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

Back to school for DS today too...sobering to think how little teaching time is left for our DCs now. A low key half term with a stressful weekend dominated by DS finishing his History NEA which is due in today! Will be good to get it out of the way.

Good luck for the mocks @Rollergirl11 & others with mocks this week.

Good to hear some of you are at the stage where you can firm offers now and hope everyone had a fairly restful half term.

We returned from a short break early hours of this morning but ds went in to school but finishes early today luckily. This is the last 6 weeks of proper school now. After Easter I think there will be consolidation work and revision classes. I need to look at the exam timetable properly as ds thinks he has one or two exams prior to May half term.

Good luck to those with mocks/further mocks.

All the best to those with mocks this week. We are just starting half term. Got a couple of things planned but also lots of time to just chill at home and hopefully DS will do some revision! For his mocks he only has one exam for each subject so will be at home quite a lot next week as well (they will just go in for exams).

Still waiting to hear from the two unis he put down last minute at the end of Jan, he will need to do offer holder days from them (assuming he gets offers) as he hasn't visited and needs an insurance he will be happy to go to. One of the things to sort on my list for this week is scanning and sending a pdf of his GCSE certificates to his firm choice. He also needs to book into the offer holder day there. Currently he's on the computer in his pjs.

@IThinkIMadeItWorse do the unis generally require evidence of GCSEs?

@legosnowqueen Maybe it's a Cambridge specific thing? They want it by a date in March so I was hoping to get it sorted this week. I think most universities have English Language requirements (even for maths!) which are usually met by a GCSE qualification and they want to see a copy of the certificate but I expect their deadline is not so soon.

Morning all!
Best of luck for those with mocks. Back to school for ds today. It's a short half term! He did some revision over half term but I think needs to knuckle down to scheduling the topics he needs to cover in revision. He's expecting all content to be finished by the Easter break so it should give him plenty of time to consolidate. He only has one exam prior to the May half term break which is good.

We have two offer holder days booked - one for his insurance and the other for the favourite of his two possible firm choices. He had an interview at the other one so has been recently and seen the department.

We are only waiting to hear from one uni now - Southampton. Is anyone else waiting for them? Do they let you know if they aren't making an offer?

We are also waiting for Southampton- DS has exceeded predicted grades for his course and it was intended as a safety choice but he’s heard nothing. That’s for computer science.

We've had a busy half term with our last offer holder day done, a 2 day sports camp which I think did DS the world of good and we revisited what's almost certainly going to be his firm. It was a regular working day for the University so we couldn't actually go inside much but it was the first place he viewed, on a gorgeous Summer day and he, quite sensibly I thought, wanted to see if it was still appealing on a "normal" day in Winter, especially now he has seen other places. The weather gods obliged with a miserable rainy day but he could still see himself there so I think it's set to be his firm. Insurance is harder, with 2 very close. One has a course he slightly prefers but the other won hands down on living environment. Hopefully it won't really matter as he should safely get the grades for his firm...but you never know...
Good luck to all with mocks still to face and offers yet to come. Really feels like we're in the home straight now doesn't it?

Well we shot off to Birmingham for the Offer Holder day, and DD now really not convinced she wants to do geography, and is waiting to hear from the veterinary nursing places. It didn't help that it absolutely poured for the two days we were there (we stayed overnight, amazing what you can find last minute). They usefully gave some (what sounded to me quite interesting) lectures and fieldwork and such, but it really didn't grab DD. She goes to me - well I think I could manage being poor (the pay for veterinary nurses is appalling, as are the hours and the stress, really not sure it is a great career, what can I say), but she is still keen - that and veterinary medicine (which she pretty much can't do because she isn't doing Chemistry for A level, there is only one foundation course, with 20 places, that would take her without Chemistry and without widening participation factors, and while she actually fits the widening participation factors for Bristol's veterinary medicine foundation course, they won't take her if her grades are too good, even without Chemistry,- her predicted grades are above what they will take into the foundation course, and they won't take her into the main course as she doesn't have Chemistry - bizarrely though, if she does much worse in her A levels than predicted, she might have a chance there, but she hasn't noticed this and I don't want to mention it as I don't want her aiming to do badly in her A levels even if it might be a way of getting into veterinary medicine - talk about perverse incentives)

Sounds tricky @Naem but I think in a way it is as useful to rule things out as it is to make a positive decision.
Is a year out an option? My elder DS had a gap year, mainly for medical reasons, but he did some work experience in his proposed field and it did cement things fir him whereas he was quite unsure previously.

