Year 12 - 2024/25 - Support, Discussion and Looking After Each Other (Thread 2)

@waspie thank you, I'm normally pleased to have him home for a day or two before the annoyance starts.. 😬The work experience sounds amazing, well done him for making such an excellent impression. Don't dismiss that internship next summer if he does choose law, it's extremely valuable!

@BlackBean2023 oh that's disappointing for her, hopefully she can get those boosted in Sept. DS got Physics back, he got a B one mark off an A but they have point blank refused to review anyone's paper, one boy even got yelled at for being a bit to persistent on the matter. I'm hoping they will push that to an A for predicted grades. He should get Chemistry grade today, desperately hoping it's an A or he will be absolutely gutted. Math maybe tomorrow, similarly hoping for an A or he needs to start looking at alternative universities!

Good luck to your DS with his exams @Lalux

@Tebheag yep, DS still floating around being indecisive. Well done on the work experience for your DS, I wish my kids could help me with my work!

@Waspie great news about your DS work experience.
@BlackBean2023 sorry to hear about the grades etc
@JessyCarr I am so envious of your child being so organised.

DS and I survived work experience was only 2 days though he did really well think I can hand over some of the general bookkeeping for a family friend to him to do help him earn some money. Feel like I am stuck on a roundabout he has decided he would like to go to uni again mentioned it casually on last day of exams. Get his results Friday or Monday.
Anyone else's kid changing their minds as much as mine ? He ain't even done a single open day. Currently away for his Geography field trip.

@Waspiework experience sounds fab and what a great offer to have for next summer.

@BlackBean2023sorry to hear about your DD and Exeter and also results not being quite what she hoped for.

We are mid exams Chemistry was hard yesterday but apparently everyone said the same so he’s still feeling quite confident. Maths tomorrow and Biology Friday and next Wednesday before we start open days in earnest with Glasgow next Thursday.

Hope everyone's DC doing exams, or having just finished exams are doing well.

DS is starting to get some results back from his end of years but not grades, or predicated grades for UCAS, which his school have told him may be different. Nobody seems to understand why though! They are having a further steps day later in the month.

His work experience went incredibly well. DS thoroughly enjoyed being part of the Legal team for a week. He learnt lots, both about contract law and office life, and also from speaking to individuals about their university choices and what they would do differently if they were doing it again now with the benefit of hindsight. The head of legal has written him a glowing report to add to his Unifrog and has said he's very welcome to intern with them next summer and they'd pay him Junior Paralegal rates. This would be a fantastic opportunity if only they weren't based 200 miles away from our home! He's still undecided about taking Law or taking History (or HistPol) then law conversion. He is going to do the LNAT this summer anyway while he considers.

@BlackBean2023 I'm sorry your daughter missed out on the Exeter Scholars place. I hope she is getting over her disappointment.

Well done to your elder son on finishing his degree @JustHereWithMyPopcorn. I'm sure it'll be lovely to have him home for a while!

I'm in awe of how organised your daughter is @JessyCarr!

Welcome @CagneyNYPD1

Like many of you DS and I are off to Bristol on Saturday. I hope your DC have a great experience.

We can't do the LSE Open day either, DS has a History field trip. The virtual tours and online open day content is very good though. We plan to take a look, around the area, if there is time, when we go to the UCL Open day later in the month. DS won't apply for LSE if he applies for UCL or Oxbridge as they all have such low offer rates it would be too much of a risk.

DS will be at Bath’s engineering talk, don’t know if I’ll go in with him, but can report back either way!

Would appreciate feedback on engineering talks at Bath and if it's worth braving the crowd or not. If it is we will go in October but my son has been there already for outreach so knows he likes the campus
Wondering if the talks are any more useful than the website, as don't want to put him off with a visit to a heaving campus

DS2 off to Bath and Bristol with his friend this weekend - no parents allowed! We shall be bringing DS1 home from university after finishing his degree last week.

@SunblockSue You are right. They have no idea what it is like to live alone. DS was home alone for a weekend and it shocked him how much time housework takes 🤦‍♀️

We have to give the UCAS discovery event a miss, too. DS refuses to skip school. I wish the school just gave them a they off to attend the UCAS discovery event.

Thanks for the LSE link. We can really only book it if DS gets his grades. Fingers crossed.

We’re heading to Bath this weekend too. Already familiar with Bristol so not planning on adding that to the open day list. DS was thinking about the LSE open day @Muchtoomuchtodo, but the date lands a bit awkwardly for us, and they have some really good virtual materials, e.g. some of last year’s subject talks, so I think we’re going to skip paying for another London train fare!

