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

I'll join 😊

DS finds the Cold War fascinating which is helpful. He is less enamoured of Tudors although he says it got more interesting once they got off Henry VII's foreign policy (which they seemed to spend an extraordinary amount of time on early in year 12!). DS is applying for History (or History & Politics where it's offered) at university.

DS seems more settled on his five UCAS choices now. I know some of your DC seem quite settled on their choices and others are still undecided. Would it be worth having a separate support thread for 2026 university applications in the HE sub-forum? I've looked and I can't see one so if I set one up will you all join me please? I don't want to talk to myself 😄

It's certainly a wild book, but I'm sure he'll be fine. Yes it would be great to see a performance of it, always help to see directors choices in portraying the text, plus helps you think of new ideas.

Yes there's often some pretty popular topics which are common. I don't think I could do the crusades though, I find the early modern period a significant bore. I also did the Tudors but I can't say I liked it very much, but it was 40% so just had to get to grips with it. I also did Russia 1917-53 which I found more interesting but there's lots to do with the Cold War.

I agree @TheLivelyViper books are wonderful for giving insight into other worlds, other perspectives, other eras, other everything Books are amazing. DS will get there with Girl, Woman, Other he just needs to get over the shock of how different it is compared to anything he's read before. He was talking to us about it over dinner a few weeks ago and exclaimed "but how can she go from being normal to being a lesbian dominatrix prostitute running orgies?!" 😂 Teenagers can be very straightlaced when they want to be. DS hasn't managed to find a filmed performance of The Barbershop Chronicles online either. It was performed by the NT in 2020 but not available to rent/buy and I can't find that it's being performed this year either. It's a shame as plays are always so much more alive when you watch them.

The close reading NEA piece was a long(ish) poem I think but I can't remember which.

For the History NEA the class has a choice from a list provided by AQA. The most popular in his class are the French Rev, the American Civil War and the Crusades. They can't chose one that overlaps with their other topics. They are doing Tudors and Cold War for papers 1 and 2.

Girl, Women, Other is an amazing book, I read it a few years ago and feel in love, I think it's a very real portrayl of modern life for BAME women and also a lovely intersection of different cultures. Yes your right, it's no bad thing to get a very different perspective on life, if anything that's a great thing about books. I do think there's lots of good points of comparison as well with Barbershop Chronicles, though I haven't ever seen in theatre but would love to. Is the close reading of the same texts? I'm not familiar with the OCR way of coursework, only really have experience with AQA, so what I did was quite different. I actually considered doing Girl, Women, Other but didn't which I somewhat regret.

The French Revolution is also a great topic and will have loads of resources available, what are his two exam papers on? I'm guessing his school lets them choose anything? When I did my coursework, my school made us have the same topic and then had a list of question to choose from. It has certain advantages because they did 7 lessons covering the bare basics but meant it was hit and miss in terms of whether people enjoyed the topic or not. Coursework is a lot of hard work but very useful I think, and gives you the rare chance before university to explore something you love about such broad subjects like history and English.

That's lovely @SilverBlue56. An experience he will remember for the rest of his life I'm sure. Good luck to him for the driving lesson and theory test! DS has his first driving lesson for weeks booked for Monday. I've refused to take him out until he has a refresher lesson (my hair is grey enough already, thank you!)

History is AQA and he's chosen the French Revolution @TheLivelyViper and for English (OCR) it's split into two parts. The first, smaller, part is a close reading and he has submitted this. The second part is comparison of two texts which are both post 1900 and at least one has to be post 2000. He is doing the play "The Barbershop Chronicles" and the novel "Girl, Woman, Other". He quite enjoyed the play but did not enjoy the novel. For a 17 year old middle class white boy I think it was way outside of his sphere of knowledge or experience. But that's no bad thing

@Waspie What are your son's English and History NEA's on? @Newlease Apologies if I missed it, what course does your DD want to do? That might give us ideas on any books or courses that she could look at.

