Page 9 | 2015 Yr 12 support thread

Needmoresleep · 2015-01-08T11:48:42+00:00

Mocks this week, and the reality of AS exams in a few months is starting to hit home. I don't think it will be an easy journey, so would welcome some company.

UhtredOfBebbenburg · 09/07/2015 12:05

They didn't. They just said that's what is happening.

MayPolist · 09/07/2015 12:02

This seems like a 3 card trick.So it seems the only change is that for poor students a grant is replaced by loan? How on earth did they put a positive spin on that?

Dunlurking · 09/07/2015 08:53

The relevant page about the budget changes for the maintenance loan now says the new figure will apply specifically to lower income students which is bad news as ds was happily chatting last night about being able to afford a better room than the lowest priced ones. But it seems unclear still. Has anyone any more info?

MorvahRising · 09/07/2015 00:22

needmoresleep that's interesting what you said people were saying about Cambridge.

DS loved the city and the colleges and loves the idea of being there. He is quite ambitious and tends to aim for the top. However, the engineering course, though impressive and with some lovely people, seemed somewhat old-fashioned. You can't specialise til the third year, their point being that many people change their minds, but it's a long time to be doing other disciplines you may not be particularly interested in. The department seemed rather shabby and there seems to be much more emphasis on theory and much less on practical.

Contrast this with Southampton, which obviously can't compete in terms of beauty, history, tradition and kudos, but which has brand spanking new labs with more on the way, you can specialise from the word go and the course is very up to date and relevant and extremely practical. It's in the top three for this discipline, the other two being Cambridge and Imperial.

So a bit of a dilemma as I don't really think it's worth him applying to Cambridge if the course at Southampton is so much better for him. But he wants to give it a shot, and if his very long shot came off, it would be, for him, a difficult decision.

Oh well, chances are that it will be a decision he doesn't need to make!

SecretSquirrels · 08/07/2015 16:58

The current loan is reduced according to parental income so I imagine that will still be the case. I suppose this might help those who's parents are on a life income and can't help out.

UhtredOfBebbenburg · 08/07/2015 15:58

That will be the maximum though. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't peg the minimum where it currently is. :(

NeitherHereOrThere · 08/07/2015 15:57

Just had a look at BBC News and this is what he said:

"And to ensure universities are affordable to all students from all backgrounds we will increase the maintenance loan available to £8,200, the highest amount of support ever provided."

So I would assume this loan would be available to everyone.

Dunlurking · 08/07/2015 15:18

Have I understood correctly? The budget says the maintenance loan will go up to £8200 from 2016/17 and the maintenance grant will be lost. I'm sorry for those who would have been eligible for a grant but our household is definitely a squeezed middle and we were worrying how to top up a £5000ish maintenance loan for ds so this will definitely take the pressure off us, and remove the need for a termtime job for ds.

Any thoughts? Have I got the wrong end of the stick here? Is the higher loan figure only for those who would have had the grant?

MyVisionsComeFromSoup · 06/07/2015 11:09

Narvin - DD is planning to use her EPQ as a written piece for Cambridge - perhaps it's course specific? I'm sure Psychology say you can.

I would ask her but she's currently off on a DofE expedition - thankfully the weather this week isn't the same as last week . Then we have a week of work experience (which she's negotiated not to do to work on her PS and EPQ and extra reading) then we break up the week after thank goodness.

Original poster

Needmoresleep · 06/07/2015 10:45

I read that the numbers applying to medical schools fell last year. I wonder if the volunteering and other hurdles have started to put potential students off. If so it might be an irony that a process designed to help identify those with a genuine commitment and interest, might be acting in reverse. Students with clued up parents, contacts and money (the vaccinations alone have cost more than many can afford) tick the boxes. To others especially those who are expected to do it all on their own, it might seem daunting especially in a year that is full on academically.

She still needs the results, but otherwise I think its all OK, bar the fact she has given no thought at all to Universities/Open Days. Its a pity it is such a long course because the obvious thing, as Narvin suggests with a similar (greater) logjam of requirements, would be to take a gap year.

OP posts:

Leeds2 · 05/07/2015 12:02

That sounds iike a busy summer, Need!

