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Further education

You'll find discussions about A Levels and universities on our Further Education forum.

Original poster

GCSE '18s (19) - New Beginnings?

999 replies

whistl · 04/09/2018 17:44

Following on from the GCSE 2018 threads as our DC enter year 12.
This the first thread in our new home in further education

OP posts:
Thread gallery
7
Stickerrocks · 08/09/2018 17:50

Hello thelongerhaul. Some of us are still waiting for DC to start, but everyone will be in the same boat with them as they seem to be going to 4000-5000 space colleges. DD will be one of 800 taking maths.

Oratory pleased to hear you had a chance to catchup. Did he have free periods for GCSEs? DD had a full timetable of lessons until after May half term, so she won't know what to do with herself if she is only taking 3 subjects for 5 hours each per week. Admittedly she has tennis timetabled at college along with coaching and work 4 times a week, so I think she will need the free time to keep on top of the work load.

LimitIsUp · 08/09/2018 17:55

Sorry to hear about your FIL brainmelt Flowers

ShalomJackie · 08/09/2018 17:56

Hello Aragog and thelongerhaul - welcome to the thread. Its fast moving and sometimes I forget who said what and whose child does what but I muddle through. There have also been some name changes along the way just to confuse me more but do feel free to join in. we welcome all comers, all abilities and all backgrounds.

LooseAtTheSeams · 08/09/2018 17:56

DS has made a decent attempt with clearing the desk and sorted out masses of books so he's in a much better position for next week!
Sostenueto I'm delighted to hear DGD was congratulated on her English results after everything she went through!
DS has picked both philosophy and psychology so it will be interesting to see if he keeps both going!

JufusMum · 08/09/2018 18:11

Another Philosophy and Psychology here...along with Sociology and EPQ. Lots of homework already so DD needs to get on it tonight as she has a dance competition tomorrow.

BlueBelle123 · 08/09/2018 19:11

thethird we were also at an open day today, I wonder if it was the same one!

One of the interesting things that was said is that they do not look at personal statements at all, this is for medicine because there are so many on the internet that can just be copied and they have no way of knowing if it was written by the student and they also have no way of establishing whether the information put in the PS is correct, so they felt the fairest thing was not to read any of them!!

AChickenCalledKorma · 08/09/2018 19:40

BlueBelle I must admit I find that quite shocking given how much effort conscientious students put into them. It certainly wouldn't be worth the risk of not bothering, because other institutions may well take a different view.

mumsneedwine · 08/09/2018 19:46

Sheffield Bluebell ? They don't look at OS as so many are not written solely by the candidate. Some schools and parents help a bit too much. So they rely on UKCAT. Which is vile

mumsneedwine · 08/09/2018 19:46

PS 😁

Oratory1 · 08/09/2018 19:47

Yes your right, a lot of courses don’t use the person statements but the DC havecto oyt the effort in for those that do. And some apparently use them to help make a decision about missed grades on results day.

Yes sticker he had a lot of frees at gcse but some were because he dropped a subject.

Oratory1 · 08/09/2018 19:48

Whoops rubbish typing there but you get the gist

Original poster
whistl · 08/09/2018 19:54

I know I'm a newcomer but I lurked for ages. Can I just say that all these new changes are very confusing?! I've completely lost track of who's who.

OP posts:
Oratory1 · 08/09/2018 20:01

I understand that for medicine different uni s use different combinations of selection criteria so to have the best chance you need to do some research and pick those suited to your strengths - the positive to that is you are not ruled out of all schools if you are slightly weaker in one area - and all the info is readily available in line. You just shouldn’t blindly apply to the one you like best !!

Oratory1 · 08/09/2018 20:02

I got lost long ago whistl 😀

EllenJanesthickerknickers · 08/09/2018 20:16

What we need is a spreadsheet. Wink

thelongerhaul · 08/09/2018 21:12

Ds wants to do Medicine now too. He doing history chemistry biology geography
Is there a specific website for entry requirements or do you just look at the specific uni.
Ps sorry am a bit clueless he only just decided

EllenJanesthickerknickers · 08/09/2018 21:21

Look at each uni, longerhaul see if they need BMAT etc as well.

EllenJanesthickerknickers · 08/09/2018 21:24

Or UKCAT

KickBishopBrennanUpTheArse · 08/09/2018 21:26

Hi all. Just catching up. Great to hear how all the dc are settling in to the new term.

Dd had a letter from school today to say "Unfortunately the mark has not changed" on her English language. After reading the thread on here about a 10 mark drop I felt like she'd passed all over again. I was waking up at night worrying it would drop to a 4. We didn't care at all if it moved up. One less thing to worry about Grin

Dd doesn't start until Monday. She's been really low this week. Worrying about her choice of sixth form and stressing about the journey. I think she's really anxious and a bit in limbo because her old school and another local sixth form went back Wednesday.

She's barely seen what was left of her friendship group over the summer and she's hardly left her room. I've persuaded her to invite a couple of them over next weekend to catch up. She's much brighter today. I just hope Monday goes well.

Oratory1 · 08/09/2018 21:36

Good luck for next week Kick.

mumsneedwine · 08/09/2018 21:39

Come over to Medicine 2018 or 19 thread and we'd love to give help. Mine off in 2 weeks to Uni and I'd like to help everyone going through the next years. It's a tough one !

MarchingFrogs · 08/09/2018 22:19

@thelongerhaul, the entry requirements are on the Medical Schools Council website (second publication listed, I think).
www.medschools.ac.uk/our-work/publications

TheThirdOfHerName · 08/09/2018 23:02

Bluebelle123 we went to Southampton.
DS2 went to a talk about the course, had a tour of the labs and spoke to some of the current students on that course. He was impressed by the range of options available for the MPhys.

He found out that the offer for MPhys is slightly lower for those doing four A-levels (AABC instead of AAA) which is useful to know.

Original poster
whistl · 09/09/2018 08:03

Is anyone else finding that their DC are rusty after the long summer holiday?
DS asked me for help with maths yesterday, which was the first time since year 6. After an hour of so of homework, he was firing on all cylinders again, but I was a bit surprised( and pleased that I was able to do it!).

TBH, I thought it was a myth, like the DC are exhausted by half term (erm, no!) or they need snacks on the way home from school when they are little because they are just so hungry that they can't wait (no, again!).

OP posts:
Oratory1 · 09/09/2018 08:45

I think it’s a particular thing for maths whistl - and the reason some uni s don’t like gap years for maths courses. When DS did holiday work before going back he said the physics and CS was easy but his maths was rusty

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