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

AofC sorry her week has been wiped by covid. Hope she has a speedy recovery. DS's mate has just done a positive lft (snotty etc too) so expecting a positive pcr. Hoping DS doesn't also go down, he had covid in the summer so that might have been delta.

@Monkey2001 hurrah for just in time arrival of driving licence. Fingers crossed!

@AnneOfCleavage sorry to hear about the positives, hope DD manages to get things rescheduled without too much difficulty and that you both feel better soon.

@Monkey2001 yay for driving licence at last!

@OrangeCinnamonCocktail I remember when DMIL passed away we had a long wait for the funeral and how unsettling it was, sending soothing vibes .

Well, DS and I have just filled in most of his UCAS form, he needed help with the disability stuff and all his BTECs, they are quite complicated as there are so many similar sounding ones. He hasn't added the PS yet, going to change a couple of words, also hasn't added any courses. Also a bit unsure about the highest earner thing, from our salaries it's DH as he is full time and I'm part time, but I have income from other sources which puts me overall a bit higher than him, might need to check which one of us I should put. Hopefully it will all sort itself out in the finance application.

So glad have the driving license @Monkey2001! That must be a big relief.

@ExcessiveIyDisorganised.I am pretty sure the highest earner thing is only to work out the so called social grade/class I.e. professional, middle management etc for statistics purposes. DS put my job down but actually DH and I would be similar.

Sorry to hear about the covid @AnneOfCleavage. I guess one small silver lining is you won’t all have it over Christmas! Hope you all get better soon though.

Thanks @20NewNames, both our jobs would probably fall into the same broad category for that purpose. Definitely not trying to be dishonest!

Gah, been trying to add the personal statement for half an hour. 3995 characters and 47 lines exactly in Word, but coming out as 56 lines in UCAS - did anyone else have this problem? We have taken out all paragraph spaces.

@ExcessiveIyDisorganised it’s a nightmare getting it to fit. Keep fiddling with the spacing you’ll get there in the end.

Highest earner is for demographics research and nothing else.

@AnneOfCleavage that was fast - let’s hope DD gets through it quickly. I’m sure they will be fine to rearrange.

To all waiting on Oxbridge and medic interview offers really good luck for this week - fingers crossed.

We are hoping for a Sheffield offer this week or next. Full on revision mode here as 2 weeks before 1st mocks x

We haven't heard from Sheffield either. Don't know why I expected them to be quicker!

We left it in the end, DS was getting upset about having to edit down his carefully written statement and wanted to go to bed. Unfortunately it has somehow managed to save in the too-long state but won't let him close the section. Problem is with him being in boarding I can't help him tonight, so I've suggested he ask his form tutor for help. We really didn't want to leave it till next weekend.

@AnneOfCleavage Sorry to hear about DD's Covid - hope all interviews can be easily reorganised.

That sounds a real hassle @ExcessiveIyDisorganised. Its a very temperamental system. Hope the Tutor can help.

@ExcessiveIyDisorganised - yes we had similar with PS - one extra line that took ages to sort. Hope school can help.

@AnneOfCleavage - sorry to hear about your DD and covid. Hope you all start to feel better

@BlueMarigold - how was Lancaster?

@AnneOfCleavage your poor DD, I hope she isn't hit too hard with it and manages her interviews.

@OrangeCinnamonCocktail I'm sorry to hear about the funeral delays, it just makes things harder.

@ExcessiveIyDisorganised

Gah, been trying to add the personal statement for half an hour. 3995 characters and 47 lines exactly in Word, but coming out as 56 lines in UCAS - did anyone else have this problem? We have taken out all paragraph spaces.

I don't understand how this works, DS did 3,999 characters on word and it fitted on the UCAS form. I wonder what it is that makes it change?? I hope his form tutor manages to get it sorted for him.

@estherfrewen It was brilliant! Really liked the uni and the city.

@BlueMarigoldv - ah that’s fab! Glad you all liked it. We didn’t go into Lancaster - I have been years ago and from what I remember it was really nice.

@Piggywaspushed a couple of DD friends who applied for Oxbridge also applied to Sheffield about 3 for a decision plus two friends who got theirs in earlier at other schools have had responses in 2-3.5 weeks so going off that. 2 were applying for the same course.

Sheffield seems really popular this year!

@estherfrewen The city was lovely. Had everything that was needed and felt safe walking around at night.

@Piggywaspushed Sheffield is also one Ds2 applied to. He hasn’t had any offers yet although his predictions are higher than the standard offers for all 5 choices. 3 years ago ds1 applied around the October half term & had decisions from all 5 by now. It’s definitely different this year.
@JustHereWithMyPopcorn
I think it’s something to do with paragraphs.

@BlueMarigold @estherfrewen I'm trying to get dd to consider Lancaster. So far she's like Southampton, Leicester and Nottingham and she's used to a big city as we live in Birmingham. Do you think Lancaster would be too small/quiet for her? We're checking out Manchester on Saturday, but I've heard it's still all online there for Psychology, plus they didn't exactly treat their students well during the lockdowns did they? @Piggywaspushed Sheffield is another that I want to introduce into the mix! What do you think it has going for it? What's the city centre like, as that seems to be more important to dd than all the things I think should be important like course content!

I'm a big fan of Sheffield. At the very least, they know how to do a good open day. It seems a really good size for student life, and student villages are lovely and well located and have a bar.

@AnneOfCleavage Such bad luck. Hopefully the delay for interviews will work in her favour in the end. The more practice with any presentations she has to do, the better, I guess. (Or is it only for PGCE you do a presentation in interview?)

@OrangeCinnamonCocktail Thinking of you all. So hard, that limbo time before funeral.

@Monkey2001 Thanks so much for that EPQ video - really helped me (and hopefully DS too). Plan now submitted, along with some much-less-than-there-should-be stuff on sources and log book entries. In too deep to pull out now, I think!

Tonight is PS night. I'm hoping I may even find out what he's going to study! Very exciting!

Then back to the EPQ on Tuesday, to bash out the first draft and expand on log book and sources. Draft 2 will be during Christmas hols, when we're away on holiday with a large group of extended family for pretty much the whole time. So that'll be interesting.

My faith in him is pretty shaky at the mo, but at least he's worked hard all weekend. And he's told his pub boss that he's giving up as of today, apart from a couple of shifts between end of term and our holiday. Maybe it won't be a complete disaster.

Dd has managed to secure a Christmas job at Sainsbury's - only for 3 weeks I think, and it's great because she really needs the money, but it does feel like another thing to fit in when she still hasn't done her PS and has a singing exam and more mocks coming up. Oh well!

I'd really like to visit Sheffield instead of Manchester on Saturday, but we're going with a friend and her mum, so it depends on them too.

@crazycrofter I think Lancaster felt quite homely. I don’t know if it would feel small for someone used to a big city. It’s the other way round for us. We are from a small town so Lancaster still felt quite big and it had a Primark so my DD was happy.

Thanks, I’m not really sure what dd wants. I don’t think she is either! A Primark is obviously a basic requirement but I’m not sure there’s anywhere without one! She did say she’s enjoying visiting lots of different cities and going shopping I said that’s lovely but it’s costing a lot and you need to make a decision soon!!