Original poster

Needmoresleep · 05/07/2015 11:50

Leeds, she is doing well both academically and with work experience. The latter suggests she can genuinely hack the grottier side of a caring career. Indeed last summer volunteering in a care home, she ended up being extra shifts and being paid. And academically she is a lot more confident now she is only taking subjects she enjoys, wtih teachers suggesting she should have a crack at Oxbridge. I think she would agree with Brenda's DS. Lots of school stuff on UKCAT, BMAT, UCAS etc which she seems to have decided to put to one side, presumably till she has her UKCAT and AS results. However because of the early deadlines the school want to see drafts at the start of term. 2015 needs to be a couple of months longer.

The danger is that by not thinking about where she might want to live for five years, she ends up with the default, which is London. Coursewise this is fine as London boasts some excellent teaching hospitals, which is why so many London children end up at London Universities, but I would like her to at least try to imagine life outside the capital and what she might get from a wider University experience, and going to Open Days would be a good way of doing this.

However she, and the rest of our DCs have a lot on, and next year will be tough. If this is the way she handles it, so be it.

OP posts:

Narvinectralonum · 05/07/2015 11:15

DD1 has been doing a lot of work (allegedly) on her EPQ. But she's had the week from hell (3 sort of open days - one proper open day, and two instrument specific days at conservatoires involving a fair bit of playing; performing at a music festival yesterday and doing another music thing right now - plus of course the hideous weather which has knocked her for 6). And apparently she has two massive essays to submit tomorrow and Tuesday, which will have a major influence on the reference the school gives her (for Ucas, not (one would suppose) for ucas conservatoires. So, a fair bit of pressure there. She seems under the impression that a not quite completed (or at least not submitted) EPQ can't be used as one of the pieces of written work for Cambridge - is this wrong? After this week we have decided to knock open days on the head completely. We have spent literally hundreds of pounds on travel and hotels and the cupboard is bare. She needs a rest, too. She won't get much of one during the summer since she has three weeks of music stuff. I wish she was taking a gap year, to be honest - although that would stretch the finances even more (because of a bigger overlap with DS at university assuming he goes).

Original poster

Needmoresleep · 05/07/2015 10:39

Though I have been following the Open Day thread I thought I might revivie this one as DD has not been to any Open Days yet. I'm not sure why she has been so resisitant. She's interested in what others have to say about Durham, Warwick, Cambridge etc. Including the fact that not everyone loved Cambridge: one finding the subject talk patronising, another preferring the course and campus at Warwick. I think it might be because she has wanted to focus on school life. As a dyslexic she has tended not to enjoy education, but suddenly she is having a ball. She does not have to struggle through essay subjects and loves being at the top of the school. Its almost a pity that she only has one more year. Which I suppose is why she has not focussed on next steps.

She says she does not want to take a gap year but perhaps it would be a good thing. So many don't get medicine offers first time round that it is as well to have a silver lining if this happens to her.

She's broken up, but still busy. A weeks residential volunteering, a weeks shadowing and then 2 weeks working on UKCAT. Time though for a family holiday and hopefully enough time to write a PS, an essay and do some background reading. The sun is shining. All good!

OP posts:

Marni23 · 18/06/2015 14:20

Thanks all for your thoughts re DD doing the EPQ. She had a chat with the Head of Sixth Form who advised her not to do one in light of her workload both over the summer and in Y13. I'm very relieved!

AtiaoftheJulii · 17/06/2015 10:23

Oh yes, of course, I forgot that aspect. Should have remembered as dd1 had to do that, and if dd2 will have to if that's the path she chooses too. Hadn't realised you could use an EPQ, but seems obvious now :) What does your dd want to study MyVisions?

MyVisionsComeFromSoup · 17/06/2015 09:06

Atia - her course needs her to submit two pieces of extended writing/essays (which I think can be school work, but Maths and Chemistry don't really lend themselves to that ) - one can be a partially completed EPQ (although hers should be finished by that point), so she's having to get another essay title set and marked by her teacher as well.

Original poster

Needmoresleep · 17/06/2015 09:00

EPCs seem great:

to gain the skills needed for an extended piece of work, ie research, structure, argument. If your DD is winning essay prizes this does not seem needed.
Perhaps to demonstrate you can carry heavier workload than the minimum 3 A levels. By all accounts students at Oxbridge and indeed elsewhere, are expected to work very hard. I assume it can't do any harm to show you are up to it, but 4 A levels or an additional AS would do the same.
Because you are really interested in something. But again essays cover that.

We felt the same about DofE. It sounded great fun, however DD was engaged in some time-consuming EC which provided similar opportunities.

