GCSE '18s (20) - half term beckons!

Apparently today is World Ballet Day so to celebrate here is a picture (I think its relatively blurred so as to not be hugely identifiable)

Dd is 17 this weekend. I can't believe it.

No targets here that I know of. IN fact I have no idea whatsoever of potential A level grades.

Dd has been selected to represent the school again at a Model United Nations conference but this time she is going to be going to co-chair a committee.

I was surprised how many parents were desperate to see the accommodation on open days when in reality this is unlikely to be the accommodation they are in.

Totally agree with this. The accommodation open for viewing is likely to be the best / newest the university has to offer. Successful applicants will be able to indicate preferences for accommodation, but could then be allocated anything that fits their requirements (e.g. single room, self-catering). DS1 was not allocated any of the six preferences he listed, but was given a room with similar facilities.

Whether you like the accommodation you saw on an open day is not a useful factor in choosing a university.

Sorry first post was a bit garbled but basically we did what the third said !!

Same again here TheThird. DS has ‘targets’ based on the Durham ALIS thing (tho I haven’t seen them yet) but won’t get predictions until the end of this year after end of year exams

Girls were similar. Looked at published league tables to select those reputable unis that did their course and at around the right offer levels. Then narrowed it down a bit based on campus/non campus, distance etc. Then from a long list narrowed it down further quite easily based on course content. Course content and type is in my view very important and varies considerably from place to place. And this is what can be fleshed out from visits and sample lectures etc. I was surprised how many parents were desperate to see the accommodation on open days when in reality this is unlikely to be the accommodation they are in. I feel whether they enjoy the course and the ‘feel’ of the place is much more important - and that will be different for different dc.

The visits helped narrow down to 5 for the form but it was the ‘offer holders visits’ in the spring of year 13 that made their mind up.

We didn’t visit that many - I think both went to 4 and DD2 only went to a couple of hers on the offer holder days only - as not so many places do her course she wanted a certain type of that course she only ended up with 4 she wanted to put down and visited 2 before applying and 2 after

DD1 had more options but decided after the first couple of visits which teaching style she preferred and narrowed down from there

DS2 will get target grades later this term, but won't get predicted grades until the end of Y12. The school bases these on their performance during Y12 and in the end of Y12 exams.

Has everyone been given predicted grades? We aren't expecting anything until after half term. DD can't wait to drop a subject - she's being given 3 or 4 essays a week plus extra reading (and research for the essays) and computer science homework. The essays are taking about 5 hours each including the research but she is a bit of a perfectionist and keeps 'disappearing' into tangentially related information when googling Gov and Pol

I suppose that's a good sign

Which? University website has a tool where they can enter likely A-level grades and it will list possible universities they might get an offer from.

whistl
DS2 used the same method as DS1.

1. We made a spreadsheet list of every university which offers the course he is interested in.

1. We excluded the ones in London (too expensive) and the places more than 200 miles away.

1. We ordered the list by average grade offer. This order tends to be similar to how they are ranked in the various league tables. Then focus in on the relevant part of the list for their likely grades (e.g. for DS1 we looked at mid-ranking universities with ABB to BCC offers).

1. By now the list should be much shorter. I then printed out the details of each course (course structure, choice of modules) and anonymised it so they could focus on the courses without being influenced by pre-conceived ideas about the university.

1. We then took into account their preferences for location. DS1 wanted to be in or near a city with nightlife and venues where live bands play. DS2 would prefer a campus university as he would like his accommodation to be within walking distance of lectures & labs.

This resulted in a list of 5-10. If the shortlist is too small, they might have to compromise on something.

Basically DS is looking at ones in top 15 for his subject. On Uni of Birmingham (9th in 2019 for his subject) website there is an offer calculator where he put in lower tgan he expects to get and it suggested he would get an unconditional for them. (I know this would be if he chose it as firm but also hopeful that it would mean he could get in missing his grades).

Having looked at Durham he did not like how small it was and will now look at larger and more modern ones, avoiding London for reasons above.

