UEA (2019) dealing with the unexpected and on to 2nd Year

[juicy0]

New thread for the parents of 2019 freshers. Thank you all for sticking around!
At the start of the year we never would have guessed the topics that are currently being discussed in this page but I'm grateful we still have each other to help navigate our way through this with our DC.
With the emptying of 1st year rooms seemingly on hold for many until the end of lockdown our thoughts will soon turn to 2nd year accommodation and whether term is likely to start as normal in September.

@Itscoldouthere I hope ds gets everything sorted. That's good that you have been away. Good job it wasn't hot. It's been too hot here in east anglia. Though not as hot as the SE. But I tell myself to make the most of the sun and heat...it'll be autumn soon! I was going to ask if anyone's dc's have A level results tomorrow. But I guess it is only one year below our dc's at university, not many people have children so close together. I heard on the news that the grades will be higher than usual. I hope the same goes for GCSEs as ds2 is waiting for results. Quite weird...results for exams he's not taken 🤷‍♀️

@icanbewhatiwant, I am so glad my DSs escaped the joy of Covid exams. Best of luck to your DS.
That pre results wait is actually really stressful for the DC and parents especially A levels. They are at that point where they have a future life planned out potentially in a new area starting in a few weeks.....or they don't have any plans because of the results
Glad that's all over with

@icanbewhatiwant hope it all goes well for your DC re A level results, hopefully nothing like what’s happened in Scotland!
Is he planning to go to university as well?

DS managed to submit the online work yesterday he got 91% which is so annoying, if only he’d done it at the right time! I don’t know if the grade is capped as in theory this wasn’t a resit, but the next pieces of work he has to do are, so I believe they are capped at 40%, I just hope he can do enough to pass the year. I need to find out when he gets his results, I hope he doesn’t have to wait too long to find out after submission.

@Itscoldouthere that's a great result. Hopefully he will keep doing that well.

Ds2 is awaiting GCSE results for next week, not A level. Sorry did I not make sense (again?)

@icanbewhatiwant it was probably me getting the wrong exams 🤣

91% is brilliant and should be a real confidence boost 👏

@sluj yes it was a real help, he got up early and on it this morning which is brilliant.

Can anyone remember if we had to pay a deposit for UEA uni halls? I’m thinking we probably didn’t, but I’ve got so confused having 2 doing everything at the same time.
DS1 had to pay a deposit at his uni halls but they were brand new and run by an independent company. He then had to pay a holding deposit for his 2nd year house, then another proper deposit when he signed the contract, all seemed more complicated than it needed to be, so I’ve lost track along the way!

@Itscoldouthere - I don't think they did - I think they just paid in 3 instalments on the due date

@NotSorry thanks, I did think they hadn’t paid anything but just couldn’t remember.
I’ve got so much paperwork to sort out it’s all got rather muddled in my mind !

Well DN is starting at UEA in September so I will ask her in due course. I really can't remember.

BTW get your DC to check that their last £200(+) accommodation payment for the summer term has been taken off their 'finance' section. DS's was sitting there in red (three months overdue in theory) although he showed me his bank balance to prove it had been paid back in May.

Well done to your DS for doing so well on that assignment @Itscoldouthere.

And good luck to your DS2 with his GCSE results (is it next week?) @icanbewhatiwant.

@NewModelArmyMayhem18 I’ll get DS to check that re the final payment, there is so much you have to check isn’t there!
I’ve now got to try and find out when DS will find out his results and if he’s managed to get through to second year, I’m being hassled to set a date for the dog being transported to Canada, but I want to fly at a similar time as he’s very attached to me (and I’m expecting him to be traumatised from the whole experience), but I don’t want to go anywhere until DS is definately sorted at UEA.
If I’d had a crystal ball last year when this whole Canada thing came up it would have been a big NO, now I’m trying to navigate everything as best I can.
I can’t even think about Christmas (looking very likely that we will all have to be apart 😢).

@NewModelArmyMayhem18 yes next week. Thanks. Sounds like the Scottish A level results didn't go down well. It's bound to be the same for GCSEs. I did hear last night the results would be higher than an average year, so that was wrong.

@Itscoldouthere you do have a lot to worry about. I'm sure ds will be fine if his results are anything like the last exam! I didn't realise you were taking the dog! That's great. I expect he will find it stressful but I'm sure he will settle once back with you.

@icanbewhatiwant yes the dog is very much my baby, he stayed with my sister when I went to Canada earlier in the year but he’s definately coming he’s my child substitute 🤣 he’s not a great traveller so I’m worried about him and I don’t think he’ll be impressed by the long winters, but then again, as much as I like snow I’d rather it didn’t last for quite so long!

I so hope the GCSE results go well, such a difficult time for all those young people.

Given the current extreme heat your dog may enjoy the cooler climes (until winter arrives) @Itscoldouthere.

Our cats are all extended as much as possible on the wooden floor (presumably because it's coolest down there). They appear to be shell-shocked by the heat :-(. I did try doing a friendly 'spray' of them t'other day but they didn't like a water mist either. You can't win with furry felines!

