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

Snap! Exactly the same here. Ds will be quite stressed this weekend about it I'm sure. I'm getting really fed up with the mess around the house but won't broach it this weekend. At least FM will be done and dusted by the end of today.

Me too @Lightsabre .

DD1's room has ever growing towers of past papers, her favourite way of revising STEM subjects.

DD2's room is just a tip anyway.

FM today seemed OK but ds said last question was surprisingly tricky.
I can't wait to get rid of the study paperwork as ds took over an area downstairs.

Exams nearly every day next week whereas most of his friends have finished so lots of nights out planned which is frustrating for ds.

How do you check what was in cleaning last year please? Would be very useful to know thanks

My DS has just had his last session with his maths tutor. She's tutored both my boys for GCSE and A level so it really does feel like the end of an era. I need to buy her a present - she's been a big help over the years.
I haven't been in DS's room for ages but I hate to think what a tip it is. I've taken the "what I don't know can't hurt me" approach! In fact I have been ill this week so I haven't been downstairs for a couple of days and am bracing myself for what condition the entire house is in. I did hear the washing machine running earlier though, so I may be pleasantly surprised!

You can’t - it’s only available on the unis own site (or less reliably on UCAS) for around 24-48 hours. I screenshotted DDs subject on results day so have some key unis details but that’s only for her subject.

What subject are you looking at?

of course the important thing to remember is that it varies hugely from one year to the next. I’ve a fairly good idea of my DCs subjects and what availability they have had the last few years.

This year's clearing opens on 5th July so not long til we can have a look.

It’s a bit piecemeal but some courses are listed on The Student Room and others on What Do They Know via Freedom of Information requests. So for example if you have a particular university in mind someone has usually asked for a list of all the courses which were they offered in clearing last year. It’s a bit of a faff but the information is sometimes out there if you look.

I mean they have asked via a FOI request and the university in question has had to give them a list. I think I learned this from someone on here. I had a look and it was there.

True….but what shows up on 5 July is often v different to what will show up on A level results day.

I know that what was offered last year may not come up again. I just want to put my mind at rest that similar courses do often come up in clearing. I feel sick to be honest.

Well yes, presumably some of the places that appear in July will be taken by students who don't currently have any offers and then others will appear if existing offer holders are rejected on results day, but it will give some idea of what's likely to be around won't it?

And… DD is done! She feels the Poetry paper went well. Which is a relief as she has always worried about the Unseen Poetry component; because she’s autistic she can struggle to get subtext on first sight.

i know we have the results to go, and this talk of clearing is making me a little anxious although it’s really useful, but I feel a weight has lifted. DD had health issues during her A levels and had to take a year out and then move schools and do them in a year. It’s been a long difficult road, and there were times I wasn’t sure if we’d get her. She’s worked really hard and I’m really proud.

Glad to hear your dd is done and she can be rightly proud of herself for getting through given what she's been through @WriterOfWrongs. Hope you have good news come results day.

I

Sorry this talk of clearing is making you anxious @WriterOfWrongs

It is usually very different. I’m not sure what the percentage is of uni places are that are doing A levels that year but guess it’s around 90% of UK students ? So until those results are out and unis know who has/hasn’t made their offer they can’t update clearing accordingly?

One more down, but five next week.
congratulations to everyone who’s finished.

Great news your DD has finished @WriterOfWrongs - sounds like she has had quite a tough journey to this point.

I think it usually takes a week or so to wind down post exams and forget about results!! Really feeling like I want my holiday now….two weeks to wait.

@lassi - have you checked out the new UCAS tool where you can input grades and it’ll tell you what % who got those grades were accepted? It’s quite the eye opener.

I have heard about it @SooperOuting. Do you need to login to UCAS? I want to have a look but I’m not really wanting to ask DC for their login details.

No not at all. Just Google eg “UCAS uni of Exeter BA History” or whatever and then scroll down. Here is what you see and you can input grades just below this bit and it’ll calculate what % got in with those grades.

Oh amazing. Thank you so much.

We've already been sent details of clearing from DC's 2nd choice. DC is going somewhere else (Art course so it's all confirmed already) but we were surprised to see a reduced offer from the 2nd choice. I assume they haven't had many take up places?

I get the impression not much revision has been done today for her final exam on Monday. DD seems to have spent the day deciding on and ordering her prom dress, checking in to her flight for their girls holiday in 2 weeks and working out what clothes they will all take/swap and what they are wearing for each of the events they have pre-booked in their party package.

It’s all getting a bit close for my liking. Think I will have a week worrying that first week in July!

DS1 still has 5 exams left in the last week, 2 of which are on the last day, his busiest day. He also has his leavers prom that evening. He has just found out that's it is a black tie event, but that's OK he said as I have the black tie which I wore to Grandads funeral 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

Ooh, 5 in the last week is tough. I thought DS was hard done by with 3! Good luck to your DS @Mumski45
Monday, Tuesday and Thursday for DS and then he needs to do some intensive fitness training apparently. He has 2 big sports events coming up in a few weeks and went to training for the first time since the beginning of the exams yesterday which he said was terrible. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, a number of the other lads were similarly unfit so I think the gym is going to be full from next weekend!