Thread 32 - Corona Cohort 'May' the Mumsnet force be with them for their venture to 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 31

CONGRATULATIONS ZEBRACAT !

Yes!

Yes I think so @NCTDN

Sorry to hear that Monkey but it's not over yet I guess. Will they just come back to people they have rejected and say we've changed our mind, we'd like to make an offer? And then might do the same after results? Or will the course go into clearing?

Good luck to everyone today - nothing this morning here so we are all having a lie in.

Sorry to hear of your loss, SingingStones

And to @Monkey2001 @GoldenRuby re the bad news. It's rubbish.

Any Sociology A-level on Monday? Dd holding it together at the moment but keeps on having little teary moments that she tells me about through the dog (!). I made her a little revision pack last week with all her fave snacks, a new lavender wheat bag and loads of pens. Might have to have a think about keeping her calm and chill on Sunday. Usually movies are my go to but she has gone off them and likes series at moment, especially Eastenders 2008...dont fancy a day of that but it's her comfort.

Thanks. I think it really helps that his (very high achieving) brother didn't get in first time and took a gap year, so it is normalised for us. Also his best friend, who seems like a perfect medicine candidate to us - clever, modest, loads of relevant work experience and volunteering, even comes from a postcode meeting all WP criteria, had 4 interviews and only 1 offer. So we know that medicine is tough and this really is a crazy year!

Hang in there Orange. Being overwhelmed at times will hopefully subside once she gets going. Thank goodness for furry friends ;)

@Monkey2001 I know your DS is resilient but grrrr. I can name four of DS's year who are medicine applicants with great grades & predictions who are now looking at unplanned gap years.

Amongst all the effort we are putting in to supporting our DC, the tiptoeing around and the sacrifices we are making, watching a whole day of EastEnders from 2008 must surely be the greatest 😂

Sorry to hear that Monkey. Now saying they'll make more offers June 10th? I didn't think they were allowed to do that?

In terms of advanced info - I thought it was a case of 'here are the most important bits' but all content may in the exams. Which, at the time, I thought was a bit hopeless as it left all content needing to be studied. I'm going to remind DD of this, casually, so as to not cause panic.

Sorry to hear the news re bereavements and receiving "non offers" . It's such a messed up system.

Is anyone else waiting?

agree - top effort @OrangeCinnamonCroissant :-) I can only offer playing catch whenever DD is bored. Basically consists of sitting in the front room opposite her being moaned at (about school) whilst she throws the ball at me really hard and moaning when I fail to catch it. It's painful (literally at times) but it seems to do her some good and in between the moaning we do have some decent discussions (well occassionally).

Really sorry to hear that Monkey I’m glad he is resilient and can see it helps for him having seen it with his brother. I am so sad and cross about what some of them are going through this year.

In terms of advanced info - I thought it was a case of 'here are the most important bits' but all content may in the exams.

I think it depends on the exam board. For DD, her OCR Biology, makes it very clear where the most marks will be concentrated (quite specific and limited areas), but that all other info should be learnt as it can be included in the exams. For AQA psych and business, the advanced info was much more detailed, and didn't omit huge amounts of the spec, and sort of says that students can refer to other bits of the spec, and this will be credited where relevant - much clearer on the advanced stuff and less emphasis on anything beyond this.

@Wheresthebeach The Office for Students has told them they cannot exceed their target numbers and if they do, they will be fined and the extra students will not be funded. Training a medical student allegedly costs around £250k so that is a big problem and nearly all the medical schools have waiting lists this year. You can only stay on most waiting lists if you don't have offers elsewhere. Once applicants have made their decisions (by 9th June - lots of people are leaving it to the last minute because so many medical school are sending out final decisions this week).

In a normal year Newcastle makes around 650 offers for around 350 places. We think they have only made around 400 offers this year and there may still be 200 people on the waiting list. All exacerbated by the number of people who deferred and highest ever application numbers.

So Newcastle will review on 10th June and they said it would be monthly after that, I guess they will have IB/Scottish results before A level results, which may create some movement. There is a general expectation that there might be a lot of movement on medicine in June and on results day this year, but we are in uncharted territory for lots of university admissions stuff this year. Just another Covid consequence for our poor DC.

@Monkey2001 Wow. I guess they did this because of the extra students from last year, and the year before...I'm guessing this applies to all courses, hence the issues with offers this year? (Combined with less space due to overflow, and targeting International Students for cash). The impact on our kids, and all kids for the next couple of years has been huge.

Orange ds1 has sociology Monday, first exam.

Sorry to hear of 'not having heard's.

@NCTDN I don’t have personal experience of maths schools, but know of a MNer whose DC was very successful at one (got into Cambridge about 3 years ago) and someone I know IRL had a DC go through the same one successfully a couple of years later. The MNer is still around, maybe start a thread and see if she replies?

NCTDN I have pointed the MNer that EspeciallyDistracted is referring to at your Maths school thread . Am sending you a PM.

Oh, Monkey, it’s really bloody rubbish for this year’s med cohort. I know your DS has a good plan B for next year, but he must still feel rightly frustrated.

When we spoke to DS’s maths teacher last week, he told us how badly this cohort had suffered because of Covid, and reckons it will take 5 years to get back to a sort of normal.

@Monkey I'm another one impressed at how calm, rational & logical you and your Ds have both been, over this very long wait. Your Ds, when he gets there has all the makings of a brilliant doctor.

DS apparently was meant to redo one if his exams today. The school phoned me up in a panic this morning. The only problem was he got max. marks the first time and didn't need to redo it. This was agreed by his teacher, but somehow his name wasn't taken off the list of repeats.
Hope this won't affect his results.

@Monkey2001 im so sorry, what a horrible year it has been. Medicine has been truly awful. Hopefully your DS will get an offer, but the uncertainty is not nice.

@Monkey2001 I'm so sorry for your DS, it's been a crap year and the med students have had it really bad. Keeping fingers crossed for him that he gets there this year.

That is crap Monkey. What a utter load of horseshit. 💩
I have bought English flags bunting for our caravan in Dorset next week.
At ds's school, a boy from his class, who he'd been all the way through school since primary with, died in a car accident, as the front passenger. 4 of them all hurt, but he died. He was due to take his first exam today. How sad eh? What a waste.

Oh that's awful Oblomov, I hope your DS is ok. Those poor kids and their families, everything changed in an instant. Off to hug my grumpy teens now.

@Oblomov22 so sorry to hear that, truly tragic. Puts things into context. I knew a couple whose children died when the daughter picked the son up from school and the car was hit by a lorry. Their lives devastated in an instant. Such dreadful things happen.

@Monkey2001 Very sorry to hear your news. Your DS is holding up well under all the stress and uncertainty so well done him.

@Oblomov22 Oh my God! that's awful, such a young life. His poor parents (just like us) would have been looking forward to taking him to uni this year, maybe shopping for him. Devastating.

A boy at ds's school, super-bright and holding an offer from Oxford attempted suicide last week. Thankfully he didn't succeed but unable to sit his exams (IB). Didn't sit a single exam! I'm hoping they might be able to work something out for him, surely that must come under exceptional circumstances?