Year 12 #1 - GCSEs are sooo last year!

[bpisok]

New thread to see us through to Christmas?

Kilash ABRSM come into his school for a day; we don't know the exact date but it'll be sometime between 17-20 December. He hasn't done any practice all week (because we've been away).

He needs to check whether his usual accompanist will be happy to accompany him.

In the past, he has chosen pieces from the book, but for this exam there isn't a book, so I'm wondering if he's supposed to bring a copy of the music for the examiner?

Yes theFirst. He should bring his purchased music with him and offer a copy to the examiner... unless he plays without the music in which case examiner can use his. It's always good in the future to copy the music before one has filled it with markings and keep the clean copy away for exams and auditions. He may want to erase some markings before copying. Best of luck to him.

Thank you Brainmelt

DS will not be doing the UKMT, unfortuately despite having a natural aptitude for maths, he has lost all his love for the subject

Good luck to all those that are taking part.

BlueBelle123 sorry to hear that. Hopefully he might rediscover an interest for the subject.

I've asked DS2 for his music so I can copy it. No need to worry about markings as he has written hardly anything on it (I find this slightly worrying as I mark my music quite thoroughly). Perhaps it's all in his head?

That's a pity, Bluebelle. I can see why a love of maths might be threatened by a classroom experience but it can be a pleasure, something to do for fun like playing cards or doing a crossword puzzle. School maths can be a bit rigid and repetitive but the UKMT allow for more free thinking.

Think DD will be doing the SMT too. I didn't get the impression they had a choice if they are doing maths. I did suggest to DD if I should print out a practise paper. She gave me a not very impressed look.

No idea if DS is doing it, he certainly hasn’t mentioned it. Suspect it’ll just be the FM students at his school.

Yes dd is doing the AMT too. She printed off a paper last night. Mainly she just laughed at my attempts to do it

She's only done the UKMT papers once before in y7. She just missed out on a medal because she didn't read the mark scheme properly and went for guesses on the last few questions and got marks deducted.

She's looking forward to it. She's also going to a half-day of lectures on Thursday at the big local uni maths dept. It's great seeing her rediscover a love of maths after the boring slog of GCSE.

*SMT

*SMC

You know what I mean

May I join?

My oldest son is year 12, he does Maths, Further Maths, Design & Technology and Physics for A level. He wants to study Engineering and is very focused. He had a great balance of study, friends, activities and his parttime job during GCSE and will, hopefully, keep it.
He had a two day taster workshop at our local university (not his first choice so far) this week and really enjoyed it. We don't have the chance to attend many open days, because of money issues and I'm a single mother with younger children, two with serve disabilities. The workshop was a great chance for him to get a feeling about university and student life.
He is doing the UKMT challenge, too. He loves Maths puzzles and so stuff and says it is fun

The more the merrier, Soomaa! We do seem to have quite a few with mathematicians DC on the thread.

Welcome Sooma

Sorry I meant Soomaa
My phone dropped the last a

Difficult conversation with dd tonight.

She’s loving her course and feels things are going well but is struggling socially. Since the start of term her main friend has been distancing herself from her which has upset her but she thought she had found a group of friends.

However she is very lonely at weekends. The people she hangs around with at school all tend to meet up and go out but she is never invited. She sees it on social media. I’m wondering if she isn’t picking up on social clues. She does tend to talk at people for example and has very fixed ideas.

Yes, he is the mathematican in our family. His younger brother is in year 11 and always says he would rather put nails in his hands than doing the UKMT papers. He's good in maths, but really hates it.

That is sad Alexander. Maybe she is missing cues? Hope she is able to find some social life at the weekend soon.

Welcome Somaa!

I don't know if dd will do ukmt, she has done in the past but I think it is voluntary. DS loved doing it, he and his teammates came second in the senior team challenge last year, having come 17 the year before, and 34 in intermediate a few years ago. Highest state comp in the country. (Brag over, sorry!). It was just great for him to be able to compete and succeed at something - definitely not sporty or arty or whatever, but maths he can do!

I'm sorry for your daughter AlexanderHamilton. Has she tried to find social contact outside of school? My 2nd son has some people he hangs around with at school, but he spends his free time with people he met outside. He has more in common with them.

Alexander sorry to hear that she is feeling isolated. I think it's going to be difficult to know if she is missing social cues, if her peers are being unkind, or if they are just being self-absorbed / oblivious.

Welcome to the thread soomaa. It’s the best thread on mumsnet.

I apologise to the regulars who know all this but a quick rundown as dds situation is fairly unusual.

She’s training to be a dancer at a specialist school/college 50 miles away from home and like most others on her course is living with a host family. School hours are long 9-6pm most days with the occasional 8am start and 7pm finish so there isn’t really much opportunity to join groups/find friends outside. Some on her course are aged 16 and studying A levels alongside their dance diploma. Others are 18 having already done A levels/Btec.

Oh, ok. That's a tough situation. Of course, she has not many chances to socialise out of school then.

Hope dd will find her feet soon alexanderit must be daunting living away and new circle of people bless her.
Sorry I don't write much but not a lot going on at the moment. 2 degree courses picked for Cambridge one for geography and one with psychology and cognitive neuroscience ( sigh) as indecisive as ever my dgd! Will attend open day in July and already looking into cost, bursaries etc. First open day January at UEA ( one of low options and a failsafe). Leicester still a strong favourite even though not a Russell group still high grades needed. Bristol in the mix and maybe Sussex. We are trying to have a mix like Cambridge A*AA Bristol AAA Leicester AAB and UEA ABB or AAB. Don't know if its the right thing to do as this uni thingy new to us and none of it helped by having to look at 2 ways to go! Dgd will probably throw both out at last minute and go completely different who knows!

Sostenuto - I was only wondering how you were yesterday.

With regards to subject choices. It’s still very early days yet. Plenty of time for her to think about potential options.