DD's private school does not offer EPQ but expects them to do presentations, enter essay competitions, attend external lectures and similar beyond-the-mark-scheme stuff.

The tiredness is evident, though not as bad as last week. However the summer looks equally daunting. Thank goodness her school breaks up two weeks earlier than most. She has two weeks "work experience", including one in a hospital. (The vaccinations are on-going as I confused HPV with HepB so thought we were there when we were not.) She needs two weeks to prepare for UKCAT, and is talking about entering an essay competition (which she probably ought to do). She is pretty sure she will give BMAT a miss, unless her AS are really good and her UKCAT is awful. This rules out Oxbridge and a couple of London hospitals, but saves another set of practice. I am glad I have booked a family holiday as this forces a break.

She is now booked onto a couple of other London open days, which hopefully will give her some insight into the differences between courses. She needs to get her forms in quite early in the autumn, as the school needs time to review and process before an October deadline, so DH and I are keen that she sees somewhere outside London. DH is not from London and is already worried that DS may spend his whole life within Zone 1. However DD seems to have little interest in leaving. (This seems to be pretty typical, with a high proportion of children we know, both state and privately educated, opting to study in London.) By chance I am passsing a good University with an open day, on route to somewhere else, so could drop her off, which would give her a chance to consider campus life. However she says she can't spare the time. Hopefully she will come round. Part of the problem is that to get through it all she is tackling one thing at a time, and so really has not given what she wants from University life much thought. But she probably should as she will probably only have enough time to see a couple of places in September.

One more year...

OP posts:

Narvinectralonum · 17/06/2015 08:57

DD1 is doing an EPQ (they all do at her school). I'm worried that her autumn is going to be busier than most people's exam term, what with all the auditions/interviews and the EPQ presentation. She's probably going to work her long listing in a national poetry competition (the shortlist was the placed people) into her PS somehow but I don't think it will do her much good seeing as she isn't applying for English. Her EPQ might be beneficial to her interviews - will give her something to talk about anyway. Sadly none of the pieces involved can be worked into her audition programme at most of the places she is applying to (she might be able to include some of it in a couple though which is something). She has A2 GS tomorrow, her final exam. She seems very flat. :(

Marni23 · 17/06/2015 08:50

Hellsbells I don't have a MN scarf! But if you see someone wandering aimlessly about the place that'll probably be me! Hope your DD enjoys the day.

Marni23 · 17/06/2015 08:42

Thanks all! I tend to agree that with 4 subjects etc an EPQ isn't necessary. Her English Pre-U also includes a Personal Investigation which is a 3000-3500 word essay for which she will develop her own title/do her own research etc. Think she has to start on it over the summer, which is also when she'd need to get going on the EPQ. So along with extra reading etc I think it would just be too much. She needs to have a break too!

Atia I should think that's what's behind your DD2's current mood. She's only just finished her AS's and now is straight into UCAS stuff. At least DD had a 3 week break in between which allowed her to relax. I'm not surprised she's retired to her bed!

AtiaoftheJulii · 17/06/2015 08:04

When you say needs it for her Oxbridge application do you mean that she wants to have it pretty much done by then so she can talk about it in her PS and (hopefully) at interview?

Dd2 is still deciding.

She's been in a foul mood the last couple of days - am assuming some sort of post-exam comedown/pre-UCAS panic but it's not pleasant. This morning she's gone back to bed and is refusing to get up and go to school. Joy.

MyVisionsComeFromSoup · 17/06/2015 07:41

DD2 is doing an EPQ as her A2 subjects don't really show research and essay writing, but she's only doing 3, so will have time. She's presenting it in November though (needs it for her Oxbridge application), which means loads of work over the summer rather than lying in bed all day

hellsbells99 · 17/06/2015 07:24

I agree with Atia.
DD1 didn't do an EPQ as we knew she wouldn't need it. As the course she applied for requires interviews, she had to spend a lot of time preparing for them as well as actually attending them.
DD2 won't be doing one either. Like your DD, she will probably carry on the 4 subjects plus she is doing an extra AS (I am currently trying to talk her in to dropping 1 of her A level subjects).
Both DDs are doing science subjects. At their school, certain subjects (e.g. History) do encourage an EPQ.

AtiaoftheJulii · 17/06/2015 06:11

My personal feeling is that if you're doing 4 subjects, don't bother with the EPQ as well. Especially if you spend your time winning essay competitions