Finishing Year 13 / Exam Results support thread (number 6!)

Mrs B
I am with you on that

eatyourveg Is it a bad sign if a course constantly pops up in clearing? Ie. The admissions would rather seek out those with higher grades than take offer holders with dropped grades?

If its useful for any of you to know the clearing history of any specific courses just pm with the course code and I'm happy to have a look as I have kept the lists going back to 2009 - there are some gems out there that surprisingly pop up year after year.

Good luck MrsB - does your DD have a realistic chance of hitting her firm?
Hoping its just jitters, but DD now saying she has spectacularly messed up in her weakest subject.

Exactly the same problem here circular. I sat down with dd at the weekend and asked her to think about what she will do if she doesn't make her firm and she is still adamant that she doesn't want to go to her insurance place. I thought as we were closer to results day she may have changed her mind. She would rather take a gap year (doing who knows what) and reapply but I don't know either what that will involve in terms of resits. I am still hoping she will make her firm but like you, I don't know how best to prepare to help her if she doesn't. Let's hope neither of has to cross this bridge!

Horsemad Seems those at school giving results out super early are at an advantage if they need to go through clearing. Results not till 9am here.

Same here Mrs B.
Wish I could get some enthusiasm from DD for somewhere other than her firm. Still convinced shes unlikely to have hit her offer yet not entertaining the thought of going anywhere else. And no idea whether she would get same or any offer from them for next year, nor how or if she could achieve it through retakes. Her PS wont be as good either, as many of the extra CA stuff she did this year won't be able to continue in a gap year.
Short of making sure she has the correct contact details in her phone for next week (to beg) and gathering details for various private sixth form colleges, really at a loss of how I can help her be prepared and able to move forward.

Oh how I wish it was this time next week!

sassymuffin As a teacher, I truly applaud your (and your daughter´s) approach to Results Day. Whatever happens now, your daughter could not be better prepared. I wish her, and all of the other children, every success.

muffinmonster I don´t know which grades your daughter needs for her firm and insurance offers, but let´s say, for example, she misses the insurance by one grade, e.g. needs AAB but achieves ABB. Would she really want to do Year 13 all over again? (I have no doubt this is a question you have asked her already). In the event that she doesn´t achieve her firm or insurance offers, she will see many of her friends and peers using clearing, and her teachers are bound to point her in that direction, as will website such as UCAS, The Student Room, etc. and media outlets so I expect she will at least have a look. To be anti-clearing before Results Day is fairly common. I would not worry too much yet. Good luck to your daughter, and all of the others too.

Our school doesn't open for results until 8am. Most Clearing hotlines open at 7 or 7.30 so DS will have to be heading off to school early to collect his grades if he hasn't made his offer.

I have been feeling irrationally hopeful about R-Day for the past couple of weeks. I think it's because thinking realistically is so unpleasant. I did try it for a few minutes but I came over all trembly.

DD has no job so is just swanning around at the moment. Her 18th was the weekend before last so she's had quite a nice time of it. Gifts still to be 'cashed in' include tea for two at the Waldorf (surely I'm first in line to accompany her to that?) and tickets to Swan Lake. Well, one ticket; her friend has very sensibly kept the other.

We have had the plan B conversation many times over the past few months. I know DD really really wants her firm, but I think (and I'm sure she agrees, or will when she's dried her tears) that her insurance is a very decent option. The trouble starts if it comes to Clearing; she has been adamant all along that she won't do it and would rather try again next year to improve her grades. I agree with her reasoning, but we haven't worked out the nitty gritty of HOW and WHERE she will improve her grades.

So it's heads in the sand here, and strictly no uni preparations until after the 13th. Then I can immerse myself in the relative merits of different mattress toppers or sixth-form colleges as appropriate.

We've been told by the school that results will be sent electronically to students at 6.30am. Senior staff will be available in school from 7am for advice or help (presumably for those students who haven't made their offer, or aren't sure because Track hasn't updated). Students are to come in between 10am and 10.30am to collect hard copies of their results.

9 days...

Oh God, that Clearing link is sending cold shivers down my spine!

Just want it to be over with now...

Molio
Would the coach be a back up plan?

(Or we he have to set off tomorrow to make it viable? )

My own daughter has just gone off on her first trip abroad, that hasn't been either a school visit or a family holiday. She's travelling with a friend the same age.

As she is a bit scatty, I have been left somewhat in shreds. (Unlike those parents whose large families of highly independent children have all done annual solo trips exploring the Amazon rainforests from the age of 12 onwards.)

I imagine results day will be a piece of cake, by contrast! Whatever the actual results. (Mind you, I could be imagining wrong.)

Busy day for you AtiaoftheJulii Cautiously had the serious "what if" plan B conversation with DD last night. It went really well, she is going to have another look at her insurance to refresh her memory. This is a massive improvement on her announcement that she didn't want to go to her insurance a few weeks ago as she couldn't contemplate being anywhere other than her firm.
We have even made a list of Unis she would like to check for clearing courses if necessary. As upset as she was she said she felt better this morning knowing she had a bit of a back up plan.

Nerves increasing here too. Dd1 can collect her results from school between 8 and 9 (and then dd2 can get her AS results from a different school between 9 and 10, so we will probably drive them both and aim for nearer 9 than 8), so I guess she will have checked track by then. She's working most days so hopefully being distracted.

Had to book a dentist appt for dd2 and because we're away after results, the only day I could get was results day at noon. She's not impressed.

Hocus seven DC are up here at the moment and there were inevitably instant suggestions as to who was the most expendable. No consensus though as yet. seimum thanks. We do have two other passports here but one is a different gender and the other is bearded on the photo so would require rapid hair accelerator or a joke shop beard - neither readily to hand :(

Last year ucas had updated by 6.40am.

DD2 got her results 4 years ago track was working initially but then it crashed and went down for hours. We got results from school and she'd missed her offer by one mark. Tried to phone first choice uni but couldn't get through and then track finally came back up at 3pm and confirmed she'd got her first choice. DD2 then promptly burst into tears of relief. Not an experience I am in a hurry to repeat!

3 years ago it was around 7.20am and school didn't open until 11 so I for one was glad it was early.

When DD2 got her results (OK it was 4 years ago), track updated with her result approx. 7.30am. As school not open until 9am, DS will be checking track first.

Molio - I have managed to successfully fly to Dublin and back using DS's passport and a (very faded) work pass as ID (not intentionally, I might add!). However, I think that was with Aer Lingus, who are more flexible than some of the others.

We're away next week, coming home the night before results due. Hoping being away will be a distraction...

Also keep hearing different times for track update. School not open till 9am here, and only 15min drive, so hoping DD will know first. Like your DD MrsB'she doesn't wan nothing other than firm choice. Not quite sure how achievable that would be next year if rejected this year, doesn't bear thinking about.
Meanwhile, plenty of extra work shifts and 18th birthday coming up proving a welcome distraction.
Are most of you going with your DC to collect results? DD decided she wants me to go as 1) She doesn't want to drive if either very sad or on a happy high and 2) to be on hand to speak to the immediately available careers teacher if she's in bits.