2015 Yr 12 support thread

Apparently we are going to go to Dartmoor on the weekend (for part of the weekend - we are going to Cardiff on Monday).

For whoever it was who asked - we live on the southwest peninsular. It's a bugger to get ANYWHERE.

Biology for dd this afternoon too and then a break until after half term. I have a day off tomorrow and am taking dd out for the day for some indulgent mother/daughter time.

Biology here this afternoon too for both DDs. DD2 eventually got up at 10am and is now in the shower - she doesn't seem to be worrying about last minute revision

DD2 was in floods of tears after yesterday's C2, but perked up a bit when she went through an unofficial mark scheme on the Student Room - depending on the grade boundaries she's probably done OK. Whether it's enough for her first choice uni or not remains to be seen .

D1 has her final ever exam today, so lots of stressy panicking by phone. Thankfully it wasn't yesterday, as I don't think I could have coped with both of them crying at me at the same time

Yes, DD had two days last week when she had both a morning and an afternoon exam. She is delighted to be finishing today but she thinks she would have done better if her exams had been more spread out.

Swings and roundabouts innit. Some people had lots of exams in the first week (DD1 for example). Some people had to do lotsof coursework. Some people's exams are really quite long (English was 2.5 hours, and there was a geography paper afterwards). DD1's friend had to sit for between 4-5 hours doing exams back to back because of a timetable clash. It all evens out in the end.

DD has Biology this afternoon, then Chemistry tomorrow.

She is very cross that some of her friends will have finished all of their exams before half term!

DD1 is adamant that you can't revise for GS. She got an A in the AS last year, on no revision, so maybe she has the right strategy. Her next exam is June 2, and it's the most important one, so she is in school today to revise. She took a night off last night though, and she isn't going to work at all over the bank holiday.

My Dd has her last exam this morning, which is Sociology. We are also intending to go to Durham on the 22nd - looks as if it's going to be very busy!

Hope your DD's French goes well this morning, Atia, and that she gets to see your mum this afternoon.

Hope your dd's French goes well Atiao. Ds announced he wasn't doing any revision for tomorrow's General Studies exam until tomorrow - in other words it's a day off!

Ds is going to the Ancient history/classics talk as well as the History one at Durham on the 22nd June mateysmum. I'm just going to the parents' guide talk at 12.10 and a college tour and lounging around drinking coffee and reading the paper somewhere while ds sorts himself out

Onwards indeed! DD has French this morning (her best subject - hope she feels today reflects that!) and then a blessed 2 1/2 week gap. In theory she is supposed to stay at school after her exam for a maths lesson last period. In practice, after a crappy day yesterday and being upset because she still hasn't seen my mum, I told her to leave school after the exam, get some lunch and go to the hospital.

Thinking of those in exams today xxx

Dd was ok about both maths and history in the end. I had a panicky text shortly before history stressing about the source question but in the event she seems to have coped. She said C2 was hard but as expected. Onwards.......

DS talking about resits in them all. Thought C2 Edexcel today far harder and was gloomy about history. Economic yesterday did not go well.

Hey ho, anyone got contacts in the outback and need a jackeroo ?

For those asking about resits and Ucas, this is our experience: DDs' school advise that they only resit a maximum of 1 paper per subject and we do have to pay - think it's approx £13 per paper. DD1 in year 13 is retaking 2 papers in total. She has not attended any AS classes but just worked through it herself. The highest mark counts so it is not a disaster if they do worse on the resit. For maths and sciences, A2 builds on AS so it it not a great deal of extra work to do the resits (I believe this is not true in subjects like history). For UCAS, DD1 did declare her AS grades - all state schools cash in the AS grades I think and all grades have to be declared. She then had to re-input the same subject again e.g. Biology AS with the resit session date (June 2015) and put the grade as pending. The universities generally offer places from their predicted A level grades - but schools don't tend to over predict as it looks bad for them if the students get a lot lower grades.
I hope this helps a little.

After relatively smooth sailing so far, today's Maths C2 (OCR) was apparently a 'nightmare', cue DD in floods of tears and hysterics to me on the phone whilst I was supermarket shopping! Although everyone found it hard...so going for the positive that the grade bands will be low! History was good - thank goodness...don't think she would have coped with another difficult exam. Resits are now making sense! Chemistry on Friday...thinking another emotional moment, sigh. We are doing endless open days as have no idea where to go (with me not from the UK) - so Bath/Bristol, Oxbridge, Leeds/Nottingham and Durham (see you there mateysmum!) ahead. Have done LSE, and Warwick campus tour so are starting to at least understand what the universities are all about.

DS had maths and history today too. History is is strong subject but maths....we,ll see.
We are off to Durham on 22 June looking at classical civilisation/ ancient history or even liberal arts as DS might like to combine the ancient history with a variety of other things. It's going to be an odyssey for us to get there from the south west. I hope he ends up at Exeter! We're there on 6th June.

Bernadette, so the grades are up to the school? And maybe what matters most after the exams is DS working really hard and creating a good impression until the UCAS forms go in.

DS has done nothing all year and now has mid-exam remorse.

Atia I do think History is very difficult to call. DD was sure she'd messed up one of the essays in the mock-in fact she'd scored higher on it than on the other essay which she thought had gone really well! Her teacher marks for Edexcel so would have been accurate. Hope your DD feels better about it soon-not nice to have 2 papers you feel haven't gone well on the same day.

Bernadette C2 was clearly very difficult. DD's school also doesn't 'cash-in' the AS grades, presumably to allow for resits where necessary. The Leavers' Destinations list is always very impressive, so it clearly does them no harm!

Resitting can help if the marks count toward the A2, I suppose.

I asked that Almond and was told they fill in their UCAS form with grade pending and then the predicted A2 grade. DCs at DDs school have offers from all the RG uni s according to the HOY (with results pending.)

Those doing resits can join year 12 for lessons next year, depending on timetable.

Tbh the thought of a resit was the only thing keeping DD going last week and I'm very grateful for it.

Morvah, DD is doing Bath and Bristol on consecutive days (Thursday and Friday), if your DS could do that.

I mean make their decision to offer a place.

How does resitting actually help? Don't universities make their decisions based on AS grades the student already has?

DS could do with resitting Geology if it made a difference.