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

@ealingwestmum UMS was Uniform Mark Scheme and it converted raw scores to a range of marks up to 100 where 90 was A*, 80 A..... by mapping the marks onto the UMS in a way which gave the planned distribution. If a paper was very difficult 75% might have mapped to 100 UMS, but on an easier paper you might need 95% to get 100 UMS. It enabled people to add different papers together on the old modular A levels because they were reported in a comparable way.

I thought it was really convoluted until I realised how easily you could compare results because 90 UMS means you are a marginal A, but 100 UMS is a strong A, irrespective of the underlying mark which is affected by difficulty of paper. Now universities would not know whether your A was marginal or secure because percentages mean so little. Eg in 2019 OCR Physics was 85% for an A, but AQA PE was 68% for an A. If UMS was still used, 85% would have mapped to 90 for Physics and 68% would have mapped to 90 for PE.

@272Newnames I get where you are coming from but they have had such a weird time socially in sixth form that it has probably been hard for them to work out what they want to do. Maybe say be can pay for it or you will pay if he cleans the car or something so he recognises that you are annoyed to have paid for something he is not using. But maybe it is better for them not to be over-indulged!

@272 I think he should pay. They can be awfully careless with other peoples money, and that needs to change as adults. Although I do understand that if his friends aren’t going it would be weird.

Yes I think the fact that it has been difficult socially is where I am struggling as I wouldn’t want to make him go if his friends aren’t. BUT he should probably have checked that before the ticket deadline and asking me to buy a ticket. He is definitely overindulged generally and I know I’m guilty of that as he’s my last child.

i quite like the idea of offering to exchange it for a few hours of cleaning (which desperately needs doing)

Quite when that will be though 🤷‍♀️, he got in somewhere betweeen 4 and 5.30am last night 😲. He is definitely enjoying the relax before starting work in a couple of weeks.

@272Newnames I don't think I would make him pay as it may have been his friends that caused this by not saying soon enough that they weren't going. He was proactive and got a ticket (which in itself would be a winner for me with DD), but then perhaps his friends decided after this, I know DD sometimes finds it difficult to find out beforehand what everyone is doing, although some of that is because she doesn't ask ofton enough... I like the idea of asking him to do some jobs instead though.

Yes good point @Heifer ,social organisation amongst his friends is very hit and miss. Well that would be polite, it’s always last minute and goes through many versions before the final ‘plan’.

I will talk to him about it later and suggest some cleaning in exchange. Knowing him he’ll probably say he’ll wait and pay out of his first pay check. He is very much in the ‘I need a couple of weeks off’ phase at the moment.

@272Newnames can you sell the ticket? If there weren't enough someone may want to go still.

I know what ds2 will do today....sleep. I reckon until about 4pm He wasn't home late, about 11.30pm. 2 of their mates didn't drink, so dropped them all home, the mate's car has a very loud exhaust system, we have a long gravel driveway across common. Then we have to turn round to get out again. So I think the neighbours each side heard what time he arrived home too.

@272Newnames I have some sympathy with your ds, if it's that his friends have let him down. My ds gets very frustrated at his friends as he's up for doing stuff all the time (too much!) and often his friends will say they'll do something and then flake out at the last minute. But if he's earning over the summer, I'd probably make him pay - maybe split the cost 50/50?

Thank you again Monkey, that really helps. I assumed it had been dropped now but wasn’t sure when (or why)!

I should add I know not sitting any exams results in not producing an actual ‘mark’, just an assessed grade by TAGs, just wasn’t sure if it was coming back into play this year with exams being sat again.

272newnames - what I would do would probably depend on my mood which isn't exactly fair. It would be good though if the ticket could be sold/given to someone who wants it - it would be a shame if someone who wants to go can't because there weren't enough tickets.

Today is a week until IB results are released 😱. If all goes well it will be such a relief not having to wait until August but it is making me feel a bit sick. Because the IB only release them mid-afternoon most of the DC will be relying on UCAS to update in the morning to know if they've met the conditions of their offers. School has been very good about telling us what to expect (eg if they get into their firm choice it will say "Unconditional Firm" etc). They also explained that some places will become available via clearing on the day although the majority will only be available nearer A level results day - I hadn't appreciated you get put into clearing automatically. The school expects that there will be far fewer places available via clearing this year for competitive courses. They have also told us which teachers are available for post exam help (eg who to talk to about a remark or seeing the script, who to see if you've missed your offer, who to see if you've changed your mind etc). It is going to be a loooooong week.

@Horace123 are you the only IB ? I'm feeling the nerves on your behalf too ! You might be the first 'confirmed' place of those who are going to Uni! Momentous!

Orange - there are some other IB posters but I never remember who is on what thread. I tend to stick on this thread as it is by far the friendliest!

I think Sandybayley was our other IBer Orange, but may have moved on from this thread for now.

Very exciting Horace, keep busy this week!

Wow! can't believe IB is that close. Haven't they just completed their exams? @Horace123 I'm 😱on your behalf but equally exciting too.

Sandybayley has changed name and has not been on this thread for ages, but is active on the medicine thread.

Hope Oxford put you out of the anxious zone early on results day @Horace123 !

I was talking to DS's GF's mum last night. She had been marking Edexcel A level maths paper 1 and said that a lot of candidates did not attempt the last questions, presumably ran out of time. I still think an A will be below 50% this year.

@Monkey2001 That gives me hope but also a horrible twisting feeling of dread as we need an A in maths!

A neighbour was saying her daughters friend has an offer to study maths at Cambridge. Apparently all the practice A level papers she'd done had 14 questions and she's done lots. So she thought she'd finished the maths exam at question 14. It wasn't until after the exam and they discussed it that she heard there were 17 questions.

Hopefully she'll still get the grades she needs with what she has done.

If she really missed the last 3 questions it will be very difficult to get an A*, but the other papers may make up for it. The time pressure in that first paper was intense though, my friend said that the questions were fair, but there were a lot of them.

It was unkind of them to throw in 3 extra questions for this lot with no exam experience, but they might claim that they wanted more easy questions than usual without losing the difficult questions which are supposed to differentiate between A and A* candidates.

Half a prom suit bought. 30 waist trousers in long it would appear need ordering....

I was talking to DS's GF's mum last night. She had been marking Edexcel A level maths paper 1 and said that a lot of candidates did not attempt the last questions, presumably ran out of time. I still think an A will be below 50% this year.

Edexcel said in 2020 that they would be generous with grade boundaries with the October exams, after all the affected students had not been to school for 7 months and most had not even finished the syllabus when lockdown happened. With only 6 weeks to prepare for the October exams, Edexcel did lower the grade boundaries:

9MA0 A Level Mathematics June 2019
A level overall grade boundaries

A* A B C D E U
217 165 134 103 73 43 0 (Raw /300)

9MA0 A Level Mathematics 2020 (October Exams)
A level overall grade boundaries

A* A B C D E U
214 162 130 99 68 37 0 (Raw /300)

So an A in 2019 was 55% and on October 2020 it was generously 54%!

@Horace123 keeping everything firmly crossed for your DS! 🍀

@Skyberry Don't spoil the children!

@Shimy Indeed! DS was given a 'C' by school, then got 212/300 in the October exams. He did 2 subjects, so 6 exams in 10 days. He is now very happy at his first choice university... that rejected him on A level results day 2020!