Any parents of Y12 DCs up for a support thread?

Decision Maths paper went really well yesterday,it's an A2 paper. Because of the way they do Maths and Further Maths they essentially do the Maths A level in Year 12 and the FM in Y13. He did core 1 and core 2 in January and after the holidays he has Core 3 and Core 4, plus the 3 sciences.

notfluffy I think a lot of universities prefer to rely on actual AS results rather than teacher predictions which can be either over cautious or optimistic. If your DD does well she will have firm evidence of her ability to put on her application.

DS seems to be planning to hole up in his room for the week with practice papers but I am going to bribe persuade him to get out a bit.

Have a good week everyone.

only just found this thread. We're half way through. As are hard - it is a big jump

Anyone else had aDC take Maths C2 yesterday? Apparently it was horrible.......

Yes DD did Chemistry Edexcel on Thurs too. She also did the Jan paper, which was generally agreed to be very hard. She was 1 mark off an A, so resat hoping for a better result. Her feedback was that it went ok, a couple of odd questions that she was fortunately able to answer, but no real feeling as to whether she'll have done better than last time. I think they're trying to make the papers harder, possibly to set expectations for future candidates.

Oh gosh, all your positive comments have sent me over the edge and I am blubbing. I think it's all been a bit much and being so it will be ok yesterday for DS has taken its toll. Fortunately it's 6.30 in the morning and no one else is up to see me (it's the weekend here).
When he shows he is more resigned I shall delve a bit deeper into how much he did for the last question, I think you are right he should have completed 20 mins and got a good few marks.
Positive thinking and I shall speak to his tutor on Sunday to see what he thinks.
A gap year wouldn't be the end of the world, it's something he is already considering, working on the general election campaign.
Thanks again everyone, and good luck to your DC in their exams.

And, still trying to make you feel better, if he only lost 20 mins, it's quite likely he'd Already spent 20 mins on that question so Although he won't have done brilliantly on it, he's likely to have got over half marks as the first marks are always the easiest to come by in an essay. So he may have dropped 15 out of the 40 marks.

And the grade boundary might be only 80!

So all is not lost....

isthiscorrect I really feel for you. My DD is going over all her papers so far in fine details to make sure she thinks she's got over 90 UMS in everything.

Her Oxbridge coordinator has indicated that 90 UMS average will be good enough to apply for Cambridge: so your son should be heartened. Although, my sons school worked on the 95 average as a rule of thumb - that said, they let my son apply to Oxford with an average nearer 90 and he did get interviewed (although you don't declare UMS for Oxford)

And Cambridge interview a higher proportion of all candidates than Oxford, so all is not lost for him. And it's an average, so his other subjects will be important too.

But a long wait til August,as you say.

Isthiscorrect I hope it's not as bad as he paints it, if he actually answered all the questions and filled the allotted time he's probably done better than he thinks.
Also if he is getting almost 100 UMS on his other papers a retake wouldn't be frowned at even by Cambridge.
It's very hard watching them though isn't it, this feels to me like the first stage where I genuinely can't help him other than offering extra TLC. .

Oh notfluffy, thank you for kind words they are very much needed. He is a straight A student by dint of exceptionally hard work. He is passionate about all his subjects. His tutor told him he thinks it won't be too bad, his January paper was an A, his other May paper he is expecting top marks, and I guess if he gets good marks on the questions he did answer it might not be too bad. But crikey it's going to be an awfully long wait till August. The school will certainly predict A/A* for next year. He got a practice paper back this morning with 98/100. His UMS in Jan were 96 and 98. So he certainly has the knowledge, he just can't believe it's all gone wrong. It's hard for me to hold it together for him when I want to bawl my eyes out. Just giving him lots of positives, it's good I can give him yours as well so it isn't just me making something up.

Fuck fuck fuckity fuck. Ds had his last exam today, gov&pol, he got a high A for this in January. Today the G&P students were taking the exam in the media studies room with the PE students. The exam timings were written on a board with both exam times divided by a line. From where ds was sat he couldn't really see. When the exam started he looked at the finish time in the wrong column and then planned all his timings based on the wrong time. So for his 40 mark question he didn't anywhere nearly finish. Invigilator said 2 mins and he was expecting 20 mins. He is distraught. His plans for Cambridge are now scuppered, he won't get the 95 plus UMS needed, even if he has enough marks from the last paper and the other questions to get a high B. He is inconsolable and I can't help him. He knows it's his fault, I think it's my fault, I should have bought him a watch. It's all just so heartbreaking for him. Such a stupid mistake and if he has done badly the school might not let him continue next year, although I think his class work, homework and January module will indicate this was a one off mistake. I feel so helpless :-(

Good morning all AS chemistry parents! My DD had her first moment of real panic here last night and is convinced she knows nothing. I hope by 11am she knows that's not true.......

Oh my gosh. I don't know how it happened but today is ds last exam! He was up till midnight again last night revising for this morning. It feels like its been a long haul. I can't imagine being in this state of tension thru until mid June like some students.
Good luck all dc (and parents of course) see you in August, his self doubt has already started :-(

ds finishes tomorrow, so he's got 1/2 term, then another week (while others are still taking exams) before he has to go back to school.

Isthiscorrect Hope it went well. How great to have half term free of revising . I used to like to go away summer half term but last year it was GCSEs, this year it's AS and then next year A levels plus DS2 starts GCSEs.

This week DS has Decision Maths on Friday then after half term Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Core 3 and Core 4 Maths.

Anyone's DC do psychology this morning?

DD wasn't happy. Said it was very different to the past papers she'd seen. Fingers crossed it went better than she thinks it did