LSE open day bookings for 10th July have opened.

https://www.lse.ac.uk/study-at-lse/meet-visit-and-discover-LSE/events/visit-lse/2024-25/undergraduate-open-day-july-2025/10-july-2025

@gingercat02 We're with you re UCAS and uni. Very little thought been given to it yet. School focuses on this next term. My DS has no idea what he wants to do! There is probably quite a lot of head in the sand going on at the moment as the thought of leaving school and living by yourself can be rather overwhelming.

We have mocks next week, just 3, 2 geography (physical and human) and 1 history. Business is already done.
To be honest you lot are way ahead of us, I haven't even considered UCAS forms or open days, and I'm sure DS hasn't either!
He is going to our local uni open day at the end of the month, bit I think that's really just a day out with his mates.
He was booked into the UCAS discovery day on Friday but school booked a history course work day at the uni library 😠
The Sam Fender gig on Saturday seems to be taking up the most brain space at the moment 😳

DS has been told his predicted grades already but his mocks were earlier. It does help to decide which open days to prioritise. @Muchtoomuchtodo we are also heading to Bristol and Bath and curious how they will compare to Exeter!

Ours use their AS level grades as predicted grades so we won’t know those until the middle of August!

Bath and Bristol open days for us this week. I’m intrigued to hear ds’s thoughts compared to Exeter.

Our predicted grades will come out in the next two weeks I think.
The trouble is you need to know your predictions to properly start the UCAS statement. To know which unis are realistic.
DS and his friends are so worried that they are thinking about deferring a year and starting uni in 2027. Because surely their real A-levels will be better than this. Hmm. I am not so sure.
Good luck to us all.

@BlackBean2023 sorry to hear your DD is upset, understandably though, there is such a lot of pressure on them at the moment, always lurking underneath!

Welcome @CagneyNYPD1 😀, come and vent your worries to us, instead of your DS, this is what I am doing!

@JessyCarr your DD sounds v organised starting her UCAS application. I am hovering around my DD finishing her mocks before I venture mentioning UCAS 😂.

DD has 2 more mocks at the end of this week and is ok with all she has done so far. Her 'next steps' week is next week and I think the reality of applying to uni is really going to hit as they start preparing their personal statements.

We had the first really realistic conversation about unis and open days etc last night which was relief as I thought she was avoiding talking about it. She even talked about booking her UCAT too which opens next week so things are starting to feel a bit too real now. I am pretending I am ok and chilled about it all (I am not) but don't think I am fooling anyone. I think we will all feel better when the mock results come out with predicted grades, then it will feel like we can really concentrate on what comes next.

When do yours get their predicted grades? DDs come out 3 July.

Welcome @CagneyNYPD1 - good to have you on board!

@Wehaditsogood sorry to hear that. When will mock results be back?

May I join you?

DS is in Year 12. We have been to see Exeter and UEA - lots of positives about both but like many, he loved Exeter.

He’s off to the Durham open day with DH this weekend as I am working. It’s all go with open days, personal statements, work experience, mocks…my head is spinning. So I’m glad to have found you all!

We are all biting our nails over the mocks. It looks like a lot of the questions were about topics Y12 has not covered yet. I am very worried about predicted grades. 😫

I’m sorry to hear that, @BlackBean2023. Is there a chance she will receive a contextual offer outside the Scholars programme?

@BlackBean2023 - has your DD heard any more about Exeter Scholars since you posted? I saw that others on TSR were also awaiting news on it.

We had a lovely weekend for DS’ 13th birthday, but also devoted some time to wrangling with DD’s UCAS form. My, it was clunky. The London school she attended for GCSEs wasn’t recognised, so had to be added manually. Then in the UCAS Hub, every course choice defaulted to 2025 entry unless we changed it to 2026. And although you could shortlist no more than 5 course choices in UCAS Hub, there seemed to be no obvious way of importing those 5 choices into the UCAS form itself (perhaps we missed something).

Anyway. Some progress made! Hope everyone else is doing well.

Good luck to all doing mocks or actual exams! DS is now deep in the NEA trenches, he has geography and history to do simultaneously, plus an additional research project that his school do as an option.

Yesterday he was off timetable and out in town collecting data for geography. He had been quite nervous because this involved interviewing strangers, but apparently everyone was very nice to him and he got everything he needed. The main problem was the rain, he got back soaked!