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?

good luck to your ds nettleskeins.

Dd knows someone at Hull and according to her he just stays in his room all the time as there is nothing to do. But then she has him down as dull as he goes to Tory Party Conferences.

Ursula
She’s contracted to one day on weekends which is fine and she doesn’t mind doing one/two days in the holidays which said in the holidays however she’s working
Today, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday all 9-6 shifts
And she told her I don’t want to work a lot and the boss has only just put the rota in meaning she can’t say no to the shifts

One of DD's friends who is at a local sixth form college has just told DD that she got A* A A in her mocks.

Is it me or is that a bit, erm, unusual. She is not super brilliant and I would be concerned that if this were to happen to DD that she would think phew!, I'm OK, I know my stuff and what I am doing and only need to do the same amount of work to achieve similar in the real thing.

I always thought mocks were meant to put a rocket up your nether regions. For instance DD got a D in her chemistry mock but worked her socks off and got an A in her GCSE (much to our suprise).

Ursula Possibly she "accidentally" mixed up her mock results with her predicted grades

PS Has anyone else noticed that it won't be long before we need yet another thread?!

yes, keeping an eye on the thread count :)

Ursula is your dds friend doing science/maths a levels? I think it's easier to give out definite a/a* mock results in some subjects where answers are either right or wrong and easily marked as so.

dd seems to have quite a lot of coursework on this half term. I'd hoped it would be a bit more chilled. I feel a bit guilty, I haven't much work this week, dh is working away and dd is working hard, here's me poncing around on the internet wondering what to do next.

nothing exciting to report here, keeping an eye on everyone's news. Mocks were before Christmas for DS1 it turns out, I hadn't noticed them happening, oops. Going up to visit Bangor in half term (next week) quite excited for the short break without his siblings . It's ALL about DS2 at the moment, 12 GCSE's and bac, it's just too much for a 15 year old, seems to be a constant whirl of deadlines/practical exams for science/GCSE exams/oral work THEN they spring internal exams on them to decide which of the three tier papers to sit in the sciences. DS2 is miserable and teetering on the brink of his old eating disorder. I want to go into school and shout at them to give him a break. Not how you get an A* candidate in shape for the hardest couple of months. A levels/Uni a doddle by comparison at the moment.

kitten - you shouldn't feel guilty - you've got the hard job of keeping an eye on the message count and herding us all into a new thread when the time comes

MrSlant your poor DS2 - sounds similar to DD's experience of GCSEs. She wasn't a straight A candidate, but should have got some As and all C or above. Ended up with 7 at C or above and mercifully an A in the subject she really wanted - all down to massive anxiety and self-harm. College is working out so much better for her - she should end up with 3 Distinctions or Distinction 's

Mrslant GCSE's were such a stress here too (mind you a levels are not proving a walk in the park either!)
Please let's know your thoughts on Bangor. It's DS's second choice, but we haven't time to visit it so we'll go during his gap year if it's necessary.

Dds friend is doing 3 essay subjects which is why I was so surprised.

mrslant
GCSEs were stressful here but alevels are worse Imo especially year13 with the ucas etc

Dd is home said she hadn’t had a nice day at work manager had a go at her over her leaving for university and dd had asked to use her holidays all in may and she said no way...
It seems they want the workers and there isn’t any benefits for the workers especially students even though dd will work at the drop of a hat
I’m starting to get annoyed at the manager myself

I feel as stressed about DS2's GCSEs as I do about DS1's A-levels

DS1 because he's going to struggle to cover the material in time and get the grades to meet the offer for where he wants to go. And because he hates exams and they stress him out.

DS2 because he needs high grades for the A-levels he wants to do. And because he works too hard and I worry that he'll burn out.

Fantasy I'd advise my DD to walk away from that. Does she really need the money?

ursula
She’s saving for uni and now she’s older she wants to do more with friends and I won’t financially support her socialising constantly some but not as much as she wants to with friends
She loves working it’s just when you ask for something it’s wrong but they ask ask ask and the place is full of uni/college students which adds to their issues

According to their twitter account, Student Finance England have opened their application process, which might be applicable for some of you.

Surely she won't be working during her exams? Is her job near school?

Finance schminance.

Thanks TheSecond! That's useful to know.

Study definitely comes before work in our house. If they don't make the grades, they won't be getting on their hoped for courses.
dd gets a monthly allowance from us. She will be stopping work very soon until the summer holidays.

Bangor - I know DC at Bangor. All positive.

DD was doing GCSEs at the same time as DS1 was doing A levels . She definitely took the most attention, luckily DS1 understood and just got on with things.

On the other hand, he seemed to have it a bit easier than DD does just now. He had finalised his choices by Christmas, he had no coursework and half of his exams had been done the previous summer. DD is still doing visits, has masses of coursework and full A2s. (except Maths)!

ursula
She’s contracted to 6 hours on either a Saturday or Sunday however it’s mainly Sunday’s, no it’s at home as she comes home on weekends
OYBK
I wish I could afford that but I spend over £30 a week on travel to school so it’s pricey

Ursula the students I talked to didn't look like Tories although now you mention it, one did talk about how she wished she had spent less time in her room in first year and "pushed herself out of her comfort zone". I thought this was encouraging, as clearly she had turned into an upstanding citizen. Then she said something cryptic about how the music students didn't even need to try as they were always socialising (presumably music is about interaction - or could she possibly have meant they were all out dj-ing?? there were plenty of music technologists there)

We saw Ox Brookes today, they seem to be rebuilding it ds again really liked it and said his interview went well, not too scary. Oxford is amazing really. It is a fairy tale city, but having studied there (and not in an Oxbridge college) I was torn between the familiarity (the Edinburgh Woollen Mill was still there, I used to buy all my cardies from it ) and thinking possibly ds needed to go somewhere else entirely and not repeat maternal mistakes!!!!

Oxford Brooke's seems to be on a permanent rebuild over the past few years. The new completed building is huge and very confusing.

Yes, they are expensive at this age Fantasy. dd doesn't get much from me, but with careful budgeting she does ok.

A lot of your children are having much more stressy A levels/uni choices than DS1. He didn't take on a lot because no one really thought he would cope so he's only doing two academic A levels and he's only applied to unis that don't ask for much. I'm dreading doing it 'properly' with DS2 (I know it's properly this time but DS2 wants to apply to some big stakes courses with all the extra that entails, I'll be following you all round MN then bugging you for advice on random threads .)

I think Hull's quite cool at the moment Nettleskeins, I will have to admit it's been a while since I visited but even then it was pulling itself out of the old grubby image and into a cooler more modern city. I actually applied there myself, quite some time ago!

Bangor looks to be a lovely campus, I'm impressed with how it seems more of a family with the lower numbers. I will report back for you. Is it wrong to be excited about a DC's choice because you really fancy holidaying nearby?

DS1 isn't studying music, but he does play a couple of instruments and his social life revolves around the music society and playing in various bands. Rehearsals four nights a week, concerts, social events...

I desperately wanted DD to apply to Bangor.

I bloody love North Wales.