Post GCSE’s 2022 - Year 12 2022/23 General support thread

[Rollergirl11]

This is a thread for supporting all young people post GCSEs 2022, regardless of their educational setting.
Our DC’s may continue down various pathways ( employment, apprenticeships, higher ed)
Everyone is welcome!

Well the only predicted grade we have is for Geography (which DD is taking online as there weren't enough DC in her school who wanted to do it). And she sat the AS level exams in May, and then thought she didn't need to bother with the mocks because she will have actual grades for AS in August. But at the last minute she was told (or worked out, it might have been wishful thinking on her part) that she did need to sit the mocks, so sat them (but did about two days study for them, after not having bothered much with geography for the last month post AS exams), and got a C. She thinks (hopes) that the actual AS exams went much better. We shall see I guess ....
I am assuming that if she were actually to get Bs or As in the actual AS exams (which can count for 50% of her A level grade) then they will give her a higher predicted grade than a C.
But that is for the online A level - her two A levels in school, she had her mocks this week (and they are continuing next week, just the subjects she is doing were all this week). And then the week after is work experience (she sent I don't know how many emails to veterinary practices before getting her work experience - the work experience she has is miles away, although luckily there is a good train service from us to it). So there is no way they will get predicted grades for her other two subjects before the week after next.
Luckily it seems that veterinary nursing (as opposed to veterinary medicine) is not early entry.

DS1 and I spoke to his history teacher after parents’ evening. She said he is at a B and that’s what he got in his exam, but he was predicted a 6 at GCSE and got a 9 and she did say history is a long game A level and so she would be happy to predict an A, which with his other subjects would put him where he needs to be for current choices, but actual predictions haven’t happened yet.

They’ve also started coursework and he has good form for essay type study so hopefully that will feed in, she said it wasn’t solely based on exam.

No predicted grades here but DD is yet to sit Year 12 exams (next week). I have an idea the school don't confirm them until the autumn though, and offer up a "based on current performance we think you might get ..." grade instead.

On the basis of my sample size of 2 DCs where one took sciences and one is taking essay subjects, I do think that grades for essay subjects are more likely to get better as you go along. Whereas with sciences you have to work hard for them not to go down. (Similarly to Columbo's DC my DD got 6 in her Year 10 exams for English Lit and a 9 in the actual things).

I hope that's true! Just got exam results here and they're a grade or more below what he'd hoped for as predictions.

Predicted grades are a complete pain. DS got a B (one mark off an A) in one of his Y13 mocks, at parents evening they said he should get an A, predicted a C because that's what he got in Y12, and completely immoveable.

DD has done AS this year so presumably her predicted grades will be based on those results.

@MyOtherProfile could your DS study over the summer and ask to have a test when he goes back to show that he can do better?

I have just been shouted at for suggesting that DD does some reading or a MOOC over the summer, so that she has something to write about in her personal statement. She is on holiday, apparently and needs to relax. They broke up on 9 June, she has 12 weeks off! 🙄

Also in trouble for suggesting that 4 x A levels + an EPQ + grade 8 piano + uni entry stuff will be too much. She has no idea what's about to hit her but I can only leave her to it 😬

Oh dear @Singingstones ! But I'm glad it's not just me who knows nothing at all!

I know nothing either according to DS 😂
Anybody been to any uni open days this week? My DS had Liverpool today and loved the uni and the city but not sure he loves the sound of the course.
We are off to Lancaster next Saturday so looking forward to that. Have a good weekend all!

We've just come back from Manchester. First Uni visit with DC3. The course sounded great but I think it will be his aspirational choice. City a bit grubby - seems worse than when I was there many moons ago as a student but maybe students don't notice. And the only other Uni visits I've done with a DC have been Cambridge, Durham and St Andrews so can't really compare!

We went to Birmingham yesterday, a lovely campus and general vibe. DD liked the anthropology talk but not so much human sciences or linguistics. Still no clue what course she would like to do 🤦‍♀️

We are going to Oxford and UCL next week. Not that she will necessarily apply to either but they offer a few courses she is interested in, so mainly going for the subject talks. We are staying in London between the two so it will be a testing couple of days for me, given that I am not allowed to talk to her about applying to uni 😂

Yes, Manchester is definitely not pretty compared to those three places @chocolatenutcase 😂
Good luck to you for next week @singingstones and not talking about uni whilst at uni open days. Teens are funny aren't they!

DH and DS just back from Southampton. "A bit grim" was DH's view. DS has said nothing - just gone up to his room. I'll give him some time to decompress and process before I start the interrogation! They only went to look at it as a potential insurance so guess it'll be one to cross off the list.

Lancaster for us too next week. Then Sheffield the week after. Durham in September.

That's a good idea @singingstones . He did say earlier that he has heard he can offer to submit a revised essay to try and bump his grade up so he is going to ask about that this week.

Be interesting to hear what you guys have to say about Lancaster next week as we are going to visit in September. We have York next Sunday and then Cambridge the following Thursday. That’s it for us then until Sep/Oct.

