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Original poster

AS level chat at school

72 replies

alypaly · 15/09/2009 01:33

Just had the formal AS level chat just with parents this evening.
The pressure these youngsters are under today to achieve good enough grades to get to their uni of choice is immense.
Where do their childhoods go?
The school says ...oh we want them to have an equal balance of acedemia to social lives.... please tell me at what point they can socialise with soooo much homework?....

OP posts:

Milliways · 18/09/2009 16:08

I think it is European Social and Political Studies?
(Sounds like the better known PPE - Philosophy Politics and Eonomics.)

A* in Maths and Further Maths is easier than a top grade in STEP Maths papers though that Cambridge already insist on. Some offers are also for 100% at Maths!

Lunacy.....

LadySharrow · 18/09/2009 19:29

Remember that schools have to counteract the student's perception that now they are VIth formers, life will be like an episode of Hollyoaks and they will swan around looking beautiful, trying to have sex, skipping classes and then coming out at the end with great grades. So they might well be overstating it. Yes, they do have to work, but a nice healthy work ethic is all that's needed. (make the best use of your frees, be organised, keep on top of deadlines, don't rely on cramming etc)

mumoverseas · 19/09/2009 12:52

I've found this thread really useful as DS1 has just started doing his A levels so my first experience of it. We've had several 'conversations' via email over the past few days regarding this. I've just been shocked to get a mail from him saying that the course he wants to do at the uni he wants requires
AA AA! Bloody hell, nothing like having that much pressure on them at this early stage

He has been set on doing this particular degree for the past few years and am wondering whether I should warn him to think about other options?

snorkie · 19/09/2009 17:16

Was that ment to be 2xA + 2xA at A2 level mumoverseas? I think the s made the second A come out in bold. It's the highest offer I've ever heard of to be honest - I thought just a few places were asking for one A*.

mumoverseas · 20/09/2009 06:55

ooh, that will teach me to check before I post good job I'm not applying to Uni!
According to DS, it is 2 x A* and 2 x A which is bloody crazy.

lazymumofteenagesons · 20/09/2009 17:05

never heard of an offer like that. What course and what university?

thepumpkineater · 20/09/2009 20:12

It could be an offer = 1A* 2As plus A at AS level? Think mumoverseas ought to check with DS1 that he hasn't got wrong end of stick. Certainly, even Oxbridge doesn't ask for those grades!

mumoverseas · 21/09/2009 07:06

I'm hoping he has got it wrong as that is bloody daft. Its law at Cambridge. I'm going to start looking into it myself and liase with his tutor if possible.

thepumpkineater · 21/09/2009 08:23

Law at Cambridge is pretty high flying but he may be reading up about what results some students are expecting who are applying/are already there which is fundamentally different to the offers actually made, although it will be 3 As (not sure about the A*s this year.) Cambridge website should help. He'll have to do a separate Law admissions test as well.

snorkie · 21/09/2009 09:11

Cambridge Website for law says "Typical A level offer A*AA".

It my be that you need higher predictions to get an offer though, especially if from independent school.

snorkie · 21/09/2009 09:15

But if he wants to go to Churchill College, their offers commonly made table says:

"Law applicants will ordinarily be required to achieve AAAA" .

snorkie · 21/09/2009 09:17

rats.. the *s did the bold thing again.

Churchill normally asks 2xA* +2xA for law.

thepumpkineater · 21/09/2009 09:35

There's the answer then! Obviously different colleges make different offers.... even though the official line is 1 A*, 2 As. Mumoversea's son has done his homework (apologies for doubting him, he'll make a very good lawyer ).

