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!

Rollergirl my DD is also applying for English (with similar predicted grades to yours) and we've come across the same conundrum. In DD's case, I think it helps that she's really clear about what she wants. She wants to study a range of literature including more modern texts but have options to study other things outside of English Literature - creative writing being a specific interest and to have the opportunity to do some supra curricular work (some universities for example do regular outreach work teaching in local schools). I think she's more likely to thrive at university doing something she is passionate about (there's that personal statement word :) )

Particularly at Oxford, and to lesser extent Cambridge and Durham, the course seems very traditional with a lot of focus on old English (Oxford especially) and medieval writing and less opportunity to branch out. DD wants something more broad, so in her case it's very much picking the course and not the university. She always has the option to switch to Oxbridge at postgrad level if she's sufficiently able and interested in pursuing (e.g.) a career in academia where having studied at Oxbridge is probably more valued.

I'm less convinced that in a lot of cases the name of the university you go to matters so much these days. Oxbridge you would arguably be getting better teaching and a stronger peer group, but I think you'll get that at the other top flight universities as well.

Plus Oxbridge is undoubtedly more pressurised. DD likes to take her time over essays :) I don't think the work pattern would suit her at all!

I don't think it's "selling themselves short" for an A star student to apply to a university with a standard offer of AAA or AAB. I suspect a lot of the students at these universities have A stars in actuality (wonders if there is anywhere you can see actual grades of university entrants versus offers ...).

@sheepdogdelight

The Discover Uni website can tell you what students on the course actually achieved - it's in UCAS points but easy to translate to grades.

For example DD is looking at UCL anthropology, standard offer is AAB but 75% have AAA or higher and 45% have ÅÅA or higher.

Thanks @singingstones , I'll have a look ...

@sheepdogdelight i think you’ve hit the nail on the head there with Oxford, Cambridge and to a certain degree Durham all offering more traditional courses with a lot more focus on old English texts. They also don’t have half the amount of information about the course online as the others do which gives off a slight air of arrogance. This was compounded last week when we arrived at the Durham open day and there was no English specific talk.

The amount of optional modules available at Exeter and Lancaster have really impressed DD as she also wants to study more contemporary texts and potentially extend out to other areas like creative writing, film, graphic novels etc.

I’d be interested to hear what unis your DD is interested in as they appear to have not dissimilar requirements.

@Rollergirl11 Her "short" list is Warwick, York, Birmingham, Surrey, Loughborough, Leeds and Sussex. Lancaster has been in and out.

She's after a campus university as you can probably work out :)

(Agree with you about lack of information on subject pages. Very frustrating. DD went to a taster session at Cambridge, partly to find out more about the course, and that persuaded her she really didn't want Oxbridge).

I have a lot of academic friends (in humanities) and many have taught at Oxbridge or other in demon unis as well as places like Birkbeck and OU and they would all say that the courses they devise - and it is the academic devising them - are the course that they want to teach in line with their research so the same whether they were devising those courses at Oxford or Oxford Brooke’s. Less relevant to broader first year team
taught modules. I also, don’t really think there will be a great deal of difference between AAA and AAB students and uni is whole different way of learning that people often really grow into.

The timing of DDs year 12 exams (happening this week and next) means that she hasn’t wanted to go to any open days around now. This includes Oxford which she could have gone to on Wednesday this week as exams don’t start fir her until Thursday (and she has a set of grandparents in Oxford we can stay with) but she seems (possibly over) focused on exams and has stuff everywhere and spreads grumpiness around the house….

In terms of grade offers and actual grades DS did A Levels last summer and got two A star and an A and his course which he’ll be starting this September was I think A A B. Tbh I was worried he would get 2 A stars and a C so he did well with the A although it was on the actual cusp of being a B! I imagine there will be a variety of grades gained by students there.

DD planning on studying history and Spanish - current shortlist is Oxford, Edinburgh, Bristol, Belfast and a late entry of Durham. The selfish part of me that would prefer not to travel too far would quite like Durham plus DS will be at Newcastle so could combine visits. But I do realise there’s a little more to it than that 😄

You can still sign up for this virtual STEM experience https://www.etrust.org.uk/insight-into-university and chose physics type sessions. DS is doing it though there is an £85 cost. He also managed to find a local experience by posting on social media and asking if anyone had any contacts so could try doing that. He applied to so many things and most were a no but thankfully he did get the York university physics work experience in the summer holidays. Good luck

For physics, I'd suggest any manufacturing or engineering businesses, any business on a science/innovation park near you, any factory, etc. Power stations, anything like that.

Thanks all. I'll definitely suggest the virtual stem thing @PaddingtonPaddington.

