Thread 23 Covid Cohort Stepping Into Christmas, Tests, Mocks & 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

@20newnames/ DS / Engineering
@Alsoplayspiccolo/ DD / English + Film
@AnneofCleavage/ DD / gap year? Primary Education
@BlueMarigold/ DD / Biology
@cariadambyth/ DD / History / Southampton, Bath Spa, Warwick, RHUL
@collywobble/ DS / PPE, Economics / Lancaster (AAB)
@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 / Birmingham (ABB), Cardiff (ABB-BBB), Warwick (AAB)
@EwwSprouts/ DS / Biology
@Fiddlersgreen/ DS / Journalism / Bournemouth (104 pts), Brighton (BCC), Cardiff (ABB)
@Fruitygal/ DD / Biology
@Hattifatteners/ DD / Vet Med
@Heifer/ DD / Biology
@Hopeful201/ DS / Medicine
@Horace123/ DS / Classics / Edinburgh 34/665
@icanbewhatiwant/ DS / History + Philosophy
@Isthisjustnormal/ DS / Comp Sci
@JustHereWithMyPopcorn/ DS / Law
@KingscoteStaff/ DD / Medicine
@Knickerthief1/ DD / Child nursing / York
@Monkey2001/ DS / Medicine
@mummabear74/ DD / Environmental Science
@mummyinbeds/ DS / Law + French Law / Birmingham (AAA), Kent (AAB)
@Nard75/ DS / Maths
@NCTDN/ DD / Liberal Arts
@Oblomov21/ DS / Accountancy / Southampton ABB
@OrangeCinnamonCocktail/ DD / Music (uni)
@PaddingtonPaddington/ DD / Music (cons)
@Piggywaspushed/ DS / Social sciences / Birmingham (AAB-ABB), York (AAB-ABB)
@ProggyMat/ DD / Classics / Bristol (BBB), Edinburgh
@SandyBayley/ DD / Medicine
@Seeline/ DD / Liberal Arts / UEA (AAB), Kent (BBB), Nottingham (AAA)
@Shimy/ DS / Business + Management / Birmingham (AAB-ABB), Loughborough
@singingstones/ DS / Neuroscience
@Volterra/ DS / Maths
@whatsnext2/ DD / English joint hons
@Wheresthebeach/ DD / gap year? Marine Biology / Southampton, Portsmouth
@whoamitojudge/ DD / RyanAir cabin crew training
@Zebracat/ DD / Liberal Arts or Anthropology
@ZittiEBuoni/ DD / tbc applying next year

Thank you so much Orange.

Thank you all. She’s relieving the stress levels with a night on the tiles.

Congratulations on the 2 x C interviews. So, we are into the OxB interviewing stage? How exciting.

Thanks for the new thread @OrangeCinnamonCocktail. My name has changed since the list was made but I change it fairly frequently and it's always an ED name so it doesn't really matter. So sorry to hear about your DMum .

Also sorry to hear about Esther's DS in hospital and Just's DS with his jaw, also was it Anne with a trapped shoulder nerve. I get impingements in mine and get a lot of relief from using resistance bands to give them a good hard stretch. Also, picking up something heavyish (eg kettlebell) with arm down by my side and just letting the weight stretch the shoulder down.

Well done to all those getting offers and interviews!

@whoamitojudge mine is applying but is by no means totally set on going to uni. Just doesn't know what else he would do instead.

Heifer - I would have been pissed off with that response too.

Who was it suggested I get a third party to check DS's PS? Sorry I can't remember. Anyway, I remembered that at one of the open days I spoke to an admissions officer about him applying for two subjects and she offered to check it for him, we sent it over this week and she has been super helpful. So barring a couple of minor tweaks its done now and covers both subjects really well.

Thank you for new thread!

DD has an offer for her 5th (non medicine) uni - Biochem + Medical Sciences at Nottingham. She is starting to consider the very faint possibility of a year off.

Thanks for the shiny new thread @OrangeCinnamonCocktail

Thanks for the new thread

Placemarking ready for my further loitering. DS seems to still have his head permanently in a large cosy hole, Ho hum!

@ealingwestmum fantastic news - having two interviews is so useful as well given the first is Manchester - being able to get the nerves out of the way on the first.

DD has 12 close friends at school waiting on Oxbridge or medics. 1 got Cambridge yesterday and 2 others Kings interviews. So the rest are now super stressed. DD says tension at school with over 40 waiting on interview offers from medics or Oxbridge is crazy. Kings looks like it’s giving just 9-10 days notice so if you know anyone with this on the short list they may wish to start prepping now.

@ExcessiveIyDisorganised if you are the DM In the house of dyslexics I think 🤔 it was me who suggested finding someone to cast a fresh pair of eyes over the PS - sounds like you hit gold with the admissions person! When are you hoping UCAS will go in now ?

We are waiting on offers but 4/5 have acknowledged so DD is happy just wading through the 12 emails already received from Durham to find the one with colleges preferences. Mocks in December so an offer or two by then would be good but won’t be Durham as it’s made it clear there will be nothing until jan/Feb. NEA Geography project data collection this weekend so no organised trip - kids doing on their own. Probably DD should have started before but glad UCAS and EPQ finished first.

