Last Neanderthals Podcast
Stories that shape futures. Last Neanderthals is a podcast dedicated to learning, evolving and becoming our best selves. Evolve with us!
Last Neanderthals Podcast
From 4 GCSE’s to the Royal Marines to Academic Success || Seb O’Callaghan Pt 2
Ever wondered how far resilience can take you? Our guest, Seb, shares his extraordinary journey of rising above academic and personal struggles to achieve remarkable success. Leaving school with only four GCSEs, Seb self-taught his A-levels during military deployments and earned acceptance into prestigious universities, ultimately pursuing an economics degree at the University of Liverpool. Listen as we uncover the emotional highs and lows, periods of depression, and the pivotal moment that led him to join the Royal Marines.
Seb's story underscores the incredible impact of dedicated teaching and mentorship. We reminisce about transformative educators who made a lasting difference and discuss how effective teaching methods can spark a passion for learning in even the most reluctant students. Personal anecdotes reveal the emotional toll of perceived academic failures, the addictive nature of video games, and the values that shape family dynamics and commitment. We also delve into the intricate dynamics of sibling relationships and the importance of creating a close-knit family environment.
Embark on a gripping narrative of military life, from the intense 32-week Marine training to the camaraderie among soldiers. Seb provides insights into the mental and physical challenges faced during training and deployments, emphasizing the importance of mental resilience, teamwork, and accountability. The episode explores the transition from military life to university, highlighting self-teaching strategies, time management, and the philosophical reflections on kindness and personal legacy. Join us for an inspiring look at overcoming adversity and achieving one's goals against all odds.
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you joined the Marines? Yeah, you were deployed. When did you start thinking I want to do my A-levels again?
Speaker 2:It's actually got a little bit of a story to it. So, obviously, in terms of qualification-wise, I've got four GCs and a BTEC. I've got nothing. And I'm not thinking about qualifications, I'm looking out into the sea. It was in the Middle East, actually at the point in the Middle East, actually at the point in the Gulf of Oman, and I was kind of just like this is fucking shit, like this is so shit. I thought we were going to do a world around. We didn't, which sounds crazy and like psychopathic, but I was just like nothing's going to happen, is it?
Speaker 2:I'd always heard stories about blokes never actually getting to go anywhere and just being constantly frustrated. I was like, all right, I started imagining my life at uni. I was like fuck, I've wasted my mind because I I could have done well at school if I tried. I definitely had like the groundwork for it and I just didn't try. I thought I think I've got the, I've got all the tools I now need mentally to try and to actually push through and do it. And I've been doing Sudoku for a few weeks. Um, so I wasn't actually my uni, I was. That was just a nice bit in my head. But I've completed the whole Sudoku book, um, and then I thought I was enjoying it.
Speaker 2:So I I got my mum to send my old A-level math book from the year, from the first year that I never completed, just for just to do a task the problems of fun, just work through them. And then I completed that and I was like, oh, could I? Because she bought me a second year one, so she sent a second year one over, started doing that and I came back and then COVID happened. So this is 20, this is March 23rd 2020, and once COVID happened, I had loads of free time. I used some of it quite lazily, but a lot of the time I was just doing the maths for fun. And then I thought I just completed two books. I may as well just, I may as well try for the A level, just see if I can do it.
Speaker 2:So I, I, um, I signed up for the like an exam hall basically, where you just go in and sit with like random people, um, I signed up for one of them, did that, uh, and after years, after revising for the whole year and that sort of thing, math was easy as well because it was just problem solving, I didn't need anybody with me. All I needed to do was go through problems and that sort of thing, um, and then this, that shit thing happened where grades were reported. Now, I was an external student so I couldn't sit, I, they couldn't, no one could report my grades. My mum called in a few favors at her school and she asked the people at the school basically please could my son submit his work, um, and sit some mock papers and basically, just like he was a student, do what they've done and they. It was a lot of pushing and shoving, but I found a lot for this. She's like got it pushed through.
Speaker 2:Um, I had to send them exact six exam papers that I did in front of her in time conditions. That was a lot of time for her to do, so thank God again. And then I've sat um three exam papers in the school that were like um, they pulled different questions from different years. I was kind of annoyed because I should have got an, a star. I was on like 89% for all of my mocks. I've got like 85% in the one that they gave me, but they said that this sounds like a lie. But they told me that they couldn't be seen to be giving an external student an A-star when they had to give a certain amount out to their own students.
