Attempt #2

Here's the story of how I got my results.

I opened the envelope and saw "n/a" in the first row of the percentage column. For a split second I'm like, "oh my God they gave me a zero for something?!" ...that was the oral Irish section, which I didn't need to take. D'oh.

I saw "99%, passed" in music (I know exactly where I lost a mark, I switched off during the solo tunes thinking they'd be repeated like the sets and they weren't). I then stopped paying attention to the percentages and just glanced down the result column, I couldn't help myself from skipping ahead and not reading properly. I saw unsuccessful, unsuccessful, unsuccessful, passed. I didn't see the 95% in ceili written until later. All I saw was scores in the sixties.

I looked at the second sheet with the dancing breakdown on it. I'm disappointed with their comments but they really do miss nothing. I flipped over to look at the teaching results and was both pleasantly and unpleasantly surprised with some of the comments. Personally I don't understand all of them but what do I know?

I thought, I'm not going to do it. I thought I might just have passed dancing. I thought I can't go through it all again, the expense, the long weekend. I couldn't believe I'd failed it outright.

I took a photo of the results and text it to my friend. I took photos of all the breakdowns too and sent those. We had a little text chat. Then it hit me.

I did not fail outright.

All that time, I somehow had it in my head that 70% was the "get this mark or take everything again" mark, rather than the pass mark. I thought I'd missed by a mile. I didn't miss by a mile. In fact, I missed one section by two little marks. I can't believe it took me so long to realise that I was so close.

So. I will do it again. But, I've just priced up a trip to Limerick and it's nearly £700 even if I only spend one night there. I can't justify that so soon after dropping nigh on £850 the last time. It will have to be in a full year's time, hopefully in Britain again.

That gives me a year to learn two traditional set dances (I already know Jockey in theory, just need to learn to actually dance it), and to get more practice in teaching and specifically lilting. I know I won't be as nervous next time.

It's on.