Thread 30 Covid Cohort, Mad March Hareing Towards Exams

[OrangeCinnamonCroissant]

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 29

I've made this one a little bit earlier as things are so busy, at home and on thread, so please feel free to use up previous thread first

I'm with Orange, Newnames, Piccolo and Fonty with rude ds.
He said something about me being so lazy, was I going to start cooking again soon? This because it's been 3 months now since I took 2 jobs, working 6 days, so Dh is doing all the cooking. And having just taken him to Durham, and then starting sprouting some irrelevant and misunderstood A'level sociology / pyschology bullshit about matriarchal society. I told him I was staggered, speechless (unusual for me ) and had to walk away.

There are definitely some days I feel so disappointed in DD's attitude towards me. It's never directed towards DH, just me. She doesn't talk/act that way with anyone else, has never been in trouble at school or big fall out with friends but there is only so much I can take without taking it personally. I will say it's less often these days thankfully but boy does it hurt.

Two of mine are generally lovely and a pleasure to be around.
The other two can be horrible.
Sinkholes of love where you pour lots of effort in and it's spat out with ire.

We got DS’s GCSE exam timetable yesterday.
God, it’s endless.
His first exams are the end of April and his last ones are the end of June, with no more than a couple of days off in between.
DD’s A levels, on the other hand, are short and sharp (definitely not sweet).

Same here @Alsoplayspiccolo we got the gcse timetable yesterday and DS2 has 21 papers starting May 17th and a Spanish speaking exam compared to DS2’s 9 papers!

My DD's GCSEs run from 17 May to 20 June with lots of days with two papers (and she has extra time so those are long days). DS's are more spread out - 09 May to 22 June but only 4 papers as he has 1 for a BTEC and 3 for History.

We have booked his DSA assessment. I also need to try and get him a social care assessment, the SN stuff does seem relentless at times.

Ds’ GCSE exam timetable looks awful too. And he gets extra time. He’s been having bad migraines the last few months and has missed loads of school, so I’m really not sure he’ll have the stamina to get through 5 weeks.

Similar here with DS GCSEs 24 exams 16 May till 27 June, DDs A levels in one week and finishing on14 June.

It seems like it will be a hard slog for the next few months.

Nottingham info:
For those that DD/DS have firmed Nottingham don't forget you need to register before you can apply for accommodation on Monday
accommodation.nottingham.ac.uk/

Once firmed you may have to wait 48 hrs before you can register (kept saying that DD wasn't reconised even though DD had received email from Nottingham acknowledging her Firm). DD Firmed on Monday evening, email received this morning and could finally register this afternoon. I had to go and set up DD a new email address as it mentioned not using school one as it will be 1 for accommodation all the way through uni. All sorted now so we are ready to apply once the portal opens on Monday.

Thanks @heifer, that's useful. Dd only firmed yesterday, so it may be too soon for her to do the accommodation portal bit.

We got the exam entry list a few weeks back, the GCSE list went on and on. The A levels look very pleasant in comparison. They’ve both done their revision timetable and it definitely looks boring doing 3 exams.
My two have been off for end of term, so revision has started. DS1 is knackered already.
We haven’t been to Exeter and the open days were full, so we aren’t sure if he will get to go there before the exams start. So he won’t have visited a single Uni. Easy for us though.

DS just got rejected from Durham. He is really disappointed and down. Durham and Bath were by far his favourites. He still has to hear from Bath but will be absolutely gutted if he doesn’t get an offer.
Personally I would pick Warwick over Durham anyway but he definitely wouldn’t.

He hasn’t heard anything from Durham themselves, just a ucas track “your application has been updated” email. Is this normal?

Oh, that's so disappointing for him .

@22Newnames I’m so sorry it is so horrible getting rejections. It’s scary how hard this year has been. Let’s hope Bath hurry up. X

Commiserations, 20newnames. It’s rough, especially when it’s a uni they wanted to go to.
Everything crossed for Bath. 🤞🏻

Thanks all. I am just so worried about Bath now as he will be gutted. It has been so competitive at the top unis this year. I think DS just thought that he would get offers from all, after all he’s never been rejected from anything before. There has to be a first time I guess.

We have offer holder days at Warwick and Nottingham over the next few weeks so hopefully will persuade him they are also good options.

Sorry to hear that Newnames, that is 🩲.

Sorry to hear that @22Newnames. It really does feel like a horribly tough year for our youngsters. Fingers really crossed for Bath (ds’s likely prefered to, I have to admit I’m feeling less hopeful as time goes on and he’s not had anything back, although that may be unfounded.

@22Newnames so sorry to hear this - so many great kids seem to be losing out this year

Sorry for his disappointment @22Newnames, I hope Bath come through with an offer - although Nottingham and Warwick are great options too. Maybe he’ll be really taken by one of them on the offer days.

Sorry to read your update 22. It’s so hard this year. Hope Nottingham or Warwick really click and that a Bath offer comes through too.

Thanks all.

He’s seen Warwick and Nottingham before on open days (although not inside at Nottingham). Warwick is impressive but he just doesn’t love it in the same way he does Bath and Durham.

I haven’t heard of Bath offering yet for his course whereas I knew Durham had started offering a while back. So am still a bit hopeful for him 🤞

The best of luck for Bath @22newnames & @Isthisjust. I'm sorry about Durham. It's so hard when you've set your heart on a specific place, but Warwick & Nottingham have a stellar reputation surely.

Anyone doing the Surrey applicant day this Saturday? I'm still trying to find info. about Ds's courses. It should be simple to find out uni.contact hours surely? But it's not apparently. Still waiting to hear from Bangor & I've messaged Oxford Brooks. The only one that's straight forward is Surrey. It's almost like unis are hedging their bets when it comes to the content & way the course is delivered. Which just isn't good enough. Especially for the £9000 + fee.

Ds2 is in the middle of his mock Gcse's. He didn't tell me he got a 9 in his English earlier, until I saw it on his desk today.
Given that he's been so ill this year & has missed a whole term of school I was thrilled. He honestly wasn't bothered 🤦🏼‍♀️

@22Newnames Sorry to hear about the rejection. When DS was rejected by StA it was similarly just UCAS track. Here's hoping he's Bath's gain.

@Cantonet We never found anything about contact hours online but at the open days they have been quite forthcoming, putting up slides of a typical week.

@22Newnames

DS just got rejected from Durham. He is really disappointed and down. Durham and Bath were by far his favourites. He still has to hear from Bath but will be absolutely gutted if he doesn’t get an offer. Personally I would pick Warwick over Durham anyway but he definitely wouldn’t.

He hasn’t heard anything from Durham themselves, just a ucas track “your application has been updated” email. Is this normal?

Ah sorry to hear that