@Itscoldouthere yes dogs (or indeed other pets) are like the extended family aren't they? Our pup is like a naughty pre schooler at the moment 😂 I laughed at my garden earlier with pup toys strewn everywhere. My child toy clearing years are over...now clearing pup toys instead. At least the kids didn't eat the toys and spit the bits everywhere 🤣

@icanbewhatiwant god yes the lawns always covered with headless fluffy squeaky toys,my dog rips them apart, also chews balls. Not a great look.
He’s a Bedlington X Whippet so the Terrier side of him loves to rip a fluffy toy apart, a friend of mine has a toy basket for her dog in the sitting room, but my dogs toys just seem to end up discarded outside.

@Itscoldouthere he sounds lovely being those 2 breeds. I have had terriers before. We have labradors at the moment.

I'm just listening to the news. I feel for the students expecting A level results. If ds1 has gone by his AS levels he wouldn't be at university, I think his mocks results later in the year were better. Not sure what mocks they mean. An anxious wait now for GCSEs next week.

@icanbewhatiwant yes he’s such a lovely dog, he’s gentle and chilled but has a few terrier moments, when we were camping at the weekend he was the only dog that all the other dogs liked, my friend with a boarder Terrier had to keep her on a lead as she likes so few other dogs.

I feel so sorry for everyone waiting for results it feels like they just can’t win either way, they will either be considered to have higher grades than deserved or unfairly downgraded.
It shows that you can’t switch from one system quickly without problems.
Is your DS waiting for his results going on to do A levels? Are you worried that it might effect his choices?

Yes he's going on to do A levels. His mocks last summer he got all 6's and 7's. So good enough for A levels. But he didn't revise or anything for the mocks. So he should be able to do better. He did 3 exams on 20th March (English, maths and science) they had a few days notice to revise and were told that these results will go towards grades. He knows he got 9 in the science paper as the teacher emailed them all. But don't know the maths and English grades. So that shows how well he can do if he puts his mind to it. He also did mocks at Christmas where he got better grades. So it'll be interesting to see what he gets.

It shows that you can’t switch from one system quickly without problems. I think people will quickly forget. There are cohorts (our eldest included) who 'suffered' a sudden switch to different/more difficult exams. Just as my DD's year group did with much more difficult KS2 exams. If you recall with maths, the course suddenly became a whole lot more difficult with little notice. Does anyone remember that one year's A/A* may be another year's 6/7?

@NewModelArmyMayhem18 you are right it will be forgotten really quickly, but a few will feel hard done by and may hold on to it longer.
They were saying on R4 this morning that even if A level grades are lower universities are likely to have lots of places with lower grades in clearing (don’t know if that’s true or not).
Hopefully most will be ok, as we know, once you’ve moved on to the next level, what you did before doesn’t have the same importance.
Mind you my DS still regrets not doing History A level, so some things do stick with you.

@Itscoldouthere ds2's favourite subject is history. In his mock exam he got 7+ his teacher said he was capable of 8 or 9 now we will never know. But that's still good enough for A level so he's happy. He wants to do history with philosophy at university at the moment. He might have changed his mind in 2 years time though and do something completely different. Though he can't take the 4 A levels he wants to as they pick 1 subject from each of 4 columns, the four he wanted to take were in the same two columns.

I think that's always the case though, isn't it, Itscoldouthere? Remember last year some of the exam boards intimated that the awarded grades could have gone up or down a grade (either way) - that didn't really give one faith that the given ones were necessarily the correct ones!

I know what you mean though regarding regrets. DS was only allowed to take three A Level options (as he didn't get the stellar results his school normally demanded). He had wanted to do economics as his fourth one. He is now leaning towards doing behavioural economics after his BA and is cross that he didn't get the opportunity to study the subject at school.

Yes, sure there will be more places because it seems likely that fewer overseas students will be taking up theirs.

What DS learned was he hadn’t really realised that his choice of A level subject would funnel him down a rather narrow path. He did very well in his GCSE so had lots of choices but because he didn’t love the topics in History A level he did Geography instead, along with Maths, Bio & Chem, he expected to drop Geography after AS but flunked his maths AS so they made him drop Maths (he was very disappointed) and continue Geography. He did well in Geography but really had no interest in it, so was left with having to choose a biology or chemistry degree course, when I don’t think he realised that would become the only real options open to him.
I feel like we didn’t really realise either (myself and DH both did art courses and went to art college) so didn’t think how limited his option would become, but I suppose we’ve only reflected on this as he’s obviously been a bit unhappy on his biology degree course and realised that if he’d taken History he could have looked at changing courses.
If everything had gone well with Biology he probably wouldn’t be harbouring ‘History regrets’.

@NewModelArmyMayhem18 ds2 wants to do economics but it's in the same column as history. So he's going to do business studies instead. But they don't do a level business it's something equivalent. He wanted to do PE as the 4th that he would drop after AS but that was in a column with something else.

@Itscoldouthere yes ds1 didn't think he wanted to go to university. So didn't think it through. He really enjoyed GCSE geography. But didn't like A level. So he dropped it after AS even though it was his highest grade. He intended to drop film studies but kept it on instead, with no intention of doing anything else to do with film it seemed a waste of an A level really. Biology was his favourite, so decided to take that on at university. But most unis wanted him to have maths and another science. He didn't take either at A level. Luckily UEA didn't want those.
So ds2 I've suggested he think ahead incase he goes to university.