Thread 34 Covid Cohort - Heat 'Waving' DC to final exams and drinking more

[OrangeCinnamonCroissant]

...water

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. It's all relative!

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 continue down various pathways ( employment, apprenticeships, higher ed) We have decided for anyone interested they will find a thread within the Further Ed board.

Possibly a move to Parent of Adult Children Board in future? Post Results?

Previous Thread

I said on here a while back that I'd spotted a large brown envelope on ds's bedroom floor. I had a peek and it was paperwork for his exams for me to sign and Ds to sign. I didn't say anything for a few weeks. Then decided to ask what they were. So he gave me the envelope. I signed, he signed, all put back in the envelope. He's told me this morning that he never handed it in and can remember chucking the envelope out a few weeks because I made him tidy his room. He thinks it just means he can't have his papers re marked. He's been asked for the paperwork at school. Apparently "no one" handed the papers in. He makes me cross. He left an envelope unopened from his summer job employer for weeks. It wasn't done until I sat with him and made him open it and fill it all out (bank account details, NI no. etc) Now we have another envelope from the summer job on the table. He won't open it. Gosh, he knows how to wind me up. Ds3 had a letter yesterday about an award ceremony, I filled it in, signed it straight away and sent him in with it. I like to fill things out straight away before they get forgotten. So ds2 isn't like me, dh is worse than me, he's the only one I know who will phone up after not getting billed for something a few days after it's been done. So I'm not sure where Ds gets his laid back, couldn't care attitude.

amp.theguardian.com/education/2022/jun/22/2022-hardest-year-in-living-memory-to-enter-uk-medical-school?fbclid=IwAR2Rd0I6pm_xSFwpUUxnt5ZUXg4-9wxvBw9EFe97Eg5y_G4Q0EagkIU9Lhs

This came up on my FB.

@Heifer DS is Edexcel Biology B.

@pangolinfan welcome to the thread and the Biology sufferers club! 😁 My DS is hoping to do Law so Bio is an outlier for him too. I think it's good training to be analytical though and understand science based subjects - who knows what kind of law he'll (hopefully) end up practicing!

@272Newnames Blimey, sitting exams in hospital? 😮 How on earth could he be expected to perform well for that!

@icanbewhatiwant oh that would send me into a rage! Was it paperwork for extra time?

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn no it wasn't for extra time. I think it was confirming ds's name, correct exams listed etc. plus a part to sign about no mobile phones in exams. He thinks there was something about getting papers remarked too. I know there were quite a few pieces of paper to sign. He needs to miss out on something important to learn a lesson. Though I wouldn't want anything to go wrong with his exams.

@pangolinfan : welcome to the thread! We love pangolins in this house too!
@icanbewhatiwant : Ds can be like this - he finds it overwhelming to deal with things in one go so tends to leave them with the plan of coming back and never does. This is exactly the sort of thing he’d do! What’s the impact going to be??

Ds has comp sci as his last one today. He has extra time and it’s the last a level scheduled at his school so he will be the very last student taking a levels in his school!

I don't remember DS doing anything like that, he is also one to leave things rather than sort them out and usually end up falling to me in a panic. Less worrying example is he still hasn't picked up his year book (that I paid for) and won't be in school again after this morning!

@Isthisjustnormal I don't think Ds finds it overwhelming, he just shrugs his shoulders. That's why I get annoyed. We had filled the forms in and sealed the envelope. So he only needed to hand it in. I've no idea what will happen or whether it's important. Apparently no one had handed the forms in and it's too late now. I don't believe no one else had either. I've always found forms in his room like the start of year form where you confirm contact details etc. he's never handed them in...funny I've never found a school trip one not handed in or something he wants to do. The prom form was handed in promptly too.

@icanbewhatiwant we had a form from DS's school (and DD's) with the list of all the exams they had been entered for, DOB, name as you want it on the certificate. You only had to return if anything was incorrect, maybe it was one of those.

@ExtremelyDedicated there were about 4 forms for me to sign and 2 for Ds. I'm sure one of them was just confirming details. But I can't remember what the others were. Never mind. It'll be his own fault.

Absolutely re law and science. I'm an in-house lawyer working in the tech sector and it would be really useful to have had something more than O level sciences. I still look at A level subjects on CVs when we recruit juniors for that reason!

Ooh that's really interesting to hear @pangolinfan , I'm glad he did it now! 😂

He's just texted me, said it was the easiest paper of the three, thinks he's got a high mark. My god, I hope he's right, I am dreading results day already.

Oh that's great @JustHereWithMyPopcorn. DD said it was the hardest of the 3 but "still ok" (she took OCR though). I was even honoured with an actual phone call (though suspect that was so she could sign off for the rest of the day and not be pestered by parents).

Oh no, was it the same sort of thing, practicals and applying knowledge?
I won't hear from DS again now until god knows when, I'm just hoping he doesn't get too silly and stays safe!

DD reports OCR B Bio as 'satisfactory' whatever that means - didn't like to probe too deeply!

We're off out to lunch now to celebrate the end of exams, and then she's going round to some friends she hasn't seen since before exams started!

Hope everyone else is reasonably happy.

Enjoy your lunch @Seeline!

Just seen DD briefly and reported that the paper went really well. Really like the essay question phew. (AQA biology)

@Heifer DH has Nationwide gold card (excellent exchange rates and no transaction fees) and we all have a sister card to that account. DS has used it abroad and paid back once at home. This has probably saved us hundreds over the years.

Totally agree (as another lawyer). My physics chemistry and biology A levels have been useful for all sorts of things from intellectual property to clinical negligence (yes I’ve had a long and varied career!) although I didn’t do a science degree

Ds reports comp sci was ‘pretty good’ and is off out to celebrate :-)

Thanks too @Delphigirl that's really useful to hear from both of you.

I got a text message from DS - went really well. I have no idea where he is now but he's in my car so I assume will come home before any partying.

A few of my friends at uni studied joint honours law and chemistry. I always assumed they were really clever because chemistry was my worst subject at school 🤣

Chemistry and French were my worst two - same as DS1!

Glad the exams seem to generally have gone OK (hopefully @pangolinfan DD has done OK despite not being happy with the exam).

Lol at 'satisfactory'.

Ds did OCR Biology too and declared it 'fine'

So relieved that he is finished - was close to burn out I think, and looked so tired and careworn. He has a spring in his step now

DS thought biology was “not too bad”, has jumped in the car and gone off to London for a Greenday concert !