Going to university (2019/20 academic year) - wave goodbye to family, say hello to fellow students and key uni staff and they're settling in (hopefully)

[NewModelArmyMayhem18]

Previous thread. Possibly a little precipitous but for some of our DC their university start date is only just over a fortnight away. Yikes!

So - DS tries to pay accommodation deposit and first payment.
He's unable to pay it.
Obviously I think this is DS's fault!
Take a look at the App and it looks as if DS has already paid - but he definitely has not.
DS calls the university and they think he has paid too!
It looks as if they have applied somebody else's payment to his account!
They are trying to sort it out and will get back to him ...

DD chased school up about AQA Biology remark and they still haven’t heard. Can that be right? We put in for review in results day!

@Benjispruce probably depends whether it was a priority one or not? If the former, shouldn't the result have been back by 31 August?

That seems odd, dd got hers - all 3 papers - a week ago.

Just looked up AQA and it can take 20 days for non priority review. Very slow. Oh well that means there’s still hope.

Just had the 2nd of DD1's re-marked Geography papers back - STILL no change, STILL a tantalising 1 mark off B (this is Edexel, non-priority). Will now turn my wallet upside down and see if I have enough coppers to pay for the 3rd paper. This paper is more subjective, but it is also the one she did best in.

@Benjispruce - it's worth checking when the re-mark was actually submitted - sometimes the holdup is with the school/college exam office.

How annoying cointreau . DD is one mark off an A. We haven’t seen her papers as there were no Biology teachers there on results day and school paid luckily as within 3 marks of next grade.

We're waiting for reviews of Psychology and English Lit. Chased exams office last week and they said not to worry as exam boards can be slow. These are also non priority so fingers crossed we'll hear soon!

Very annoying @CointreaVersial. If it's any consolation, DS's History paper didn't change at all. I've stopped there.

The problem is that most people only report the successes, so it leads to a real feeling that a review of marking will change the grade in an upward trajectory. I recall DS's school (full of high achievers) saying that on average fewer than 20% of reviews lead to a grade change. So that's 80% whose remarks don't. From the positives on MN you would think it much better odds than that.

Rather annoyed here now. After school telling us on results day that they would query history coursework moderation as everyone had been marked down, they have now advised we get a remark instead as moderation is unlikely to change. 2 weeks wasted!

There is chaos at Lincoln Uni as one of their brand spanking new accommodations isn't finished and won't be. Uni are being quite open about their annoyance with the developers... so glad DS got the other new accommodation!

In terms of the moderation review benji, I reckon that took so long because the exam board probably only just got back to the school. My colleague sent an email to AQA about our A Level moderation on results day and has not even had an acknowledgement. They are not very good communicators , on the whole...

Oh goodness @Piggywaspushed, what will happen to the DC who have been allocated that accommodation? I can see the university (or more likely the developers) having to book out all the local hotels short-term...

Piggy I bet many were attracted to the fact it's new and plus, so that's going to create a massive headache for someone. Good to know it won't affect your DS and cause issues on his approach to uni.

Piggy - likewise at Nottingham. One of my colleagues is having a nightmare with his DS. Has had to drive up there and trawl the letting agencies to find something in the private sector; he's particularly annoyed it took them two weeks to announce that his accommodation wouldn't be available after all, thereby preventing his DS from seeking an alternative university through Clearing.

DSis had a similar issue with her DD, also going to Nottingham, but let rip to the university accommodation team on the phone, and miraculously a room on campus was found.....

piggy the school hadn’t even put in a query. The teacher was only just back and had spoken to other schools yesterday.

I think you are right that we are spurred on to submit re-mark requests by the number of people trumpeting great successes on here. If she was 5 marks off I possibly wouldn't bother, but it's so close, and she was so upset. She missed Art by a similarly small margin, but alas there's no re-marking possible.

And now I've had two papers re-marked, I have to finish the job, don't I? I wish our college paid! #brokebeforetermhasevenstarted

Fortunately, Lincoln seems to have spare rooms in some other accommodation (no idea why) temporarily, so the students are going there but it's not a good start.

You have to choose 5 (might even be 6) places at Lincoln where you would live : the accommodation in question was actually above where DS ended up in my rank order, so I am glad he didn't get allocated it.

Ah, oh, I see benji. As a general rule ,exam boards would massively dissuade schools from querying moderation (I do often wonder who moderates the moderators!!) and make it a massively convoluted process, so I assume that is what your school ahs been told by other schools. It's a whole appeals process which takes ages.

Cointreau don’t give up! Dd got another 8 marks on one paper - I wanted to keep going on the other two but she was ok with a grade change. There was one paper that was still suspicious. However it was politics. I wonder if there’s a crib sheet for the moderators detailing where we were in British politics when they took the exam. It appears the ‘rule’ book is being ripped up at the moment.

Zanda, at least they've been quick. Each one took less than a week to come back.

DD’s Eng Lit went up 8 marks too and a grade change. All 3 subjects were 1 or 2 marks off.

Is anyone getting irritated by the number of posts on the Facebook page from mothers sobbing their hearts out about their DC going to university?

I feel like telling them to get a grip. I wouldn't of course.

I had to leave it because of that. And the ones saying how useless their little princes sons were and how they would never cope without Mama.

I saw all those 'sob' stories too! It's the end of an era but really not that sad. It's the start of a new chapter for our DC (and for us too!).

I was planning to go up with Ds, check out the kitchen in his halls then go to a supermarket with him to stock up before going straight home. Is this what everyone else plans to do? Am I supposed to say something wise like in the movies?