Thread 21 Corona Cohort - Nervous waiting, so frustrating

[Monkey2001]

Continuation of OrangeCinnamonCocktail's threads

This is a thread for supporting all young people post GCSEs 2020, regardless of their educational setting. It is respectfully requested that all are supportive and helpful to each other. If you want to start a debate, e.g state vs private, please don't within this thread. Please also be sensitive when responding to threads about grades.

Some of us have been here since first thread back in yr10, some will be new. Everyone has been friendly and helpful in the past. Everyone is welcome. It is hoped this will continue.

Our DS/DD may go down various paths (such as employment, apprenticeships, higher ed) We have decided for anyone interested they will most likely find us within the Further Ed board.

Previous thread - www.mumsnet.com/Talk/further_education/a4354626-Corona-Cohort-Statements-Scripted-Grades-Predicted?msgid=111487286#111487286

Meant to say there is nothing wrong with wanting to be a primary teacher for as long as you can remember, would have been fine to include in PS, but I am sure there are lots of other good ways for your DD to tell them about herself.

Thanks for asking AoC. Feeling slowly better but energy levels are low. That's quite normal in teaching, mind!

It's lovely that a young person wants to be a teacher : so many people portray it as the last resort of the dim or desperate! I always wanted to be a teacher, too. Word from the wise though, lots of entrants underestimate the workload in primary. The marking and tracking regimes are crazy!! Tell her also to watch Please Don't Exclude Me (BBC2) which is very interesting. Aside from the issues raised around behaviour , I was struck by how formal lessons are in primary these days.

My mum was a primary teacher and when I was about 15 I said I wanted to do that too. We were in France having a picnic and she grabbed a baguette and bopped me on the head and said "don't do it"! I think she loved it really though, but was at the transition from a very free format to national curriculum, and did not like the constraints that involved.

I've been hunting around on google looking for figures on what percentage of applications get accepted by course, by uni, and can't seem to find anything. Does anyone know if this info is out there?

@Wheresthebeach

I've been hunting around on google looking for figures on what percentage of applications get accepted by course, by uni, and can't seem to find anything. Does anyone know if this info is out there?

It varies massively by university and department. Oxbridge publish loads of data, there is a lot of medicine data, but it is very variable. It might be another of the things people with access to UCAS can see, but a place which is brilliant is whatdotheyknow.com, you can see what each university has published in response to FOI requests and, if the data you want isn't there, it takes 5 minutes to create your own request which they must answer within a month.

Cheers @Monkey2001 I will take a look.

Mind you I'm not sure it's a good idea to join in the Southampton obsession!

Seems offers/rejections come in between 1-2 weeks after application goes in so at least it's not a long wait.

DD predictions have arrived
Psychology A*, PE A, Biology B.

Do you think it matters that her lowest grade is what she wants to study at uni? Most of the courses she wants to apply for request AAB, so she is slightly above that.

She believes she can get an A but she hasn't so far to be fair. (2 marks off an A in Summer mocks but lower B during last exam recently (2 weeks warning).

She wants to apply for unis such as Nottingham, York, Sheffield (AAB, Bath AAA) plus 1 back up possibly Swansea BBB.

Thoughts welcome.

The only fly in the ointment might be that unis ask for AAA so won't accept a B , even if there is an A* . Or, that they specify an A in biology.

@Piggywaspushed

The only fly in the ointment might be that unis ask for AAA so won't accept a B , even if there is an A* . Or, that they specify an A in biology.

Thanks Piggie - It's only Bath that is asking for AAA so that could be her aspirational? Is it worth a punt?

Do you think she will get offers from the unis that are asking for AAB or are you supposed to have predicted grades actually higher in this climate?

DD wants me to ask the school to up the grade to a A but I'm not really comfortable doing that when they have made it clear they dont want to and they believe this is what is is most likely to get in the summer (ie it's not aspirational at all but what they think she will get). Our school does not have a track record of upping grades just because parents ask them to - unlike to local grammar schools here.
Although I would if it is clear that she needs an A to get an offer for AAB unis.. ie needs prediction of A*AA to get offer for AAB.

@Heifer - I'd probably ask, under the heading of 'they can say no' and then at least DD will feel that I've done everything possible. Maybe DD can talk to her Biology teacher to ask what she needs to do to get an A? Having a plan they are working on together might make them more likely to adjust predicted grades?

Does anyone know how UCAS points work v predicted grades. If points then one grade higher, and another lower than predicted could result in the right points level...but not sure that's how it works?

