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!

@Rollergirl11 what did you think of York? DD absolutely loved it but is now torn as she loved Warwick as well and can't choose between them.

We have finished our summer open days and DD is not really any closer to deciding what she wants to do and where 🤦‍♀️

So far she has been through psychology, zoology, human sciences, anthropology and linguistics. I think she wants something or somewhere to really grab her but it hasn't happened yet. She did like the human sciences talk at Oxford but that is a very very long shot and she isn't sure she would enjoy the pace and stress. She thought the people at UCL looked cool but didn't like the course talks that much and unsure about London and the cost of it. Didn't like Bristol. Liked Birmingham but has gone off anthropology and anyway the course there is tiny which doesn't appeal. She doesn't want a year out.

Finding it all quite stressful 😬
But we are going on holiday next week so have decided to look for courses together by the pool 😎

@sheepdogdelight we are going tomorrow so I’ll let you know then. 😀 We haven’t done Warwick yet and will be doing that in October. Exeter is DD’s uni to beat so far.

Ds and Dh back from Lancaster. Really liked it. Still nothing beating Bath but a strong contender and definitely on the list.

@Rollergirl11 hope you & DD enjoy York, & have time to see the city too which is gorgeous.

@QueenMabby I've heard a lot of good reports of Lancaster & hope we can squeeze it in in the Autumn.

Hope DCs whose grades weren't as expected can push the UCAS predictions up, it's clearly very variable between different schools & colleges but so much can happen between now & January academically & developmentally, it seems unjust that an exam taken in June might be the only thing taken into account.

DS revealed today that he has a 1000 word History essay/dissertation to do over the summer holidays, that will count towards 20% of his A level grade. We've just ordered a few books. In the meantime, the school deadline for students' first draft personal statements is Wednesday & DS is half way through his...they will get feedback before the end of term & then submit updated versions after the summer holidays to include any summer work experience & super-curricular stuff. It really feels like we are on the trajectory...

York is a good place and good university. I went there nearly 30 years ago and came back here to live 13 years ago. As we live about 2 miles from Heslington West it won’t be one of DDs choices, but possibly if we lived further away it might be.

If I go for a run tomorrow morning I probably won’t run up to campus I think 😃

@QueenMabby glad Lancaster was good. DS and I booked in for 15 July and looking forward to it. Seems to rank quite highly for physics.

@MirandaWest thanks for the feedback on York. @Rollergirl11 let us know how you get on too. We’ve not been yet but think it might be DS favourite on paper. My only concern seems to be the cost and availability of second year housing.

@PaddingtonPaddington - dh and ds commented on the quality of the physics labs (very modern) and the generally light and bright nature of the physics building. Day seemed very well organised too.

I've mentioned York to ds and he seems keen to go. We're sacking off Durham (with an A star, A star, A requirement that's probably wise!) and going to the York open day in September instead.

Our last one is Sheffield next week.

@legosunqueen - DS's first draft personal statement has to be in on Tuesday. It's basically written but he needs to add a bit more to one section which he'll do today so I can read it before we send it.

At our school UCAS applications are all made before the October half term so not long to go really....

@QueenMabby that’s mad that they are in so early, though obviously just a gets it done, but we aren’t even seeing Birmingham until November! Though DS1 only has 6 on his list anyway so I suppose it won’t make an awful lot of difference to him.

Ds school also pushing for the first draft of the PS for early entrants. I guess it will be drafted and re-drafted until mid September when the final version needs to be ready. It's not helping that the overall message from universities is 'we don't really read them/bother with them'. I'm hoping the grade profile will be more important for ds as his PS content is fairly thin at the moment.

@Lightsabre I appreciate it's only one university but at the open day Durham really emphasised the importance of a good personal statement as one of the only differentiators to help them sift the huge numbers of applicants who are all predicted the required grades...

DD has had to give in her first draft of personal statement already - think it was a couple of weeks ago. That was just for early entrants - not sure when the main date is. I know there’s a UCAS day at school this Thursday (mocks finish on Wednesday!)

Gosh I'm feeling DD's school is very lax compared to some of these! She only sat her Year 12 exams last week, so hasn't had results back, so I'm hoping there are no nasty surprises as we've had to take a view in terms of picking universities.

