Continuing Year 13: January 2016

Thanks Needmore. I'm sorry your Ds found today's paper hard bucking. As Needmore says, tough to kick off with a difficult one at the start. Last summer was like that for ds. I hope there's a nice one along soon!

Ds was doing Edexcel, I think. Fortunately he found it OK although not all did. It's the C3 and C4 I dread. I heard they were impossible last year! EllenJane it sounds extremely difficult to get an A* then! I think one would be way out of ds' league.

DS1 tried to explain the grading to me. Apparently if you average an A over the two years, you need to average over 90% UMS in C3 and C4 to get an A in maths. For further maths, average an A overall but average over 90% in another 3 A2 modules to get an A. Following me? This is for OCR MEI, btw.

It depends if it's the same board, though. DS1's friends found C1 for OCR MEI ok today. Edexcel C1 was supposed to be hard. Hopefully if everyone found it hard the grade boundaries should be lower.

My DS retook a maths paper today and said it was terrible. It's really made him anxious about getting his grades overall as he'd been working from a belief that this resit would lift his maths result to the A he needs. Ho hum. Let's hope the other papers are more manageable (not that I understand a single word of his maths stuff)

We are all having a night off, tonight. DS1 and 2 had exams, M2 maths and GCSEs but no more until next week. We went out for tea!

Good luck even!

Sadly ds's Maths this morning is a resit C1 however he says he's getting 100% on the practice papers and is hoping to get last summer's grade up from a B to an A. He's also resitting C2 and S1

Good all all for the Maths and anything else this week.

Yes, M2 tomorrow. DS is nervous as he really needs over 90% and it should be his best paper, so he's worrying that it'll be horrible. I'm trying to convince him that if it is horrible the grade boundaries will be lower. He's just gone up to bed, with his phone.

Good luck to all our DC.

Good luck to DC with Maths tomorrow. DS1 seems fairly chilled about it.

Glad prom went well & star suit was a success EllenJane.

DS not going to prom - not really a party animal.

He's been revising mechanics as well, only two days until exam. Study leave starts at half term, end of next week but they can have half a day off before any exam which is before then.

I'm wondering if I could make him a laundry bag for uni. Maybe.

Prom night went well. The star suit was a hit and today he's a bit hungover, but still revising mechanics.

I can't work out if they have to wear uniform for their exams, I hope not but DS doesn't know.

EllenJane - hope your DS has a fab night!

Study leave starts on the 20th here. They have leavers assembly that day but DD2 has an exam first in the morning. No prom here until the beginning of July.

Well, DS1 is safely off at his leavers' prom in his star suit! He had double breakfast today at school and a leavers' assembly and he's now on study leave. I hope he won't sleep through most if it!

Sotaku I really enjoyed the shopping for uni supplies for DS1 .
I found myself buying a giant laundry bag in Lidl last week and putting it away. DS1's laundry bag has been very well used and always comes home full.

DS2 only doing 3 subjects to A2 so no exams until after half term. Study leave starts 27th May. I love the idea of them wearing their old Y11 uniforms for the day. The disadvantage of a sixth form college is that there are few traditions and the student population is transient.

Just catching up with this thread. DS firmed Birmingham which offered him an unconditional so he's going there. It was his favourite, especially course wise, so he's happy. He's applied for housing. We've done the finance application and he's had the loans confirmed. He just has lots of revision and exams, though feeling less pressured thanks to the unconditional. I suppose next up from my side of things will be the shopping for uni supplies. I'll have to take a look at that thread mentioned in another post. I really need to spread the spending on that to afford it.

Ten papers for DS1, not counting the Empa already done. Six for Maths/FM and 2 each for Physics and Geology

Ds has his last day Monday when they all go wild. Lots of farmers' children so chickens are often let loose around the school.... Staff Room etc

Think they have spent the last few days being fed cake and ice creams by all their teachers - I don't remember any of that in my day

Needmore I like the idea of making the empty nest look nice. I'm going to start saving!

Ds has 6 papers, one AS resit before 1/2 term one just after, then 4 A2 papers over 2 weeks.

DS1 only has 9 papers, 6 maths/further maths, 2 physics and just the one STEP.

It was his last proper day and they all wore their Y11 uniforms today, (those that still had them) from their many secondary schools. A nice tradition but just as well that I have DS2 and 3 or I'd have parted company with his blazer by now.