Year 12 - 2024/25 - Support, Discussion and Looking After Each Other

Oh goodness, personal statements already. Time really is flying by. DS' school haven't mentioned PS yet - I suspect that it will be closer to the end of term before they look at this.

Congratulations @JustHereWithMyPopcorn and @JessyCarr on your DC's wonderful mock results! I'm pleased to hear that your daughter's economics exam results were not as bad as she had feared JessyCarr. The Manchester course sounds interesting. The university will have a very different vibe from Edinburgh or Exeter.

Most of the open days we are going to are on Saturdays @Wehaditsogood . The reason we are going to so many is because DS insists that he wants to go to University in London and I (well DH and I) want him to consider campus/smaller city options too. He likes team sports and he just wouldn't have the same opportunities for these in London. I think it's the "safety blanket" option for him of being close, but not too close, to home that attracts him to London. I've also spoken to friends with older children who regret delaying open days until the Autumn and/or going to too few. I don't think we can be accused of going to too few!

I am looking forward to them @bluefineliner - DH and I are splitting the joy and only one of us will accompany DS each time. I missed out on Open Days - I just applied blindly from prospectuses and went where I was accepted! I hope you enjoy your trips with your daughter I'm sure your daughter will be fine with her theory test. DS told me afterwards that, despite my nagging, he only began looking at the practice tests in the 4 in 1 app the morning of his test. He said it's mostly common sense.

Is sounds like a good decision by your daughter to not worry about driving lessons until after university @Countrylife2002. DS has had a few, and he has a driving test booked in October, but I can see him dropping the lessons and cancelling the test if he is set on London for university as he will want to save as much money as he can.

@Tebheag I would never in a million years have guess at that pronunciation so thank you! Do you pronounce the 'e' at the end of vake or is it like take? Hope the maths marking was fun!

@Wehaditsogood DS has booked with his friend to go to Bath, I have offered to take him but I think they want to do it on their own by train. So far we have taken him to the other ones.

I am getting very nervous about mocks. DS seems to be fine.

It is so interesting to hear you all going to so many open days. DS flat-out refuses to miss any school days, so it is pretty limited where we can go.
There is one open day DS wants to go to alone becausewe are busy. Hmm. Not sure about that.

DH does not want to go to any open days until we know DS's predicted grades.

We had a long school presentation on UCAS, which was very useful.

Morning,

Wow @JessyCarr well done to your DD on those grades, it may be better for her now she can concentrate on the B knowing she can get A*s in the others already.

@Waspie are you looking forward to the open days? I am actually, I enjoyed going with DD1 but that was years ago. Even when I went to uni as a mature student I took my own mum to Leeds uni and she loved learning about all the courses she'd never heard of before!

@Countrylife2002 DD has not started to think about PS yet either but they have a week dedicated to it at school from 16 June so I'm not mentioning it atm. She is into mock revision and has her driving theory next week so I am treading carefully around her for now 😂. She did say what a bad time her theory test is, which I am aware of but she wants to pass her practical by the end of the year and with a 6 month wait for practical tests she could do with getting it out of the way. She also has work experience, a trip to Paris and UCAT prep coming up so feels like there will never be a good time.

DD has reduced her p/t job hours for now but will not give up (I think the change of scenery does her good too). I have work colleague with one doing GCSEs and the other A levels this year and she was talking to me about it yesterday. Brought back the stress I used to have waiting for DD to message me on how each exam went! Not sure how stressed DD will get in a couple of weeks doing her mocks, but my guess is ridiculously, so got that to look forward to!

Good luck for those sitting exams this week.

I’m very impressed with DD’s revision efforts, it makes such a difference doing subjects she likes!

She has to have her PS done by the end of the summer term but hasn’t started on it yet - after exams I expect.

She’s decided not to take driving lessons until after uni. She isn’t 17 til August and the combination of lessons/y13/oxford application is too much pressure, and even though we live in the sticks she doesn’t really want to learn to drive. Big relief for me financially! I have said I will pay for her lessons after uni but at least then she should be able to pay the insurance and it will be that much cheaper too with her being older. And my car will be about 18 years old so by then I’ll be happy to hand it on - if I can save enough to replace it .

She’s also handed in her notice at work for similar reasons. I can provide her with pocket money again as I’m not paying for driving lessons. Great selfcare and balancing going on although she will miss the money as I’ll only be giving her a third of what she was earning - she is hoping to pick up seasonal summer work after her a levels to provide a bit of a float for uni.

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn 😂 it's pronounced Che Vake. Means little one. I am either a trashy or thriller story person, but tonight it's maths papers as agreed to mark DS paat papers. Would rather read about Jury's 🤔

Has anyone else's kid not sorted work experience ?

Other skills to be exemplified in Q3 might include task planning and prioritisation, working to a deadline, resilience, empathy, problem-solving, communication, adaptability etc. Lots of stuff that will make them a good student, whatever the subject.

Thank you for that link. Oh yes, I agree with spinning what they do have, poor DS has very little but will have to word that to be useful!

This one works for us:

https://charactercounter.com/

I know what you mean about relating it back, but for many young people there will be a finite list of work experience, volunteering, leadership etc stuff that they have done so may as well put it down and work out how to spin it to be relevant to the course later!

E.g. lots of these things will have provided skills like time management or ability to work under pressure, which will be useful whichever courses they apply for.

