Year 12 #1 - GCSEs are sooo last year!

[bpisok]

New thread to see us through to Christmas?

The flight out was 6.30am so they had to be at the airport for 4.30am. It’s about 40-50 mins away so they left 3.30am this morning. That’s on top of not finishing school til 6pm last night.

But she really wanted to do it and felt she couldn’t turn down the opportunity.

DS2 chose to go on a school trip to Krakow in February this year. It included a visit to Auschwitz. I was actually quite surprised he wanted to go but he was sure. He has never spoken to us about it - I think it was actually so moving he didn’t have the words.

I'm sure it was a great experience for your daughter, AlexanderHamilton. She will be exhausted tomorrow, but it's worse it.

Whistle, I don't know ANYTHING about uni applications. My kids schools run a program for children from deprived backgrounds to rise their numbers in higher education. They cooperate with our Uni for masterclasses or taster days (of course they have open days for other pupils too) and have special coaching for personal statements or interviews. I hope that helps my son, because neither I or my neighbours/friends can help him a lot.

My meeting today was very depressing I'm exhausted, tired, sad. I skipped evening school today and we had pancakes and ice cream for dinner tonight.

She’s landed & has tomorrow off school.

Soomaa - sorry to hear the meeting didn’t go well. It’s one long fight sometimes.

My friend's Nan will be 109 on on Saturday. She only stopped driving 4 years ago, has lived through WW1, WW2, the moon landings, goodness knows how many prime ministers and still lives at home. She is living history and I sincerely hope her family have recordings of her life.

Well both my dd and myself have been looking at accommodation at unis as we are adamant that dgd should have a single room with ensuite. Its a nightmare!! We looked at Cambridge and as both courses she might aim for are studied at all but 2 of the colleges in Cambridge we could just put in an open application for all and Cambridge picks one for you if you get in. But if we do that we won't get the accommodation we want. So we have had to look up all 29 colleges to try and decide which one to apply to if dgd makes the grades. School report out in December but so far dgd heading for 4 As. Just need to get one at A and she could well make the grades for Cambridge at least. Its looking that maths may be that A as she's lapping up the algebra and is in top 5 at mo.
If anyone knows an easy way to make a choice when taking accommodation into account please let me know.

That sounds very promising Sostenueto - if a bit of a slog to trawl through! I'm very impressed with the maths.
DS seems to be getting a clearer idea of what he wants to do - either law or philosophy followed by law conversion. That's for now - I'm used to him changing his mind!

Sostenueto aiming for Cambridge sounds perfectly realistic; being adamant about an en suite less so!

Sostenuto, would it be worth her dropping a fourth subject and aiming for 2 A*s and one A? Would that give her a better chance?

DC go to a fairly academic boys' school and they've completely shelved the 4th A level, but the nearby girls' school still does 4 and an extra GCSE. But they seem to all end up at similar unis. I'm so confused as to what gives them a better chance.

Stickerrocks 109 is incredible. I have a very elderly neighbour (although a babe compared to your friend's Nan!) whose stories are fascinating - he's wonderful company.

Sost there’s no way you could get a guaranteed en suite regardless of which college your DGD applies to at Cambridge. Even if you trawled through all the colleges and found one/a few that offer guaranteed en suite rooms to first years that want them, there’s a high chance of being pooled which means you can end up at any college that will offer you a place.

I’m not sure how likely it is that you can guarantee en suite at other universities. Presumably some offer that but lots don’t/can’t. Is it really a deal-breaker? It may limit the places your DGD can apply to. My DD has always had a shared bathroom and it’s been fine.

Going back to the doing extra stuff for Oxbridge, what kind of things can you do for maths? Obviously the ukmt, but does anyone have any suggestions of books, lectures, other extra stuff?

Hope your DD can recover and process some of the things she saw yesterday alex.

For dd a single room was a must but en suite is very few and far between and very expensive.

Even in her host family accommodation she shares a bathroom with two other girls.

Are there shared rooms in halls? I thought all were single rooms - except a small handful for couples?

DS is working towards A(star)A(star)A and i'm thinking that it is good but not Cambridge good. Maybe that's not right? Or maybe it depends on the course?

PS MN need to sort out this asterisk business as it makes it impossible to put more than one A* in a post!

Unfortunately your DGD would be looking a crazy prices for accommodation is she insisted on an en-suite, typically £180-£220 pw in my part of the work. Although many halls offer en-suite rooms, they tend to be grabbed by wealthy overseas students (one Chinese student in central London has just been bought a £1.5m flat by her father according to the Guardian last week!) and the rest share facilities.