Bizarrely I took dd to the big children's hospital today for an appointment. The consultant (who we've been seeing for years) had a year 12 student there on work experience. I mentioned the difficulty in getting anything for astrophysics and she has a good friend at a nearby university who is an astrophysicist and also works at CERN! So she's offered to pass on DS's cv/personal statement to see if he can help. 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻 Probably won't come to anything but it's worth a go.

DD is visiting Oxford tomorrow, leaving at 6am and been working as a tour guide on a bat river tour tonight so she will be tired. We have just been swimming. Finally after 6 months got pip through for DS and it goes to 2027 and in talks with a great school.

That sounds really positive about DS @Silkierabbit - well done! I'm sure your DD will power through the Oxford visit even if she's tired tonight...

Thanks Lego Yes seems to be powering through atm, came back singing then talking to pets then to me and now it's 1.20am and she's up at 6am. Thankfully for us a friends Dad is driving them though DH has muttered about how she should go to sleep.😂

We're off to Oxford tomorrow and Lancaster on Saturday. We visited Warwick last Saturday which DS liked. (We didn't like that the University is so far from where 2nd and 3rd years live, Coventry or Leamington Spa). DS wants to study Maths. Their standard offer is 3x Astar or 2x Astar and 2x A with Astars in Maths and further Maths. I think this is higher than the Oxford offer for Maths (but Oxford only has a 9% offer level!). We are looking at Durham and Manchester in the Autumn and looked at Edinburgh and Leeds earlier in the year. So far Edinburgh is the favourite.

We had the same thought about second years living away from campus at Warwick- but I guess it is standard at non-campus universities. And presumably there is a sufficiently large preponderance of students in both places that they can have an evening social life there.

We're going to York on Saturday.

Sounds positive about your DS @Silkierabbit hope things work out with the school (is it the maths school? - I have a friend who will be teaching there!)

Hope everyone enjoys Oxford and other unis they are visiting, DS doesn't seem bothered about visiting any others, he liked Warwick. My brother went to Warwick and lived in Lemington in his 2nd year but found it a bit far so moved into Coventry in his 3rd year and was close enough to cycle so I think there is quite a bit of choice. @mushroom3 Is your DS going to do the MAT or STEP?

Haven't had official predicted grades yet but he did very well in his year 12 exams just after half term so likely to be predicted top grades.

He has a week of work experience next week so fingers crossed that will go well. Then he finishes on the 14th July which seems quite early (though I guess private schools finish at the end of next week).

Thanks Its No its not the maths school but it's a similar curriculum at an academic mainstream with autism speciality, the one everyone wants with bright SN, and they have been so kind. The Head of school is being so lovely and has taken over the case which is very unusual but shows how much they care so I really hope we get an offer soon. The Head is amazing and whole school seemed to be.

I know DD has A*s predicted for 2 subjects which she negotiated up from results, don't have third grade yet or epq. She's really concentrated on earning money this year and had an awful lot going on but good to know she can persuade people with talking. 😻Very little sleep as DD up until 1.20am then left at 6am for Oxford and 2 meetings re DS this morning. Going back to sleep now if Floof will let me. He was trilling a lot last night, very cute but loud.

@IThinkIMadeItWorse he is doing MAT, he was totally put off by the Cambridge system of doing STEP during A level exam time

DS is doing his year 12 exams this week and so far has not come home in particularly positive moods. Though he did say that everyone had complained that their maths exam was particularly difficult yesterday so he is hoping that he won't have done as badly as he first thought.
Everything is a bit intense at the moment as his sports commitments are currently huge (though they did win the first inter region game he played in last week which was great) and he has got a cancellation for his driving test next week - not on either of the strike days of course! Timing couldbe much worse but his original date isn't until September so I can understand why he wants to do it. Hey ho...we shall see. He has had great grades in class and very positive reports so far and did well in the first set of exams this year so I am hoping that he will still get good predicted grades even if these exams don't go spectacularly well. Fingers crossed!
Oh, and for those looking at Warwick, my brother went there many years ago and lived in Coventry in his 3rd year. It was very much the norm and there was a good student community and plenty of transport options even back then.

DD was asking about the financing of uni yesterday and got bit of a shock when I looked it up. I knew about the 9,250 a year, already a deep breath as my day was free and then saw estimated minimum other costs 11.7k a year, ouch. My accommodation at Cambridge was 200 a term, I mean I am old but not prehistoric 😂

@Silkierabbit - do you mean 11.7k including tuition costs, or 9,250 a year tuition PLUS an additiona 11.7k for accommodation, foodm, transport, stationery, books etc?

Plus so c 20k a year

But some is covered by part time work, so parens don't have to stump up for all of it