Speaker 1:During that time. That's completely believable because that was so shambolic.
Speaker 2:They had a fixed amount they could give out and they couldn't be seen to give it to an external person who just asked. So, they gave me an A instead. Now I'm still very thankful for that.
Speaker 1:And, by the way, 89% for A level maths is really high. Yeah, but it's because?
Speaker 2:because you can just learn maths, and they're not going to change the questions, they're going to change the numbers and you can learn every process quite easily without external help. I don't think I don't want to belittle anyone's maths A level, but it's probably one of the easier ones to secure. You can't get 100% in English Lit, but you could get 100% in a maths paper if you wanted. That's the difference I feel.
Speaker 1:What was your favourite paper?
Speaker 2:Favourite paper, it was the non-calc definitely the first one, I think, really. Yeah, I didn't like the calc one because they gear the questions in a certain way so that you need a calculator and they go a bit insane. The paper one's very intuitive and like did you do mechanics?
Speaker 3:yeah, yeah, mechanics, yeah mechanics is so good when you get it. Yeah, yeah, it's a more satisfying one.
Speaker 1:It just made sense to me the whole paper. It was so, so sick, I think.
Speaker 2:But a bit where it doesn't make sense. It's like so frustrating, and then it clicks at once. It very much clicks at once Stats is boring and frustrating.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I hated stats. That was the worst one for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah but I knew in my mind that this is the most useful part of maths for real world. It easily is. Out of all those topics, it's the one you actually use. Stats yeah, yeah, yeah, 100%. It's the only one out of the three that you will use in most jobs.
Speaker 1:I think, I think at that time the grade boundaries like, from what I remember, an A and A level maths was like 60% you needed yeah, yeah, it was 74 for any stars which is crazy that's like 89% and not getting any stars. That's crazy, quite unfair.
Speaker 2:I can understand it because and I'm still thankful because they sorted me out and they didn't need to, so I'll always be thankful to the school for doing that. And then when I got that, I just thought, fuck, so I just need to do two A levels and get two B's and then I can go to a Russell group and no one in my family has ever been to a Russell group, wow. So I was like I was like, from going like being the fuck up to then being a Royal Marine who went to a Russell group, that is the full pivot because it's realizing my potential. It's also one of my goals, remember, for the Marines was to sort my life out and put me back on the path that I probably should have been on if I, if I had the right sort of maybe environment or mindset on. So I was thinking, right, this is it. So I took psychology and economics. I just bought the textbooks. I found this guy on YouTube called Econ Plus Doll and he just taught me everything in econ.
Speaker 2:He was one of those science guys you were talking about earlier he was insane, insane at teaching and he could teach you a really complex topic very quickly. Shout out.
Speaker 1:Can I use him for my uni economics?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can for the basics. He's good man. He's very good In psychology. I made this disgusting system where I had an A4 page. I had eight A4 pages for each subtopic within one of the three papers.
Speaker 3:Do you remember those three papers? And there's like eight topics in each.
Speaker 2:Yes, I made like eight pieces of paper for each topic within there, drawing together all the researchers and then having arrows so they all link together in a mind map with loads of colours and loads of like. Every single oh one thing I should say as well. The biggest thing I learned was A. I had to teach myself stuff without any sort of external help. I did get an economics tutor for the last few weeks, but I was just going to need an essay structure.
Speaker 2:Teaching how to teach myself was so good because I learned that each subject requires a different approach. I thought I could just do what I did with maths and go through the textbook, do the questions at the end of each chapter and then get it right, do a mock paper. That's not how I learned psychology and economics. Economics was all about I actually didn't have written work that I used to revise. Economics is all about getting to understand the topic, feeding it back in an essay, thinking have I got it right? Seeing what other people said no, do I understand it? It was all about understanding how it moves together, the mechanics, the fluidity between each of the topics. So you needed more feedback.
Speaker 3:Uh, yeah I definitely did I definitely did for economics.
Speaker 2:I got an a in that, but it was the one I enjoyed most and if I I think if I had a teacher, I probably would have been closer to the a star. And then psychology was all about rote learning these pieces of paper so I could feed back questions on the topic, which I hated. I hated the fact that I was just. I had these eight pieces of paper on the back, I had 16 questions and I'd write the questions based on the things.
