Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Education

Join the discussion on our Education forum.

Original poster

So.....we've survived UCAS and exams.....how are we feeling about results?!!!!

66 replies

ajandjjmum · 13/08/2010 13:05

Suddenly I'm getting very nervous - DS just doesn't want to think about it, which is fair enough. My 'what will be, will be' attitude has suddenly changed a little!

OP posts:
larry5 · 13/08/2010 16:59

Dd has until recently refused to talk about. She has now thought a little and has decided that she wouldn't mind at all if she didn't get into her 1st choice as she liked both uni's equally. If she doesn't get into either she will not go into clearing but will reapply next year doing a different course.

She is wanting to do Maths at uni with a view to becoming a primary teacher so she would apply to do a BEd.

Original poster
ajandjjmum · 14/08/2010 08:53

DS is in pretty much the same position with regard to his firm and insurance choices. Just dreading him failing to get into both! I THINK he would go into clearing, but as he doesn't want to think about it, we'll just have to wait and see what Thursday brings!

Good luck to your DD.

OP posts:
mumof3teens · 14/08/2010 10:54

I had this last year with DS2 - really feel for you both. 'Just' have AS to deal with this time! DS2 found out he had got into his 1st choice at 6am via the UCAS website, so be warned - not much sleep was had I can tell you!

mumoverseas · 14/08/2010 17:12

we are a year behind you in that we (DS!) waiting for AS results not A2 but I gather they are equally important for the predicted grades for his UCAS application in October.

Good luck to everyone for next Thursday

jaffacake2 · 14/08/2010 17:20

Not feeling too optimistic as AS results werent brilliant but then she was recovering from surgery for a large ovarian tumour.

Really want her to get to uni as she needs the fun put back into her life.
Thought last year I wouldnt worry this year but am feeling really anxious for her.

JGBMum · 14/08/2010 17:27

Only waiting for AS results here too. But I am feeling v nervous!

Good luck to everyone for the 19th.

PS those of you who went through this last year, please can you advise - do the results come out as grades or point scores? And if so, how do we convert these to grades?

mumoverseas · 14/08/2010 17:33

jaffa hope your DD is ok now. Did your daughter's health get taken into account? Surely it should have done?

I've also been wondering about the grades/scoring and DS can't/won't confirm. All very confusing for me but then I'm a dinosaur that did O levels Blush

BecauseImWorthIt · 14/08/2010 17:37

Worried here too. DS1 should do OK, but so much depends on what happened on the day of the exam.

JGBMum · 14/08/2010 17:44

Hi MOS - I know they can't get any A* at AS (hollow laughs), but Cambridge advised us that DS should be looking for 90%+ in each module, so it would be good to make sense of the results, then we can plan the UCAS accordingly.

(Just writing that has made me feel sick Sad)

BecauseImWorthIt · 14/08/2010 17:48

Info about UCAS tariff/points here

JGBMum · 14/08/2010 17:59

BIWI thanks for the link, actually I meant the raw scores that (eg) DS received after his Jan module exams. Sorry I wasnt clearer.

BecauseImWorthIt · 14/08/2010 18:00

Ah. Sorry!

TidyBush · 14/08/2010 18:03

While you're all here together can I ask some advice?

DD1 has just finished yr 11 and about to start 6th form. When should we start looking at Unis?

I thought we should leave it until next year but that that doesn't give much time to really consider before applying does it?

What did you/your DCs do?

TIA

JGBMum · 14/08/2010 18:15

DS went to his first open day in Sept Y12.
I think it realy helped him to focus on why he was taking A levels, and to consider some of the options available to him.
This time last year, he wanted to study Maths, but after going to an engineering talk at the open day, he came back enthused with studying engineering, and went on to get a place on the engineering in education scheme . I dont think he would have bothered even trying for a place had he not been to that open day.

JGBMum · 14/08/2010 18:17

TB does your DD know what she wants to study at Uni?

TidyBush · 14/08/2010 18:29

She wants to do drama or music and English.

I'd rather she did the music/English combo as I worry that drama is the weaker subject IYSWIM.

I'm also torn between encouraging her to move away from home for the independence and wanting her to study from home becuase of the cost.

Like most parents we fall into the bracket of not being eligible for funding but not having much disposposable income either.

