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

@NeverForgetYourDreams - he won't have the huge fees and loans to repay. Good luck to him for the next stage. I've been badgering ds to apply for degree apprenticeships for many months now but he's run out of steam what with mocks, uni interviews, revision etc.

@NeverForgetYourDreams well done to him for getting through to stage 2, fingers crossed for him. When is he likely to hear?

Just looked at the exam timetable and it all looks early for ds. Feels so soon! He spent half term being ill.

DD's first written exam is 13 weeks today, she has 8 in total over 5 weeks so not too bad, she has AS grades in the bag though.

It’s not a degree apprenticeship. He is firmly not interested in writing a dissertation so I can’t persuade him to go to Uni!

He has an assessment in early April and they tell you pretty quick. If he gets it and gets through the 18 month training there is a guaranteed job at the end

off to apprenticeship roadshow next month too to see what else is out there that he hasn’t thought of. IT Helpdesk is another one and the local council are also doing them so maybe if they are there he can apply for those as well. As many fingers in the pie I’ve said as he can get ! He is not working at pizza place forever I can tell you ha ha

@NeverForgetYourDreams best of luck for you son. Apprenticeships definitely seem the sensible choice. There is a perfect one for my son - sounds very similar to the graduate scheme he wants but without the debt. The pay differential between the two isn’t even that high. I think he should give it a shot, but he has decided he definitely wants the university experience unfortunately.

Exams are getting scarily close: 90 days to his first but they are spread out as it is 120 days until his last. Still worry he isn’t doing enough work due to complacency. He is really happy to get the Durham offer but he will need A star AA to get the place!

DD has 2 more exams left of her mocks. She’ll have had 6 exams in 5 days which is just one less then she has for the real thing.

I’ve just checked and it’s 13 weeks until DD’s first exam, the same as @stoneysongs. She has 7 exams in total and they’re quite nicely spread out with 2 the week before half term and then 2 per week after half term. Only one exam on any given day. Much more chilled than GCSE’s where I think she had 23 exams or something ridiculous.

@Rollergirl11 that mock timetable sounds brutal - I hope she is holding up ok. My son had 6 exams over a week and a half for his mocks which wasn’t too bad. The worst was Y10 exams when he had 10 over 4 days - his brain at the end was completely fried poor thing.

For the real thing he has 10 exams. He does have 2 days with 2 exams but either or both of them are short papers so it won’t be too bad. He has his longest paper first so he is relieved he will get it out of the way early.

Not having the best week here. It’s half term and DS is very despondent that he is still waiting for 4 offers “and it’s March next week”. He is autistic and the waiting has thrown him a bit - he’s very black and white and would rather get a rejection than be left in limbo.

Trying to keep his spirits up - he’s 18 this week but doesn’t socialise or want to do anything on the day with family. I just wish the offers or rejections would come back so he knows and can get back on a more even keel. He does not do well with uncertainty (but I think that’s true for most of us!).

In his head he thinks the universities have a very straightforward ‘yes or no’ choice and it should be done quickly! I know he’s aware that he has applied for a very competitive course at competitive unis and they will have thousands of applicants to look at so I’m surprised he’s taking the waiting period quite so badly. Roll on the exams tbh - I think they will be a welcome relief after this lengthy wait for offers!

Unbeknownst to DD I actually have a countdown to exams (and other things) on my phone 🫢

DD has asked me to help her with some biology revision this evening HALLELUJAH 🙌 . She is under way at last. Or will be once I've had my dinner.

Think of me testing her on sexual reproduction while you are going about your evenings 👶

@stoneysongs 🤣. I'm settling to down to a bit of nmr spectroscopy testing shortly!

@JediKnightingale, sorry to hear that your son is still waiting for most of his offers. It is pretty soul destroying especially when others are now finalising choices. Ds is still waiting for his next favourite uni to offer (after an Ox rejection ). He's unlikely to hear either way until mid to late March. He checks the uni offers coming in on the Student Room.

