Ruby Granger #5 Counting Her Ad Money With Closed, Grateful Eyes

[Ripley Rose Kat]

Not to be a dick but if one of Ruby's biggest failures in life is not getting into Oxford, it shows how incredibly sheltered she is.

I'm not an expert in English language by any means but her work is very subpar. In the book, it's not something I'd expect from someone claims to be so academically gifted. I know her target audience is for younger for story but I don't know... Call me an hole but I was expecting a lot more.

I feel like Ruby has had her ego rubbed up a lot throughout her life. I think she would have been for an incredibly rude awakening at Oxford, jeez.

Just to add, I wonder if her regressing into her younger self is her realising that she's a small fish in a big pond? Lecturers don't have time for know-it-all and people who want to do extra work. (for seemingly no reason in her case) I'm not saying don't do well, but she's probably used to getting praise from teachers constantly and now gets honest and sound feedback/critiques. I don't think she can handle that. You don't get a star and constant adoration, and praise at university.

I'm not saying she's a moron, she's clearly bright but I think her teachers and parents have made her think she's better than she actually is, if you see what I mean.

 

[tsuyu]

Omg I literally just came across this

That was the first video I watched of her the secondhand embarrassment was real
I got a 2:2 overall in my degree, I'm extremely disappointed with myself but I went through a lot mental health wise in my last year which contributed to that grade. Had a great time though and feel I learnt a lot during my time at uni so I'm very grateful of my time there!
Tbh tho, I've never once been asked by employers to confirm I even have a degree, let alone the grade I got. Employers don't really care about grades from my experience

 

[shoshannadreyfus]

That was the first video I watched of her the secondhand embarrassment was real
I got a 2:2 overall in my degree, I'm extremely disappointed with myself but I went through a lot mental health wise in my last year which contributed to that grade. Had a great time though and feel I learnt a lot during my time at uni so I'm very grateful of my time there!
Tbh tho, I've never once been asked by employers to confirm I even have a degree, let alone the grade I got. Employers don't really care about grades from my experience

They care about grades to an extent for graduate jobs/schemes where you generally need a 2:1 but I don't see Ruby doing a grad job anyway. I imagine she'll do a masters and maybe a PhD so it's useful for that too. I find it kind of weird she hasn't mentioned anything about her plans for the future bc she seems like the kind of person who would plan ahead a lot, if she decided by age 12 she wanted to go to Oxford...

 

[meweme]

Has anyone seen Jack Edwards new video in which he reads Bridgerton and rants about the incorrect use of big words? ... Had to think about someone.

 

[tsuyu]

They care about grades to an extent for graduate jobs/schemes where you generally need a 2:1 but I don't see Ruby doing a grad job anyway. I imagine she'll do a masters and maybe a PhD so it's useful for that too. I find it kind of weird she hasn't mentioned anything about her plans for the future bc she seems like the kind of person who would plan ahead a lot, if she decided by age 12 she wanted to go to Oxford...

Yeah tbh if I wanted to do a masters (which I'd love to in the future) my options would be limited but although disappointed with a 2:2, I'm at peace with it too. Kob wise, depending on the career path a 2:2 won't really hold someone back that much (my experience obviously!)

Theres always speculation with what she'll do after her degree! I'm surprised she hasn't mentioned it at all, not even in passing. Unless she has?? Maybe she doesn't know, I definitely see her doing a masters for sure but who knows, she could be hoping her writing career takes off and she'll do that instead

 

[shoshannadreyfus]

Yeah tbh if I wanted to do a masters (which I'd love to in the future) my options would be limited but although disappointed with a 2:2, I'm at peace with it too. Kob wise, depending on the career path a 2:2 won't really hold someone back that much (my experience obviously!)

Theres always speculation with what she'll do after her degree! I'm surprised she hasn't mentioned it at all, not even in passing. Unless she has?? Maybe she doesn't know, I definitely see her doing a masters for sure but who knows, she could be hoping her writing career takes off and she'll do that instead

You can get onto some masters with a 2:2 hopefully you'll find one

I don't really know what popular job options are for English students. It's quite a vague degree so you could probably get a lot of jobs that are the type that just want you to have a degree and aren't bothered what it's in. But I feel like Ruby would think herself above a lot of jobs lol

 

[Lola123]

You can get onto some masters with a 2:2 hopefully you'll find one

I don't really know what popular job options are for English students. It's quite a vague degree so you could probably get a lot of jobs that are the type that just want you to have a degree and aren't bothered what it's in. But I feel like Ruby would think herself above a lot of jobs lol

Teachers!! You can become a teacher with a 2:2 one of my best friends did!

