Year 12 - 2025/2026: Support Thread 2

[QueenMabby]

A new thread for us to keep chatting on!

We are DONE! DD’s embarrassment of being name checked in assembly for her gold in the SMT was ameliorated by getting half colours in drama which she was thrilled about.

She’s shattered! She has some holiday work but not loads. She has however set herself the challenge of sitting the biology and chemistry olympiads which are end of Jan. Normally sat by U6th so she has to teach herself the rest of the year 1 syllabus and some of the year 2 stuff so she’s up to speed. A few days off first though I think.

Hi, I think there are very few children out there doing Spanish or any language A level. Well done your DC

My DC is doing it with a 7 at GCSE. The teaching at his secondary was v poor and many of his friends got 5s despite getting 7+ in everything else. Hoping he can achieve a B. Like yours many natives and also French and Italian speakers. He has formal assessments in Jan.

They are really enjoying it and feel teaching is excellent (different school). What is your DC doing in addition to class and homework? I don’t think my DC is doing that much, trying to encourage him to listen / read as much as possible. It’s practise, practise. Do they get a trip or exchange? Mine gets a trip and we’ll try to go to Spain a couple of times as I lived there and love it anyway.

I’m sure a C at this point can move up, especially with a 9 at GCSE. Just editing to say the C could be because they haven’t done the advanced grammar yet/ sufficiently. My DC only touching on subjunctive which he didn’t get taught at all at GCSE.

@Bufftailed her iPhone is all in Spanish and she does look at some Spanish TV shows/news. Her teacher said she was one mark off a B in the test and apparently they hadn’t covered all the topics on the paper. I may get her a private tutor to help with confidence. I think it is taught very differently as they were more sooon fed paragraphs at high school!

That seems like a great mark to be getting at this point. Well done her! Yeah immersion is key. Good luck 🍀

Early finish for DS school sixth form today - hooray, that's a wrap! And not much work set for the hols I don't think - which is as it should be over Christmas IMO. Happy festivities everyone!

Yay we’ve survived the first term of 6th form she’s got As in Politics and History assessments. Working 3 shifts in the restaurant from tonight. Then more work over the festive days. Looking forward to her not needing to keep bleeding me dry! Looking forward to a rest for the next 2 weeks!

Ahhh, well done everyone, we made it!

DD2 got an A for 3D Design and Bs in Maths and Physics in her latest trackers. She's really happy, particularly as she tells me less than half her Physics class got a passing grade, so are having to do extra work over the Christmas hols (which she will no doubt do anyway, in preparation for mocks next month!) She has been busy applying for Physics 'bootcamps' over the summer, and is doing some online courses too, all in the hopes of fleshing out her UCAS form with some more Physics-related activity.

DD1 is safely home from uni for Christmas, it's wonderful to have all 4 of us together again. Both girls have a few shifts booked in to work over the next couple of weeks, and both have some assignments/coursework to do, plus DD2 will start the revision proper after Boxing Day.

Wishing you and your families a wonderful Christmas!

Second 6am on a Monday attempt - managed to book a driving test in our fifth choice location for early June - the closer slots literally disappeared in seconds - you are all forewarned and hence forearmed … happy Christmas to you all x

Thank you for the heads up @waitingquietly.

I unfortunately don't need this yet because ds2 hasn't passed his theory. He failed again. Dh says it's symptomatic of ds2 doing not enough and we've had some very difficult family conversations (now that ds1 is home for a couple of months) in the last few days about ground rules, respect, motivation, a possible tutor, etc etc.

We have an April test date but want to change to late Jan/Feb. Had just a couple of notifications on the Testi app but they've gone even if I click on them straight away.

@Oblomov25 i am sorry , it’s such a faff to have to keep rebooking and getting them somewhere to do it - so I do sympathise. DS1 has chatted to a few lads whilst waiting about on his two attempts and a couple has had a few attempts so I don’t think it’s particularly uncommon to take a few gos . Frustrating though .

@CreamBeforeJamOnScones i went on a few times last week when I had a random spare five minutes and cancellations were definitely coming up ( just not close enough to us ) . The Midlands and further North seemed to have much better availability. I saw a couple for the 5th January .

@waitingquietly I think I must be really lucky with the test centre we want as it doesn’t seem as hard to get as some, looking on Testi there are still a good number for the first week in June that would have released today available now. If you are looking to move it, I can recommend Testshift which I successfully used to bring DS’s forward by nearly a month, and have had other notifications too (though again I appreciate ours clearly isn’t as competitive as yours).

