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?

The worse case scenario is that he had to have applications through two systems so yes, it's good news that he can now not bother with university admissions.

How's the knee Ursula

Congratulations to your son Icould. That must be wonderful to know exactly what you are planning for next year, and to prepare for it.

I have a friend whose daughter made an application to the London College (actuallynot sure what real name is but prestigious etc) of Drawing and got her answer about now, last year, and did her A levels knowing that whatever happened, she was doing a year of drawing/art (it was a foundation course 9am-5pm, very demanding) I think she did really well in her A levels notwithstanding, even though it would not have affected her application. Once she completes that foundation she will be set up for any Art college application, regardless of A levels. Another friend's daughter wants to spend a year GAP teaching her subject in school before deciding about uni, again she will take her A levels and hope to do well, but she is almost set on a different path already.

Knee is still very painful, thank you for asking. Very uncomfortable in bed so my sleep is more disrupted than usual, and very stiff when I first stand up, but I am managing to muck out the horse and walk the dog so all good.

A friend has just informed me that her DS has an unconditional offer from York St John. Have to say I still don't really understand unconditional offers. Are they given in an attempt to persuade students to accept? Her DS is not particularly high achieving (and I mean that in the nicest possible way).

Totally off point here but there is a boy coming back to DS's school to take a new A level after starting/leaving Uni recently. He had an unconditional offer last year for this particular course - took his foot off the pedal and didn't do as well as expected come results day - once he started Uni he hated the course. His dad has said the unconditional offer was the worst thing that could have happened for him.

He is now re-applying for a different course but has to do another A in order for him to do this. Not sure if he's doing it in a year as DS wasn't that forthcoming with info.

Ursula another friend's daughter (sorry they all seemed to be high achieving girls last year, my friends' dcs) had an Unconditional from Birmingham. She was predicted A*AA. She received an offer from Cambridge, didn't make the grade by 2 grades (think As and Bs instead of predicted) Birmingham was obvs now her insurance offer, but it was not unconditional as she had not firmed it as her first choice. So when her grades dropped, she was turned down by Birmingham, despite others getting into Birmingham with unconditional offers who had exactly the same grades for same course. Basically you are punished for not being loyal enough to COMMIT. The unconditional locks you in, but the plus side is that you do get in.

If you firm your unconditional you cannot then use Clearing or Adjustment, that is the main disadvantage. I think I'm right to say that, stand to be corrected.

but Friend's daughter then easily got into another RG uni (Y and M)with her grades, through Clearing, so although traumatic, it was still worth her turning down the unconditional so as to have the chance to make her Cambridge offer...

It's all so complicated!

DD has a real aversion to clearing. I don't know why.

Welcome back Beka, that sounds like a really good plan, sometimes I think they need to hunt around a little to find the path that suits them. That sounds like a good strategy.

My DD has the same Clearing-Aversion. I think for her it's the uncertainty of it - she likes a plan.

I think clearing would be quite scary, having to make fairly quick decisions on where they go after a lot of deliberation for the main round.

ds1 had exam access test yesterday, and told me he had "done really well in it". So that means you won't get extra time then? His face fell when he realised what I meant. Honestly, I despair. The last part of test will be administered next week.

Unfortunately doing the test all afternoon, meant that he had not done his music homework for today in the usual study period; then he managed to get his phone confiscated, and spent about two hours looking for teacher to reclaim it, then went off to RAH, came back elated, but had not told teacher that he wouldn't have homework ready (same teacher at the RAH - I didn't want to put him in a bad mood ds1 said...) cue....

UP until 1.30 writing his music homework and "polishing" his personal statement (why he chose this particular moment to polish it I do not know, maybe he worked out what his musical inspiration was after RAH). Then up at 7.30 again. This is just like being on some absurd roller coaster where independent thought clashes with teenage inertia. I wish the teacher could have confiscated his phone forever!

The two dcs doing Gsces conversely seem immensely organise. dd had pages of notes and was learning lists of quotes, ds2 was quoting scientific theorems at me.

I presume that with Clearing you investigate some other courses in advance, presumably at the unis you have already earmarked in your big five, over the summer holidays, possibly going to a few more open days when exams are over?

I don't see clearing like that at all nettles. More a mad panic when your results are not what you hoped and you throw yourself into the maelstrom and hope that something good comes out at the end. So I can see why DD does not fancy it, but I have heard of people being pleasantly surprised by the outcome of clearing.

DD really doesn't want to go to her insurance, despite it being in the same city as one of her top choices. It is this that throws up the possibility of clearing but she says she doesn't want that either. So my obvious reaction is head down then and get the results you need!

Clearing might be DS's main chance of getting a place. He has printed an annotated list of all the courses he might possibly be interested in, so he'd have that to refer to when making decisions.

I think I meant adjustment rather than clearing, but the list would work for either.

Shiney sorry to hear your DD had a rejection, I'm dreading DD getting them (it's very likely from 1, probably 2 of her choices) I just keep reminding that they only need one offer.
Luckily DD would be happy to go to her insurance, but like your DD there isn't much difference in the required grades.
Working her socks off it is then!

I've heard of no difficulty finding nice Halls accommodation at either Man or War in Clearing, although it obviously had to be arranged August onwards.

shiney I'm so sorry about dd's rejection; it is still good to try long shots.

Dd just got a rejection letter from a Sixth form today, but they said she was at waiting list A, whatever that means! I'm really glad she didn't get a firm offer at this stage, I quite like that feeling of possibilities; also I am trying to persuade her to read more, and this is a reminder that she needs to broaden her academic outlook if she is going to do better in exams/assessments. She interviews very well, but she doesn't do so well on paper.

Ds1 has heard from the third of his four choices, thankfully another interview.
This means he's just got to hear from the fourth who don't interview so that he can complete their form and wait to hear.
He is pleased and working hard now so he gets the results he needs.
I'm very relieved tonight.

that is very good Littledrummergirl.

we have had another frustrating eve with ds1 but suddenly we have made real progress. He finally showed me his final draft PS, which was about to go off tomorrow (teacher was helping him edit it) It was so bad, so woffly, so uninformative that I just screamed at him that he needed to change it ALL. No idea why the teacher did not ring us to discuss it earlier - she is not a specialist in his subject and does not even teach him, so her editing would have been confined to grammar and spelling.

Suddenly he admitted that he needed our help (this is four months in, he did first draft in July), so we sat down and redrafted it completely, leaving his voice in and getting rid of the pointless bits, and adding all the things he didn't think he had space for. It is so much better and he is THRILLED, finally it says what he wants it to say. Hope to God it can go off tomorrow when he sees teacher again, and gets the reference.

That's great

Nettles how stressful for you! I hope your DS's PS goes off soon with the Xmas countdown to contend with too now. DD is shattered but still has show rehearsals & some practical exams before Xmas hits & then her part-time job is asking more hours in the Xmas hols to cover staff holidays! We were hoping for some respite before the new year & reality dawns that although she's got 5 offers on the table now, she still has to get the grades!

Kitten best of luck for the interview result

I can see lots of requests for gin on all our Xmas present lists!