 

[wolkenstadt]

Sorry! English isn't my native language.

I really have problems to understand Ruby's texts though I am not too bad in English, because of things like that (or "candle(sticks)" ).
I don't understand every word sometimes, but reading this thread improved my English very much. I learned many new words and spoken language; I must admit that I needed some time to understand abbreviations like idk, imo or lmao. But most stuff I can look up by the "Nachschlagen" function on iOs when you tip on the word longer.

Thanks for this nice side effect and best wishes from Germany!

 

[Deeznutslol]

Not to be a dick but if one of Ruby's biggest failures in life is not getting into Oxford, it shows how incredibly sheltered she is.

I'm not an expert in English language by any means but her work is very subpar. In the book, it's not something I'd expect from someone claims to be so academically gifted. I know her target audience is for younger for story but I don't know... Call me an hole but I was expecting a lot more.

I feel like Ruby has had her ego rubbed up a lot throughout her life. I think she would have been for an incredibly rude awakening at Oxford, jeez.

Just to add, I wonder if her regressing into her younger self is her realising that she's a small fish in a big pond? Lecturers don't have time for know-it-all and people who want to do extra work. (for seemingly no reason in her case) I'm not saying don't do well, but she's probably used to getting praise from teachers constantly and now gets honest and sound feedback/critiques. I don't think she can handle that. You don't get a star and constant adoration, and praise at university.

I'm not saying she's a moron, she's clearly bright but I think her teachers and parents have made her think she's better than she actually is, if you see what I mean.

You’re right mate. I feel grim writing this but tbh, after seeing excerpts from her book (ik she was 17 at the time she wrote it) and the standard of her writing in her instagram captions, I think it’s mad she even applied. She’s just not the sort to be accepted into oxford, she’s clearly intelligent and well educated but she just lacks originality and talent. Obviously it was her dream to go to oxford, but in a way, it was almost cruel for her parents and school to push her to go for it. All she had was the grades, and other than that there wasn’t a huge chance of her getting in, and it has clearly had a big impact on her

 

[Calabria]

I think my favourite bit of “Erimemtha Parker is an insufferable bellend” is where on one page she’s in class reading Shakespeare and you turn the page and the book has magically changed into Middlemarch

 

[Deeznutslol]

I really have problems to understand Ruby's texts though I am not too bad in English, because of things like that (or "candle(sticks)" ).
I don't understand every word sometimes, but reading this thread improved my English very much. I learned many new words and spoken language; I must admit that I needed some time to understand abbreviations like idk, imo or lmao. But most stuff I can look up by the "Nachschlagen" function on iOs when you tip on the word longer.

Thanks for this nice side effect and best wishes from Germany!

Mate, don’t you worry. I’m an english native speaker and even I don’t understand half the stuff ruby writes

 

[Ilaariaa]

I really have problems to understand Ruby's texts though I am not too bad in English, because of things like that (or "candle(sticks)" ).
I don't understand every word sometimes, but reading this thread improved my English very much. I learned many new words and spoken language; I must admit that I needed some time to understand abbreviations like idk, imo or lmao. But most stuff I can look up by the "Nachschlagen" function on iOs when you tip on the word longer.

Thanks for this nice side effect and best wishes from Germany!

The Internet is great for improving your English. I learnt tons of vocabulary, abbreviations and idioms effortlessly just bleeping around on the Internet and reading forums etc. in English. It's definitely more fun than memorising lists of words haha

Theres always speculation with what she'll do after her degree! I'm surprised she hasn't mentioned it at all, not even in passing. Unless she has?? Maybe she doesn't know, I definitely see her doing a masters for sure but who knows, she could be hoping her writing career takes off and she'll do that instead

I feel like in order to be a successful writer Ruby still needs to work a lot on her writing skills. And she needs to accept people's criticism and actively work to do better.

It's clear that with her first book, she either was so sure of herself and her work that she didn't even ask for a second opinion before publishing it, or she didn't get an honest opinion but just fake praise from her mum or something, or she didn't listen to any of the feedback she received and just did things her way. And the result was disastrous.