Liverpool for us today too! Seemed a good course but v uninspiring talks both central and subject. Ds 'ok'. Didn't see accomodation but it's fairly cheap :)

We also went to Birmingham and DD has an "interview" to get an offer in principle. She said it went well and they made positive noises, so sounds like they may be making her an offer.
However she didn't like it as much as Warwick, and the accommodation didn't sell it to us. So (particularly if she does get an offer in principle) it's likely to make it on to her list as a backup.
We're at York next week. Feel like we're on a bit of an Open Day treadmill at the moment!

@chocolatenutcase we thought that about Manchester too, but we are in London so in no place to judge.

Good to hear about Liverpool and Birmingham, we've planned those for Autumn, along with St Andrew's and that is us. We have Oxford on Wednesday., which I am slightly concerned about hobbling around with as much as 15 mins between buildings on crutches, but he is so shy I had to insist he ask for directions from the actual volunteers who were at Leeds to do just this - but I am going to encourage him to do a college tour or two by himself whilst I drink coffee.

I fear that Durham has ruined other options for DS, we visited Newcastle on Friday - this has been his preferred uni choice for months, but he definitely wasn't feeling it. Didn't help that the Business School, although in a nice modern building, is a 15 minute walk from the main campus, & didn't feel part of the community.

We have booked for Nottingham on Saturday but may cancel & go in the Autumn instead. In some ways it makes sense to get a better idea of predicted grades. DS had an accident last weekend (tripped on a pavement & hit his head, cut his ear badly...honestly, it was back to the toddler days...) so missed a couple of days of school which was all Next Steps this week so very annoying for him. But a friend has told me that her DS said that teachers are preparing references now & the plan is that all applications are submitted in September. This would be really annoying as gives no time to mitigate against lower than expected mock grades. I'm going to check this with the school next week.

We went to Southampton today. DS liked the course but not the city - doesn’t want to be hopping on buses to see friends in other halls. Loved Liverpool open day and Aberystwyth up next on 8 July

We we were at Warwick yesterday. Ds liked it but I'm not sure he liked it quite as much as Bath. The basic accommodation was a lot cheaper than other places and it felt like a large campus (probably isn't in reality). He saw a lot of people there that he knew including an old primary school pal's brother who was really enthusiastic about it. It would be an easier journey to get home.

Oxford this Thursday then Cambridge the week after. Thinking we might have a look at St Andrews in the autumn but will need to think about whether it's a viable option as it's so far away. I think the course would have to be very good for ds to consider it.

We thought Warwick was a smaller campus Lightsabre!! The main buildings all seemed to be situated in quite a small area. I guess it may appear bigger because most (all?) of the student accommodation is basically part of the main campus rather than being a walk away?

Yes, that's true @sheepdogdelight, plus it was so hot that I felt less energetic than last week. I think having the accommodation on campus was a big plus - at Southampton it was a bus ride away so definitely something to consider. I'd have liked to have looked at Leomington Spa as apparently a lot of students live there in their 2/3rd years.

We're a bit puzzled by the standard offers. There seems to be a huge gap between most of those we've looked at so far (all 3 AAA or lower AAB even at RG uni's like Warwick) and say Oxbridge/ Imperial which realistically most successful applicants to Chem/Nat Sci have 3 A star minimum. Ds is worried that the lower grade offer places might mean it's not as challenging academically? I dont think this is the case - I think it just reflects the competitiveness of the course. I don't think Chemistry is as massively over subscribed as say Comp Sci or Maths.

It's making finding a spread of courses a bit difficult as he's probably going to be predicted 3 A stars plus one A. He'll put maybe two aspirational - Oxbridge plus Imperial but then what next? Looking at past threads the advice is a uni that is one grade below so then he'd be looking at 2 A star offers but we can only find uni's below that. I'm rambling but hope you get the jist!

it was so hot that I felt less energetic than last week.

We are very worried that "things not related to the university" will factor into DD/our view of universities. All the universities we've seen so far have been on sunny days, do wonder if seeing one on a rainy day would colour our view of them.

(as a prospective undergraduate myself, I was put off Nottingham because I visited on a windy day and found the campus unpleasant due to too much wind. Ironically I ended up there at postgrad level and never noticed the wind :) )

@Lightsabre i know exactly where you’re coming from and we have the same (nice to have I guess) dilemma. DD is currently predicted 2xA star and 1A and hopefully an A or above in EPQ. The highest entry requirements for English courses she’s found are A starAA from both Cambridge and Durham which should be achievable with her predicted and her current grades from last mocks are already meeting that. So I guess these would be her aspirational options. Then everything else appears to be AAA (Exeter, Warwick, York) and AAB (Leeds, Newcastle, Lancaster). Her dilemma is that she already prefers the courses at the unis with AAA, AAB standard offers but doesn’t know if she would be selling herself short if she applied for these unis and not Cambridge or Durham. But I guess these are the standard lowest grades and you may receive offers for higher best on how competitive the course is this application round?

Light sabre, I noticed this as well, but I'm presuming those with pred 3 A stars don't all go to Oxbridge so guessing many will be at the "only requiring 3 A" unis.