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

Good to see all the updates, @JessyCarr if your DD is anything like mine she will have done well in her exam anyway so hopefully she can put it behind her for now. The option to retake in Sept is great too though to calm her mind now, it is a shame DDs school don't offer that, one mock at the start of June and that is it.

DD is revising, but alongside her theory test prep too so she is feeling a bit swamped. I keep telling her it is only short term, but that is all the help I can give!

DDs school have sent info on a week they call 'next steps week' late in June where all 6th form students spend the whole week attending presentations and doing their own work on their individual next steps. It looks great, lots of unis coming in to to give presentations on uni/apprenticeships/CV writing/UCAS applications/different professions and business opportunities, the list is endless. A good example last year was Newcastle uni doing a 'what is it like and how to prepare for med/vet/dent' talk. This is a new school for DDs 6th form and I am impressed with how much support they are giving their students. They all have to attend all week too so hoping DD makes the most of it.

I had a feeling the uni stuff would ramp up after easter and it certainly has. Has anyone else booked on to Manchester/Sheffield/York or Newcastle uni open days? We are trying to get to all 4 in June/July.

Oxford colleges will also be well set up with bursaries/hardship funds.
Friend's son is at Oxford. He applied to and got into one of the richest colleges because he said that there would be more financial support for him coming from a lower income family. He was right and his parents aren't giving him a penny.

Yes Oxford is the only uni where dd would get some sort of bursary.

We don't have mocks until the end of June, which is fortunate as I'm not sure there is much revision going on!
We had a Uni open evening at school on Tuesday and DS seems to be leaning towards human geography now, so that's a step forward 👍
His social life seems to be at the forefront now the lighter nights and nice weather are here.

They can work in the vacations and summer, just not in term time.
Oxford colleges will also be well set up with bursaries/hardship funds.
I wouldn't rule Oxford out on financial grounds without looking into things properly first.

@Curlyshabtree I’m sure you’ve already looked at it all but Oxford is by far the most affordable in terms of accommodation especially for halls where you can stay the entire degree. I don’t get quite the full maintenance payment for dd but even with that there’s a fair amount left to over to help with other living costs. Compared with St Andrews which has had to fall down DD’s list for financial reasons. If dd went to Oxford she would work in the holidays which are so much longer and we think her current workplace would take her Xmas/easter/summer

I'm sure your daughter will have done better than she believes @JessyCarr. Exams are so stressful. It is good that she has another chance in September too. DS' school is the same - mock now and again before UCAS final submissions.

DS is the opposite with Economics - he is good at the essay questions but poor at the multiple choice. However there are no multiple choice questions in the A Level papers so the multiple choice test he has done are compiled by the school. His mocks are in mid-May and he is worried they will be multiple choice rather than actual "real" exam questions. I have told him to speak to his teacher. It's not helped that he is unwell at the moment - ENT infection. This is the third so far this year.

@Curlyshabtree - DS' friend has deferred his Oxford place for a year and will work for the whole year to fund his undergraduate years. Could this be an option for your DC? My understanding is that part time jobs are not allowed purely because of the strain it puts on the student, although I can how it looks from your perspective. The 8 week terms are extremely full on and demanding.

Thank you for the suggestions about how to drive with DS.

Speaking of Economics, in case anyone’s DC is interested here are the details of this year’s Young Economist of the Year competition. Possible UCAS-booster for someone out there?

https://www.discovereconomics.co.uk/young-economist-2025

@Curlyshabtree has your DD looked at virtual work experience? The BSMS course is well-known, but I am sure there are others by now:

https://bsmsoutreach.thinkific.com/courses/VWE

Not such a great week here, as DD thinks she has bombed her Economics mock by messing up on timing. Quite chunky questions seem to have gone completely unanswered. School have said she can retake in September, so she has calmed down a bit now and I think will really work at it over the summer. She seems to know her stuff pretty well, but that’s no use if it doesn’t get put down on paper in the exam room!

My two have just finished their mocks. They both worked really hard and I hope their results reflect that. We will see. We have a bunch of med school visits coming up in June for DD. Struggling to get any kind of clinical work experience though, we have no contacts in that field.
DS is set on law and has joined several social mobility programs, some of them will give him work experience which is great.
Interestingly both have ruled out Oxbridge as you’re not allowed to work. It would be an immense struggle financially for them without a job. That somehow seems unfair (though I’m sure plenty will tell me I should have got a better job and been more financially secure).

@Teadrinker81 yep, DS's anxiety is rising rapidly. Have tried to help him this weekend to start planning out a manageable timetable for revision starting this week, I have also been reassuring him that whatever the outcome of these exams he has options, they are not the end of the world.