No request for PS as yet.

@legosunqueen can't believe your DC is expected to do their NEA over the summer! I thought my DD's school pushed them hard as they never have downtime before holidays (they work literally up to the last day) but they do get the summer "off" although they are being encouraged to work on super curriculars this year.

although, that said, DD has 3 NEAs next year (and has had 1 already this year) so maybe it would be good to get ahead ...

@sheepdogdelight DS has revealed today that the final NEA is 4000 words so this 1000 is making a start only.

I must admit I thought the A Levels were all examination only so this has come as a surprise.

I guess the early timetable for UCAS grades plus personal statements is being driven by the Oxbridge timetable, it all feels too early for students where the application deadline is the end of January...

It’s interesting how different schools take a different view. We bumped into an old primary friend at Oxford and he was telling us he need to start and almost finish his EPQ over the summer - DS1 is expecting his EPQ results as soon as he goes back as they did it this year.

We have only looked at 2 unis so far as Brighton was cancelled, several clashed and were on the same days. ....but DD wants to see 5 in the Autumn, including Brighton but I don't think there's a new date yet. She's looking at artistic type subjects and there is a lot of emphasis on portfolio rather than personal statement.

I must admit I thought the A Levels were all examination only so this has come as a surprise.
Seem to be common in English/humanities (and I assume creative subjects). DD has 4 between her 3 A Levels!

We bumped into an old primary friend at Oxford and he was telling us he need to start and almost finish his EPQ over the summer - DS1 is expecting his EPQ results as soon as he goes back as they did it this year.

And DD submitted her EPQ at Easter and has her pre-moderation mark already!
(It's actually quite handy she did it early as we know whether to factor it in to the universities that offer reduced offers for EPQ).

We’ve done Warwick, Oxford (23k steps ) and Lancaster over the last week. DS didn’t like Warwick, will try Oxford ( only 1/11 offer level for Maths) and loved Lancaster! Waiting for year 12 exam results now!

Wow @mushroom3 - all 3 in one week! I suppose it's good to compare them all whilst the visits are fresh in your mind. Yes, I've heard maths and computer science are mega competitive course. Quite a few of ds friends would like to do these subjects and the prospective offer are likely to be 3 A stars or two A stars and an A. Plus a few want MAT or STEP.

Yes @Lightsabre it seems the grades needed for maths are very high! For those thinking of Lancaster for Maths they don’t look at MAT results they strongly recommend prospective students to take the TMUA and to inform them of the results. I think the TMUA is the day before the MAT exam in October!

Yes @Lightsabre it seems the grades needed for maths are very high! For those thinking of Lancaster for Maths they don’t look at MAT results they strongly recommend prospective students to take the TMUA and to inform them of the results. I think the TMUA is the day before the MAT exam in October!

@Fizbosshoes We're the same .. looking at Art courses in some form or another. Been to 5 places so far, discounted one completely, 2 will be UCAS applications and 2 direct to Art colleges. I feel sorry for the Art students because they have to do both college applications AND the UCAS forms. At least all these visits have given us good ideas about what to include in the portfolio.

DD has to have first draft of her PS in today. This is off the back of a UCAS day they had at college yesterday. For anyones DC’s still writing theirs TSR website have loads of example personal statements by subject. Some of them show where they applied and received offers from and others have a review section on what was good and bad about it. Very useful. https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/university/personal-statements/personal-statements-by-subject

We went to York yesterday. DD really enjoyed the subject talk and mini lecture. She wasn’t as keen on the campus as a whole. We looked at some accommodation; she liked the colleges on Campus East but they are crazy expensive. Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to see York itself as we didn’t get there till 11am and had to head straight back after the open day. It’s a shame as I don’t feel like we’ve gotten the whole picture. At the moment DD prefers Durham and Exeter. We have Cambridge on Thursday and that’s it for us until Lancaster in September and Warwick and Leeds in October.

Told by school that ds has already handed in his draft personal statement , so clearly I won't be seeing it! I'm glad he's so independent but he has a lot of ground to make up over the summer and I feel he needs more support.