Speaker 2:So if it was like a researcher here, I'd say what researcher did this study? And then I'd turn it over it would say Zimbardo, yeah, I was like, and one of the questions would be what were the cons of the Stanford Prison Experiment? And then I'd say the answer in my head and then I'd do all 16. I'd turn it over to you and I'd go right, I'm wrong. And then I'd either red mark or green mark them as soon as something got three green marks. I didn't do it again as soon as something had a red mark. I had to do that twice over and I had that system that I was going through Traffic light system.
Speaker 2:They call it yeah, yeah, yes, I love that system it was really good for rote learning, but I hated it because I didn't actually learn much. I learned how to say, I learned how to memorize and spew out all this information. I just thought this isn't interesting me at all. Um, and then yeah, I got. I got two a's on those as well. They were stressful because two a levels at once. Whilst training in the arctic was, I had to just set aside an hour and a half every evening from 9.30 to 11. But my rule was an hour and a half no more, no less.
Speaker 2:So that means that it was guaranteed. So on a really busy day, I'd still be able to do it. On a day where I had lots of free time, I'd just do the hour and a half, and if I had loads of easy days in a row, I just do the hour and a half, and then a hard day would come and I'm like I've done so much over the last few days, I probably don't need to do it and I was like, but it's only an hour and a half and I've done it so many times, I'm so used to how it feels. So I just did it. And then that meant that it was so achievable because it was a guarantee. No matter what in my day, I was doing that and that was definitely the best way to approach time management, because I had to do my job, do operational stuff because that's out of hours a lot of the time Get called into the store, get called in to help out with stuff, go and retrieve someone from some part of the field or the exercise, and also just to keep up with the physical routine. But yeah, that taught me a lot in terms of time management and time blocking as well, and then I just applied to uni with like, but I didn't have particular grades. I only had maths, a-level maths, and my whole personal statement was like this elaborate way of saying I've failed everything here.
Speaker 2:I made a pivotal change joined the Marines Because I looked at how to do personal elements online. I'm like that's for A-level students. I need to write one. I'm convincing someone and I said I've got one A-level. I've got an A in A-level maths from self-teach. I'm currently self-teaching psychology and economics. I'm very sure I will get an A or more in each of these and my source was kind of trust me bro, that's incredible.
Speaker 2:And I got accepted to Leeds, liverpool and Bristol and then Liverpool, john Moores, because I needed an insurance one. Manchester rejects me and I'll never forgive them for that.
Speaker 1:They missed out. Why did you choose Liverpool? It was Manchester rejected me and I never forgave them for that. They missed out. Why did you choose Liverpool?
Speaker 2:it was Manchester first and Liverpool second. It was just because I wanted to be in a big northern city, big hub for music and like culture, and Liverpool and Manchester to me were those Leeds isn't much what I don't like Leeds as much as the other two, so it was always between those two. The city had to be massive. I couldn't. I'm a big city guy. Yeah, yeah, and Liverpool's a sick place as well, yeah yeah, now that I'm here, I would recommend to anybody to come to uni here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'd say much better than Manchester. I'm not going to lie, I might be a bit biased.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I, just because of my hatred of Manchester Uni.
Speaker 1:But what did it feel like when you finally decided I'm going to uni? Was there any sadness leaving the Marines Because it had completely changed your life?
Speaker 2:When you're leaving the military, you feel the opposite of nostalgia. You remember all the bad stuff Really, and then, once it's been a year or two out, then the nostalgia comes. Everyone in their last year of military service is I want to fucking get out of here right now. It's a year's notice as well. It's not, it's not quick yeah, yeah, um.
Speaker 1:So when did you give that notice? I?
Speaker 2:started psychology and economics I didn't even know if I'd got into uni, yet I was just like I was like I need to I need to. I need the pressure of you know, I need to get this done, otherwise I'm fucked. So yeah and yeah. Now I'm here at uni and I love it. To be fair, I love it, yeah.
Speaker 3:Living life on edge man. The most impressive part of all of this is that this guy decided to just get a maths book and he was like I'm going to solve these questions.
Speaker 2:But I did it for fun. That's the thing, like that is that's a bit psychotic, that's a bit like I don't know when I think when you're really bored and you actually do enjoy math problems, it's quite satisfying yeah, to be fair, I've been out of a classroom, I've been out of a classroom for four years as well, so I I hadn't been used to having to do fucking questions in homework all the time it was quite fun for me.
Speaker 1:I was just like, oh, I gotta solve these problems and then I'll see if they're right yeah, that's really interesting because I've found that maths for me becomes so much more difficult if I don't do it regularly, like unlike all the other subjects that I did biology, chemistry and stuff I retain that so much better than maths, yeah, for some reason. So doing it four years later and then just being able to finish that book is I didn't remember any of it.