@Waspie yes he's back now, just about over the jet lag. Had an amazing if very challenging time! He's glad he went 🙂

Giving him a week off before I break the news about all the holiday homework that was set while he was gone!

He's had his first driving lessons yesterday too and theory test on the 9th August!

Well my name change failed! I’ll try again next time…

Catching up with you all under a new name (I was Waspie).

Your daughter's Paris trip sounds really positive @bluefineliner and I hope her UCAT prep is coming along.

Wonderful that your daughter's PG is going to allow her to apply to her top choice @WoodlandFlowers What course is she planning to do?

Do we share a son @gingercat02 ? My son finished year 12 with tennis, Nandos and a party too

Are your DC home safe now @SilverBlue56 and @Curlyshabtree ? I hope they had amazing trips. I hope your son got the US safely and is enjoying his trip @JustHereWithMyPopcorn. An amazing opportunity for him.

Nothing wrong with simple @GreatGranPam. It's great that your daughter knows which universities she wants to apply to, and the courses she wants to do.

Good news about your daughter's PG increase @Newlease Good luck to her for the ESAT prep.

I like the sound of your daughter @bibliomania! I hope the internship is going well. DS took "Crime and Punishment" to Florida with us last summer. He looked very incongruous sitting on a recliner on the beach reading it!

Welcome @gluenotsoup. That sounds frustrating. I don't really understand why schools/colleges are waiting so long to give PGs. They must know that students want to start visiting university Open Days and thinking about where to apply over the summer. I hope you get some clarity soon. What subject/university is your daughter interested in?

Enjoy your road trip @wonderstuff! I hope your DD enjoys the universities. I drove to three and got the train to three. It would have been cheaper to drive to Exeter but I couldn't face the thought of the traffic on the last day of the May half term holiday, and the train journey (Reading > Exeter) was so easy I swallowed the cost.

Fingers crossed for you DC AS results @AuntyBulgaria and @Muchtoomuchtodo

DS is working all week and is chuffed as he has had a small pay rise. He's taken the first part of his level 2 LTA Tennis coaching course and needs to do all of the course and practical work before the second part in a month's time. There is a lot of work for this. He's also doing preparation for his English Lit and History NEAs - went to the library and got a few relevant history books and has read a couple of novels. He is currently wading through "The Grapes of Wrath", which I just think is cruel. It's a long, unrelentingly dour novel (IMO).

Thanks @Lalux it was very unexpected email and she is over the moon.
Is it too late for Work experience, she did a week in an IT place during her school WE week, but applying for Engg and nothing to do with computers. I wonder what would be the best way to add into Supra curricular at this stage. She had done few competitions, but finding out that ppl who apply for the same course all did the same competitions. I feel like Summer holidays will be over soon and wouldn’t get time to do anything if it’s already ready to go? Any courses/books/project suggestions would be great help.

It honeslty depends on how well they've grasped the skills of A-level, how hard they work, are they doing extra reading outside the subject regularly, organisation etc. Some people thrive a gcse and then underperformed at A-level but it is such a step up. Also teachers need to think about Y13 - she's only done 1 year and that's easier during mocks because - less content to revise, less exams (as your likely not doing even paper), also haven't done coursework (people often assume it will be easy to do well but it's very hard). So it's easier to do well in Y12 mocks than Y13 - thus those grades can sometimes be higher than the final ones (you also have to consider that if they take on feedback they'll likely improve). I'd get her to ask Head of 6th form, or Head of Year (whatever her sixth forms strucutres is) because they may be doing further mocks in the autumn and then it will be a combination of that. Some people are predicted quite low grades unfortunately if they just struggle to adapt to the pace and essay skills etc of a-level.

Also different subjects see things differently - yes she got a B in psych but it may be very close to an a - it could be an easier mistake/skill to fix like being specific on research studies etc. Whereas the econ grade was an A but it may be lowly secured in individual questions and in Y13 it may be more difficult to add the content specifics to get an A overall (just giving different ideas to consider that's is not as simple as definitely predicting up from the Grade they achieved). So her econ grade may go up but it could stay at a B (likely teachers have thought about their justification) - if she does have further mocks though I wouldn't raise it yet, but wait to see how she performs in them.