@Oblomov25 sorry to hear that, aside from anything else the whole process of getting appointments is such a faff. Do you know if it was the theory itself or the hazard perception he has failed on? I know mine only just passed on the hazard bit despite having done fine on it when practicing on the app.

@Eccle80 thanks, Testshift looks good with the AutoBook function but having already paid for Testi, I'm loathe to take out another subscription.

Had several Testi alerts today but they've gone even though DH and I click on them immediately. Wondering if a bot gets to them first.

Oh crikey what a nightmare that all seems! I thought it was painful for DD1 mid covid (2020) where her test was cancelled 3 times - eventually took it a year after her first lesson. DD2 didn’t seem to have any issues (once we’d nailed down an instructor - they’re like hens teeth)
DD3 isn’t 17 until end of May so we are a long way off but was hoping she’d be driving by October (ish)! I’m also now a bit concerned re the theory test as I think it’s harder now than 4 years ago when DD2 took it.

@CreamBeforeJamOnScones maybevthe testshift app is the blinking bit that gets them before you click! 🙄. Love the username and couldn’t agree more!

‘Bot’ not ‘bit’
‘maybe the’ not maybevthe 🙄

Please does anyone have any advice for choosing a tutor / on-line support choice for ds2 , for A'level biology.

I don't know whether to source a local tutor.

Or pay for an on line course eg :
Biology with Clare.
Empowered Stem.
UpLearn.
Tailored Tutors.

How am I suppose to choose?

@Oblomov25 sorry no idea - I’ve seen a couple of those advertised online - but no personal info - do any of them have a free trial ?

No clue about biology but DD2 didn’t have a teacher for her 2nd year A level economics so taught herself via UpLearn - it’s a lot of work though and time consuming but she loved the videos (which says something as she didn’t love economics as a subject) She had to score well in the tests to move to the next stage, which she found helpful in securing her knowledge. She got an A*. Probably slightly at the expense of her other two subjects as she did devote a large chunk of her time to it. BUT she has recommended it to friends so…

I've read good things online about Uplearn too.

Re EPQs, I thought the timeframe for considering that had passed but DD seems to think it is yet to come at her setting.

@Oblomov25 my daughter uses Uplearn as her school has a subscription and so all those students doing certain subjects have access to it. Some teachers will set them homework on it and she also uses it to supplement her learning in class. I was trying to encourage her to use it to cover the content before the actusly lessons, so that in lessons she could use the class as revision and clarify any points she needed guidance with - but she is refusing to use it like that!

I had read about Uplearn on some of the medical school threads on mumsnet and lots of people seemed to recommend it if students were struggling with getting an A or A* (pretty essential for getting into med school) so I was contemplating it for DD until I found out the school had their own subscrption.

My DD does compare her %age complete against friends, so it does encourage some healthy competition to get her working, and also it has a helpful structure to see how you are progressing through the course, as @NotDonna explained. They are so sure of their product that Uplearn will refund your money if you don't get at least an A in the subject (assuming you have completed like 95% of the content, which is quite a lot to get done - but it's not fair to expect them to refund your money if you didn't get the grade because you didn't actually use the resource! It only works if you put the effort in).

Good luck with finding something/someone.

DD's driving theory test app said similar, something like if you pass 6 of our mock tests at 98% we'll refund your subscription, and i think test fee, if you fail the real thing.

Although DD got 100% on her real theory test (not including hazard perception) she didn't get 98% on 6 mocks on the app, it was too much hassle. I tried one mock test and got fed up!

Yes waiting I have 2 I've seen with a months free trial.

Thank you NotDonna Cream and SuperSue for your advice.

DD1 used UpLearn for chemistry in Y13 - not her board which was WJEC but she was re-taking AS chem papers from Y12 with little support. It helped - the Y13 papers were awful but she did better in re-take Y12 papers so stopped her dropping a grade. We had to pay privately - and it was pricey - though joining later made it cheaper.

We did try for a local tutor but couldn't get one and she wasn't keen on one via internet and wjec board tutors were hard to find with on-line services.

We had the same problem and the only way around it was to be logged onto the government website and keep refreshing it regularly. I logged on when I got a Testi notification as the same test centre would sometimes release another one soon afterwards. If you keep at it you should have some luck hopefully although it's harder if you are a working parent and haven't got much time to monitor it! My DC passed second time around. Failed his practical the first time having to to a different test centre miles away and being in unfamiliar circumstances but then managed to get a late cancellation not soon after and passed in the local test centre :)