Finishing (not starting) Year 13 support thread (number 5!)

[Littleham]

Exam season starts....

[muffinmonster]

Thread no. 5!

Poor D has to resit two of her mocks on Saturday because she didn't get C or above. Would be moreconvinced this was useful is the school had't done the same thing last yeaer and set exactly the same paper in one subject, and then not marked the resits. I have been asured this won't happen again.

[muffinmonster]

DD, not D! We are still on speaking terms. [smiles]

[hellsbells99]

Well done for starting the new thread!
I have just read the posts regarding the new Ucas clearing option - very interesting as I think DD may end up in clearing.
Muffin - I hope your DD hasn't got a Saturday job if school are making them go in!

[Horsemad]

Thanks for the new thread! Time is marching on relentless...
DS had had some Physics practicals this week, so I'm hoping they've gone as well as he thinks they have.

I'm wide awake listening to DH snoring will have a read of the UCAS link I think

[circular]

Thanks for new frhread. 4000 posts - that's going some.
'Finishing' is a bit scary.

Got the UCAS email too. So seems like the matching students and courses is now going on in both directions,
Hope DD won't need clearing. Seems to have ruled out nearly everywhere on specific course details. And won't even consider an insurance choice unless it guaranteed accommodation or is commutable.

Recent C4 test didn't go well, as usual got the difficult questions right, but made lots of slip ups elsewhere. And admits no work done for it, as was spending all her time on the other modules. No forced resit, but had to spend all of the next couple of lessons having a post mortem on the paper.

[welshpixie]

My DD finishes for study leave tomorrow, first exam is on the 4th May. I am starting to have flashbacks to IGCSE with cries of Mum can you test me! It does have the advantage that my German is getting much better and my Chemistry is improving beyond measure.

[Littleham]

My dd was driving me insane by asking me to test her on History dates. But I have found a solution!

Am now paying my year 9 ds to test her (he has agreed a rate of £1 per session). Absolute bargain & he is a hard quiz master.

[Mindgone]

Good tactic Littleham

[Fairenuff]

Like it, Littleham

Thanks for new thread. Dd had her French oral yesterday, seems to think it went ok. She is shattered now. We've been watching old re-runs of Morse for some down time.

[Leeds2]

How much has it cost you so far, Littleham?!

And you must encourage DS to do History A Level as he will already know a lot of the stuff!

[Littleham]

Well done Fairenuff's dd. I love Morse (& really liked Endeavour as well).

£3 so far (only just started). Worth EVERY penny Mumslife. He will know a huge number of dates, but doesn't want to do History for A Level! Typical - all four have chosen different areas. Not one the same. DS is my Maths one (which is probably horribly competitive...feel sick just thinking about it...will save that stress for 2018).

[NiceCardigan]

DS isn't doing any revision at all because he is still messing about with coursework surely it should be done by now

[Littleham]

Don't worry NiceCardigan you are not alone. DD's coursework is still being 'perfected'. Meanwhile I'm hopping from foot to foot saying 'darling (gritted teeth) I think it is good enough now....

[NiceCardigan]

That makes me feel better Littleham I will be glad when it's done though.

[Horsemad]

Genius idea Littleham!

[Whatsername24]

Hello, this is my first post here. My 18 year old son is about to start exams. What a nightmare this last year has been. He's always been academic and worked hard to get good results so was expected to do well, with the right amount of work and preparation. His plan for years has been to go to university and he wants to teach.

Spanner in the works a year ago when he got his first girlfriend, she's someone we thought was a lovely girl who was part of his group of friends. They got together just before AS exams and his results were poor - 2 Ds, an E and a U.

This girlfriend has turned out to be manipulative and incredibly clingy and they are now virtually living together as he stays at her house 4 nights out of 7, sometimes more. If they're apart for whatever reason then his phone is ringing constantly (Christmas afternoon for instance, he left his phone in the living room while he took a very quick shower and in those few minutes he had 11 missed calls from her). She's also in Year 13 but has almost given up on her studies, she's dropped one A level because she didn't like the teacher so has abandoned plans for university. A big concern we have is that she's trying to stop him going as well, all of their group of friends are going apart from her, and she can scupper his exams by demanding his time when he should be revising...or she could get pregnant.

When he's here we're not seeing much revision being done, she just sits here playing on her phone while he's working. His mocks weren't brilliant, just a very slight improvement on his AS results. School are supervising him doing work during a couple of free periods and at parents evening in March he agreed that he'd spend more time at home without her to get work done. That's happened twice.

His uni application went in on deadline day, and now we're nagging him about sorting out his student finance application. He applied to three universities, all came back with conditional offers but he didn't have a prayer of getting the points needed for two of them.

It's so difficult when they're this age, adults, because there's absolutely nothing we can do. We've resorted to bribery. There's a weekend in London for them if he gets the grades he needs and just before he goes to uni. He loves London, she casually sat there the other day and said "I hate London".

So, that's where we are in our house with our Year 13 student...

[Littleham]

You have my utmost sympathy Whatsername24. This happened to one of my brothers & there isn't much you can do about teenage hormones.

Do you think he is secretly worried? If he is, you might have a chance of talking him into revising.

[Horsemad]

Huge sympathies Whatsername24. My DS has been a right PITA over these last two years and this thread has been a great place for me to sound off.
As you say, it's so hard to make them do the work at this age. I hope he does get his head down and manages to pull his grades up.

Would he agree to cutting back on time spent with the g/f?

[circular]

Welcome Whatsername24, sympathies here too.
When DD's grades dipped quite badly from GCSE to AS, head of 6th did joke that if she was a boy he would be telling her to get a girlfriend, as it usually helps motivate.
She did actually get a boyfriend at the start of the year, which is a massive distraction in free periods in school, when work should be going on. Although not together much out of school, can be online half the night, getting little sleep. And you can't really confiscate phones at night when theyve paid for themselves. Then there's always the worry of a big break up before exams, which has come close a couple of times.
Also having to nag to get all the mundane stuff done.
On the plus side, her report is predicting higher for A2 than it did for AS, so something has improved this year. Though still a few grades short of what she needs overall (and is wuite capable of) for first choice.
Saying now she's determined to get into to her first choice, but still not seeing her really knuckle down just yet.

Maybe the start of study leave will kick him into touch.
Can you send him on any crash courses, or get a tutor? If he's doing maths or sciences, there's often a few in the half term, covering material for he last few papers.
Is there a realistic plan B if he doesn't go to Uni?
Does he know what he wants to do career wise?

[MrsBartlet]

How very stressful Whatsername24. No advice I am afraid - just sending sympathy.

Dd has done quite a lot of revision but she is missing an awful lot of school. She has on-going mental health issues which started in Y11 after a bout of (physical) illness. Her absence rate was 27% in Y11 and she seems to be heading that way again. She does work well on her own but I am worried as they haven't finished all their courses yet so I don't want her missing anything vital. However, I have learnt it is counter-productive to force her into school if she is not mentally up to it. Such a shame as she loves her school and her teachers and wants to be there enjoying the last few weeks.

She had an assesment yesterday and will start CBT soon as we really want her to get some help before starting university.

[circular]

mumslife that's a lot of social stuff going on.
Apart from prom, know of nothing here, though expecting a few 18ths after exams, including DDs own.

Mrsbartlett sounds like your DD is managing well. hopefully courses nearly finished so not missing too much. All finished here. Is she likely to go to Uni in September, or would she prefer a gap year?