Parents of Year 12s - exam time again! (oh no!)

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Just noticed we were running out of thread!

And she's off 🎉
She was up at 5am surprised she got up. She arrives in London for 9:30. I've told her to text me the 💘 Emoticon when she arrives there and midday and then afternoon and night. Then I know she's safe even if she doesn't want to text long messages.

Raspberry I'm telling myself that its good practise for managing deadlines at uni, even though it seems quite cruel. I've had to give myself a kick and remind myself that shes 17. But that sounds crazy for your dd!

Yes it was the practice. Hilarious watching them get off the coach as each and everyone of them had bright red faces. It was very hot on Monday and although DD applied suncream and wore a hat and sunglasses she still got burnt. One girl had to go home early with heatstroke!

However DD was blister free and discovered that her excellent packing skills served her well. She wants to change groups for the real thing though as the girls she was with were flaky to say the least. DD had to do all the map reading and all the tent putting up and taking down.

I am sure you DD will have a fabulous time in that London Fantasy.

Ursula It seems like that was a valuable lesson about teamwork. Not everyone pulls their weight and some people who talk a good game use their words but not their hands. It's good to find this out before you start being assessed on group work at Uni.

I wouldn't trust DS to go to London but that's down to our recent open day travel experiences. We've had

1. chasing after a train that's about to leave (except that it wasn't ours)

1. ignoring our train standing at platform 2 because "we" were convinced that the platform we were on was platform 1. (My hints were getting less and less subtle as I thought we would miss it before he worked it out)

1. navigating me across a city to the wrong HE establishment. Again, I pointed out that the signage was pointing in the other direction but he doesn't ever consider the possibility that he might be wrong.

Typical man then.

dd is really pretty reliable with travel to and across different cities, but even she forgot her oyster card when she last went to London resulting in a choice between an expensive ticket or a long walk. Hopefully it's learned her!

Ugh Ursula. She needs a new group and factor 50 next time. But at least no new shoes!

Hope your DD enjoys her London trip Fantasy

I'm smiling as write Ursula..DS is a Dof E refuser, he did the Bronze, managed to fulfil all the requirements for the Silver but 'forgot' to put in the paperwork and under no circumstances was he doing the Gold. His friends tales from the few days away for theirs has made me laugh.

He's been on a bit of a downer this week after getting his internal exam results back. They weren't what he was hoping for - although to be fair I'm not sure what he expected as he didn't put in as much revision as he should have but then he was also revising for Maths AS.

His teachers don't seem to be too concerned as they have all said his assessment grades throughout the year don't reflect the exam results. He is determined to work harder next year so I suppose it was a wake up call....

The 6th Form mentor has emailed to say DS suggested meeting with her every couple of weeks to keep on top of things and for further support which is a good thing. On the plus side he had a job interview yesterday at the football club he supports and has been asked to back for an induction in a week or so.

The results DD has received are not comparable with the marks she has been receiving during the year either. I am hoping it is in an effort to get them to buckle down for Y13.

Dd is in the station waiting for her train. She met new people at her taster day who took her round London. She's walked 30,000 steps
She loves the buzz of London and feels like she could live there. She is keen to apply to 4 London unis and one elsewhere just in case.
She loved soas and is happy. Didn't feel scared etc and has managed travelling around better than I expected

That's great Fantasy. DD is not interested in London, or indeed anywhere south of Warwick.

Ursula did your DD not do AS exams? DD's school still does them, but she has already asked about dropping psychology. It takes up huge amounts of time and she finds it so boring.

I'm glad she enjoyed it Fantasy :)

She did Biology AS as she is dropping that.

She loves Psychology. She is really motivated with the subject.

DD initially was keen on London as she loves the place but feels it will be too expensive. Plus not so much of the traditional uni life as not particularly campus based and such a high percentage of mature and overseas students.

Very happy to hear your dd has enjoyed her London visit Fantasy.

Dd is in the midst of exams again, so I've spent my evening revising American History with her. I've learned loads but can guarantee I'll have no memory of any of it by morning. Luckily DD's retention is a bit better than mine!

DD loves visiting London but decided early on that she didn't want to go to university there.
She's definitely not a big-city girl at heart.

Those whose dc did internal exams rather than all AS, have they all had results from them?
Dd is only just doing hers now, but I'm pretty sure won't get results until results day, when she goes to pick up her AS results.

Most students at DD's school who took psychology are regretting their choice. Unfortunately the ones who only started with three subjects can't change their minds now.

The amount of homework DD gets for psychology is almost as much as she gets for the other three subjects (chemistry, biology and geography)

That's a shame. Why did they only start with three?

Maybe it's teacher related. Dds teacher has really motivated them all.

"Why did they only start with three"

Because not all of them all bright enough to cope with 4 subjects for a year. Loads of students only start with three nowadays.

It is a comprehensive school, and the criteria for getting a place in 6th form is 5 GCSE passes including English and maths and a minimum of a grade B in the subjects they want to take at A level. Is your daughter's 6th form more selective?

One of the psychology teachers is great. She is like everybody's favourite aunt, and she looked after DD a couple of times when she was unwell. We both really like her. DD and her friends say that a lot of the coursework is very boring, and it is the sheer volume of work that gets them down.

DD thought it would be very interesting, but remembering all the cases and the people who carried them out (et al) is mind numbingly boring - I know because she asked me to test her when she was revising. She says that they only touch on the really interesting stuff very briefly.

DS is at a large sixth form college and the A level students all start with three subjects unless they have an A average at GCSE and campaign for four. They have a couple of months at the start of the year to switch if they find that they've made the wrong choice. I believe that they are discouraged from taking four into A2 unless it's maths and FM.

Same here. Only do 4 of ones FM or creative writing.

The vast majority only do 3. A friend of DD who got almost all As and A*'s (just one B) decided to only do 3.

Lobster - at DD's college, internal exams were last week and results are out next week

DD got 2 Bs and the rest A*s and As at GCSE and really struggled with 4 A level subjects in year 12. She is constantly exhausted.

Dds school only alllow 3 as the new alevels are supposed to be harder and have more content so they thought it would be better to get 3 gold alevels then 4 mish mash ones

DS did AS in all 4 subjects, even though 2 are linear. Quite a large number do 4 at his school, especially if further maths is one. A handful started off with 5, but most drop the 5th quickly!

Panda It sounds like your son's school is either very selective or has a lot of very clever kids. I don't know of any school or 6th form college round here that offers 5 A levels. I don't know how they would fit it into the curriculum.

All of DD's subjects are linear, but she still did AS exams in all 4 of her subjects.

School is a state comp mixed intake, no selection at all (bar catchment). As I say was only a handful who started with 5 - they were all doing maths and further maths, 2 others (say physics and chemistry), and then another for fun - DS started German but gave it up after about 6 weeks as couldn't give it the time it needed. A mate who is a very talented musician started music as his fifth, but again, couldn't keep it up on top of all the extra and super curricular stuff. One lad started 4 (triple science and maths) hot bored with the 'slow' pace of single maths, and swapped to the further maths group half a term in. He is also taking an A level in his first language out of school, so he will have 6!!! Further maths is timetabled with 2 hours a week after normal school hours, hence bring able to fit 5 into a week. Meant for only one free period and stupid amounts of work so glad DS decided to drop the extra one and continue with the stuff he does out of school - volunteering, youth group, enrichment maths (yes he loves it!)

DDs school is exactly the same as Panda's.

Further Maths is twilight, so she did 5. I have doubts about the wisdom of this in her case, but time will tell. It worked very well for my DS1, he got 5 with good results School wanted to enter him for General Studies AS but he refused.