Finishing year 13 in 2017 part 2

Well done him! DDs school does its speech day/prizegiving at the start of the xmas vac (but still school term time) so the ex yr 13s look forward to it as a good chance to reunite with their dispersed pals. That seems much more sensible than in freshers.

Hello everyone, catching up after my week in Ireland visiting family. Well done to Errol and Ollie's DCs for passing their driving tests. And well done to Teta's DD on the remark. It is a shame that she can't take up her place now but she will have a wonderful year and lots of opportunities to do voluntary work and to earn some pennies before starting on a five year course so it may have been stressful but she will look back and think of it as a blessing.

I do hope we are all going to continue on this board (with a name change or move to Higher Ed?)as you've been a wonderful support for me (and DS).

DS is still on his travels, not back until next week and then has two days to pack up all his worldly goods before leaving on 17th. I have been consoling myself with shopping for him from my very long list of unnecessary items which has made DH laugh. Bedding choice has been approved of via WhatsApp.

I've also been busy moving DS2 into DS1's room, redecorating both, dejunking (how did they accumulate so much rubbish) oh yes and working pretty much full time.

DS has been awarded the school history prize so I am very proud of him but the ceremony is during freshers so he doesn't want to come home (might resort to bribery).

Driving test pass here on Monday for DD too Errol, much to my surprise.

She maintains that only the people that took further maths escaped those papers unscathed.

Yes, or at least less scathed. When I was looking askance at DD's offer including A* in maths and A in maths we didn't expect thats what she'd get.

I'm almost tempted to start a thread asking if anyone had a DC who did AQA maths who didn't get unexpectedly low C3 and C4 marks and if not do they think the kid might have cheated

Edexcel have emailed back saying you can only confirm all this from the school where your son will be taking his exam and sent the link to next year's exam timetable. So that's helpful. Surely the Exam Board should know, the Exam Officer at school doesn't seem to.

I think they can retake just 1 exam. If they have to retake more than that, then my ds won't be retaking. He's been told he'll have a heavy workload at university. I've been trying to phone Edexcel again to get it confirmed, but they disconnect the call, so I've now emailed them. My ds got 65 ums in c3 which was the lowest of all papers and 76 in c4. He thought c4 went much better than that, but knew he'd messed up c3. What was strange was that he got 87 ums in c1 last year and this year got 77 ums! Not sure when he should start revising for it again; it's tempting to get him to do a past paper before he starts university but feels a bit mean! Need to get it confirmed first though.

It's interesting to see others with disappointing C3 and C4 grades. Dd was predicted an overall A, and got As on all papers except those where she got a D. She had the added complication of the unexpected death of her beloved granddad just before she sat her last exams, but she also blames some of it on the leaked exam papers. She was getting consistent As on practice papers. She maintains that only the people that took further maths escaped those papers unscathed.

I'd be interested to know the answer to that. His view is that he would have to take both C3 and 4 papers and M2 again. Be great to know he could cash in and just retake the other one.

I know how you feel! My ds is also thinking about retaking the c3 exam next year while at university to bring his grade up to an A. It's hard to move on when he was expected to get A/A*. I'm trying to get confirmed whether he can cash in his grade now, retake c3 and use his other 5 modules from this year to calculate a new grade next year.

Really good news about remark teta. My DS was 2 UMS off his A so only 1 mark needed. Had 2 papers remarked in the hope they would find that 1 mark but they both came back exactly the same. A real shame as he worked so hard and IMHO he deserved the grade he just missed. He's still very fed up about it but he has his uni place and I suppose they have to draw the line somewhere-literally in the case of exam grades. He's talking about retaking next summer just so he can prove himself. We'll see. This summer was tough in some subjects and his 'off' paper was that C4 maths paper that made the news. I'm hoping he gets over it when he gets started on his degree. He's such an able lad and I don't want this one bad experience to knock his confidence.
Sorry to crash your discussion I just needed to vent that I think!

Her kmay not want me to post his subject and it is his university subject. He had a D on that one of 4 papers first and I think had 50/100, a very low mark for him and now it's an E. i don't even know what the process is of a remark. I think he said the original marker had put lots of comment on the paper explaining the original mark and that was one reason it was less likely to be altered too much although that does not seem to have stopped it going down on that paper to an E..... He challenged his GCSE B grade 2 yars ago too (his only B - rest were A and A*) and that was moved down in mark but not grade - remained at a B. Risky business remarking can be if you are not at the top of the boundary I think.

