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Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

Original poster

A Level Anxiety

895 replies

Toffee22 · 14/08/2011 22:42

Only 4 more "sleeps" until the A level results come out - not that I will be doing much sleeping...

Eldest son wants to study medicine. 3 "A's" required no slip ups allowed. Have just checked and most medical schools don't accept re-sits. How can I face looking at the cold hard facts at some point on Thursday. I'm sure it will be difficult for my son too! When I tried to talk to him about it today instead of a response he said he would do an "impression of a tree". It wasn't even a very good impression. What does this mean?

OP posts:
duchesse · 19/08/2011 09:37

snorkle, he has!

AND

He was offered a place!! He just came off the phone to discuss it with us and is about to go and accept the offer through UCAS. He basically said that he was a fool and didn't work hard enough for his A levels.

MABS · 19/08/2011 09:44

marvellous duchess!!!

snorkie · 19/08/2011 09:45

just saw & posted on the other thread! great news! GrinGrin

ellisbell · 19/08/2011 09:47

great news duchesse, Swansea has lovely beaches nearby :)

waitofevidence · 19/08/2011 09:47

That's great news duchesse!

beckybrastraps · 19/08/2011 09:49

Oh good duchesse? What kind of engineering?

I have just had an email from one of my students telling me she has accepted a place, so now they are all sorted. Hurrah!

drcrab · 19/08/2011 09:59

Well done duchesse! Smile

duchesse · 19/08/2011 10:02

I know ellis- and he is a pretty outdoorsy sort of person so S Wales will be perfect for him.

Ponders · 19/08/2011 10:04

that's great news, duchesse, congratulations Smile

Mum2Luke · 19/08/2011 10:08

I think its disgraceful that the fees are going up, I have a son at Leicester University who is on the current fees and my daughter is doing an Art Foundation course at college in order to be able to do her course at Uni and she will have to pay £9,000.

I also phoned child benefit office who informed me I may not get Child Benefit as she is not on an 'approved' course in September!!! WTF- she will be studying full-time so won't be able to get a job to help fund buying clothes and I can't afford to buy hers and mine out of my childminder wages, CB is the only government handout we get for her and the youngest and that only just buys half a pair of shoes.

Am NOT looking forward to 2013 when CB will be going altogether for high rate taxpayers just as my youngest starts senior school and I will need the extra money more than ever for uniform. I ask myself sometimes, why do we pay more (40%) tax and yet they don't help hard-working people who are supporting our own family, paying our own way? Its not fair. Sad

QueenOfAllBiscuitsandMuffins · 19/08/2011 10:08

Hello don't belong on this thread yet (DS 3 DD1), but just to say to those parents whose children are going thru clearing. I had to go thru clearing many years ago and I can't even remember the subject I originally wanted to do or the name of my second choice university. Unless the subject is vocational your DC will be fine, even if it doesn't feel it right now.

mrswoodentop · 19/08/2011 10:28

Is anybody able to give any advice on the parameters for a remark .One of ds papers is a D the other for the same subject is an A.Overall that gives him a C ,but only 4 marks more would give him a C in that paper and bring his overall into a B which I think he would be happy with and mean he
could avoid a resit .Do you think 4 marks out of a total 100 is possible?

sieglinde · 19/08/2011 10:38

duchesse, brilliant news for your ds and for you.

Mum2luke and others, just want to remind everyone that it is the government who are imposing this fee structure and NOT the universities. They cut the grant to ribbons, and left us no choice - even Oxbridge fees will only cover about 2/3 of the costs.

homeaway · 19/08/2011 10:40

What a stressful day yesterday was !!! Both of mine are off to uni and I am so proud of them. I would not want to do the last year of home schooling again but it got them the results that they needed to move to the next stage in their lives. Now I shall go and have a quiet sob that that two are leaving at the same time, poor remaining ds becomes an only child. Congratulations to all of you who got the results you needed and for those still looking for places there are some out there.

