Thread 30 Covid Cohort, Mad March Hareing Towards Exams

Monkey, you have and still are such a wonderful advocate for prospective medical students whilst being in the thick of it yourself, I hope your boy receives good news from Newcastle very soon.

And Sazzy, Doggerel, great news on your DC’s offers!

@Heifer this round of mocks for DS is not full exam length, I think they are only an hour each unlike their earlier ones of 2.5 - 3 hours.

Well done on the new offers too!

DS has next set of mocks starting Monday, it doesn't feel to me that he is revising enough - he says he is but I don't see the evidence. I swear I feel more nervous about his exams than I ever did about my own!

@Monkey2001 I'm so sorry to hear about the rejection, it's really rubbish. Keeping my fingers crossed for Newcastle.

Forgot to say well done on the offers - that is great news

@Monkey2001 sorry re Manchester - MN vibes sent re Newcastle.
@crazycrofter - I hope your DD likes it (just makes life easier if they don't keep changing their minds) :-) My DD found out that one of her old school friends/hockey player who is 4 yrs older is doing her MA at Nottingham and said it was much better than her previous uni and really likes it, so that helped.

So DD had her first mocks yesterday (2nd lot of mocks). Just what I didnt' want to happen re being able to takes breaks happened. The senco went and spoke to her just beforehand and explained she would just need to put her hand up and then leave the room and come back after a break etc. I really don't understand how someone who is possibly anxious can be expected to put their hand up and walk out in front of everyone.. Luckily DD was feeling ok and did take a break in her first exam (core maths) but said she was far too flustured to take one in Biology! She said she didn't do well as hadn't revised everything in the paper. We have had this so many times, she always believes what the teacher say will be on the papers and doesn't revise anything else - and there is always more, every time. At least in the A level she will know to revise everything.

Someone mentioned not taking full examin for mocks - DD has always had 2 sets of papers for every subject (2 hrs each) (3 papers at end of yr 12) and is often squeezed into 1 week despite them supposed to be lasting for 2. So often 2 per day. No wonder she is exhausted at the end of it.

At least in her A levels her schedule is pretty good. She is lucky and only has 1 day with 2 exams. Week1- 2 exams, wk 2 - 4, wk3 - 3 and wk4 -1. How is everyones elses looking?

Congrats on Glasgow @DoggerelBank & Exeter @sazzy5

So sorry re Manchester @Monkey2001. Keeping everything crossed for Newcastle for your DS

I am sorry to hear about Manchester rejection @Monkey2001. It is a tough journey. I'll keep my fingers crossed for Newcastle.
Congratulations @sazzy5 and @DoggerelBank for offers.
DD is still waiting for Bristol to respond

Congratulations on the offers and @Monkey2001 so sorry about Manchester. I really hope Newcastle come through with an offer soon.

We’re heading to Nottingham shortly. Fingers crossed dd likes it on a second visit. The last few days I’ve seen her excited about the prospect of uni for the first time and she’s really engaged in discussions about accommodation etc. She also found out that one of her good friends at school is probably firming Nottingham so that’s another positive in its favour!

Congrats sazzy and Doggerel and commiserations to Monkey, everything crossed that he is shinning up to the top of that Newcastle wait list

DD didn’t get on with ADHD meds unfortunately. She got really behind with her coursework whilst taking them then had covid straight after. She was thinking at one point she may need to retake her final year, not sure of situation now. She does get extra time now though plus learning support mentor and help with study skills.

@sazzy5 great to hear your DS is happily focused on an alternative course, what is it?

@Monkey2001 So sorry to hear that. Would have been quite handy with DS1 there too. But I know Newcastle was favourite. Keeping everything crossed that that one comes good.

Congratulations @DoggerelBank.
@Monkey2001 it is such a long and tough process my DS got nowhere and isn’t prepared to risk another year. This year is tough, a gap year is a good thing, I wish my DS would consider it.
Finally my DS has an offer from Exeter, he was so happy and he’s now really focused. So 1 offer out of 5. AAA required.

ooh brilliant @DoggerelBank.

Congratulations @DoggerelBank!

It's another rejection for DS on the medicine treadmill, Manchester this time. He thought the interview went badly as the first interviewer was very cold and expected him to know lots more than he did about the training path to be a GP, and that threw him for the other stations. He is still on the waiting list for Newcastle, which is his top choice, so just hoping that turns into an offer, otherwise it will be a gap year, which will be disappointing, but he has things he would like to do.

Congrats on the offer!! @DoggerelBank

Ooo! An offer! Glasgow! Don't know if it's one of his favourite two, but it might be. AAB. Just Edinburgh and Manchester to hear back from now.

@Equasym & Concerta are the same drug. Just made by different companies.
Elvanse has a different profile and has a more gentle dosage reduction. DD had bad side effects at first on it but the assessor started her at a low dose - 20 mg for two weeks & then increased it by 10 mg every two weeks. That way the side effects are minimal. Plus she said at the lower doses she felt awful when the dose wore off. Almost similar to a low blood sugar episode, when she nearly collapsed during swimming & basket ball. But now I think at 50 mg she seems to be fine & coping. She's also managing to get into bed before 12. Before she would procrastinate so much she would not get enough sleep and be a permanent zombie.

@Fiddlersgreen I agree. Having said that, I think ds1 had around 30 GCSE papers in total so 9 seems very little in comparison!

@Decorhate my DS has done all 3 papers in each subject but he did 1 paper per subject in November, 1 paper per subject in January and then doing the 3rd paper of each subject this week.
I don’t feel it gives them much experience

I think some kids - most especially boys- really like Mr Bruff. I taught an entire class of girls once and their immediate response was that he was very arrogant. He honestly does talk a lot of rubbish specifically on 'Poppies' which then get spewed out in exams so caution with that one. Mr Salles is a lot better but again high pitched. They both do the 'how to get a 9' type stuff, which isn't helpful for most students. I think all schools should get Massolit but it remains a bit obscure because it isn't YouTube. Don't overlook BBC Bitesize for revision too.

If DS watches a video, please encourage him to do something with it afterwards like a mindmap.
In terms of revision guides the Snap books are good. Small, bitesize chunks and practice tasks and pitched at the middle, more or less.

@Fiddlersgreen I’ve checked back & Ds had 2 papers in 2 subjects for his first mocks & then had 2 papers in his 3rd subject a few weeks later. In his recent ones he only had one paper in Economics (because they’d done papers 1&2 already ) and 2 for maths. No idea when or if he will do another set of mocks for his 3rd subject