Congrats Errol!

Teta, sounds like she's got it all sorted - good on her

DD is getting a little bit stressed - worrying about getting all finances and option choices sorted, etc. Its a big transition!

Oldie what subject was that that went down 12 marks? My ds has just had a remark put in and I'm very nervous about it going down a grade.

Teta 8 raw marks (13 ums) is such a lot to go up in maths. That's what my ds needs in maths and we've just put 1 paper in for a remark for now. We were told not to bother because maths won't go up that much.

I didn't even know that as I just left it to my sons and the school to decide if any remarking were needed. The one I mention above was an unreformed A level. I did the very old style - all on the upper sixth and we only got the grade itself for overall, not by paper.

Presumably most remarking will be swept away in the next couple of years? Only one of ds's A levels was reformed. The other two were legacy so had break down of marks. English literature was reformed and just had the single letter and no more than that. So, naturally, no indication of how far off a grade the result was.

(On the remarks one of mine who got a very weird D on one paper - As all year, AAA at AS etc which brought his A down to an B (in his university subject too of which he was best in the school and won the school prize etc and where everyone in the class got a D on that paper).......... was reduced to an E on that paper from his D so so much for bothering with the remark. Luckily his other As were so high for tht subject there was no chance the remark would make his B a C and at least he tried. If he had not he would always have regretted not hiaving a go and AAB is not that bad. I just feel he should probably have got AAA like his twin (who did one different A2 subject) but that's the luck of it sometimes. Perhaps the whole year just did a bad paper on that one or the question was difficult).

Sounds like a great plan!

Mine has just passed her driving test second time so we're celebrating with a pain au chocolat

Majaso it was 8 raw marks.Dd put in two papers initially and went up 3 marks and needed one more.So then she did the another two.Dd didn't do a remark for the one she had almost full marks on as she was worried it might go down.
Thank you for all of the advice.Needmoresleep Dd phoned up Surrey to be told that they are full and to reapply next year.She hasn't phoned Bristol yet but I suspect the answer will be the same. She is going to redo Chemistry as this was advised.Dd will have a fun year with lots of interesting work and a bit of Chemistry revision.She can go travelling with her friends as well.Juggling she is going to work at a wildlife sanctuary near us.They rehabilitate the animals and release them so that should be really interesting.The ones they can't they euthanise.She has a offer of work at a Vets and the RSPCA kennels.The plan is to do lots of volunteer work up to Christmas with maybe the odd Co op shift and then look for a paid job.She has a tutor twice a week for Chemistry already organised.

It need only be very short 'dear admissions officer, Following a remark I now have ...results. I was very disappointed to miss my offer at your university, and wondered first whether any last minute places had become available, and if so, whether you would be able to consider me.'

The answer will be yes or no. Probably no. But why not ask.

Teta, I agree with Needmoresleep about writing to the uni.

Brilliant news that her marks have gone up, btw.

Hope you don't mind me asking Teta but was that 8 raw marks or 8 ums in maths? My ds needs 8 raw marks and we've only just put 1 paper in for a remark as we're worried about putting more than 1 in at a time.

Teta, is it worth your DD writing a nice and careful email to Surrey admissions explaining this. Mainly setting the scene for a reapplication next year, but on the slight off-chance that they have had a couple of late drop outs. You never know. From the medicine thread and RL it seems that things were pretty fluid this year and late places have come up.

indulgent sometimes they have reading week at half term time. (Maybe that should be reading week in inverted commas?) At Exeter dd had some kind of team building/careers/personality events instead (that most people didn't sign up for) during those weeks.

My concern about the possibility of having to send on late arriving debit cards etc is that I have ds accommodation address but it's probably not his postal address which I don't yet know. Dd had awkward time with a replacement card arriving that needed to be signed for one time.

Teta that is so frustrating. But as tobee says, she will have all her ducks in a row ready for next year.

Thought it was just Nationwide being slow with student bank account. DD applied over 2 weeks ago and only yesterday got an email to take in ID so she made me go with her to show today and he said bank cards in 7-10 days - she goes in 10 days so cutting it fine

She is currently fretting about having money to start term if student finance doesnt come through - any others planning for this?

Do they have an October or February half term? A lot of universities don't?