Year 12 - 2024/25 - Support, Discussion and Looking After Each Other (Thread 2)

[BlackBean2023]

You’re a chatty lot… continue

I guess it's just luck of the draw in the end @JustHereWithMyPopcorn I'm glad your elder son managed okay in halls and found great accommodation for years 2 and 3. I did tell DS to stop at 6'2" but, as usual, he ignored me😂

Good luck to your son for his exams!

We're at Bristol on the Saturday too @Muchtoomuchtodo I hope your son enjoys his couple of weeks off timetable not having to stress over exams and revision.

DS is on work experience this week, should be an interesting change for him.

@Waspie i don’t think we’d choose 2 in one day but they clash and the Saturday is Royal Holloway so we don’t have much choice. She has been to Bath previously (and it’s our closest city so we know it well) but it’ll be a lot in one day unfortunately.

Lovely to hear all the positive feedback on open days so far. Including prison references!

What did the day look like in terms of itinerary? We go to our first one in a couple of weeks and the subject talk is early at 9am so I’m guessing we should have plenty of time after that to look around and look at accommodation etc?

Good luck to all those doing exams this week. DS has one this week and then they start properly next week.

@Lalux here’s the Exeter open day brochure so you can get a sense of the timetable - though obviously it is not necessarily a reliable guide to what will happen elsewhere!

https://www.exeter.ac.uk/v8media/recruitmentsites/documents/OpenDayBrochureMay2025.pdf

Has anyone seen a timetable for the University of Manchester open days in June? DD is registered for 28 June but hasn’t seen anything to indicate when her subject talks would be. We are in London, so it makes a big difference to travel plans if she needs to be there first thing.

We're doing Bath and Bristol too, honestly we need some kind of carnation in the buttonhole thing to spot our fellow MNers.😁

My DS1 has officially finished his degree after his final exam this morning. He is now unemployed so I if anyone needs a law grad just give me a shout, I need him to start paying his on bills! 😂

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn The legal charity Advocate have been recruiting for caseworkers. Deadline was this morning, but may be worth a phone call if DS is interested?

fhttps://weareadvocate.org.uk/work-for-us/caseworker.html

Edited: actually I wouldn’t bother with a phone call as they operate a voicemail service but may be worth putting in a late application just in case.

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn

Another good employer of young law graduates is the legal publisher Chambers & Partners:

https://chambers.com/products/careers

Thank you so much @JessyCarr I will forward those to him right now (although I suspect he will be at the pub by now celebrating 🤔)

DS just back after maths, not very happy....

@JessyCarr we are going to Manchester on 21/6, you can see the schedule for the day by downloading their app Visit UoM and choosing the day which leads you to subject talk guides etc.

DD started her mocks well it seems, chemistry was ok, hard but she felt confident with most of it. Psychology was 'great' apparently exactly what she wanted so she's had a good first day. Biology on Weds which will be her most challenging I think.

DD dropped maths for psychology and gosh is she glad about this now! she would have given herself a mountain to climb doing maths too, and will be much more able to get a higher grade in psychology which will help her uni applications because they don't need maths specifically.

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn was it an unexpectedly hard paper? I can't even begin to think how difficult A level maths is.

@bluefineliner I think they threw in some really nasty questions, he’s been doing lots of practice papers and doing very well so went in quite confident (not like him!) but came out quite down. Hopefully he’s done better than he thinks.

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn It is disappointing when they've worked hard but thrown a curve ball in the paper. Sounds like your DS is like my DD though and although think they have not done well, usually have! Hope the results are what he wants.

DDs favourite subject at GCSE was maths, she was very good at it, first paper had a tough few questions at the end and she fell apart, even had to go out of the exam as she was crying 😬. Was on track for a 9, convinced she'd ruined any chance of a good grade, luckily still came out with an 8. If anything I'm hoping she learned that falling apart and catastrophising was pointless and not indicative of her result. I keep reminding her of the dreaded maths paper when she worries about difficult questions on these mocks. It was a definite life learning episode for my DD. My DD is a massive drama queen though so will overreact more than other kids 😂.

DS said he felt like crying after the disastrous January mock. This one I don't think he did the last question, didn't have a clue. Another one he said 'I've either got 1 mark or 13' 😬 He is actually good at maths, even if it doesn't sound like it, but can panic a bit.

DS much happier about Physics today, it was a 2.5hr exam but he seemed more upbeat about this one.

Good luck to all those sitting mocks at the moment - my DC's don't start until the w/c 16 June and is only being tested in one subject because his actual maths A Level paper 1 is tomorrow. Eek! Scary.
(His third subject FM is all taught in year 13 so no mock this year)

Good luck to your DS today @SunblockSue !

Phew, found you all - I thought the other thread had gone a bit quiet! Re open days - is it doable to go to York and Sheffield on same day (booked into York, but not Sheffield but could get a feel for town maybe)? So many open days seem to be on 21 June, why?! Awaiting mock results here.Good luck to those doing exams/driving tests/wrangling with uni choices!

Chemistry done and he seems happy! That's us all finished with exams until Y13 woo hoo! Hope everyone else's DC are doing well.

Good luck to all doing mocks or actual exams! DS is now deep in the NEA trenches, he has geography and history to do simultaneously, plus an additional research project that his school do as an option.

Yesterday he was off timetable and out in town collecting data for geography. He had been quite nervous because this involved interviewing strangers, but apparently everyone was very nice to him and he got everything he needed. The main problem was the rain, he got back soaked!

DD is annoyed as she was hoping to hear back about the Exeter scholars programme today - they said applicants would hear within 2 weeks which is today but she hasn’t heard anything so thinks she’s been unsuccessful. She’s gutted as Exeter will be her firm for history and it would have meant a guaranteed contextual offer.

@BlackBean2023 - has your DD heard any more about Exeter Scholars since you posted? I saw that others on TSR were also awaiting news on it.

We had a lovely weekend for DS’ 13th birthday, but also devoted some time to wrangling with DD’s UCAS form. My, it was clunky. The London school she attended for GCSEs wasn’t recognised, so had to be added manually. Then in the UCAS Hub, every course choice defaulted to 2025 entry unless we changed it to 2026. And although you could shortlist no more than 5 course choices in UCAS Hub, there seemed to be no obvious way of importing those 5 choices into the UCAS form itself (perhaps we missed something).

Anyway. Some progress made! Hope everyone else is doing well.

She didn’t get on and was quite tearful about it. Exeter will be her first choice but she’s worried about getting the grades (AAB) and the programme would have meant a 3 grade reduction to BBC. She’ll get over it but horrible to see them disappointed

I’m sorry to hear that, @BlackBean2023. Is there a chance she will receive a contextual offer outside the Scholars programme?

We are all biting our nails over the mocks. It looks like a lot of the questions were about topics Y12 has not covered yet. I am very worried about predicted grades. 😫

May I join you?

DS is in Year 12. We have been to see Exeter and UEA - lots of positives about both but like many, he loved Exeter.

He’s off to the Durham open day with DH this weekend as I am working. It’s all go with open days, personal statements, work experience, mocks…my head is spinning. So I’m glad to have found you all!