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

Good to hear someone else is starting on Monday 😅

DD also has a lot to do in the next 8 weeks.

We are at an offer holder day in Birmingham today. I have sneaked away from the parents' Q+A to do a bit of work in peace.

My son doesn’t break up until Thursday lunchtime and is then scheduled to work Friday, Saturday and Sunday. He is doing some work but isn’t in revision mode and is definitely a bit complacent as he did well in his mocks. They go on study leave on the 13th May - so there really isn’t much time left.

He had a run through of the 40% paper for History on Thursday as it wasn’t included in the mocks. They will get the marks back next week. It will be great if he was done well, but equally doing badly might kickstart him into working harder.

DD currently at offer holder day at Bristol. Have been sent some pictures and told it's sunny there :)

She broke up for Easter on Thursday, went out Thursday night and stayed at a friend's house having taken things for staying overnight in first Bristol and then uncle and aunt's house in different place tonight. She has a choir audition either Tuesday or Wednesday and I am sure will be revising a good amount of the time.

I think we have a decision. DS loved his day at Strathclyde yesterday and is really excited at the prospect of living in Glasgow. I liked it a lot too. I went to a city centre University myself and the out of town campus Unis we have looked at have left me a bit cold. Not that they're "bad" and in reality I think DS would be happy at any of the places he's had offers from, but this definitely feels like the best fit for him in terms of both the course and the living/social side of things. I'm expecting there to be raised eyebrows when he tells people he is declining his Loughborough offer but Strathclyde really ticks all his boxes and I think he'll thrive there. Now just the small matter of getting the grades...

Great news @MrsAvocet 👏👏
Glasgow is a great city!

Glasgow is a fabulous student city @MrsAvocet he will have an absolute ball.

DD has pressed the buttons on UCAS and firmed and insured! She’s said no to Exeter, Lancaster and Birmingham. I won’t jinx it by saying what she’s gone for but keeping everything crossed she gets into one as she and we would be very happy with either.

@SooperOuting I would stick to the original decision unless it was a very close call.
@MrsAvocet good news to have made the decision though I expect a few wobbles just like after ucas went in. We are off to see University of Glasgow tomorrow but think it's a long shot due to distance, four years plus heard they are charging tuition for the last year now. But we haven't been, and it has an excellent reputation for her course. One big negative is the distance of the accommodation- most seem at least a 20 minute walk. Which is not long, but when you've seen one with a ten minute walk or less it seems to make a difference! It's a 45 minute tube and bus to get college now and she's fed up of it.
Rain forecast, of course!

Great news @SooperOuting & @MrsAvocet! DS has pressed the button too although still has to do the offer holder days - all 4 offers were for the same grades & he's chosen Durham & Liverpool, rejected Birmingham & Lancaster. He will be revising hard due to ropey January mocks, but there will be a few days R &R as it's his 18th on Thursday!

Ooo that's good @legosnowqueen! We are still waiting for two responses and we went to Durham last week which DD quite liked! Not knowing which college though - she has two definite favourites and some that she would not want to go if she got!
A bit sobering that catered charge is above even the maximum loan.

Thanks @mondaytosunday yes the accommodation costs are eye watering considering it's outside London, & the college allocation is a lottery, I gather they provisionally allocate in May then reallocate in September...makes the May allocation a bit pointless!

Ds has decided but no button pushed yet. Haven't asked him when he intends to do it.

DD liked Bristol but undecided as Edinburgh not replied yet. I can see this going on for a while...

Decision has been made and button pushed - Durham firmed and Exeter insured.

Durham college choice still to be determined as a catered college is now in contention which I hadn’t expected. As legosnowqueen says they are expensive, but we are not overly concerned about allocation. Stevo will still be 2nd preference and as it is often overlooked for not being all en-suite or new (and on top of the hill) the likely worst case scenario is that is where he will end up and he’d be happy with that.

He got his history informal mock paper back today and got a strong A*. Hats off to his teachers who managed to mark 2 essays and an interpretation question that a cohort of 38 only sat last Thursday. I”d be over the moon if my son was working half as hard as they must have!

Student finance and DSA application are next on the to do list.

