Thread 22 Covid Cohort - Creeping towards the Future - Personal Statements and Interviews

[OrangeCinnamonCocktail]

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/4370509-Thread-21-Corona-Cohort-Nervous-waiting-so-frustrating
Role Call below
@20newnames / DS / Engineering
@Alsoplayspiccolo / DD / English + Film
@AnneofCleavage / DD / gap year? Primary Education
@BlueMarigold / DD / Biology
@crazycrofter / DD / Child (?) + Mental Health Nursing
@Decorhate / DS / Economics + Politics
@Delphigirl / DS / Oceanography
@DoggerelBank / DS / tbc sciencey
@ealingwestmum / DD / Middle Eastern and European Studies
@EerilyDisembodied / DS / History or Environmental Management
@estherfrewen / DS / History
@EwwSprouts / DS / Biology
@Fiddlersgreen / DS / Journalism
@Fruitygal / DD / Biology
@Hattifatteners / DD / Vet Med
@Heifer / DD / Biology
@Hopeful201 / DS / Medicine
@Horace123 / DS / Classics
@icanbewhatiwant / DS / History + Philosophy
@Isthisjustnormal / DS / Comp Sci
@KingscoteStaff / DD / Medicine
@mummabear74 / DD / Environmental Science
@mummyinbeds / DS / Law + French Law
@Nard75 / DS / Maths
@NCTDN / DD / Liberal Arts
@Oblomov21 / DS / Accountancy
@OrangeCinnamonCocktail / DD / Music (uni)
@PaddingtonPaddington / DD / Music (cons)
@Piggywaspushed / DS / Social sciences combo
@ProggyMat / DD / Classics
@SandyBayley / DD / Medicine
@Seeline / DD / Liberal Arts
@singingstones / DS / Neuroscience
@Wheresthebeach / DD / gap year? Marine Biology
@whoamitojudge / DD / Cabin crew training
@Zebracat / DD / Liberal Arts or Anthropology
@ZittiEBuoni / DD / applying next year

I work in science focused business - only 5/15 people allowed in the office and masked even while sitting at desks. I wear a mask and so do adult kids when in supermarket and public transport. Go out with small groups of friends but all laterally flow prior to meeting up.

We have got masks back in corridors etc at my school from tomorrow. Should be fun as I suspect many students have binned theirs...

Ds's school asked them to start wearing masks the last week before they broke up. We had an email saying masks for the Monday. I told ds's they'd need masks in corridors. Ds3 came home the first day...threw his mask down on the kitchen unit beside me and started shouting at me, why had I said said masks in corridors, when it's masks everywhere indoors. Whoops. I shouldn't have assumed. Ds2 thought his reaction was hilarious.

@Alsoplayspiccolo I have also observed lots of masks in Waitrose and none in Sports Direct!

Old colleagues working in ICU reporting normal height of Winter levels so busy with lots of different pts.
Covid pts in icu busy but not overwhelming - 60% of covid cases in icu under 60 and 40% under 50 and scarily 10% 16-29 in icu - 85-90% unvaccinated or just single vaccine. They ask me to say get them jabbed and wear a mask when on public transport and lateral flow before going to party or gigs. So many friends looking to quit NHS as they are burnt out. Hopefully when the students get into the nhs this will be over and they can go back to looking after normal stuff.

@Fruitygal

I work in science focused business - only 5/15 people allowed in the office and masked even while sitting at desks. I wear a mask and so do adult kids when in supermarket and public transport. Go out with small groups of friends but all laterally flow prior to meeting up.

We're science based too so all in all the time, we can't WFH. We've never masked at desks (most have separate offices), only in labs and when moving round the building which is well ventilated and spacious. All are double jabbed though.

We hot desk so no one has individual offices unless you are on the board. You get used to masking after a couple of days and most of us can do mix of wfh and in building so not so bad.

My office is still 2 meters apart and masks for the foreseeable future hence I’m still WFH the majority of the time. The school is also back in masks post half term.

