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

Yes. Eng lit too. One of DS's friends does physics AND Eng lit so has to do one, have a supervised break and then straight into the other one as they're at the same time.

Yes, my DS is in the same situation with Physics and PE tomorrow.
I've said I'll drive him in tomorrow as he is worried about the bus being late or something (happened with one of his GCSEs so it's not totally unjustified paranoia!) but I thought he'd be ok getting the bus home. However he wants me to collect him which is a bit of a pain as it's 20 odd miles to school but I don't want to add to the stress so I've said yes.
He's very grumpy tonight but I think it will actually be better once he has started. He's been in school all week as he says he gets more work done there but I think seeing lots of his friends coming out of exams when he hasn't started yet is freaking him out a bit.

DD has been out with her boyfriend for dinner and out with him tomorrow then working punting on Sat and Sun before a week's revision then 3 exams first week after half term. And the clothes mountain chair has just been moved 😱only to a bedroom clothes mountain but still we get our corridor back and Floof gets his desk and chair back.

DD has English lit this morning. She’s in a blind panic because she didn’t manage 5 hours of revision yesterday like she did for her History exam the day before. No amount of telling her that this is her best subject, that she got full marks for her NEA and that she knows the content inside out could appease her. Hoping she doesn’t let her nerves get to her.

Good luck to everyone with exams today!
dd is only one down with 12 to go -but first one went well so she is feeling quite positive.

@Rollergirl11 - your dd sounds very talented. I'm sure she'll do well. It's hard to see them put themselves through it though.

DS nervous but resolute this morning. Quiet. One of the physics teachers is putting on cake after the exam which has cheered him up a bit!

I was glad I dropped DS off this morning as I saw the bus still heading in when I was on my way home, and whilst he wouldn't have been late, it would have been tight which wouldn't have been the best start to a stressful day.
I was going to go walking after I dropped him off as there's lots of nice places to go near school but it's chucking it down so I came home. I'm obviously more stressed than I thought as I am occupying myself making the trophies for a sports competition I'm running soon and I've just realised I have written the year as 2014 on the last couple.

Good luck to those with exams today.

I was a bit worried about the buses too so dh drove ds in this morning for Physics. Ds seemed quite chipper but we'll see what mood he's in when he comes out.
Glad of the break for half term but I think it will be a full 10 days of revision here as the bulk of his exams are after half term. I'm off for the week so can monitor the revision a bit (and will, no doubt, get dragged in for 'testing').

Hoping to do the student finance form next week too.

I'm kicking myself. DS gave me his phone when I dropped him off as he obviously can't take it in the exams and presumably also shouldn't have it in the gap when he's supervised, in case anyone tries to communicate with him about the PE paper he's doing this afternoon. He didn't want to risk forgetting to hand it in so I took it. All very sensible. What wasn't sensible is that we have made no arrangements about when and where I'm meeting him! It's a 2 hour paper but since it clashed with Physics this morning I don't know what time they're going to start and of course he is completely incommunicado now. What a pair of idiots we are!

Gah annoying. Can you call the school and ask?

I suspect Reception won't know Sooper. I think he's the only one in this position and there are no other A levels this afternoon. I don't want to make the Receptionist go trailing all over the school to find out when it's my own stupid fault anyway. I think I will go and hang around the school gates from about 14.30 as I would imagine they'll give him at least an hour between the 2 papers to eat lunch. If I'm never heard from again I've probably been arrested for loitering! 😆

@MrsAvocet I’m an invigilator. Afternoon exams aren’t allowed to start before 1.30pm so assume it will start then for 2 hours.

That's interesting @Rollergirl11 I've just looked at the timetable on our school website and most of the afternoon exams start at 1.15, a few longer ones at 1.00. I wonder if there's some kind of allowance for rural schools? A large proportion of pupils at our school travel by school bus from villages 20-30 miles away with no public transport so if they're not on the buses at the end of the school day they'll be stranded until a parent can get there. It would be cutting it very fine if you don't put your pen down til 15.30. Though I guess that would explain why DS was so keen that I collect him today.
I've decided to compromise and get there for 15.00 though!

Sounds like a plan. I’ve been driving DD to exams as she’s not a fan of chatting just before and wants to be on her own, plus the anxiety of train problems etc (she gets two usually) and last minute car revision!

Fortunately I WFH and the hours are v flexible, it’s a 30 minute drive each way though, so I’ve been pitching up at a hotel to work whilst she has her exam. She’s usually out about 10-15 minutes after it finishes.

I’ve just checked JCQ regulations and 9am and 1.30pm are the awarding bodies published start times. However you can start an exam no earlier than 30 mins before so 1pm would be okay.

DD still hasnt started yet, but will have 6 in the last week of the exams

Physics feedback was that it was an ok exam. Nice to have the break and the sun is shining so I have a happy lad.

DS wasn't very happy with physics unfortunately, but paper 1 contains all the topics he doesn't like, and I think he was also a bit disadvantaged by having already done another exam in the morning. I thought he was going to do physics in the morning and PE in the afternoon but it was the wrong other way round.
Ah well que sera sera. He did much better on papers 2 and 3 in his mocks so hopefully he can compensate for not having the best start.

@MrsAvocet there is usually a paper that they find tougher so fingers crossed for the other papers.

Ds said Physics was a bit tougher than expected this morning. He likes an exam post mortem so was going over the questions he thought he dropped marks on. Still, didn't seem too disheartened and is having a night off now.

DD had English Lit this morning and said it was a difficult paper. When she looked at the questions at the start she felt a bit shocked and wasn’t sure which questions she’d do. But she managed to steady herself and felt it was overall OK.

Some people were crying afterwards 😞 but it seems like everyone found it weird. especially the last question.

She's having the night off and then will be back in it tomorrow. 3 exams the week after half term.

What examining board @MirandaWest? DD did OCR English lit this morning. Her words were “Hamlet was beautiful but Rossetti was disgusting and I hated it”

Tonight a whole load have gone to the pub to celebrate the end of college. Tomorrow night she is going clubbing for a friends 18th but it will be nose to the grindstone for the rest of the week.

DDs was AQA (think all her exams are that board whereas DS had three different exam boards).

No major plans here although DD has asked to go on an outing with me on Sunday which is nice. Think we’ll probably go to a National trust place and probably Fountains Abbey (she likes a nice abbey!)

Good to have made it half way and have a week off. DD just spent today with her boyfriend and tomorrow and Sunday will be at work but she loves that and really loves the colleagues. Will be revising all week after that apart from working another day following weekend.

Just checking in, good to see how it's going. Hope that half term brings a bit of rest & fun for your DCs as well as revision...the exam period is a long haul. DS is doing well, doing a few extra shifts at his part time job this week as the year 13 colleagues are having a break. We are waiting for his EEG results but otherwise no medical stuff. No word yet on whether Durham will allow DS to defer his offer, school have also reached out to Liverpool which is his insurance choice. I guess the universities are busy processing acceptances etc & this is less urgent.