Year 13 -2025/26 - Support, discussion and looking after each other - thread 2 - exam time

Thank you @Ventress
She and her friends had a great time at the prom and after party! She came home at 2:30 with no drama!

It's half term, a bit of down time is important too. DS has tennis courts booked and is planning a few beach days

DD has fallen off the revision wagon. Nothing yesterday, or today and she works all day on a Saturday

I can kind of see his point as he can get a loan for tuition so if you supplement up to the maintenance level then it’s up to him if he needs more? Is that what he’s saying? I’ve got a fixed amount I’m giving dd which ends up giving her £100pw and I pay the accom top up (most js covered by maintenance loan)and anymore she needs to work for. I am now working 2 jobs to pay for this so I do expect her to fund any extras herself!

car is annoying but my car is covered in dents I just don’t worry about it (made by me). my mechanic calls them little kisses !

@Ventress It was Pearson Edexcel. He did the US. Once I spoke to him it seemed he did OK. He isn't great remembering dates ( We've been drilling them) so he thought the time periods they asked for re the Civil Rights movement was very specific. His Tudors paper is last. He hates the Tudors! I just hope the Ketts Rebellion comes up, as every time I ask him what they are revising in class it's the Ketts Rebellion!

@Ventress Just googled it out of interest and only Cambridge and Durham require Astar. That obviously doesn’t mean it’s easier to get into Oxford, UCL, LSE etc as they have their own very stringent criteria but once the offer has been made it seems the pressure is off a bit as there’s no need for an Astar.
DC thinks he’s exceeding his PGs so far and his prediction is that he’s got 2 Astars so far and an A - but he’s known to be on the optimistic side and is also only half way through his exams….

Great to see this thread so active but it does mean that you blink and miss a bunch of news!

DS happy with how human geography (Edexcel) went yesterday. A couple of weird shorter questions (6 and 8 marker) where he (or his friends) struggled to understand what was being asked, but the longer essays were good. 5 exams down, 3 to go (after the half term).

@wonderstuff, great news about FIL and biopsy. @hels71, hope your biopsy and DD’s exam go well.

@Ventress, sorry to hear about the car. But better a small accident than a big one! The few accidents I’ve had over my many years of driving have all been parking ones so far. I am happy with that and hope it stays that way! Also sorry to hear about the finances disagreement. They are such bright YP it’s easy to forget that they are still very young. They don’t always make the best choices but they will learn and mature in due course. Hope the air clears soon 💐

Great to hear that psychology and politics went well for DC! And well done to further mathematicians and all the others too. Hope today’s exams go well.

Good luck to your daughter for her IB results @SaraCrewe06! Hope the prom went well 🥳

I think Durham is the same as the base Cambridge offer - Astar, AA. Probably to avoid being insurance for Oxford ( 3 A’s) or Cambridge! I think most RG/top level uni are 3 As but I’m happy to be corrected 😊

those rejecting Oxford at DS’s school have decided they want different courses. Eg one was offered English lit but the dc has decided they want English and french. UCL seems very popular - probably because lots were rejected and that’s upset DS’s friends who aren’t used to being rejected by anyone. Personally I think they are mad!

I’m sure your DS will get in with 3 As! 😊

Good luck for textiles 1 @hels71- sounds fascinating.

I hope the biopsy results are okay. Please remember that the vast bulk of biopsy results are negative 🤞

DS has three consecutively in the week following half term too @AuntyBulgaria- not fun is it?

DS and I had a disagreement about loans last night so I’m feeling a bit down this morning. Honestly I’ve done everything to make DS’s financial life easier at university, so this feels like a slap in the face. DH is absolutely fuming and he’s already taken on so much these past 6 months 🥲 I’m offering to pay for tutition and rent (in central London!) so all DS has to pay for is his food/spends which he should be able to cover via his part time job which he’s refusing to take on. Really gutted at his laziness 🥲

Just jumped onto this thread to wish everyone and their DCs the very best of luck.
DD did the IB and finished over a week ago, had her Prom last night.
This year has definitely been less stressful than my 2 DCs who both did A levels.
She still has the stress of results day!