@Teadrinker81 I hear you, my DD is building her stress levels around mocks (not until beginning of June), theory driving test (3 weeks away) and doing other uni entry stuff like reading etc. There is so much for her to be doing at present it is hard to know what she should be prioritising! However DD has always been good at this despite the stress so I am trying to leave her to it. Every time I see her on her phone though I am tempted to ask if she should be doing anything more productive 😂. I have to stop myself as it does not go down well and really isn't needed.

DDs is not doing AS so these June exams form the basis of her predicted UCAS grades with a bit more input from teachers on her progress so far. She is acutely aware these exams really affect which unis she can choose.

Good luck to any taking exams soon.

@Teadrinker81 we’re in Wales so mocks were in January and AS levels start in 2 weeks.

They count 40% towards their A level grades and will be the basis of the predicted grades on their UCAS application. Only 8 months from the start of the courses and this has got very real implications!

@Teadrinker81 Yes, wobbles are being felt here too. DD had thought that if things went badly now she could (as a backup plan) resit mocks in September to improve her predictions. School have now told them that there will be no routine availability of resits in September and unless there are exceptional circumstances their predictions will be settled this term.

She had an exam last week which went well, but a lot will turn on the next few days.

Anyone else have a child with the wobbles about the upcoming mocks?
Think it’s just dawned on her that these grades go towards uni applications and she’s panicking. She has absolutely no reason to panic as she’s a hard worker and bright. Sometimes she doesn’t make best use of her time but I don’t think that’s unusual. Her college do regular assessments and she’s got a grades consistently so far in two of her subjects. The third has been a struggle for her but she’s applied herself since Christmas and made huge progress. Now she’s panicking that she hasn’t done enough.
I’ve tried reasoning but it’s no good at the moment.
weve also tried to encourage her to take a year out and apply to uni with grades in hand but she’s not keen. It’s so much for them to deal with all at the same time and there’s so much pressure on them to ‘succeed.’
hoping it’s just a wobble and she’ll feel more confident and optimistic in the morning.

@Waspie haha, DS came bag with no merch except a tote bag from a uni that doesn't do his course! 😂He said he couldn't get anywhere near the Oxford table or the Imperial table as there were so many people around them. Not sure he found it super useful but it's made him think a bit more. Your DS sounds like he's a good fit for Oxbridge, very determined and hard working!

@MiniMidiMaxi well done to your DS on their driving test, my DS has had no joy in finding a job either despite applying to several every week. He's doing a bit of cat sitting which is at least a bit of cash for him.

@BlackBean2023 good luck for the mocks next week, ours won't have any more tests now until beginning of June which are for the UCAs predictions. DS did have the head of maths come up to him on Friday and tell him he had clearly been revising as there was huge improvement on his last test score - DS doesn't know what he got yet though so that's a bit annoying but it made him happy that he was noticed IYKWIM.

@TeenToTwenties thanks for that link, our timetable for next year doesn't look too bad.

Interesting, thank you TeenToTwenties.

Well done to your son @MiniMidiMaxi on passing his driving test!

@Countrylife2002 Oxford also look at where the student took their GCSE's; and looks at the student's performance compared to the average at that school to get a contextual view - cGCSE. Apparently this is unique to Oxford.

Cambridge website gives the grades achieved by it's cohort in a subject. For History and Politics it says that 70% of students achieved A star A star A (not using an asterix as it causes bolding!). The standard offer is A star AA. I'm sure Oxford have similar numbers but I haven't found them. As JessyCarr says the AAA standard offer is for results rather than the offer, so the better the predicted grades the more chance of interview and offer (when combined with all the other elements they look at).

Best of luck to your daughter for her mocks @BlackBean2023 And to everyone else's DC taking exams soon.

https://cdn.sanity.io/files/p28bar15/green/7ffc0eb771e92f7fd0355f8342a27cb240eb1ad1.pdF
AQA but does say ‘provisional’

thanks , knew I’d seen something! We were hoping to book a holiday, I see these still say ‘provisional’ on them - does anyone know how much they are likely to change?

The AQA dates for 2026 weren't out yet when I looked a few weeks ago.

Provisional timetables | Pearson qualifications

This is the Edexcel link. Other boards will differ.

Are the exam dates out yet for 2026? Had a google but can’t find anything but thought I saw a link on her…

@Countrylife2002 Oxford doesn’t normally make contextual (reduced-grade) offers. However, contextual factors including ACORN are taken into account in deciding who gets an interview and then an offer. They form part of a holistic assessment of each application. This may be of interest in explaining it:

www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/applying-to-oxford/decisions/contextual-data

The standard humanities offer of AAA is designed to be achievable by anyone who is of Oxford standard - no doubt they could pitch it higher, but once they’ve decided they want you they don’t want you to trip up on results day!

Your DD is right to push for the highest predictions she can get. Best of luck to her.