We are midlands based so pretty central for anywhere really.

BecauseImWorthIt · 14/08/2010 18:44

I would say start your research now. Open days always seemed uncomfortably close to exam dates - and by the time we'd really got the hang of it, it felt panicky late!

mumoverseas · 14/08/2010 18:48

DS (just finished L6) has known for a while he wanted to read law and started looking at Unis in March this year. Oxford and Cambridge do law open days in March every year and you need to apply by the November before to attend (so when only a few months into L6)
Definitely start looking around sooner rather than later

Not had any of that since DC4 arrived Sad

snorkie · 14/08/2010 20:22

JGB & mumoverseas, Ds told me this morning while he was giving me detailed instructions for texting his results to him on Thursday that the module scores and he thought the grade for each module, should all be on the results sheet (including the ones taken before the summer), but he wasn't sure if the overall AS score would be as his school doesn't 'certificate' ASs early. The max total score is either 200 or 300 for ASs depending on whether they are 2 or 3 units (he has one subject for each), so told me I might need to add them all up and work out percentage of 200 or 300 to get the final answer.

If the individual module grades aren't on the sheet (ds seemed to think they would be for AQA at least) then you would need to know what each module was out of to work out the percentages as they aren't all out of 100 (which would make life easier).

Tidybush, a bit late now, but apparently straight after GCSEs is a good time to start looking at universities as they have no other commitments then. As others have said, after that it gets more difficult to find the time and they have to miss school for open days. Ds had booked to go to a couple in June/July after his GCSEs but sadly had to cancel as one clashed with a piano exam and the other with a concert - just about the only two fixtures he didn't know the dates of in advance so it was rather unlucky. So this advice is what we've been told rather than what we've done - I don't think many other children do start looking then either, but any time from no on would be good I should think.

JGBMum · 14/08/2010 20:29

Snorkie that's really helpful thankyou. Am I right in thinking that the results would only be certificated if you have finished that subject, ie, done the AS but not takiing it to A2? And what are the dis/advantages of certifiicating? TIA

snorkie · 14/08/2010 20:46

JGB as far as I know there isn't much advantage either way. If you 'certificate' early then I suppose you get separate certificates, whereas if you leave certification until you leave school then it's all on one. So if you retake modules to improve your score then you would get a result on both certificates and of course all the ASs that you go on to do the full A2 in are superceeded by the A2 so you might not want certificates with redundant information on later on, but it doesn't really matter I don't think. Schools seem to either do it or not and the candidates don't usually get any choice about it. There is something about having to declare AS grades on UCAS if they are certificated too, so that could be an advantage to not certificating if you did badly & were planning to retake & improve them and didn't want universities to see the original score.

JGBMum · 14/08/2010 20:55

Snorkie again thank you. That explains it beautifully,

AJ&JJmum and all other A2 mums - sorry for hijacking your thread Blush. once again good luck to all your DCs.

Please will you come back next week and let us know how they did?

TidyBush · 14/08/2010 21:21

Snorkie thanks for that - it's something I wish we'd known earlier.

We've just spent a couple of hours looking at open day dates and the Saturday ones in September are on the same date, the October ones clash with a music festival and the next ones are in June 2011. If we'd thought about it earlier then this June would have been ideal. Oh well, never mind - we've reigsted for one in September and will do the rest next summer.

Good luck to all of your DCs -as JGBMum said, let us know how they get on.

Original poster
ajandjjmum · 15/08/2010 09:51

No worries JGB - reading through it helps fill in the time until Thursday!!! Grin
Tidybush - Open Days are without doubt the best time to look around any uni, but don't be worried about just turning up and wandering around on your own. Or some of the unis do student led tours, which I have always found quite helpful.
Seems to be a lot on over October half term too, which may be helpful.
To be honest, we've learned as much by wandering around and seeing if we (DC actually!!) like the 'vibe' of the place.

OP posts:
TidyBush · 15/08/2010 11:57

That's really useful about the Oct half term dates ajandjjmum. We'll have a look at some of the unis that are further away for then.

Also like the idea of going around whilst they are actually up and running.

I was a mature student and only graduated 2 years ago so know that unis are completely different places at weekends, etc.