Year 13 2024 - General support thread part 2

[Rollergirl11]

All welcome as our young people head in to their last full term before the summer exams. Between UCAS applications, receiving offers/rejections, learning to drive and taking driving tests, revising for mocks and sitting them the pace hasn’t let up for our DC.

This thread has been a lovely supportive and immensely helpful place to talk as we guide our DC’s through this challenging time!

Old thread here https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/further_education/4851165-year-13-20232024-general-support-thread?page=40&reply=132323436

2 offers here for Art, one unconditional and one 'with strings attached'. Fortunately the unconditional is DS's first choice so we think he's sorted. Seriously relieved; suddenly the pressure is off. But really odd to already know where he'll be off to in September.

DD has an offer from UCL 🥳
She's not sure London is the place for her but chuffed nonetheless and will be going to the offer holder day if there is one.

(This is the first response to come in since she was rejected by Oxford so very glad it's not another rejection.)

Whoop whoop @stoneysongs, how amazing!! Does your DD have any others to hear from or is that it now?

Just Warwick to go now - how about your DD, has she decided where she wants to go?

Great news @stoneysongs
Just Leeds still to hear from for us

Great news @stoneysongs. Well done your dd.

DS went to the offer holder day at Keele yesterday. He's chosen that as his insurance and the visit didn't change that opinion so that's good.

He's going to see Bath next month. It's between that and Lancaster as his firm. I think it'll be Bath.

@stoneysongs brilliant news - hopefully her Warwick offer won’t be too far behind. My son has definitely ruled out living in London. I had hoped going to a UCL open day might persuade him, but for History he won’t be able to go until May as the earlier one clashes with Durham. I think his firm/insurance choice will be submitted well before that so I reluctantly have to accept he is leaving home. I expect he will firm Durham and insure Exeter. If he decides after the open days he wants to firm Exeter, insurance will be Leeds (and fingers crossed there are later offer days for him to attend). Then there will just be those pesky exams and subsequent results to worry about.

@Aardvarksforall great news and lucky you having the certainty of an unconditional offer.

It’s between Durham and Exeter @stoneysongs. She has offer holder days for both in March in a few days of each other which is really useful to help her decide. If she prefers Durham then she will insure Exeter but if she prefers Exeter I don’t know what she will do for insurance as all her other offers (including what was meant to be her insurance) are higher.

DD’s mocks are finished now. In her words they “were an utter shit show”. She isn’t expecting to get her predicted grades. She didn’t have the time to revise properly due to NEA deadline before half term. I think she’s playing the long game now. For her mock revision she has been making revision sources that she will use for the real thing.

Good to hear your DS is narrowing down his choices @QueenMabby and @Jaxx your DS has the same decision to make as DD. Hopefully they will both know their firm and insurance by this time 4 weeks!

Good to see the offers rolling in, @Aardvarksforall what a nice position to be in. @stoneysongs that's fantastic for your DD.

So far we've only signed up for the Liverpool offer holders day. I think DS is stepping away from the idea of Lancaster, & will look at Birmingham as insurance if he's not offered a place at Durham which remains the holy grail...

Why does Durham offer so late? It seems to cruel to make everyone wait this long. Other universities manage to get their offers out in a timely manner!

DD is waiting for Edinburgh. Has heard from Oxford, Bristol, Durham and Belfast. At the moment it looks like Bristol and she’s going to an offer holders day there in March, but I’m not sure what she’ll do if Edinburgh do give her an offer.

She has bought a ticket to a gig in Bristol for a band she likes (in October I think) which does seem to suggest she might well be going there!

Ha, that's a long way to go for a gig from Edinburgh @QueenMabby, although there are flights Edinburgh-Bristol iirc... 🤔

We have a similar mocks experience here also @Rollergirl11 - no revision at all, she got a D in biology 😱
The UCL offer specifies A / A* so that's er interesting. She has started making flashcards now though - with help from yours truly so I am temporarily an expert on sexual reproduction in both humans and plants 🫡

@stoneysongs I think she’d probably sell the ticket although again who can tell?

I have found there are planes between Newcastle and Bristol (DS at Newcastle) which would be quicker if the two of them ever wanted to visit each other. Part of me would like it if DD wanted to go to Durham as it’s the nearest of her choices to us but she has definitely decided against it.

DS is deferring so hasn't bothered going to the offer holder days or even telling us about them now I'm wondering if this was a mistake. He still has to make his choices doesn't he?

I think he's planning to apply again next year with grades in hand.