DBiL never had en-suite accommodation at Oxford, Durham or Cambridge, but it was always a case of sharing a bathroom with 2-3 others as his rooms were always on small landings in ancient buildings (which weren't designed for en-suites).

DD shared facilities during NCS at a local university and has decided that saving case is more important, especially as students tend to have staggered rising times!

whistl there are a few universities where you might be allocated a shared room I think. Some colleges in Durham have some shared rooms and although you could avoid them when you apply you could nevertheless end up being placed there.

I would have thought that A star, A star, A would be enough for a Cambridge application. I don’t think the entrance requirements for any course exceed that, although an offer might (and would also include STEP if the application is for maths)

Whistl I think most of the top offers ask for one star and two A s with very few asking for two stars. And I agree if you need stellar grades definitely worth dropping one in the run up to focus on top grades in three, even if you want to keep the fourth going for a while longer now for interest orvto keep options open.

And echo previous posts a lot of Oxbridge students get offers from colleges other than the one they applied for so even if you pick based on accommodation you may not end up there

I may be wrong but wondering if for maths selection entry is judged more on how you process questions at interview and achieving step. Unlike humanities where evidence if wider reading etc is required and more easily achieved. There are a lot of maths based lectures around though so could try those

Ducking back in after another manic month. I just can't keep up with the threads - work keeps getting in the way!

to those struggling with friendships in their new environments. Things seem to have settled down for DD with her old school friends though her year long relationship ended last month so there were lots of tears.

As a result she's rather thrown herself into her school work so lots of revision for tests this week. First parents evening later this month but her half term report was looking positive.

Does anyone have any experience of Keynote Educational? DD has brought home a flyer for a full day conference next year.

Anecdotally what I have picked up is that STEP results are really important for Maths. Have a look at the nrich maths site - might be useful.

nrich.maths.org/teacher-secondary

There is a section on books and STEP too.

Have not used any of this as DD not planning on doing Matha for uni so can't vouch for how useful this is.

I think its STEP for Cambridge, UCL, Bath, Bristol and Lancaster but MAT for Oxford and Imperial. Warwick offers on either.
(just googled it!)

Advice at DDs school is def 3 A Levels (4 if FM) and you could be considered a competitive Oxbridge candidate if you can meet one of 2 criteria. Either

(a) 8 or 9 GCSEs at A star plus a prediction of 1 x A star and 2 x As
(b) 4 or 5 A stars and the rest as As (possibly the odd B) with the As in subjects that are not related to degree subject (eg All A stars in sciences and maths if you are doing Physics) plus 2 x A star and 1 x A predictions for A Level.

Sorry Sos, I can't remember your Dgds gcse results but if they are brilliant then it sounds like 1 x A star and 3 x A could be OK?

....you also need to be in the top handful in the school year. Apparently they report this on their UCAS references (not sure whether this is standard?). Obviously you would also need to nail the aptitude tests and get a good school reference/recommendation too.
They also said Oxbridge throw massive curve balls every so often so it's worth applying if you have a stellar PS and can demonstrate that you have a massive spike in your profile (eg maths genius).
This is at a school where contextual offers are very very unlikely. Do Oxbridge adjust their grade expectations for those from other demographics?

....in the real world I am not sure Oxbridge is always the best Uni for all subjects anyway. LSE and Imperial are def up there. Last year one girl at DDs school declined Oxford and went to LSE to do Politics instead.

I am very very far from being an expert in any of this - this is just what we are being told

DD has an 'outside chance' but has been advised to start preparing so she can give it a whirl subject to her predictions at the end of the year (she would need 2 x A star predictions to get the schools backing to enter what can only be described as the application lottery)

So based on what I have been told I would def agree with the other OPs advice that 3 really good ones are probably better and the lowest risk option.

bpisok that advice seems very rigid and - since it's given by the school - must be particular to your school.

Also, to be fair, students who score 8A at GCSE are far more likely to be predicted 2A at A level than those who score 4A, as a general rule. It makes it sound as though it's either/ or when in reality the higher scorer at GCSE will be far more likely to have the higher predictions at A level, thus making the 4A applicant pale in comparison (again, assuming the same school).

I don't see that the the process is actually a lottery. A huge amount of effort goes into trying to select the best applicants. Possibly it is on the very bottom margin but not as a whole.

What sort of school is this bpisok? It's often the case that school advice varies massively from Oxford/ Cambridge advice, so be wary before you take it as gospel.

Also it must be so annoying to be at a school which insists that an applicant needs the school's 'backing'. It's the applicant's life after all and shouldn't be in the school's gift to say yes or no, or withold 'backing'.