 

[pumpkinssspice]

A bit random but I wonder why her English degree at Exeter is listed from 2019-2023 on LinkedIn? Did she switch to a 4 year course with a year abroad/placement? Can’t imagine her leaving England for more than a week

 

[3littlekittens]

A bit random but I wonder why her English degree at Exeter is listed from 2019-2023 on LinkedIn? Did she switch to a 4 year course with a year abroad/placement? Can’t imagine her leaving England for more than a week

Her family strikes me as the type to vacation in Spain every year (British with tons of money to burn). But I wouldn't be suprised if they spent all their time in a resort.

 

[Griftwood]

The ESL talk suddenly reminded me - I learned English at school, but I read a lot as a kid and I read all the middle grade books our small town library carried in English. And one of my favorite reads was definitely the Malory Towers series! I built so much vocabulary through those books.

But, and I cannot emphasize this enough, I moved on at age 10 or 11.

 

[sunlightscribbles]

just started reading erimentha parker's to do list and the book is definitely all about her

 

[missmina]

You’re right mate. I feel grim writing this but tbh, after seeing excerpts from her book (ik she was 17 at the time she wrote it) and the standard of her writing in her instagram captions, I think it’s mad she even applied. She’s just not the sort to be accepted into oxford, she’s clearly intelligent and well educated but she just lacks originality and talent. Obviously it was her dream to go to oxford, but in a way, it was almost cruel for her parents and school to push her to go for it. All she had was the grades, and other than that there wasn’t a huge chance of her getting in, and it has clearly had a big impact on her

It's not even that she was only 17 when she wrote it. From what I remember it had spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes, factual mistakes and I could go on and on. She didn't even bother to proofread it. I think she was so sure of herself and her amazing writing skills that she didn't care at all.
Also, my opinion might be wrong, but I've spent two years in a private school (it was a primary school and I hated it - I started misbehaving and my parents had it enough and kicked me out to public lol) and it was so f a k e. The teachers would praise everyone for every little thing. I had quite a wake up call when I eventually switched to a public school cause I had to work much harder to be seen by the teacher. I kind of suppose it was the same with Ruby - she was praised for every stupid little thing and believed she's some kind of a genius. Now I know not every private school is like that, it was just my personal experience and a possible reason why Ruby is so stuck up even tho not being very intelligent.

 

[ECH]

That first grade video drives me insane. Literally everyone knows your first essay at university is going to be a rough one because writing for university is not the same as writing for A level. You just have to chat with your lecturers and act on feedback to get good grades.
Honestly, I think Ruby suffers from the same issues as Holly and wouldn't thrive on a PhD. She needs the validation from grades, without that she's going to have problems.

 

[lizzie2707]

In a recent video I think Ruby said she had been looking as masters programmes? I remember one of them was Cambridge, but she said it wasn’t currently her top choice.

Also, my opinion might be wrong, but I've spent two years in a private school (it was a primary school and I hated it - I started misbehaving and my parents had it enough and kicked me out to public lol) and it was so f a k e. The teachers would praise everyone for every little thing.

This is pretty spot on tbh. I went to a private school (hated it but it taught subjects I needed for my degree so stuck with it), and it’s exactly like that. I remember in Year 13, every single student got given some sort of “special position”, so there were head girls but everyone got some meaningless title and pointless responsibility. It was basically a way of saying “you’re all special”, regardless of how clever/hardworking/competent we were. I slightly avoided all this because I never really fit in - I spent most of my time in detention, but got high grades and never did anything REALLY bad, so they couldn’t kick me out. But most people, especially ones like Ruby, were fawned over by teachers to a hilarious degree - there were a fair few people getting their egos rubbed who were honestly thick as pig tit, but ended up with this insane overconfidence in themselves. Of course schools shouldn’t destroy people’s confidence (mine also managed that with plenty of students...), but falsely building it to such a degree is just as damaging.

 

[lemonlime]

Spoiler: Erimentha Parker's to do list, Chapter 14

It's just before bedtime and Erimentha is performing a one-woman Shakespere show for her mother. No mention of Nathan - the Spartans would leave the weakest children out in the wild to fend for themselves. Mum doesn't understand the appeal of Shakespeare, "But don't tell Grandma!"

"Grandmama," Erimentha corrects her. Mum, can you stop being such a bleeping idiot and realise we're to speak Victoriana!

She has picked out a lilac dress and hopes her mum will wear a purple one to church so they match. Daughter Dearest vibes and I'm getting the willies.

Erimentha wakes up and decides to learn Morse code before breakfast. She tries to collude with her father to drop out of this BBQ but he mentions mum will be really upset if they miss it. For the first time in this book, she considers the feelings of another person.

The"grandmama" correction I'm How can this be so twee and so creepy at the same time