Any parents of Y12 DCs up for a support thread?

BeckAndCall - I will link arms with you for a little jig! Similar thoughts about Chemistry here.

Now, all we have to do is make sure that they:

• book university visits
• write to said universities with specific questions
• look at the personal statement
• find a job for the summer
• dont forget everything they have learnt in the last year
• decide which subjects they will take forward
• ...........

.......dont forget to breathe, dont forget to breathe, dont forget to breathe......

If any mums would like to join me in a little celebratory 'hurray she's finished' dance, feel free to do so!

Chemistry was tough but not impossible, apparently :)

And, breathe....

Until this time next year!

That's interesting Cardibach. Ds isn't a science person so I really don't know. But how very difficult if sometimes its an A and sometimes a U, and of course hard for you with DC teachers being your colleagues.
What about student room? They dissect all the past papers on there, maybe dc could ask on there about model answers for the U paper, rather than the mark scheme? The only thing I know is terminology is the be all and end all, so I would guess that extends to phrasing. Probably too late but flash cards with the exact phrases?
Fingers crossed its the A paper style questions. Good luck to all science peeps this week.

Thanks for the link secretscwirrels - my boy's definitely not a STEM person, so that'll be why it's not crossed my radar

DD starts A2 lessons next week - still on study leave at the moment. She is also going to CERN and has a Headstart course to look forward to as well as helping out at the Royal Society open science event in June and something else at UEA. She might fit in a few university visits as well! Her choir is then going to be singing at Westminster Abbey for a week in August. Think she'll be going back to school for a rest.

Ds school made it quite clear the jump between gcse and A level was HUGE. No spoon feeding, be ready from the outset, don't fall behind because it's so hard to make up. They are supposed to do 2 hours independent study/ homework for each class hour! To be fair ds has done this and more, hopefully it will pay off.
This week he is chilling, sorting his folders books etc ready for next year, he finished all his exams before half term, a slew of them. He has one week of A2 lessons, one week of personal statement writing, Ucas prep etc and then one week of work exp.

Headstart

What's 'Headstart' ?

Tutor for Physics - young PHD student worked a treat every day of half term. More confident for Electrons in Physics now.

Fingers crossed for Wed. and Further Maths on Thursday.

Good luck all.

I think the problem with the step between GCSE & A level is that certainly for sciences there needs to be a certain amount of unlearning to be done. The simplification at GCSE of, say, cell structure needs to be forgotten and the new complexity learned. The same with the terminology. The imprecision which was acceptable at GCSE is now a liability at A level.

For my DD these have been the real problems. The work itself has not been a problem.

DS has Headstart in June.
I had hoped for an overnight in or near Durham as it's a lovely area but his coach trip was only £10 so I've missed out on that.

DS officially starts his A2 lessons today, but he doesnt finish exams until next week so they are not being strict about it. He doesnt finish until 19th July but wont be the there for much of July as he has his Headstart and a school trip to CERN.
He has booked at Nottingham and Durham now, have decided to take him and going to book a hotel in between the two as the train journey was so expensive to Durham for the day. We are in Herts

I meant when he was at home. No "study leave" here, lessons as normal unless they have an exam. They were supposed to confirm their subjects for 2nd year a month ago. They do break up on 27th June though.

ds starts his A2 lessons next week - don't all schools / colleges do this ??
They have to go to the A2 lessons for all the subjects they did ASs in, until after August, when they can decide which one to drop.
I'm surprised if some schools just ignore 6 weeks of possible teaching time ?

BackforGood ah resting .
I know that after his last exam next week DS will retire to the sofa until September. Meanwhile to be fair, he has been a workaholic this last half term. It's all or nothing.
DS has some open days booked on college coach trips. Also Nottingham and Lancaster which he has booked independently. He hopes to be able to drive to them if he passes his test.

Glad I've come back to this today - ds hasn't booked onto any open days yet. It's like trying to get blood out of a stone getting any commitment from him, although he's very keen to go somewhere - just won't put the time into looking at the on-line stuff and various prospectuses (?) and committing to any sort of 'narrowing down' procedure.
He's actually been on holiday all last week (1/2 term) and is for all this week, as they are on study leave, but he had his last AS before 1/2 term, so has just been "resting"

I agree, it is the case - DD got all A*/A at GCSE with comparatively little work and has had to really work hard just to keep up at AS. I am wondering if there is another leap to A2 or is that it now?

cardibach she was very high performing at GCSE across the board and is working harder now than she was then.. . I think they all are.
After seeing the work and results so far in DSs cohort and reading this thread it's clear that A levels are such a giant leap up from GCSE. Did anyone warn our DCs? I don't remember anyone saying to me or DS that A*s at GCSE would mean nothing at sixth form. Yet that seems to be the case.

Oh ok, DD has OCR chemistry tomorrow too. She has found it hard all year but has done all the practice papers she can find a couple of times each. Doing past papers seems to have paid off with other exams so far, so I am hoping it will be ok, she is not looking forward to it at all.

No it was AQA but OCR chemistry tomorrow.

secretscwirrels Was it OCR? DD had biology this morning and has just arrived home, happy that it went well. She had done loads for it, as it her strongest of the 3 sciences, so I was hopeful for her. Just relieved it's over. Worried about the chemistry tomorrow though.