My DS has his first exam 11 weeks today. Seems that is early compared to your DC. Still no sign of any revision taking place but he says he has it all in hand 😬

@JediKnightingale I hope your DS gets some more offers soon.
My DS says lots of his friends in same position and still waiting to hear from LSE, UCL etc
Really don't know why they take so long.

Dd got an offer from St Andrews today at their standard tariff - which is one notch above her predicted. This was the one we thought would reject her or possibly give her a wp offer (her sister got based on postcode and military). Her friend who applied months ago is still waiting to hear (and is counted as in care/kinship care) but not the same course.

Dd only applied last week of Jan, to not terribly competitive courses. Has now got 4 offers, just waiting to hear from Leeds. Trying to sort out going to all offerholder days as she only visited one of them properly before.

Driving test next week, German speaking looming soon after Easter and tech nea too. All going on!

11 weeks to DS's first exam & mock results this week were not great. This wasn't unexpected as he was ill for most of December so didn't get a good start on revision, also ran out of time for 3 papers. Need to take my own advice now on keeping upbeat & using this as a motivator. DS was disappointed but seems okay & has started revising so hope he can rise to the challenge.

In other news, the dreaded lads holiday was finally booked yesterday 😂 visit Bulgaria in June at your own risk...

DDs end of year 12 mocks were much better results than the ones she’s just done. Partly more revision last year and partly getting her head round Y13 content. I still have no idea how she will do in the real thing.

With this in mind, I’m steering her towards what I suspect is a more lenient insurance option. Her firm is AAB but from talking at offer holder day sounds like they may accept ABB. Her insurance is likely to be the offer of ABB but looking at uniguide they accept a fair bit lower (unless there are a huge amount of contextual). Hoping to get to an offer holder day there in the next month as haven’t visited yet.

We just can’t end up in the same situation as we did with DS two years ago, she needs somewhere “safe”. And somewhere that guarantees accommodation with other freshers from the same uni!

Her school still haven’t issued an exam timetable 🙄 but looking online and trying to work it out from exam boards it looks like she has a few clashes. But I’m probably looking at it wrong so will wait for school. I think she is all done & dusted before mid June.

@SooperOuting hope your DD does herself proud in the real thing.

I'm not expecting great mock results this time around but the penny had dropped, in terms of DD realising that she can't cram loads of revision into a week.

She tends to 'wing it' until it really matters, with revision.

DD has seven exams in less than a month, with two days with two exams which is tough. She will be finished by 7th June!n

DS's exam timetable isn't great. He starts off with 2 on the same day on May 24th. In fact it's 2 at the same time, so he will have to be segregated at lunchtime and then do the other paper with the couple of other boys who are in the same situation in the afternoon. They did do this during mocks so that they've experienced it, but DS found it quite hard.
Then he has 3 on consecutive days the week after half term, and then the remaining 4 are a bit better spread out thankfully.
I suppose at least he gets his worst day out of the way early on but it's a shame that it's on the last ever day his whole year group will be in school together and he won't even be able to see everyone at lunchtime.

My DD’s penultimate exam is 7th June and her last is 17th June … 😩

Fortunately DS doesn't have any days with two exams though he does have a week with one each day. He has 14 exams in total and doesn't finish until the 24th June (STEP III - also likely to be his hardest exam!)

Sympathies to those still waiting for offers, DS has now received offers from all five unis he applied to. No rush to make the decision, we'll see how the mocks go next week! He doesn't seem to have been doing much in the way of revision though he assures me he has done some. It has been nice to have some time off to chill at home, weather has been rubbish so we have mostly stayed in.

Ds has nine exams. They're pretty well spread out, he starts on 24 May and finishes on 21 June so I'm hoping it won't feel too frenetic.

12 exams spread out over the 3 weeks after midterm. 6 in the third week.
2 days with 2 exams clashing

DD has 6 exams between 23rd May and 17th June. One day has two exams but at least not clashing

DD has 1 exam before half term (24th), then 5 after ending on 17th June. No clashes.
Tech NEA goes in after Easter, and German speaking is done before exam leave starts I think. Exam leave starts 10th May.