Oxbridge 2020 (8th thread)

[DadDadDad]

A thread to continue discussing entry to Oxbridge in October 2020 (less than nine months away ). All welcome, although this obviously will be of most interest to those with DS or DD holding an offer, and wanting to find a bit of support.

All too soon, 13 August will come over the horizon. Until then, ask questions... share experiences... discuss news and stats... write a poem... (we did briefly have some poetry on a previous thread).

With huge thanks to @HugoSpritz and predecessors for previous threads.

@bobbybobbins thanks for looking out for your student. My DD's teachers are doing the same for her - she is the first for her subject to apply in 15 years and the first ever to get an offer. Her teachers have pulled out all the stops to get her ready for interview, help her put her portfolio together and support her generally. Now they are pulling out the stops to make sure she is focused to get the grades and is ready to do the course. One plays bad cop, one the critical friend and the other unconditional supportive friend. I cannot thank them enough. Your student is very lucky to have you.

@sevenstars DD had 2 interviews - one subject, one college and a practical exam over 2 days, but was required to stay for another day (Fine Art at Oxford).

I had not even thought about the practicalities of dropping her off. Staying for a one night sleep over seems to take her own body weight in clothes and makeup. I hate to think what a term will entail.

@Daddaddad - my Ds once sat at the back of a lecture waiting for a friend of his ( Philosophy lecture ) and he said it looked more like maths than maths does . ( Oxford - am sure similar elsewhere )

My husband did Maths at university ( many - many years ago ) until he realised the theoretical / more talented mathemeticians were thinking on a very different scale to him at which point he changed to Maths and Computing. Not as glamorous and won't get a film made about him & he will not get a Nobel Prize - but on a more pragmatic note it has helped keep the wolf from the door. Also gave him more time to play football

Has this thread gone into hibernation until August?

(Actually, my DS would probably point out that hibernation comes from the Latin for winter, so we need a different known for sleeping through the spring: vernation?)

Well, the latter part would be aestivation; 'vernation' apparently means 'the arrangement of bud scales or young leaves in a leaf bud before it opens.'.

However, as a few more moments on wiki show me that 'aestivation' also means 'the positional arrangement of the parts of a flower within a flower bud before it has opened', your proposed second definition of vernation seems entirely logical.

I hope not DadDadDad. I was in a rather tedious training course yesterday and disappointed not to find some random thoughts and musings to distract me when I checked my phone on the sly. Last night's little flurry into Latin has restored my faith .

DD's college has invited her to a STEP taster day. She is invited to bring a maths teacher. Now she is trying to work out how to tell the head of maths very politely that she'd be very happy to take three of the four people that teach her, but would rather not bother if the fourth wants to come. Or whether to keep her head down and go alone.

@AChickenCalledDahl that's interesting about inviting a maths teacher! I know a few colleges run their own STEP days but that's the first time I have heard of teachers also being invited. Do you mind saying college it is? (Please PM me if you prefer).

I’m sure we’ll keep wibbling on between now and August @DadDadDad.

In my case, I will no doubt rant about whether DS can survive two more terms of run-ins at his school when he gets a detention for the heinous crimes of wearing his coat, or carrying a bag. Both verboten —and in a school whose buildings are separated by a busy road. (These stupid rules alone are enough to make me not want DD to go there...)

Thinking about teachers - if anyone knows any who can get to London reasonably easily then they might like to check out this (free!) day about STEP/MAT/TMUA: amsp.org.uk/events/details/7093

Last intellectual discussion group and dinner for DD last night. Not quite as emotional as hanging up her hockey stick but feels like another casting off of Old Life ready for next stage. Pupating??! She’s torn between being sick of school and ready to move on and being scared of leaving the security blanket behind...

29?! When DS3 applied the score was assessed out of 100. Do you know what this latest round is out of Hugo? It doesn't surprise me that with all of this year's changes the aptitude tests are being contextualised. What would any independent school/ pupil do differently had the full details been known? Does the friend's feedback say what the scoring ratio is between aptitude test/ interview/ submitted work? That's pretty mean of Jesus.

Oops: have done differently I mean.

Do some colleges give the test scores to all candidates on request then Hugo? My DD didn’t hear what her score was for the CAT, but she didn’t ask.

PantTwizzler It boggles my mind that a school would think it's remotely reasonable to punish sixth formers for having the common sense to decide that it's cold enough to need a coat. Or wet enough to put paperwork in a bag.

Presumably they also pride themselves on preparing them for entry into adult life?! Or is it just all about exams?

hobbema - intellectual discussion group?!

@HugoSpritz my daughter is also waiting for her feedback from her History interviews. We are very interested to see what information they provide.

@goodbyestranger there was a post by a student on TSR History thread who had received his HAT and written scores (he has an offer) he scored 29/40 in the HAT and 7/10 for written work.

Maths applicants got sent their MAT scores automatically along with a general breakdown of the admissions process and numbers of candidates interviewed at each score, numbers of offers at each score. A proportion of very high scorers did not receive offers, no explanation of why, but I assumed it would be interview performance. But may be contextualized too?

@Torchlightt, I know that probably sounds pretentious, it wasnt really. Its a sixth form supracurricular thing where one of them would give a talk on something interesting, maybe their EPQ , or something topical a couple of times a term and then they’d discuss it with v light touch teacher supervision. They all got on well and it was nice mix of humanities and science students. I really dont mean to make it sound up itself. DD was sad that it was another thing she enjoyed that’s come to and, like will be happening for lots of our DC I imagine.

@AChickenCalledDaal don’t get me started! If the pupils were at work it would be unlawful for their employer not to allow them to wear adequate clothing. Both that and the bag rule are apparently for reasons of the dreaded health and safety — basically too many bodies crammed into small spaces so too much to trip up on. But it just hasn’t been thought through, and causes more problems than it solves.

One of DS’s teachers started holding forth at a recent parents evening about how DS would be able to develop independent learning once he was at university. I had to correct her there - he was literally self taught for some of his GCSEs but the babyish system of detentions and lines has just had an infantilising effect.

DS doesn’t share too much about school. Today I learnt that there is no loo paper nor soap in the boys loos. Quite disgusting. But hey, exam results are fab and they’ve got 14 Oxbridge offers this year so nothing else matters...

DD asked for feedback and was told that only her referee could obtain it. That was from Magdalen.

I would say though @Torchlightt, that group really did help her work out that she liked that kind of thing. Some of her equally smart friends tried it and hated it and it definitely made her feel the supervision /discussion format of teaching would suit her. I do get that it took teacher time even though it was almost completely student led. There’s probably a less triggering way of describing it, sorry!

That sounds amazing @Torchlightt. Fab that the school supports such a thing.

@PantTwizzler, your post re loos at school... when all three of mine were at the school they would literally stampede out of the car to get to the bathroom. The concept of using a toilet at school for, you know, was /is incomprehensible ! Joking aside, the coat and bag thing is just nuts.