Anyone want to join a year 13 UCAS THREAD?

[JesusChristOtterStar]

We can join in stressing about ucas forms interviews etc?

I am finding it all a very steep learning curve - we could support one another - celebrate and commiserate?

Thank you everyone.

He has applied for MEng in Electrical (Electronic?) Engineering.

Glad to know that MsRusty is enjoying it. I know that it has a great reputation, and the setting must allow for excellent extra curricular stuff.

perfect setting - great excuse for you to visit en route to holiday!

I was just thinking that, JCOS.

We have only been on holiday once to Devon and I couldn't believe how beautiful it was.

oooh

very happy for you

It is a lovely campus, and not much changed from 30 years ago, when DH & I met there.

Oooh glad everyone likes Exeter, it's dd1's first choice. She wants to do Archaeology combined with something else. Statement went off this week and then I'm not sure what happens - something about teacher references? It's all new to me

awww rusty!

morning ladies and congratulations on your DS's offer fivesets

A question for you wise ladies.
DS is in year 12 (so yes, I'm really planning ahead by gatecrashing your thread but its so useful)

He is currently studying 5 subjets, Maths, Further Maths, Pyschology, Economics and French. Originally he was going to do all of them to AS level and drop one. He appears to however be struggling at the moment with the F Maths and it seems that several of his peers have dropped it already.
I'm now wondering if there is any advantage of him actually continuing with it until AS level or whether he'd be as well dropping it now and devoting more time to the rest of them.
Would there be any real advantage of having an AS level as well as 4 A levels on his application?

Views o wise ones?

Fivesetsofschoolfees
Ooh Exeter - congratulations to your DS [thinks back wistfully on misspent youth there emoticon].
DS has offers from UEA and Keele to do Business Economics. Hope he goes to UEA which has a good reputation for economics and which is only 1.5 hours drive away, so the beginning/end of term delivery service won't be too bad.

Mumoverseas, Find out which modules your son's school is working towards for the Further Maths. Some schools effectively do all the AS/A2 modules in the first year and then the further maths modules in the second year. This would mean if he dropped it after AS he would effectively have an A level. Also at DS1's schools the Further Maths kids are in different sets to the others, it is not really taught like 2 distinct subjects. Also the timetabling seems to be equivalent to 1 1/2 subjects.

I thinnk I've over complicated it for you, but if he is good enough to do it, I don't think it feels like 2 subjects. But if he is struggling with the maths itself rather than the workload, then it needs rethinking.

second lazy's advice, you need to find out more about what qualifications he could come out with by stopping at various points as it's complex - some modules can be used for either maths or f maths AS and different schools do have very different approaches to the order in which they are tackled. At the 6th form maths presentation I went to recently the maths bod described how the units were taken over the two years and there's a lot of flexibility. The way they did it, you only completed 5 modules in the first year (one at Jan and 4 in the summer) and then 4 more exams in Jan of year 13 and finishing with 3 in the summer of year 13. (I think they'd moved one of the core A level A2 ones from end yr 12 to Jan yr13 to give a better chance of A*s though the work may be completed sooner). He mentioned that if a child stopped maths altogether after the yr13 January exams, they would have a full maths A level and a f. maths AS. Apparently, that's quite a popular option, especially for those doing 5 subjects as they then focus on their other subjects for the remainder of year 13 (& can still retake any maths modules that need it).

lazymum and snorkie, thanks for that. You've confused the hell out of me but I'm sure DS will understand so I'll go through what you've said with him.
Looking at his timetables and his progress reports that the school email through, it is taught as two separate subjects by up to 4 different teachers. Not sure if this is common?

It would just be nice to sit down and have a proper conversation with DS/his tutors rather than doing it all by email

Thanks again

Snorter - was Canterbury (Christchurch).
Uni was ok but the thought of her staying in the accomodation filled me with dread.Lovely town though!

Mumoverseas I think there is a huge variation in how schools approach the teaching of maths and further maths and the modules offered. DD2(year 12) is doing the two side by side as if they were two completely separate A levels (which does sound similar to what your son is doing) - she will take both the Maths Core 1 module exam and the Further Maths Mechanics 1 module exam in January. Then she will take another 2 modules per subject in May/June.

There was a bit of a mass drop out of further maths in the first few weeks but now the class is settled and working well but it is a difficult A level. DD2 wizzes through any maths homework but the Further Maths stuff is much more time consuming especially as the questions are long and require much more involved answers.

