Rank Equation

Hi all,

until recently ive been using a rank equation to calculate rank,

essentially doing a select statement and selecting this as the rank field, where query 2 is the same as query 1:

((select count(*) from (query1) where (query1).value < (query2).value) +1)) as Rank

problem is that this is now running like a dog (takes 10 secs) and i'd like to try and do this another way- 2005 has a rank function, how can i do this in 2000?

here is the full statement :

SELECT StudentId, GCSE_Score, LTRIM(STR
((SELECT COUNT(*)
FROM dbo.[Score2004-05]
WHERE GCSE_score < s.GCSE_Score) + 1)) AS GCSE_Rank, SetId
FROM dbo.[Score2004-05] S
WHERE (SetId = '2004/2005')

greg