DD has the majority of her exams before the Whit half-term, then two in the following week. That's it.

No idea about anything like study leave here as yet. Or their prom which could be this side of Easter or before the end of April.

How have those who have been doing mocks recently getting on? DD is just about to sit her last one. Thinks she's done dreadfully (but she's not exactly worked hard). I think she's suffering from exam/test fatigue. I'm not expecting great results for these ones but she may have done better than expected (she's hard on herself). Time will tell.

But she's not going to be able to relax, even for a moment, as she has her geography NEA to finish by the end of this month. One of her friends (at a different sixth form) did hers in Yr 12 which seems more sensible planning.

Her besties' birthdays are all coming up in March, so there are going to be a fair amount of weekend socialising going on to tire her out.

@IThinkIMadeItWorse, how many A Levels is your DC doing to have 14 exams? Although even as totally non-mathmo family, I do know that STEP ones are over and above...

Not quite sure why some of the humanities subjects only do two papers nowadays. It doesn't give much room for having an off-day, does it? It would be interesting to know if there is more 'slippage' with predicted grades vs awarded grades, with subjects that only have two papers rather than three.

So likely for most of our young people, they've only got six more weeks of school learning to do?

@LouisCatorze He is doing four but Further Maths has four 1hr30 exams, Maths and Physics are three exams each and Chemistry two and then two STEP papers as well. He doesn't have any NEA to do thank goodness. Mocks this week but only one paper for each subject so he's at home today.

His college have said eight more teaching weeks after the mocks until the start of the exam season so four before Easter and then four after. Last year I think they continued lessons up until half term but not sure if they will do that this year. We have his last ever parents evening mid March so I am assuming we should will have mock results back by then.

He has three offer holder days booked for Saturdays over the next month so that should give him some more information. Feels like a busy season and the weeks will fly by I'm sure.

My DS has 10 exams in total and starts fairly early in May and then they drag on all the way to his last one on the 20th June.
I think they finish for study leave on May 1st. As it's nearly March, that seems scarily close.
Off to UCL offer holder day in 2 weeks time and then will decide his uni place.
Well done to all the DC with recent offers. DS gf still waiting for Leeds and Bristol.

We have 9. Interestingly @IThinkIMadeItWorse - DS's chemistry is three exams. Also three for physics and three for maths.

@QueenMabby You prompted me to check and I had missed one, he does actually have three for Chemistry, so that will be 15 exams! Still not as many as when he did his GCSEs - that was ridiculous!

My daughter has been told she'll be done by 1st May as long as all coursework is completed. She can leave then and just go back for exams.
She's had her three uni offers now and accepted Greenwich as her first choice and Canterbury as insurance

DD got her last ever report today. As she’s my younger one I feel we’re getting near the end of an era. There was also a letter about arrangements in the next few months and there’s a meeting for parents about something (revision probably) in April which said it would be our last chance to come into school and as I read it out DD said I did my slightly emotional voice 😂

I'm not looking forward to the official start of all the "lasts" @MirandaWest. I'm not surprised you were using your emotional voice - I think mine will be coming out a lot in the next few months.

We don't have full details for our year yet apart from the fact that we know that DS has his prefects' soirée (yes it is really called that!) on 1 May then their last day in school with leavers' service and brunch (parents invited too) on 8th May and then the leavers' ball at the end of August.

Only a fortnight until the end of their last full term in school though. 😭

I don’t feel as connected to school as DD went to a different place for sixth form. Her last official day is 3 May, and she won’t be going to prom as we are on holiday then.

I was super glad when DS left his school as the head was atrocious. I think I may have whooped on his last day.

What I think will* *be very weird about the empty nest is 5-7pm.

DS was moaning last night about Fridays (it's his longest day in college) so I then pointed out that he likely only has 7 Fridays left (including today) which seems very alarming!

He didn't really like the uni he visited last weekend so now very unlikely to be his insurance choice, fingers crossed he will like one of the others. He's had a couple of mock grades back but still waiting for the other two. His last ever parents evening is the week after next. Not sure if there will be stuff like prom after exams as it's a sixth form college so it doesn't feel like he has been there very long!

I can really relate to the 'end of an era' feeling and everything school related being a 'last time'. Ds had his last school report yesterday. I feel excited he is moving on and, hopefully, becoming more independent but sad too as we are close and I'll miss him.

We'll be 'empty nesters' for a bit although if ds does get his London offer he might move back in for one the years to save money. He just needs to get through these exams now and I'm gently encouraging him to look for a summer job, anything at all.