Thank you, she has a consistent mix of A, low A and high B marks in essays , exams etc, but there is no mention of predicted/ expected grades based on that, only the minimum expected grades of B x2 based on gcse results.
Would the grades that should be submitted not be a step up from that to allow for refining techniques and essay structure etc?

We drove to more open days than I’d anticipated for that reason too @wonderstuff. Even with ds’s 16-17 saver card it was eye watering, and busses took ages, even though they were much cheaper.

DS worked hard for his summer exams and there were only 7 (unlike the 20 odd last year!) so I’m optimistic that his results will be what he’s hoping for (AAA). The crunch will be the TMUA and MAT tests in October to see whether his LSE and Oxford aspirations are reachable.

Just organising a uni road trip for next week. Liverpool, Manchester and York. Dd never been to any of them (I’ve never been to Liverpool or Manchester and only been to York once). Going to stay with DSIL who’s in Lancaster. Can not believe the cost of trains, over £200 to get from Basingstoke to Lancaster for the two of us, against about £80 in petrol. Just crazy. So I’m driving!

@Muchtoomuchtodo We're also counting down the days to results day! DS' FM prediction will be the same as what he gets in his maths. Not sure what economics will be - but as he did no revision because he was fully focused on the maths exams it could be anything!

Will be good to have one result in the bag as at least he will know what tier of uni he should be targeting.

Oh gosh that’s stressful @Muchtoomuchtodo hope results day goes well.

I think ds’s predicted grades will massively depend on his AS results. His A level mocks aren’t until after Christmas so they’ll be too late for the UCAS applications.

17 days until we know his AS results……….

Dd has predicted grades, but she’s querying one, she has achieved A grades in economics but got a B prediction, whereas she’s got strong Bs in psychology and has an A prediction. It doesn’t seem to make sense, there’s plenty of time to straighten it out though I think.

Her minimum expected grades are BBB, she currently has predictions of ABB, but we think that will change to AAB, however she thinks she’ll probably end up with ABC or AAC (with the grade that’s predicted A being the one that might be A or B, one predicted B likely to be an A and the other predicted B likely to be a C). It’s so confusing knowing where to apply!

The school might just call them expected grades but it might be her predictions as well. Some schools say targets etc but it's all the same thing. When she gets back to school, she can ask her teachers. She still has time till UCAS deadline (near end of January), but some schools might impose their own deadline of December so they can get all the applications done. So does she have mocks in the autumn that may impact her grade?
Also teachers will want consist A's not just getting them on one or 2 essays. Especially they will want consistency A's for all essays etc - if you get an A on on 25 marker but the rest are a mix of C's and B's then unlikely to predict. Because mocks you tend to do more papers and a a range if questions. Also depending on the coursework percentage of the grade, they won't want to inflate it too much. Coursework is normally only 20% of overall grade (thinking English, History etc). If its more then they'll take it into consideration

Hi
Just delurking to ask about predicted grades.
Has anyone’s dc not actually got clear predictions yet?
dd has had her end of y12 report today, and there are no predictions that I can see. Only minimum expected grade, or grades from the June mocks. She got 2 B’s and distinction star, but ideally needs 2A’s and the distinction star to apply where she wants to secure an offer.
What are her likely predictions …? She has had A’s in the past and also not yet done the course work.
I don’t like not knowing the clear details 😂

DD went off to her 2-week financial services internship with 5 cereal bars and a copy of the Communist Manifesto. I love 17-year-olds.

Ooh what a fabulous opportunity @Muchtoomuchtodo I’m not surprised he’s jealous!

Hope it all goes smoothly and he has an amazing time @JustHereWithMyPopcorn . DS’ girlfriend is at a Yale summer school atm and loving it! He’s very jealous!

DS has just headed off for the states, I’m just hoping he’s going to get through customs without trauma! 😬