Oxbridge applicants 2018 part 2

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Hopefully this is in time!

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

new thread :)

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

We just found out accidentally that dds insurance offer is starting a week earlier than we expected. Which is fine, except it makes getting her stuff there more problematic for family reasons.

argh.

[Risotto301]

thank you Marco.
in HK, airlines do sell student tickets with double baggage allowance but at a premium price.
As both me and DH will go with DS, so with our total baggage allowance it should be enough, not to mention most of his personal stuff would be transferred directly from boarding school to Oxford.

[marcopront]

Risotto it is worth checking if the airline will give an increased baggage allowance for students. They do it from India if you are on a student visa and did it for my niece even though she has a British passport.

[goodbyestranger]

Yes DS4 is a scientist too and has a massive discrepancy between his processing and working memory scores and his raw ability score or whatever the jargon is. He's at the very top of the scale on the latter and average on the former so doesn't qualify either (well apparently he would have got extra time, according to the ed psych, if we'd gone to court but that wasn't going to happen, DS4 was very reluctant to agree to the school calling in the ed psych as it was). It does seem very unfair. Apparently the system doesn't cater for the 'discrepancy model' provided you're capable of getting a tolerable grade without additional time. Blatantly discriminatory but there you are.

[Dancingdreamer]

Thanks all for your reassurance. She a scientist so needs AAA so not much room for failure. From talking to her, I think there were some gaps in knoweledge but on other papers she is just making silly mistakes. She has dyslexia but is apparently too "intelligent" to qualify for extra time. She does tend to make mistakes when under pressure so I am sure that is not helping her.

On the entrance test she was above average but not top ifyswim.

So worried for her.

[voilets]

As a teacher, I know Dreamer that often students don't get it right in mocks but the process of working out by checking paper and talking to the teacher moves students forward. Also, sometimes, teachers are cautious markers in mocks.

Agree up-thread, she passed Oxbridge process, so if she holds her nerve it hopefully will work out alright on the day with a good insurance if it doesn't quite happen.

So many students surprise themselves positively on results day if they just work steadily and take advice. We have students come to Yr 12 lessons as revision and have revision clubs. Is that possible?

Best of luck to her, hope talking to teachers will regain some confidence.

[HingleMcCringleberry]

Dancing the beauty is that your DD can now evaluate what she needs to focus on for her exams:

• was it the material itself? This is a (relatively) easy fix, and she has the time between now and the exams to rectify.
  

• was it exam technique? Her teachers will be able to drill her on the most effective ways to tackle questions in the exam.
  

• was it stress? If so, what particular element was the source of the stress? For me, the only reason I got stressed about mock exams was because I hadn't done any work for them. If you've got the knowledge under your belt, I find that once you get started on the first question, the stress melts away as you have this glorious opportunity to demonstrate how much you know on this subject.
  

If she's stressed because of the implications of not doing well, then what would work for me (and this may be of no use to you/your DD) is to be reminded that I've done the hard part - I passed the interview and the university wants me, I just need to do a few quizzes between now and starting in October. She'll have been doing exams for however many years now, so it's just another set: you've passed them before, you'll pass them again.

Hopefully she's feeling less worried about the results of her mocks today, and can view them as a good chance to reset, and gauge where her current weaknesses are. To misquote Rafiki from The Lion King: it doesn't matter, it's in the past!

Onward ho!

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Dancing I hope she's feeling a bit more positive today. Has she had a chat with her tutor? I guess all you can say to her is that it's time to get determined and really focus.

[alittlechampagne]

A bad rehearsal often makes for a good performance Dancingdreamer!!

[goodbyestranger]

What subject Dancingdreamer? By which I really mean does she need an A* and did she take an aptitude test? If she did take an aptitude test and doesn't yet know the result she might want to find it out because a very high score can help sway the tutors in the event of a missed grade.

Also, were her mocks bad in relation to her classmates at school because I wouldn't worry too much if marks were universally low.

[Dancingdreamer]

My DDs mocks have gone really badly and now she is really worried that she isn’t going to make the grades for Oxford. I don’t know really what to say to her.

[alittlechampagne]

Voilets I am sure that can be changed but you may need to ring student finance department,

[voilets]

It's getting closer I feel as I read on here. Good luck to all those DC who have made their choices.

My DD has also pressed the button and is confident of her choices after so much wavering through the year and last minute application to oxbridge. Luckily, on offers day, that seemed common, some mums I met said their offspring were not sure until last minute too. Reassuring.

As for gathering bits and pieces for uni - I'm rather hoping DD takes some of her brother's gear which year 3 in uni, he needs less of. But I fear she'll want a prettier duvet set as my Ds has charcoal grey - what was left at end of summer! . I like the idea of taking things from home - might feel more homely when she's there if she has favourite mugs etc.

How about finance? We have signed on for this but made a bit of a mistake, asked for minimal maintenace and can't seem to change it! Oh well - an expensive year ahead!

[alittlechampagne]

Well done Risotto DS. Heading in the right direction. :)

[Risotto301]

DS pressed the buttons today to firm Oxford and have Manchester as insurance. Happy for him!
He also got very good mock results, exceeding conditional offers of Oxford, although slipped in one F.Math module as he overlooked and missed one question! Never mind, that’s exactly the purpose of mock! Alerting him to be careful and detailed minded!
We need to plan ahead for flight schedules and cost efficient shopping (from HK or in UK)! Luckily conditions from Oxford are not too harsh, I had given 100% confidence on DS and booked flight tickets according to Oxford’s term dates already!

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

exactly! That way it's less stress for them as they won't have to worry about ruining brande new stuff.

[alittlechampagne]

So anything I want replacing I let DS have for uni and DH will have to agree to new for us. Brilliant plan!!

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

[alittlechampagne]

What a cunning plan kitten. I like your thinking.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

That's good to know about the towels. I'll keep an eye out then. Though I did wonder if we could get away with giving dd our old towels and splashing out for us

I've not seen dds college either, only the outer walls. I'd love to know what it is like inside.

I have started a Really Useful Box, with basic tools in and stuff like that.

[alittlechampagne]

My reasoning was if everything goes pear-shaped I have nice new towels for home! :)

[goodbyestranger]

Big very good quality thick fluffy bath sheets for uni is the one thing we do push the boat out on. But the local department store has a top brand on offer each September regular as clockwork - ideal :)

[alittlechampagne]

How sad am I??

[alittlechampagne]

Also I watch copious amounts of Morse and Endeavour just to see the city. :)