@ealingwestmum I missed your post about your DD interviews, fantastic news and fingers crossed for her. 🤞🏻

Someone told me her neighbours DD applied for medicine and got an offer already but then had it taken away because of grade inflation! Is this true? Can this happen? I feel like it can’t be true because all the medics I know haven’t even had interviews yet. Any ideas?

@BlueMarigold I would guess the offer was for the 5th choice - non-medicine. IIRC when dd was applying several years ago she got that one within a few days of submitting her application.

I think there is a lot of caution at unis this time round. @Piggywaspushed I think you said somewhere that Bath won’t make any offers till January. When ds1 applied there 3 years ago they were the first to make an offer, again within days of applying.

@OrangeCinnamonCocktail So sorry to hear the sad news about your mother. I hope you have lots of happy memories to look back on.

@BlueMarigold unis don’t take away offers unless you don’t meet the requirements once the a level results are out - sounds extremely iffy to me.

Thanks @Decorhate and @Fruitygal,

I assumed there must have been some miscommunication along the way but I hadn’t considered the possibility of it being the non-medicine course.

@Fruitygal yes, that's us The House of Dyslexia . It had been into school once but the comments were vague (eg "write more about this") whereas the uni person said things like "use relevant technical terms here to describe what benefits you got from x".

Placemarking. Thanks @OrangeCinnamonCocktail.

Thanks again to everyone for the kind words.

Ah, do not worry Justhere, this thread is so super fast moving. Thanks also Fruitygal and all for the good wishes; we are definitely keeping up good vibes on ALL options and any zoom interview experience is not being sniffed at.

Those making uni visits this weekend…enjoy.

@Fruitygal - hope you don't mind me asking but where did your DD apply for?

@BlueMarigold Chinese whispers of some sort going on! My interpretation of your medicine story is that it could be like a couple of TSR students on the Manchester thread who didn't have the GCSE grades Manchester require (at least 7 A/7s) but had achieved grades of AAA at A level. They were told there was flexibility in GCSE requirements if A levels achieved, but have been rejected in the first tranche for not meeting academic requirements.

So they haven't had offers withdrawn, but thought they would get interviews based on pre-application communication, but it could well be due to inflated grades that achieved grades do not give a medical school enough confidence in academic ability to overlook GCSE requirements. Getting an interview for medicine feels like as much as an achievement as getting an offer for a lot of courses.

Shimy, your posts resurrected so much anger on how vile young people can be; I’m so sorry your boy experienced this on a trip her was so looking forward to. He sounds lovely, keep him focused on his positive traits to ride him through this period. It won’t be like this for ever, but knob heads will need to negotiated unfortunately from time to time.

@Heifer yep no probs - Durham, York, Lancaster, Sheffield and Exeter (Penryn) last one Zoology and others Biology or Biological Sciences. What have you got short listed ?

@Heifer DD chose based on visits - feel for the place and courses. Her predicted grades allow her apply to MSci courses but as she’s not sure what she’d like to specialise in / or if she’d like to go into clinical management or sustainability for a corporate rather than Ecology or crop science so will add an MSc like her brother later if she wants to - she’ll opt for study abroad (where she can do it in third year not 2nd) or perhaps my preferred option of a placement. Some employers prefer to see the separate MSc and it allows you to move unis - if she wanted to do science research she probably apply to Oxbridge or a London uni for MSc.

Sorry bit of an epic reply !

One of the great things about the @singingstones list is seeing where our DC might meet. Are Birmingham and York the most popular choices at the moment? I don't think I have noticed anybody taking about Manchester and Newcastle here, which are our only two, although I think @sandybailey DD has Newcastle as a choice. Strange there are not many people on here considering those.

@Monkey2001 Manchester is one of Ds’ choices though neither he nor I have ever been there... Chosen on the basis that’s it’s a good sized, vibrant city I think. The course modules look good too though it’s not particularly high up the league tables.

He’s also applied to Leeds, Bristol, Sheffield & Southampton

Well done Ealing jr on the interview, fingers crossed for all "our" Oxbridge / medicine / vet DC.

Your comment Monkey has made me think I'll update the list to include places applied to instead of just offers received. It is nice to see where paths might cross and might be helpful. Plus it would be a welcome way of putting off some very boring things I'm supposed to be doing today

One less boring job is going to our local cat rescue to drop off Nelly's leftover food. DH does like to buy in bulk to save £2 postage so we have 50 pouches of food going begging
(I'm also going to ask about the possibility of kittens in the future... We have Nelly's brother still, so not sure whether it would be a good idea. I've never introduced kittens to a household with a resident cat, anyone have any experience of that? He's very relaxed, but we definitely will not be doing anything that might upset him.)

@singingstones we have introduced kittens to existing cats. It helps to get a female cat if you already have a male. Let the existing cat lick your hand and rub it all over the kitten so the cat then thinks it’s his kitten.