Do you mind if I join? My daughter had her audition day at Greenwich this weekend for drama so is checking ucas every ten seconds now!
We had a real rollercoaster with my eldest daughter that was badly handled by Farnborough in the august with a wait of six days post exam results for a decision. So I'm nervous that we're back on this road again tbh

The year out is a definite, she only applied for 2025 on her UCAS form (so any offers are for then). And so if she does reapply somewhere it would be with grades in hand (if she was going to try for foundation years in veterinary medicine, she could only do so next year, as all the dates have passed). Definitely not rushing into all this - but hard to believe that other options will magically appear next year. She has looked into apprenticeships for veterinary nursing as well - but they don't seem to do degree apprenticeships, and seem to be mostly pitched towards those who are doing this instead of A levels (ie poor or non-existent GCSEs). Seems a bit odd for somebody who (if her predicted grades are to be believed) is quite capable of handing a first rate university course.

What about doing chemistry A level in the gap year @Naem? I have no idea how vet schools view A levels done in different years but I'd imagine a bright young person could do a A level in one year if they weren't doing 2 others at the same time and it might widen options?

I was just about to say the same, if she really wants to be a vet it might be a bit miserable to spend her career working alongside them and thinking about what might have been, all for the sake of one chemistry A level. Worth considering maybe, especially as she isn't planning to start until 2025.

I have suggested that to her too, but she can't face it at this stage - she is so desperate to finish with school and be done with A levels. Part of me thinks that maybe she will feel differently after a year out, and that maybe we should think about a gap year, plus yet another gap year with Chemistry A level when she is feeling a bit more motivated, and only then university. There really isn't any reason to rush off to university, and it might be an expensive mistake if she does the wrong course. I think if Bristol offers for veterinary nursing she would probably take that for next year, but if not, maybe we should just treat university as an open ended, some time in the future.

There's someone on another thread I'm on whose DS did a late swerve to medicine and he didn't have chemistry. He did his A levels then spent a year getting lots of work experience (and earning) while doing chemistry A level, got a place and is now studying medicine.
I don't know how he did his chemistry but can tag his mum if you want to ask her.

Thanks, but yes, I have seen that. And suggested it. It is a hard no from DD at this stage, she wants to be done with school and another A level feels to her like going backwards. She might get more maturity during her gap year (she is a summer baby, so very young really), and be more willing to take what she sees as a step backwards after being a bit more in the real world.

There really isn't any reason to rush off to university, and it might be an expensive mistake if she does the wrong course.

Yes I would be worried about her doing vet nursing if she really wants vet med and is bright enough to get the grades. (Unless there is a pathway from vet nurse to vet that doesn't involve a student loan.)

The dilemma is that I don't know if she really wants to do vet medicine. Her original response (when we toured the RVC over a year ago) was - "more animals less science, what is not to like" when it cames to preferring vet nursing. But she has matured a bit since then. I think she might be bright enough to get the grades, that is the thing, although she might not. She has never seen herself as a high flier (a lot under the shadow of DS, no matter what i did, DS has always aimed very high, ridiculous over achiever and loud personality to boot, and DD has always been the quiet one in the corner). Spends her life underselling herself. The fact that she is even talking about veterinary medicine as possibly preferable is new (having DS out of the house at university helps, I think, she has been able to come into her own a bit). I do worry that if she does veterinary nursing she will work along side the vets, realise she is as least as bright and capable as they are, and regret the choice, but maybe she wouldn't. Maybe she would find veterinary medicine too pressured with all these high fliers.

Sounds like some volunteering at a small animal practice and/or shadowing a more rural vet might be invaluable for her to see what each role involves? I agree that vet nursing suits some better, including DC who are bright enough to be vets but want to spend more time with the animals. But it would be such a shame to end up nursing only because of a missing A level and a lack of confidence, if vet med would ultimately make her happier and more fulfilled. It's a long working life these days!

Good luck to those doing mocks this week/next week, DD included. She's freaking out about getting really bad grades. Better now than in the real things! However, she's still got finishing off her geography NEA to finish so that's loomed large over revision. She basically will finish her mocks and have to set to and finish her NEA in the next couple of days, when she should be able to have a bit of a breather.

With the number of years our young people will have to work before retirement (if indeed it's a thing by the time they get to their 60s), there's no rush to be going onto university or starting one's career trajectory in earnest.

DD is on half term this week and has just done her mocks. She now has 3 offers in with 2 to hear from but has her first choice firm and the insurance options she wants so could just firm and insure now really. Has an offer holders day at firm choice at start of Easter then may attend offer holders day at one of the other two, likely Bristol. She is working 3 days this week, normally does a day a week working as she loves her job.

Through to stage 2 for travel job apprenticeship here. Assessment day and a basic English and maths test - not sure he remembers much from 2022!

not the Same as Uni but hopefully he will gain good experience whilst earning

I spent many happy years in the travel
industry in the 80s - I loved every minute. All the best!