Y12 2023/24 - support, discussion and looking after each other

[BonjourCrisette]

GCSEs are over and we are beginning the next stage. Let's hope it's a bit less stressful than this summer has been! All welcome to discuss, share experiences and support each other as our children move into Y12/BTECs/apprenticeships and start a new phase.

It's a shame as he's questioning the choices he's made despite being good at them.

I know where your coming from. DD does maths, chemistry & biology, never lifts her head from her books, let alone has time for a job. They had homework the week of mocks last week

Ds doing Biology, Chemistry and Art Alevels.
I barely doing any work outside of college yet he keeps saying it's under control. He's in a higher education college and it's very laid back, I'm not sure he really understands how much work is required.
I can't keep nagging...I've offered to help him revise, test him, buy past papers etc...
His Chemistry teacher said he's a great chemist when they discuss and his knowledge etc but he's just not getting it down on paper...

Does he have mocks, @Letskeepgoing? That should show if his confidence is correct or if he should be working harder. My DS’ attitude seems to be that he’ll work out if he’s working hard enough from those. results (and then carry on gaming if so!)

Not had any Mocks yet. He has little end of topic tests.

Do they apply for university based on their Mock Exams in their second year?

You could be right! I like your sons outlook on it! 🤣

DC1 is also not exactly overburdening herself with study. She had mocks last week, and I do hope that if her grades are what she'd like for the unis she prefers then she'll pull her finger out.

She's also flip-flopping a lot about what she thinks she'd like to do. A level choices were made with Computer Science in mind, by Christmas she was talking about Music, and just yesterday booked onto a university MFL taster day. At this rate by the time UCAS forms go in, it will be law or anthropology or something else completely different 😄

Ds gone off the boil with study too but we need to get him back as he sits AS levels in May. The school have employed a UCAS coach who has met with ds and it seemed to be helpful.

TBF, right now is probably the least stressful point there’s going to be in sixth form (holidays aside) so they might as well enjoy it. There’s time to step up when needed, as long as they aren’t falling behind.

Anyone else’s kids doing AS levels? They don’t get a choice for 2 of the subjects DD is doing but the third don’t do one. They seem to have dropped out of favour at most places but this college use them to cull upto 20% lowest performers off the A level courses. Of course they don’t tell you that but looking at the numbers who started the course and end up taking A’Levels it appears to be. DD had mixed mocks results managed to fail one paper but lucky for her got A/B on the other 2 papers for that one subject. She read the question incorrectly but wasn’t the only one, still it’s scary how one slip up on a couple of big point questions can crash a grade.

But thinking about your question on mocks/predicted grades@Letskeepgoing my understanding is that yes, they do apply based on their predicted grades in mocks this summer.

DS is at a large sixth form centre at a school he didn’t go to previously. They have just done assessments from which they get their assessed grades at this point, target grades and predicted grades.

I suppose that shows them which unis/courses they might think about applying to - but they also have a chance to get them up in the summer mocks. Those mock grades will likely be the ones that go on their UCAS form - and in a way are as important as, if not more so, their actual A level grades.

My eldest DC got predicted grades just prior to uni application. Some schools seem to give the best predictions in order to give students the best possible chance of getting offers from their preferred uni.

My DS, doing Maths, computer science and chemistry, is overloaded with work but attends school. They have mocks this month. He has no idea which one of these subjects he wants to take forward but would like an apprenticeship degree and has a uni information day coming up.

My other DS is at HE college and doesn’t seem to do any work at home at all.

DS1 did mocks in January and we had student progress discussions on Wednesday. The discussions were quite brief but my understanding is that while the results from each round of mocks/internal exams will influence predictions, the teachers will also predict based on possible/likely improvement by the time of the actual exams.

The teachers did say he needs to do more work and spend less time playing football, and in particular use his timetable study periods for study not football (!) but that he's capable of getting the improvement he needs. They know he's looking at fairly prestigious university places like Oxbridge and the top University of London colleges, to study Mathematics, and he's attending a programme at a local private school on preparing for Oxford's entry exam. The teachers seemed very pleasant and to have a fairly clear picture of DS1 - he's able and he is quite ambitious in terms of his higher education options, so he needs to knuckle down. He's doing Maths and Further Maths and he actually takes the A level this year - gulp. FM next year. Students doing Maths A level without FM do that over 2 years.

In the mock he only got just over halfway through the exam paper and came out with about 45%, which doesn't sound great - but it does mean he got most of what he did right. A grade on the paper he took started at only 110/200 and A at 145. DS1 asked what happens if he "only" gets an A and the response was that he can carry on with FM but there would be an option to retake the Maths to try to improve an A to A - I was quite surprised by that.

I was quite pleased with the way the discussion went because all his teachers made it pretty clear that he can do really well but that he needs to apply himself more, and I think it's good to have that conversation at this point than let him drift.

@elkiedee this may not apply but just a heads up and may be worth a check. I am pretty sure that DS was told that very top unis, Oxbridge, Imperial etc, would not accept retakes.
Good luck to your DS sounds like they are doing very well.

I've heard that too. But I'm hoping he will get down to doing more work anyway. I'm encouraged that he was asking questions, not just me. I think all these rounds of mocks feed into predictions, but the predictions take into account a realistic possibility of improvement as well as the grades in mocks themselves.

Does anyone have any older siblings that have applied for different university courses and successfully navigated a personal statement around that?

We don't have experience of that, but I was reading this yesterday - the new questions might make it a slightly different challenge: https://www.ucas.com/advisers/guides-and-resources/adviser-news/news/personal-statements-will-not-be-changing-2024-entry

Oh yeah @Monstermunchy had forgotten about that - good point. I’m probably jumping the gun a bit, but it’s difficult when they have so many options on their possible list of courses that interest them!

Totally agree, I have no idea how to navigate this as ds1 was focused on one subject - whereas ds2 (I think) will apply for slightly different ones... he's going to a uni/apprenticeship 'fair' soon with sixth form, and there's a talk on personal statements which I've suggested he goes to - I'll feed back if he finds out anything useful!

Great! My DD is currently at the Manchester ucas fair - I hope she’s finding helpful info there. Eldest was strictly one subject only, so no issues there, he always knew what he wanted to do 🤣

I am also finding this time around more challenging. Elder ds knew what he wanted to do, all same course, got an unconditional offer, job done. Younger ds not so sure, not keen on big city location and wants to continue his sport, actual course seems last on the list.

How did the ucas expo go @NotLinkingMyChildrenInThreads ? We’ve got one coming to near us in a couple of weeks it and I mentioned it to DD but got shoulder shrugged. I think it’s more fear than genuine “not interested” as she’s not into big busy places and is set on a gap year - which we support, but I think she still needs to understand all her options.

@SummerChilling it went a lot better than I was expecting. She and her friends had a good, but tiring, day out. Very busy, but managed some good conversations with a few unis and got quite a few freebies! She certainly got more out of it than her sibling 2 years ago.

DS actually thought it was a complete waste of a day when he went. So very much chalk and cheese experiences for my two over the years.