@JessyCarr I thought that but even that section wants you to relate it back to your course. If he could settle on a course he could easily crack on. DS1 knew what he wanted to do by yr11 so that was easy. Do you have a link for the character count that you could share please?

Online character-counter tools are helpful to gauge how much text is needed for each of the questions. Max 4,000 characters (including spaces) for the whole statement, and min 350 per question. Content should not be repeated across the 3 questions, but if it could fit more than one it doesn’t matter where it goes as the whole statement will be read holistically.

The UCAS form will have an inbuilt character counter, so a separate tool is only needed if drafting outside that.

Tricky one! But perhaps they could start writing something on Question 3?

I've just seen an email to DS2 saying they should already be writing their PSs but how do they do that without knowing what they are applying for??

@JessyCarr those are fab grades, hopefully she can get that grade up in September if she needs it for her chosen course.

@Tebheag (I always try and read your name in my head and never know how to say it! 😄) third subject is Chemistry but they haven't had a test on that in ages. He has some Chemistry competition this week but it's a national thing, I didn't quite listen hard enough for exactly what it is. The dissertation is a law one on juries, it's interesting but I don't want to read that with my coffee, I'm more of a trashy novel girl! 😂 Good luck with the exams this week and next!

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn well done to your DS on his maths and physics results what is the third ALevel he is doing? 52 pages what is his dissertation on ?

Good luck @Muchtoomuchtodo 7 that is a lot thankfully DS only has 2 1 this week and 1 next week.

@Waspie hope all the uni visits go well

@JessyCarr well done on the 2astars

Best of luck to all those with exams coming up, whether they’re mocks or AS or even early A levels. Can’t believe it’s a whole year since GCSEs.

DD has provisional predictions of Astar Astar B - she did underperform in the economics mock, though it wasn’t quite as awful as she feared. But they are letting her retake the economics in September before the predictions have to be finalised.

Having thought her favourites were Edinburgh and Exeter, she’s now found a very interesting-sounding niche course at Manchester to look into.

UCAS goes live tomorrow!

Good luck to your DS @Muchtoomuchtodo and anyone else doing AS levels and to your DS for next week @Waspie. DS has had maths and physics tests where he's just missed an A* on both, hopefully he can continue with that effort for his UCAS exams which are just after half term.

Meanwhile my DS1 has emailed me his dissertation over to read. It's 52 pages long and I've barely made it through the introduction before getting up to something else! 😂

Good luck to your son @Muchtoomuchtodo and to everyone else's DC doing AS levels

My son has end of year exams next week which will form part of his grade prediction for UCAS. He has been working hard on notes and revision. His first English Lit NEA deadline is Friday, and he spent a lot of time this weekend polishing it up for final submission.

We have open days booked at Exeter, Bristol, Cambridge, Warwick, KCL and Birmingham from late May to mid-July and will book UCL and Oxford when they open for bookings. DS also has work experience for a week in early June.

As others have said upthread, year 12 is going so quickly!

Good luck to all of the dc starting their AS levels tomorrow.

DS has 7 over the next 2 weeks, it’ll be good for them to be over in time for half term. After they’re done he’ll turn his attention to MAT preparation and start to learn to drive - I must book his theory test!

@wonderstuff he loves seismology side of Geography. Will see how he does in his mocks. Shame as he was good at science all 7s but decided he wanted to do finance for A Levels.

DD finished all her mocks last week. She doesn't feel they were brilliant, but as she's taking a year out she's relaxed that she can reapply with her final grades if needed.
Driving practise is continuing, I'm absolutely hating taking her out, but must be done. It is getting less scary. She has friends who have passed and so is getting the occaisional lift. I'm trying not to worry about her.

Still no ideas on uni, no open days booked in. Her Saturday job seems to be going okay and she's reluctant to book time off. I've asked her to look at 2. But she hasn't. Feel we'll be still pondering it this time next year..

@Tebheag I did a degree in Geography, it's very broad as a subject so can fit with other things, I did some economic geography, which would fit in with an understanding of business/finance. I'd advise thinking about what parts of geography he most enjoys and looking at unifrog or talking to school careers service - you can do a BA or a BSc in Geography and combine it with lots of other subjects too if you want to. Plus you generally get to go on a field trip or two. I loved my degree.

Good luck to all doing exams.

DS ain't till next month. He has now told us he would like to go to uni for something to do with Geography. I have no knowledge about uni as neither DH or I went down that route. Told him he needs to improve Geography grade a lot.oe he will struggle oh and make a shortlist for uni. Currie his other ALevels are business finance related so unsure how that would mix with geography 🙈

@bluefineliner DS did the Uni of Manchester stem experience open day in half term. He really liked it.

@bluefinelinerwe are going to both Sheffield and Newcastle in June. Just trying to sort Newcastle as it’s quite a way and hoping to stay with relatives a little closer on the Friday night. Sheffield is doable in a day.

Exams here are mid June but a great parents evening earlier in the week so hopefully if he continues putting in the consistent effort he will get the predictions he wants and needs. I’ve been really impressed with his attitude this year it’s completely different to GCSEs and he’s really enjoying all his subjects.

Good luck to all those doing exams at the moment and imminently. Plus all the driving - DS isn’t 17 till August so still feels a way off yet.

Dd works on Saturdays and Sundays so unfortunately we won’t be able to attend as many Open Days as I would like. We’ve visited 2 of the cities already just to get a feel for them. She’s intending to give up work after the summer so we will most likely do the Open Days then