ShalomJackie that is exceptionally thoughtful and generous!

How do you all come by your opinions about which universities to look at?

Kilash - History - Also looking at Oxford, Exeter, Birmingham, Bristol (having done Durham and then Warwick (soon) in this term). Also avoiding London due to (a) cost and (b) socialising issues despite UCL, LSE and Kings being top 10 for his subject and also avoiding St Andrews as too far and too quiet.

Will not entertain Cambridge as an option because we live here! Spare room going for open day visits for thread attenders rather than finding hotels!

Yes, it probably is Loose. I am impressed at the value for money if not the nutrition

LooseAtTheSeams
DS1 was the opposite. He didn't even decide on his A-level choices until the October half-term of Y12 and was last-minute about every step of the process.

It's quite refreshing to go through the process with one who is into forward-planning.

Limitisup sounds like DS's beloved Tesco meal deal!

I'm impressed by those who know what they want to do and where at this stage!

DD eschews offers of a healthy cheese and salad wrap etc and prefers to buy the £3 meal deal every day from a shop near the college (not sure if its Boots or somewhere similar).

DS2 wants to do either a four-year MPhys in Physics or a four-year MSci in Natural Sciences. The average offer for the courses/universities he likes is mostly A*AA.

DS1 has several high-achieving friends (all A* and A at GCSE) who had very high offers for both firm and insurance choices. Some of them got A-level results which were very good but narrowly missed both offers. They then had to go through Clearing, and either accept places at a university they had never seen/considered or take a year out and re-apply.

So I'm trying to encourage DS2 to widen the field, so he can include at least one option which will give a lower offer.

DS's school have them doing decision for further maths. Initially he was not happy, but I tried to persuade him to be positive about it. After a few lessons he has declared that he is not doing it! He has spoken to the maths teachers and is going to teach himself mechanics instead. Hope it works out. He has been doing is own thing in maths for a few years now, so I think they are happy for him to get on with it!

Ellen she pointed at the discrete maths book on Amazon and that is what I’ve bought. She was being particularly stroppy last night, maybe due to not being able to take mechanics (she is taking physics). She didn’t mention decision maths, but Brexit negotiations are an easier task than any communications with DD!!

Ellen we're waiting for next summer/ autumn too.

Dd has a bit of a list forming in her head. She's thinking Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield, Bristol and maybe Glasgow. She's planning to do computer science.

They all have quite high grades so she might need to add a more cautious choice or two depending on how this year goes.

That makes sense ellen waiting for predicted grades before open day uni hunting.

All our uni visits are waiting until next year. DS3 has been to Warwick quite a few times!

He and I need to wait until we have a better idea of his predicted grades before we decide which ones to visit. It'll almost definitely be for maths which requires higher grades than most other subjects so if he's not on for 2 or 3 x A* there'll be no point looking at Warwick for instance.

I've already been to Warwick, Bath, Exeter, Nottingham and Southampton with DS1 so they may be on our list again for DS3. DS1 also went to Oxford, Cambridge, (school trips on open days) Cardiff and Birmingham. I suspect DS3 won't do quite as well as DS1 so we'll probably have to look at other unis. Maybe Reading, Leicester and Swansea? Avoiding London due to cost. Not thought about looking as far away from home as Manchester, Liverpool or Sheffield etc. though accommodation might be cheaper.

Hopefully predicted grades will narrow the options down to a manageable number.

Twins are you sure it's not decision and statistics?

For DS3, maths is 1/2 core (pure) and 1/2 applied which is evenly split between stats and mechanics.

For FM it's 1/3 pure, 1/3 stats and 1/3 mechanics. There's a decision maths option as well instead or either stats or mechanics but his school don't offer that option. It would make the class size too small to offer the option as there are only 10 doing FM.

It might be your DD's school don't offer mechanics for FM, due to class sizes and/or teacher specialism availability or there are timetabling issues that mean your DD is in the decision block rather than mechanics?

Is she doing physics? Mechanics is really useful for physics.