By the way congrats to those with offers and I can recommend UEA as DD1 is there and having a fabulous time

My son's school does the full maths A-level in L6 and the full further maths in U6. This is obviously just for FM candidates. Maths-only is still spread over two years.

The advantage for my DS is that he already has a full A-level at grade A. The disadvantage would be if he didn't get FM, there would be nothing to fill that slot on the timetable and he would be down an A-level. Fortunately for him, he really enjoys it.

DS has been invited to interview at UCL today.

He now has one offer, two interviews and two acknowledgments.

oooh well done five sets

ds has three offers but is hoping for an offer from his december interview and thus quite stressed i think

webwiz, mechanics 1 is actually one of the modules that can count towards either maths or f. maths A level. It's a topic that a lot of people find tricky, but it's not specifically a further maths one. The only ones that are specifically f. maths are 'further pure 1, 2 & 3.

mumoverseas, it's very common to have several different maths teachers for the different areas. You might get one specialising in pure, another in mechanics & a third in statistics or they may divide the modules between them in other ways.

In case it is any help, DS1 did C1 and C2 (pure) and M1 (mechanics) at end year 12 for AS. He will do S1 (statistics) in Jan of year 13 and C3 and C4 in the summer. These make up the full A level. I'm not sure what the further maths ones do. But he has friends at other schools who do all the above at end of year 12 and the the further maths modules in year 13. Clear as mud!

thanks for all your replies ladies, I've emailed DS and informed him of all your comments so hopefully I'll get something back from him today, if he surfaces from his pit.

This is the reply I had from DS in response to my question regarding modules etc

We are cuurently doing C1, C2, M1. We will soon start M2, C3 and (i think) FP1.
C=Core/pure. M= Mechanics (hard ) FP1= Further Pure 1- A fully Further Maths module.

The school has stopped year 12s doing January modules so I shall be doing the 6 module exams in May/June.

X

This means absolutely bugger all to me but perhaps it makes sense to some of you wise women

It makes sense to me!

The maths modules are as follows:

C1, C2, C3, C4 (core or pure maths)
M1, M2, (M3 & M4) (mechanics)
S1, S2, (S3 & S4) (statistics)
D1, D2 & (D3)
FP1, FP2, FP3 (further pure)

All the boards have a similar structure - I've put the less commonly taken ones in brackets - they are not necessarily available on all boards. The lower numbered modules in any area have to be taken before the higher ones and they get progressively harder. I think for FP2 & FP3 some at least of the core modules are also prerequisites, but for FP1 on most boards it can be taken

For AS maths you need C1, C2 and either M1, S1 or D1.

For A2 maths you add C3, C4 and another M,S or D module.

For AS f. maths you need FP1 and two more modules

For A2 f. maths you need 3 more modules numbered 2 or higher including either or both FP2 & 3 (slightly board specific, sometimes FP2 isn't a prerequisite of 3)

Often for A level maths people choose C1-4, M1 and S1 as the 1s are easier. And a typical f. maths A level would be FP1, FP2, M2, S2, D1, D2 (maybe replacing D2 with M3,S3 or FP3).

He may well find FP1 easier than mechanics if he doesn't like mechanics, but he will find M2 harder than M1. There is a degree of 'getting it' though - so if he persists he could find it all falls into place & seems straighforward. Maths is like that.
I imagine he could either drop f. maths now and just do a single maths A level, or plan to just take f. maths to AS level by doing all the modules this year as planned and then just 3 more next year.

Thank you snorkie I will pass that info onto him and hope he makes the right decision. I HATE being so far away and being unable to talk to his tutors about it.

I see DS1 is doing Snorkie's standard A level maths modules. MOS, tell your son that the mechanics did suddenly click in my son's case. He was totally confused to start with, not helped by the fact that he does not have a physics GCSE, so hadn't done any for a year. By the summer he found the mechanics in M1 pretty straight forward compared to the harder pure stuff in C2.

If he has no modules until the summer, he could see how it goes for another half a term before he makes a decision, but 5 is alot of subjects.

Hi everyone
Congrats 5sets and your ds (but I'm sure you are entitled to some of the credit!)
My ds1 had a good time in York and felt it went well, so we are waiting to see if/what they offer. 2 more in the next 2 weeks. he is cool with it all so I am quite too. (But I wasn't when he texted a) from Euston to say he hadnt got the code to get his ticket out of the prebooked tickets machine (dd retrieved it from emails) then b) from train to say he had booked for the wrong days for both tickets and was just hoping his ticket wasn't checked...It wasn't, so all OK.)

Can't contribute to the fiendishly complex sounding Maths conversation!