homeaway · 19/08/2011 10:46

mrs woodentop I think it depends on the exam board, the exam officer at one of the schools that my kids sat their exams at said he would advise against getting a remark but that was the CIE board . You do run the risk of them marking him further down rather that up ( so I was told). If he resits the exam they just take the best mark, I think you can ask to see a copy of the exam so you can see where he went wrong, but I am not sure.

mrswoodentop · 19/08/2011 10:56

Yes ,we can definitely get the paper back ,perhaps the thing is to get the paper back and then decide .School will no doubt advise,interesting though that at GCSE last year I noticed that a lot of teachers children had remarks and none seemed to go down.Also a collague last year got a remark for his daughter as a University place depended on it.Have always been against but it is tempting,will see what school say.The boarding OCR

MrsK · 19/08/2011 10:59

I have just been reading through this thread & I just wanted to post & say how warm & supportive you all are of each other. It was really refreshing & quite touching.

It has been an emotional rollercoaster reading your posts from the days before results, right up & through the day itself. I hope truly hope your DCs get the Universities they want either through results or clearing if needs be. My DD is nearly 11 so I have a few years yet & time to Ebay vital organs for fees.

I must aslo add some of you are quite hilarious. Fellatio Nelson, a brilliant name, you have literally had me in stitches. Your eloquent use of the word fuck, had me laugh out loud. There is nothing quite like the repeated use of the word fuck for releasing stress, followed by copius amounts of alcohol. Also a big shout to Pagwatch & Carpwidow, very witty & funny.

With the best of wishes to all of your & your DCs

Ponders · 19/08/2011 11:08

sieglinde, I'm sure I heard when the £9K fees were announced that the universities won't be getting anything like all of it - is that still true?

sieglinde · 19/08/2011 11:23

They are getting most of it, but it costs 16k a year for an Oxbridge student, more in the STEM hard sciences. I don't think it would be exactly the same at unis where there are typically 150 in a 'class'. Some individual colleges are very very rich, but not all of them are, and that money doesn't flow through to the centre properly.

Anneni · 19/08/2011 11:30

I think we may go down the resit path, she's smart and can so much better.
But she's also madly in love with some American guy who hasn't finished high school and thinks maybe should just get married and live in hicktown Minnesota seeing as she has failed a-levels and all. Eeeeeeeeeeeek! What, is she insane, was I like that at 18?

Oh please God (any god) let her see sense and not be stupid!!!

saggarmakersbottomknocker · 19/08/2011 11:34

I read recently that part of the 9k fees is going to subsidise poorer students (in the form of bursaries etc). On the one hand poorer students should get help but on the other the whole fee increase thing was supposed to be based on the students ability to pay post qualification. Confused

Anneni - hope she sees sense!

snorkie · 19/08/2011 11:38

MrsWoodentop, the subject also makes a difference. Maths for example isn't very subjective and remarks don't usually change the grade. Essay subjects more likely to get a change. I think in your shoes I'd request a photocopy of the script right away, then look through it with the teachers and get a remark if they think its been judged unfairly. Even if they don't, the act of going through it and seeing where the marks were lost will help in doing better next time.

beckybrastraps · 19/08/2011 11:39

Look very carefully at the key dates mrswoodentop. Here is a link. It has to be done through the school, and it has to be done now - you can't wait until the term starts.

mi55moppett · 19/08/2011 11:42

Hi this is the 1st time for me! My DS got AS results yesterday and he knows he totally sc**d up compared to mock results-but I'm trying to encourage him that not all is lost- tender area straight away tho'! Are there any tactics that parents may help me with?? I'm not going to cancel 2 open day visits at all- I feel he needs to go and look at what's available anyway. I think he just doesn't fancy doing the whole of yr12 again with the same course work and same teachers!

mrswoodentop · 19/08/2011 11:52

We are year 12 too so it an as remark.School have given us all the dates charges etc and we have Emailed to see what they think they are pretty good usually so hopefully we will get good advice.
I do feel that the history teacher is a bit negative ,his view seems to have been that he just isn't history material and this is as good as he can do ,I don't buy that as he has straight As for both his English papers and both his RS papers and his other history paper ,this is an anomaly so clearly it is a problem with this paper .