Oxbridge applicants 2018 part 3

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Looks like we need a new thread.

Its the same as us Kaiser, so I guess if it comes down to pure odds there's a 1/4 chance of both our kids making it. yikes.

Nice to hear updates.

My DD had a wobble last night - she was scared of her exams brought on by leaver's day today and that she had to give a speech and say goodbye to all.

Now , she's on a pub crawl having fun and tells me she is the only one of 3 who didn't cry when they gave their joint speech!

DD confessed she feels the weight of expectation is upon her! We just keep reassuring her that there are so may opportunities going forward, what will be will be and that will work out fine.

Need to keep the calm emanating from here!

Hello everyone, I've been reading this thread recently but this is my first ever post on mumsnet😀. My ds has a maths offer from Cambridge. He's a very calm, relaxed character who doesn't seem to get stressed by anything - this is lovely and I don't want to change that by putting my concerns onto him, but I'm not sure he's doing enough to prepare for the STEP papers. One mum told me that her son was "spending every hour God sends doing practice questions ". My son is certainly not doing that!! I just wondered how much others are doing?

Welcome to mn :) dd is doing about 15 questions a week. I too am feeling anxious about STEP and trying not to convey my worries. I don't think I'm succeeding though.

I can't imagine having the extra horror of STEP to get through.
I'm anxious enough just with the A level exams.
DD's offer is below her predicted grades, but after a disastrous maths mock in January I can't help worrying that she won't make it.
It just seems so cruel to have it all hanging on these 9 exams, so much can go wrong!
DD is doing an extra GCSE, and has 3 exams for it over the next week, but no A level exams until June.
and needed I think to get us all through the next few weeks.

Hi, hope it’s ok to join thread. My DC has just made his accommodation choices so the enormity of it all really hit me. First exam is next week but DC seems quite calm (gulp). I gently suggested doing same for 2nd choice and was told ‘I may have missed that email’ . Without wanting to dampen confidence I suggested it was a good idea to make choices ‘just incase’. Definitely need to hit the wine tonight!!!

for sure. Just had a ridiculous hour with dd, we both ended up in fits of laughter. Her college had asked for exam certificates and finance info. We were both traipsing up and down the stairs with sheets of paper placing them in random places and getting thoroughly muddled.

DD has a real knock to her confidence on Thursday at 4.10pm when she got her EPQ mark emailed to her, it's two grades below her predicted grade and when she's been working on it all year and had been led to believe that it was a well written, researched, critically analysed and her presentation was excellent is so very disappointing for her. The results have to be entered on Monday so she has been denied (as is her legal right according to JCQ regulations) the right to a remark and further internal moderation. The centre coordinator was also not in college on the Friday to deal with issues as it is their day off 🙄 We are about to enter battle with the college.

I am an EPQ supervisor at work and I know what a good EPQ looks like.
This has totally messed up her insurance offer- makes me feel sick with worry.

oh no Lucycat :( that is a real blow. I hope it doesn't put your dd off her stride. Hopefully she knows that her epq won't bear any relationship to how she does in her exams.

Thank you OhYouBadBadKitten
I think it's just made her wonder if she's as good as she hoped. If an essay that she's worked on so hard and that she thought was good is only worth a B grade then what does that mean for the summer...

And now she has had a UTI since last Wednesday and the oncall doctor today told her that she can't have antibiotics and to see what it's like in a week. In the meantime she can't concentrate on revision as it hurts so much 😡 crap weekend.

Poor old Dd lucycat. So sorry to hear all this. Just do what you can do with college but also get her to battle on with revision. A levels are what really counts on results day. Just help her manage her disappointment for EPQ - we all have ups and downs. Maybe proper feedback will really help as way forward.

Dds peer who is an oxbridge offer holder got lower than expected in coursework and was desperately upset. As teacher said, only 20%. All to play for in exam.

That's really rubbish :( Has she got any exams this week?

Thank you for your support- she only has a couple of practice exams this week but it's her 18th next Friday so she is desperate to feel well.
We've had an Indian takeaway for tea, there's not much that can't be cheered up by a poppadum and mango chutney.
violets - we have been pushing the skills learnt and resilience aspect of a knock back. It's hard when you've only ever got the highest of grades so I'm hoping that in a funny way it's done her some good.

Sorry to hear about the added stresses - hopefully your daughter will be feeling better soon.
Ds has his first exam on Wednesday - where has the time gone since Easter? I'm really holding off nagging about STEP now. If he does enough that's great, if he doesn't then maybe he wouldn't be prepared to do the amount of work required if he got to Cambridge. He's got to do it himself, find his own level and,ultimately, end up at the university that is right for him. ( Can't deny that Cambridge would be amazing though!)

Lucycat so sorry to hear about your DD's UTI - they're horrible and I'm really surprised that the dr. said wait a week. Untreated they can progress to kidney infections. Whenever I've had one, I'm prescribed one of a couple (trimethoprim is one) & they kick in within a day - usually on a 3-4 day course.

Sorry if you already know all this, but just wanted to add my h'pence in case it helps. I've also used the online PUSH doctor service for this without any trouble. I just know how debilitating it can be.

Hope she feels better really soon and has a fabulous birthday on Friday! xx

Lucycat sorry your poor DD is suffering such disappointment and extra stress on top of being poorly. Hopefully it means plain sailing from now on though.

Are you sure that's the absolute final grade with no chance to appeal?
I have no idea how it all works, but DD did her EPQ in yr12 and didn't get her grade until results day along with her AS grades.

dd has her epq result as marked by the school. She was warned it could change for August.

Thank you all for your support. What a difference 24 hours makes. After a feisty email to college they have decided to moderate her EPQ which they'd not done previously and it was now gone up 7 (!) marks to an A* so she is hoping that even any moderation by AQA it should still be an A. She is comparing herself to Cher from Clueless, negotiating her grades up 😂
And we have antibiotics too - I took her to the doctors with a urine sample the colour of Pepsi and she now has a week's worth of antibiotics the size of horse tranquillisers.

Calm has returned but again thank you all so much for allowing me to vent.

A shame you have to get feisty but sometimes you just need to. Memories of a GCSE where external moderation took mark for coursework down by more than 30%. Teacher had not read updated specification apparently and the whole class went down 1 or 2 grades. Relieved for your DD Lucycat.

The HT at your DDs school needs to intervene on the EPQ marking sharpish Lucycat. Glad that your DD got her proper mark allocated but what about the others who've accepted the marking as correct? It's incredibly bad for them too.

Very good point goodbye. Not everybody has clued-up parents.

Thank goodness Lucycat! Well done for being assertive.

Fab news lucycat. Rollercoaster this high achieving stuff needed in a year isn't it?

goodbyestranger I did put in the email that I'm sure that all of the students would get a similar chance to respond to their marks as per JCQ regulations? And that every EPQ would be moderated by two members of staff?
I know that they have 70+ EPQ students and just 4 of them were non-science based but even so!
I think they were worried about us going to the board..... 😂 yep I do like to ruffle feathers where I need to.