Both DD and I are waiting impatiently for feedback on her auditions/interviews.

We’re not wearing masks in work either - although we have our own offices.

Hope you hear back soon @PaddingtonPaddington

Just checking in, haven't got time to catch up at the mo but .

Also Can I add to the list somehow

DS/ Law

Has anybody applied for a new passport recently? I sent DS's old passport first class on Thursday, should have arrived Friday, but progress thing still says please send passport. I know with driving licence it goes straight from awaiting documents to issued. Anybody got a new passport recently? I am anxious as I want it quickly so that we can use photo for replacement driving licence for test in 4 weeks.

Could have sent on a signed for service, bit would then have been posted a day later which seemed like and idea. Eek!

Update to my previous post, to save anyone answering. They have now acknowledged receipt of old passport. I would still be very interested to know whether anyone has recent experience of how quickly passport is issued from having all documents. 🤞🤞🤞

Hi my DS got a new passport a couple of months ago and it took about 8 days

@Monkey2001

DD's passport took about three weeks from when they should have received the old one. They didn't acknowledge receipt for about a week though.

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn

How did your DS feel his LNAT went?

8 days @Delphigirl?! That would be awesome.

Thanks @mummyinbeds. 21 days would be right on the margin, but might be OK.

To be honest, would probably teach him a lesson he would remember if he missed his test for such a stupid reason! Might start looking at delaying it if we don't hear anything on the next week.

[quote mummyinbeds]@Monkey2001

DD's passport took about three weeks from when they should have received the old one. They didn't acknowledge receipt for about a week though.

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn

How did your DS feel his LNAT went?[/quote]
He moved it in the end as he was panicking he hadn't done enough practice (he hadn't!), it's in a couple of weeks now. He still hasn't done enough though - eek! And feedback for your DS?

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn

DS has put a complaint in to Pearson/LNAT. There was an incident during his test which disrupted him for about 15 minutes - he got a reference on the day and they had 10 days to investigate. We've been going round in circles ever since. They said he could resit and then said he couldn't and six weeks later they are still investigating. Both LNAT uni's are aware of the situation - Oxford have contacted LNAT themselves and Nottingham have put his application on hold until something is sorted. DS would like to resit the MCQ part but keep his essay which he enjoyed writing 🤣

Good luck to your DS - wise to delay it until he's ready.

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn this sounds horrific ! What happened? I hope he gets a good outcome - finger’s crossed

D’oh: managed to miss this thread and was wondering why the old one had suddenly gone quiet! Will catch up with all the news later!

@mummyinbeds oh no, what a mare! Was it the Pearson’s centre in the pavilions by any chance? DS did his theory test there and during the middle of it the ceiling let loose a flood of water which carried on through his test!

I think they should let him resit if he wants to, the disruption may have only been fifteen minutes but that could have knocked his concentration for a lot longer and those MCQs are pretty intense from what I can see on the practice ones! I’m not sure they’ll let him keep his essay though!

@Fruitygal it’s wasn’t my DS but I’m hoping he doesn’t get disrupted when he does his, it really needs focus.

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn Ooops - I’m trying to do MN and life 😂 failing at both

Me too @Fruitygal 😂

@mummyinbeds every year there are lots of people who have problems taking the UCAT at Pearson's centres for Medicine. For DS1 the on screen calculator didn't work, so he wasted several precious minutes trying to make it work, then someone came over to try to make it work, they couldn't so they gave him a calculator, then someone else took it away because a calculator is not allowed, so he had to do all the calculations in his head. It must have knocked a fair chunk off his score. They offered to let him resit it another time when he was having the problems, but I think it is harder to get a resit once you have a score. As his score was good enough for all the medical schools he was interested in and he could not face a re-sit, he kept the score he had but took an incident report away. I think they annotated it, so put a note saying that there were technical issues which may have affected the score.

Good luck trying to sort something out for your DS with Pearson's. If you want to look into getting it annotated instead of re-sitting, ask the universities he is applying to how they deal with annotations.