There could be a difference in offers to independent/grammar/low achieving state schools though.

mumoverseas · 21/09/2009 12:57

snorkie, you are right
I've just double checked my email from DS and he had been collating a list of various Cambridge college requirements and it was Churchill College that required those grades. How can they justify that bearing in mind many students only do 3 A levels

thepumpkineater, yes, he will definitely make an good lawyer, he is an argumentative little git at the best of times He has been adamant for a few years now he wants to go down the law route but still undecided as to whether as a barrister or solicitor.
Just a bit worrying when you see the requirements and he may have to realise that he may not be going where he wants

Am I reading it right that they sometimes make lower offers depending on the school?

snorkie · 21/09/2009 15:05

If you go to a low attaining school or have another reason why you might not achieve highly (Like ill health for example) then they do sometimes make lower offers through their special access scheme. I think it would be a high risk strategy to deliberately move to a sink school to try & get a place however.

What there is annecdotal evidence for, but as far as I know nothing in writing, is giving higher offers to high achieving schools. They will sometimes make an offer based on 4A2s for example if you are sitting them whereas only 3 are generally required - that might be regardless of school type though.

snorkie · 21/09/2009 15:11

and mumoverseas you are right it is both insane and discriminatory to make such onerous entrance requirements unless exceptions are made for people whose schools don't allow more than three (I expect they do). Hopefully your ds will either make the grades or be happy at a different college (what's so special about Churchill anyway? The only person I know who went there hated it).

webwiz · 22/09/2009 22:39

Gosh Mumoverseas your DS is on the ball if he's already looking at typical university offers - if I ask DD2 what she would like to do at university she just looks at me blankly.

mumoverseas · 23/09/2009 06:54

I suppose I am lucky that he knows/thinks he knows what he wants to do.

He decided when he was around 13 he wanted to go into law (like me!) so he started studying GCSE law by distance learning and sat the exam at age 14 and got an A grade. I'd sort of thought that he might have decided law was boring but he really enjoyed it.
I managed to get him work experience in the summer at my old firm and he is now certain he wants to go into law but is currently undecided as to whether as a solicitor or barrister.

A few of his older friends who have just finished their A levels are on gap years (a few out here abroad) and have no idea what they want to do so its not uncommon.

I just wonder whether he decided too early and hasn't considered other options?

webwiz · 23/09/2009 12:25

DD1 flapped about so much for the last two years - didn't know what A levels to do, didn't know what to do at university, didn't know which university to go to - that I could have screamed at her. DD2 is a bit more decisive so I am hoping for an easier ride this time but she is clueless at the moment other than "something with quite a lots of maths in it."

mumoverseas · 23/09/2009 13:45

maybe its just girls? DD1 is 13 and needs to choose her options this year. For around 6 years she wanted to be a marine biologist (from about 5 years old) so we took her swimming and diving with dolphins etc.

She has however recently gone mad about horses and is trying to persuade me that her school does GCSE Horse care (or something equally daft - must look into this) It probably does thinking about it as they have stables at the school and she is trying to bully me into buying her a horse which is 'only £1,500'! Wouldn't mind if she wanted to be a vet but she says that is too much hard work so will probably end up sweeping up horse s* for a living. Thousands of pounds on private education wasted!

Milliways · 23/09/2009 19:02

Snorkie - This is what Churchill say:

"Churchill College has 14-18 undergraduates studying Law at any one time. We aim to take five or six new students each year in the subject. We have two Teaching Fellows in Law, which means that we have an excellent student-to-teacher ratio. Churchill has produced outstanding examination results in Law in recent times; we have finished among the top four Cambridge colleges in Law during seven of the past eight years, and we have finished #1 in three of those years (as well as #1 for the eight years taken as a whole). Like the other handful of Cambridge colleges that have excelled in Law, we admit quite a small number of students (though, it should be noted, Law is one of the largest Arts subjects at Churchill). The relatively small size of the contingent of Law students enables us to devote more attention to each student than would be possible with a much larger group."

Only taking 5 students a year with 2 fellows makes the competition extremely tough!!

The college is one "out of town - up the hill" though, so not THAT desirable

snorkie · 24/09/2009 14:26

Thanks Milliways - it's interesting that the same course at one college should be so much harder to get into than at another college, but I guess with the extra staff-student ratio that makes some sense.

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