Christmas half term - Year 13 (another original thread title!)

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Carrying on from previous thread

I'm so rubbish with thread titles. Anyway...

This time last year there was lots of chat about tests/exams/mocks at this point. Are there fewer of them, or is everyone more chilled about them?

ldg that's fabulous! An interview sounds a bit scary to me.

Can I join you? My dd now has 4 offers and is waiting for the last one, she will be doing the offer holder days after Christmas, mocks start 19th December so at least they will be out if the way! We miss the lower offers through contextual data by 2 houses which could have been very helpful to her so she's going to have to work very hard to get that A!

DS has mocks next week. The afternoon session ends after the end of the normal school day which means that anyone with afternoon exams will miss the college bus service. Could they not have started fifteen minutes earlier?

Congratulations LDG

Welcome Janie and congratulations too.

knitting what a pain! You'd think someone could have thought that through.

Morning all.

It’s going to be a day of doing calming gentle things with dd to distract her from tomorrow’s interview. It would have been nice if she hadn’t had piles of college work to do this weekend. Hey ho.

Welcome Janie!

Several of dds friends have interviews this week. Good luck to all.

Good luck everyone!

I would have had a rant about lost teaching time this week as DS has a day and a half of mocks and all week off except that his college made the top fifty in a national list that was published last week. Clearly they are doing something right and I should zip my lip and enjoy the mornings in bed.

Good luck to all those of you who are supporting interviewees this week.

Good luck with the interview tomorrow mini kitten. How did you get on with gentle calmness today?

Good luck tomorrow kitten

Thank you! Gentle calmness seemed to work well. Plus Big Bang theory. dd was the least stressed she’s been for a while. Roll on this time tomorrow!

Hope the interview went well Kitten

I have news too, although I feel like we're quite far behind everyone else on this thread:
DS1 submitted a UCAS application this afternoon!

Are we the last on here to apply?

That's good thesecond. I don't know about this thread but ds was certainly later than this two years ago. (And it only went in in December at all because the head of 6th form was very firm about it!)

He's not holding his breath for any offers (he took fewer GCSEs than most pupils, with an average grade of B) but at least he's in their system now.

DD just received an offer from her insurance choice so we can breathe easy.

I thought we were late Second. At least once they are in the system you can't change anything.

DD not heard anything about offer holder days.

Second Ds1 still has not had the meeting to submit his UCAS, although he has the preliminary check last week.

I am slightly thrown by the fact that today he came home, heaved a sigh of relief that the coursework has gone in, full stop, and said

Mum can you help me improve my PS?

Aaargh. We spent the whole summer holidays trying to help him with it, to be told no, no no, not listening to your suggestions. And then last week I gave him suggestions about showing specific academic interest in PS, and how to go about that...and still. he wants me to think up what to say.

I have no idea what to say about his chosen subject, as I really don't know anything about it, apart from what Mr Wiki tells me on specific topics and that I like listening to it.

I've given him a book on composers and told him to go away and look at it, and come back with something, anything that fleshes out his appreciation of music. Not sure whether anything will happen!

And now I am wondering again whether this my magic moment to get him to withdraw his UCAS application completely, which is what I wanted really...not going to say anything and see what happens

None of the students in Ds1's school apart from Oxbridge candidates and artists have submitted their PS. They are sending second wave in one batch.

Not submitted here either second. No decision yet made as to whether or not to submit yet

However, DD is currently working on her second draft, so options have still been kept open.

I'm wondering if she's still not sure for this September, whether she should not apply and keep her PS for next year? Rather than ending up turning down any offers and then having to rewrite the PS next year.

Her friend is currently at Oxford interviews, having messed up her UCAS application by submitting a previous draft in error!

knitting I'd forgotten about coursework. Both History and English Lit should theoretically be underway.

That’s quite funny raspberry, maybe the PS really doesn’t matter at all!

That is good news TheSecond. :)

All I can say now is roll on the Christmas holidays. This term has been a bit much all things being considered! I’d quite like my enthusiastic cheerful lass back. Yesterday went as well as one can tell. She liked both the questions and the interviewers, but who knows really.

oh dear I see there are two knittings on this thread..Shall I be Nettles?! I think the other Knitting has been here longer.

Ds1 is now doing classic teenage thing of staying up late (despite entreaties to switch off and go to bed) and being incredibly tired every morning as he zombies himself to school..heartwrenching to watch and infuriating in equal measure. Still he gets up at least. No wonder he has no energy for his PS. He is suddenly very stressed by all the work he is meant to be doing as well - didn't he notice the workload before? All rather peculiar. or perhaps the coursework now over has revealed an enormous backlog of other things stacking up.

Dd is the same. Stays up late working then is shattered in a morning. She never gets the chance of a lie in either. Roll on Christmas.

lots of gsce pseudo mocks here too. Have been testing dcs on stewardship of the planet (nil points) and Russian Revolution (s) yes there were two. Ds2 who has Asperger's is far more knowledgeable about everything, he seems to be able to codify information whereas dd seizes random answers out of the ether. Both seem to be equally messy though, desks strewn with bits of paper/flashcards.

at least she is working Ursula, I think ds is chatting on Facebook or writing things for his blog last thing at night, having worked in the middle part of the evening and then given up.