Speaker 2:I hadn't done A-level maths before, I just learned it all.
Speaker 3:I read the bits.
Speaker 2:To be fair, those textbooks are really. If you actually read what they're saying, look at the problems they're doing. They do it in a really progressive way and maths is a very easy subject to put in a book. I think If you follow it in a linear fashion, 100% it's not like an essay subject where you have to think do I understand what they're saying? It's like they're telling you facts building on it, building on it, building on it and then getting you to the end of the problem.
Speaker 3:So yeah, Another question, a burning question I've got. Why is it burning?
Speaker 2:Because I was kind of big. It's hot in this room.
Speaker 3:Also I almost interrupted so I apologize that is that you have experienced such a different life at Marine when you transition to university it must feel weird, wouldn't it? Like all of these guys are in a bubble. They don't even know what's suffering. Do you have a bit of that?
Speaker 2:No, no no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I uh, I I actually always believed I was very heavily not institutionalized. I was never. I was never a military man. When I was in the military I got I think I got a lot of the skills, a lot of the discipline, a lot of the really cool mindset parts and like how to approach problems, but I never had like I never was like a soldier who couldn't think about anything else, or patriotic to death or like um, I didn't. I didn't sort of unquestionably take orders. Sometimes I would even um, because in the marines sometimes as well, you're encouraged to say if you think an order is a bit silly or if you think it's actually not helpful. I would always be more in that boat. I got called cheeky quite a lot actually by my sergeants and corporals. I had a few bollockings as well about that sort of thing, because I was never that military action man sort of thing. I was always ready for uni.
Speaker 3:When I was in the Marines, it wasn't actually that hard for me to okay, yeah, yeah, okay. So one year, like with some kind of culture shock, like, oh, what is this? Not at all.
Speaker 2:No, no, I visited my mates in leeds all the time who were at uni over covid, um, and I'd stayed in their house for a bit because, uh, I'd go home. But I couldn't go home because there were people in my house with covid, so I'd go home from work just straight to them, stay with them for a bit and I got to experience what they were living like at uni and covid which is obviously not like uni, but it was. I could see it, I like the sort of I like the way people were all the time I love how, like you're very, you got a very fluid personality, very adaptable.
Speaker 3:You never put yourself in a box or you know this is me, this isn't me or like you know.
Speaker 1:I really like that's quite fascinating, yeah I think the biggest compliment you can give someone is I wouldn't be able to pinpoint what your answer to questions would be like. Do you know how some people you ask them a question? You already know what they're going to say like yeah, you can hear what they would say. Already. You, you can tell you kind of think for yourself, and there's not many people in this world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, to be fair, I'd like to pride myself on that a little bit, to be fair, yeah, as you should. Yeah, because everyone should think critically. You should take all these opinions you see everywhere, but you should take them towards forming your own based on your thinking skills that you've got I don't know. You should never be ushered into a train of thought.
Speaker 1:Definitely that's why this conversation was so fascinating, because when we were asking you these questions, like specifically the military ones, I had no idea what your response was going to be. It wasn't like oh, he's done this, so then he's going to say that and he's going to believe this because so it was a really fascinating conversation yeah, very fascinating story, very smart as well. So we wanted to talk politics with you, but we don't have time.
Speaker 1:Maybe next time maybe in the future see if it's more than five years but no, thanks so much for joining yeah, thank you for having me as well you did a really good job as well, but we've got a final question that we'd like to end on. That push on likes to ask go ahead.
Speaker 3:What would you want written on your tombstone?
Speaker 2:this can be cut, can't it?
Speaker 3:this can be cut or this can be cut. This could removed from there.
Speaker 2:I don't know what the wording would be that would have to be for a linguist or someone like a poet, but it would be something along the lines of how I was always thinking just generally, not about like answering something or anything like that, just generally thinking, and how I was always, always managed to find the time to be kind to others, even if I didn't need to be. Yeah, something along the lines of that, I think. I think that's what I would want. I'd want people to think that I was a a carefully thought out person with logical thoughts, but also not nasty in any way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, you've done a very good job of presenting yourself in that way on this podcast, Don't worry, guys so yeah, thank you, seb, it's been a great conversation. Thank you so much and thanks for watching everyone.
Speaker 3:Thank you for watching.
