The occasion of collecting exam results falls into the same category as a trip to A&E, a terrible dental ordeal and childbirth - almost everyone has an experience to share.

And those going this week to collect GCSE results - or last week’s A-levels - will no doubt have had plenty of people already weighing in with their own take on how they did back in the day.

And while it might be reassuring to know a parent or favourite family member flunked maths and a delivery of poor grades won’t trigger Armageddon in the school hall - the age of the internet and social media now also prompts a growing list of celebrities wanting to line up and tell us how badly they did too.

‘Don’t worry I failed all mine and I’m still making millions’ - or a version of it - has turned students’ results days into somewhat of a media circus for the rich and famous.

And while it might be beneficial to be reminded of the message that ‘results don’t define you’ and people can get exactly where they want to be despite exam grades - the almost-boastful, anti-study rhetoric from the likes of Jeremy Clarkson et al is neither beneficial nor particularly motivating.

Multi-millionaires who tell students who have worked solidly for the best part of two years - often under immense pressure from their teachers and schools - that what they’ve just achieved is irrelevant isn’t bringing anything constructive to the table.

(Not least because GCSE students who fail to attain at least a grade 4 standard pass in English and/or maths now have to resit under relatively new government rules, so in lots of ways it really does matter because no poor soul wants to have to do that.)

Entrepreneurs like Richard Branson or Lord Sugar, both of whom have felt compelled to reveal their academic failings in the past, are to be admired for their business acumen and undeniable work ethic.

But they are nonetheless living a life that on paper probably makes them a statistical anomaly, not the norm.

Students collecting great results this month will have got them with grit, determination and some considerable sacrifice.

For many of them - thanks to the pandemic and the way it disrupted their education - it’s their very first experience of putting in the work to come away with something physical in return and they should celebrate that effort whatever the letters or numbers say.

Let’s not take that away from them by suggesting they actually, maybe, didn’t need to bother.

(But yes, it does all work out in the end. Either way.)