't believe that I actually enjoyed it so the following year I did Higher GCSE and got As for the first two modules but only a C for the Algebra module so it brought my overall mark down to a B but I'm more than happy with that

moral of this story is try your best you'll never know what you can achieve until you try and.... and... and..... one of the biggest factors I found was it does depend on how good the teacher is   I was lucky as both my maths tutors for GCSE were brilliant

My dad was very good at doing my algebra home work  unfortunately he couldn't sit the exam for me 

norty

I got a top-notch 'A' for my Arithmetic O Grade and a top-notch B for my Maths. I went on to do a 'Higher' Maths (C) and a Sixth Year Studies in Maths too. SYS is equivalent to the start of first year at University.
Meanwhile I got a 'C' in my English O Grade and had to sit my English Higher twice in order to get a 'C'.

Arithmetic didn't go any further than O Grade, but it was a compusory subject, along with English, so everybody had to do it, like it or not.

I just recall it being Maths once we left junior school, Joe.  Somewhere in my head I remember having lessons in trig...and then a bit of a glut of algebra and then on to logarithms for a what seemed an eternity.  There was no forewarning as to what the Maths lesson would entail though, so it was just called 'Maths' and we were divided into those of us taking it at O level and the others sitting it at GCE level.

I remember doing the poem Jodrell Bank for O level lit, along with The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Northanger Abbey and the Taming of the Shrew.

It was an epic year for being bored!

My sis did Northanger Abbey for O level, it's still one of her favourite books 

Oh gawd ... I did Cider With Rosie and something called Walkabout, which was about the Australian outback. The highlight of that year was making a hat with corks hanging from it. This was in the days when no one drank at home, so I think all of our hats only had about two corks on them!

I did the Rime of the Ancient Mariner (must have been popular for O level)  also Reynard's last run and Odour of Chrysanthemums and Henry V for Shakespeare and The Mayor of Casterbridge

Peter Grimes - what a miserable poem that was to study

I think we did the same year  Under Milk Wood too...bloody Richard Burton's voice droning on and on and flipping on Although I loved Cider with Rosie, its still one of my favs  

I think we did Othello, War poetry and Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath was so boring I still haven't finished it!

I always planned to "re-visit" Dubliners... but I've still not done so!

Maffs was never my strong point. but Inglish were alway my bestest subject;

Me too. Two and two is five right? 

Actually, I was always better at English than maths. Although I can add up and all the rest of the day to day stuff