Ds finally has all of his offers in, offered Imperial late last night. So now for offer holder days and choosing. Likely to be IC and Warwick as insurance but I'm very sorry to see Bath go. I think he would have been happy there.

Great news @Lightsabre!

Although making a choice between Imperial, Warwick and Bath may be tough - it is a great position to be in.

DD has decided she’s going to firm Exeter. It means that her insurance is going to end up being higher as all her other offers are higher. So I think she’s going to insure Durham. Seems crazy but it’s her 2nd favourite and if she doesn’t make her Exeter offer then something will have gone very very wrong! She hasn’t pushed the button yet. She finishes Wednesday lunchtime so think she will do either then or Thursday. Think she’s pretty much decided on her 5 accommodation choices.

It’s DD’s 18th next Tuesday and we have family celebrations on the day. Then she’s having friends over for “pre’s” the following Saturday before they head out clubbing. She’s been chomping at the bit to do this for months. Then her boyfriend is taking her to Paris for 3 nights the following week. She needs to get some decent revision in around her extended birthday celebrations so think she will be doing a fair bit over the Easter weekend as we have nothing planned.

DS will also be revising for his GCSE’s so we are going to have a studious Easter hols. 😬😆

Exeter sounds like the right choice for your DD @Rollergirl11 - it's so important that it's the right choice for her, even if on paper it looks odd. We have the same birthday v revision conflict - a family meal on the evening of the birthday then meeting friends at the pub, then clubbing at the weekend - first time ever as they are very strict on ID around here except at the grotty pub where DS & mates have been going to for the last year. How lovely to be whisked away to Paris too!

@Jaxx hopefully see you at Durham! We'll be tackling student finance at the weekend, but will submit accommodation choices after the offer holder day on 27 April. Can anyone tell me what time the offer holder formal sessions start, based on the March event, or is it subject specific? Trying to work out if we need to go up the night before...

@legosnowqueen hope your DS has a fab 18th too. And yes DD is very lucky. I don’t remember being taken anywhere like that for my 18th!

For the offer holder day last week the morning was for looking around the colleges and the subject sessions started at 1.30 lasting till 4.30. We flew in to Newcastle the morning of and we had enough time although was a very long day. You’re not too far away from Durham are you?

@Rollergirl11 thanks, that sounds good, we are in Yorkshire so only an hour & a half to two hours on the train so that will work well for a day trip!

It's really exciting hearing about your young people making their decisions. Still deliberating here. DS breaks up tomorrow, he's planning to do lots of past papers in the holidays. His further maths teacher said they would finish the course by Easter but don't think they have quite finished Physics or Chemistry - not many teaching weeks left! Sympathies to those who have GCSEs and A levels at the same time, must be stressful!

I had the GCSE and A Level combination two years ago - was quite stressful. And also two results days a week apart…

DDs been at a choir audition this morning - think she’ll be back soon so am hoping it was OK

Very exciting re confirming offers 😁

DD isn’t 18 til August so is feeling a bit miffed all her friends will be at the pub in the summer hols and she won’t even be able to get in. We are planning fabulous cocktails and meal at a super special place in London for the evening and then she can go out with her friends drinking the next day (hangover permitting lol).

DD isn’t doing any whole practice papers yet which is freaking me out a bit. All her subjects are humanities and she says that until all the detailed revision is complete there is no point? She’s doing individual questions but not whole papers but my feeling is she really needs to start on these as she struggles with timing. But she won’t be told….

We too had the Double two years ago. It was hideous as DS ended up in Clearing. And then DD decided she wanted to change an A level subject. So it was well into September before everything was sorted.

@SooperOuting - ds does sciences and is not doing full papers either. Currently past paper questions by topic. He has 4 timed past papers per exam scheduled in his timetable. That should be sufficient.

I had double results two years ago too, triple tbh as sd was doing GCSE's too. I was so stressed and quite poorly with mouth ulcers! Got myself in a real pickle over it.
Seems much easier now, I only have my dd to worry about, eldest is at uni doing really well, sd has not done well at sixth form and has been asked to leave one course and is failing the others so hasn't applied to university or further courses, she'll likely be straight to work in summer but because we already know that's the situation it feels a bit easier. She's hated school and sixth form so think this is the best route for her for now.
And my daughter is doing well, she's off to Canterbury offer holder day today