DD has had her application acknowledged by all the Unis she applied to on Friday.
There’s good and ‘scary’ news.
On the good news front, as DD hasn’t done any open days and will do offer holder days - if she gets any- Bristol cover the cost of travel and give a generous allowance for accommodation! It’s means tested but DD will be eligible so huge sigh of relief if they do give her an offer!
Scary news, Edinburgh have said they expect circa 60,000 applications

@Heifer ds1 needed ABB for his biology degree. The B was in Biology. He had A in business and B in film or might have been an A for film. But definitely B in biology. Though he didn't apply to RG universities (he's at UEA)

Dd has nearly finished her PS and has finalised her choices now (Southampton, Cardiff, Sussex, Surrey and RHU in order of pref) apparently Sussex do fund lessons for Music ..just not clear how many/what modules

We've agreed that I won't look at the PS now. Too many cooks etc...her A-level Teachers and Vocal Coach (Soton and Cardiff Music Alumnae) so I feel very lucky. Only Soton and Cardiff audition...so will be waiting for those dates to come through...fingers crossed.

Well done to your Dd @PaddingtonPaddington for uploading auditions btw! Good lug with uploading to the various platforms.

@ProggyMat

DD has had her application acknowledged by all the Unis she applied to on Friday. There’s good and ‘scary’ news. On the good news front, as DD hasn’t done any open days and will do offer holder days - if she gets any- Bristol cover the cost of travel and give a generous allowance for accommodation! It’s means tested but DD will be eligible so huge sigh of relief if they do give her an offer! Scary news, Edinburgh have said they expect circa 60,000 applications

How can they know at this point? I'm guessing birth rate year data?

@ProggyMat - Yikes. Do we know what the normal level is? That sound bonkers high.

Just told DD about Edinburgh. The estimation is now circa 59,999

@ealingwestmum

Just told DD about Edinburgh. The estimation is now circa 59,999

I asked Ds if he knew when his school send everything off to ucas. He said a January. That's annoying.

*in January.

Wheres if the offer is expressed on terms of grades eg AAB then A*BB doesn't fulfil the conditions and they could legitimately reject. Whether they would or not depends on things like what subject the missed grade is in, how popular and competitive the course is etc. They might keep you waiting on results day to see if someone better comes along through adjustment. Or they might just say come on in straight away. (That's as I understand it.)

@ProggyMat

DD has had her application acknowledged by all the Unis she applied to on Friday. There’s good and ‘scary’ news. On the good news front, as DD hasn’t done any open days and will do offer holder days - if she gets any- Bristol cover the cost of travel and give a generous allowance for accommodation! It’s means tested but DD will be eligible so huge sigh of relief if they do give her an offer! Scary news, Edinburgh have said they expect circa 60,000 applications

That's really good to know there is some financial help available for some to attend Offer Holder days - well done Bristol. Does anyone else know of any other places who do this ? Would be useful for people to know. Scary application figures ...

@singingstones some, mainly lower ranked, give offers as points - for example DS1's GF doing nursing at Sheffield Hallam had a points offer. Others may specify, eg for medicine Liverpool and Leicester offer AAA or A*AB as options in their standard offer. Other than that it is, as you said, dependent on how much space they have after all the people who met the offer conditions are in.

@Heifer I would be asking for the A in Biology. It might make a difference. I don't know whether teachers have had time to take in what the agreed grade inflation to halfway between 2019 and 2021 means. If you look at the analysis for Biology I shared in the last thread, everyone who would have got a B in 2019 got an A in 2021. So if you are marking past papers and using grade boundaries from 2019, half the Bs will be As in 2022. I can't re-share my analysis now as it is on my laptop downstairs and I am still isolating upstairs, but could post it again later if it helps.

I had a negative PCR today, but am still testing positive on LFTs and can't smell anything. There seems to be a variant of the virus going around the SW which only shows up in LFTs. Legally my isolation should be over, but actually I think I must have Covid. This will be spreading through the country soon; the variant which eludes PCR!

Hope you feeling ok @Monkey2001

@Oblomov21 Hi, yes her ambition is to work for BA. We live in Kent but she’s fully prepared to move near to whichever airport she has to

Also an update! This morning she heard back from both EasyJet and RyanAir asking her to do their online tests ( similar to verbal reasoning etc from 11plus which ironically she didn’t take 😂)
She did them both but said easyJet’s one was harder.
If she passes them the next step is a virtual interview/assessment!
I’ll keep you all posted as to what happens as she doesn’t want anyone in real life to know