Name: Nicola Horlick, CEO of Money & Co and City supermum
Age: 54
What grades did you get: I did maths, further maths and history at A level. And general studies, because we were forced to. I’m not prepared to disclose the grades.
Which school did you go to? I was one of a handful of girls at Kingsmead boys’ prep school, which I loved. Then at 12, my parents sent me to Cheltenham Ladies’ College, which I hated. Girls can be really horrid. At 14, I ran away but was caught by police and marched back to the headmistress’s house. It was really quite traumatic. After that, I went to Birkenhead High School until I was 17, then spent a very happy half a year at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, USA.
What was your favourite subject? Maths. I loved acting too. When I was 17, I had an audition at RADA, but I went to Oxford to read law instead and ended up in the City. All that acting came in handy, because after 15 years of being in plays – I got the part of the Virgin Mary a lot in prep school, unsurprisingly – I was very comfortable standing up in front of people and talking.
What were you like at school? I’ve always been a participator – choir, football, cricket, acting. I was as busy then as I am now.
Are exams easier now than in your day? It’s very unfair to say our children have an easier time of it. I haven’t seen that at all with my six kids. When I looked at the maths my eldest son was doing for A level, it was no different from what I did. They do so well because of better teaching and because they’re much more conscientious than my generation.
Return to MT's exams special page to find out how the others did.
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