@hels71 wishing you and your daughter all the best. Hope it goes well on Tuesday at your appointment.

@Ventress I just meant it's strange that UCL has lower grade requirement than Durham given UCL's prestige. Durham seems to require the highest grades for History out of all the English universities (not looked at Scotland e.g. Edinburgh/St Andrews) aside from possibly LSE. Annoying for my DC who could end up with 3xAs and miss his offer! So far he's really pleased with how it's going but it will depend on the grade boundaries.

Out of interest, where are those who are rejecting Oxford going instead?

Textiles paper 1 today. She seems fairly confident at the moment.
Meanwhile, I have been summoned to the hospital next Tuesday to discuss the results of a biopsy I had on Tuesday this week. Trying not to panic about the speed of this......

Goodness realise DS is not even half way yet. 6 more exams to go.
Long gap now with half term and then 3 in a row in that first week back then the 3 very spread out over a further two weeks. Never ending.

Good luck for all those with exams today!

It’s not much different @Fabfabfab. To be honest it’s me and Durham, not DS! My worry is that he gets his predicted grades and chucks it all in to have a go at Cambridge. Apparently three of his class mates have rejected their Oxford offers in order to go for something different next year! It’s almost as if they don’t have a school person to advise on this type of thing. I just want DS to be happy and settled which I think is at UCL as they have the range of courses and variety of choice with the history UG course and the PG options.

What history board are your dc doing @Desperatelyseekinglazysusanand @Gazelda? DS is doing OCR and found the Tuesday paper pretty good (tudors).

Good luck to those with exams today!

Yes, that was the other choice for the 24-marker. DD decided she had more to say about Socialism than paternalistic Conservatives. Last year they had a tricky question on Liberalism, so she was glad to have missed that.

We've had the same thing ( although DS did the ' Conservatism and Paternalism' question?! He seemed to know what they were on about. He didn't love history on Tuesday either!

Great to see so many posts on the new thread! Hope all the exams went well today and that everyone can try to enjoy the sunshine and get some well deserved rest and vitamin D over half-term. DC who is very sporty has spent much more time than usual inside the house over the last few months due to all the revision.
@JustHereWithMyPopcorn interesting point about about all the History applications - DC wants to do a law conversion after his degree but let's see what happens.
@Ventress Interesting to see that UCL is a lower offer than Durham - seems. bit mad to me really as UCL is such a good university. Hope your DC isn't too upset about the car, so many of my DC's friends have had minor car accidents in the first 6 months of passing their tests which must be why the insurance companies demand such high rates...

“Spatial awareness of a hippo” 😂

Fantastic that you have got DS power washing the patio. I am impressed @justherewithmypopcorn👏 enjoy your bbq.

i hope it’s not too hot for those with exams tomorrow. I remember my GCSEs and it was so ridiculously hot it was hard to concentrate (my excuse anyway! )

By the time your daughter goes to uni we will be experts @Tebheag!

2500 people sent possibility if redundancy notice - of those 600 will go. Marking boycotts and strikes announced

Wonder if now the RG is more affected, people will take any bloody notice.

Lol no further with plans apart from he is not going to uni.

Do enjoy reading everyone's posts as will need to know for DD who dies plan to do uni, and got no idea where to start with uni. I was only there a day a week.

Sorry to hear about the car @Ventress , DS1 is a terror fordoing this to both cars that he's had. I swear he's got the spatial awareness of a hippo. Hope it's not too costly to fix.

DS currently power washing the patio for BBQ on the weekend. He's done one chemistry paper practice today, whined and moaned about how hard it was the whole time so I sent him out to the garden to do some real work. 😁

I think (hope) Notts is too big to go under but there will definitely be some cutbacks to courses.