Medicine 2021 - Part 3

[SATSmadness]

Hoping for interviews and offers all round, now and well into next year !

Mumsneedwine, I thought you said upthread that your DD had only read a couple of books. I was suggesting that as they get closer to deciding what they want to specialising in, many start reading around their subject.

I was using "books' in the generic sense. That said, with a whole bunch of students living in the same accommodation wifi can be patchy, and real books were being passed around. The accommodation at one placement was rumoured not to have wifi at all, though this might have been corrected.

@Needmoresleep no, I said mine had only bought a couple of books. It's quite common to read things on line now. Especially this year when getting into a library has been all but impossible. And not everyone can afford to spend £££ on books.

Sorry about the divert. I was answering a question about possible gifts for students. I assume the gifts were gong to be bought with ££££

There is quite a cannon of medical literature, written by doctors, patients and others. As DD is dyslexic she has been particularly interested in autism and non NT conditions, and has been happy to read (book or tablet, though after a day of screens often books work better for her.) quite a wide spread of literature.

One of the good things about MN is the diversity. We are lucky that we can afford to buy DC the odd book for Christmas and birthdays. I appreciate this may seem extravagant to others. But the question was about gifts. The questioner is welcome to ignore my contribution if they want. .

I thought the original discussion was about text books. I think the majority of students access text books on line through their medical school now.

Agree that reading round, whether in real books or e-reader or on line articles is all necessary.

I am really feeling for the parents and DC still waiting. It felt long enough pre-covid when the big medical schools mostly made offers by late Feb, but Manchester and Cardiff have not even started and Newcastle and Sheffield are just beginning. I don't know how the others are doing.

I hope those of you waiting get offers soon, both for their own sakes and because I don't want too many applying next year and making 2022 even tougher than 2021!!

Dunno. Skeletons and stethoscopes made their appearance so I decided to contribute our experience. No way would a skeleton have fitted into DDs very small room in halls.

@Needmoresleep mine was disarticulated and lived a cardboard box under my bed, much to my non-medic room -mate’s disgust!

I'll find it out if and when she gets the grades if she wants the skeleton and if not, giving it to a medical school would be a good idea

Don't know if others have seen them but DD1 had a 'Remarkable' tablet at uni and it was fab for her. Like an a4 iPad but much lighter with a matt screen which you can write on with a stylus. So all her lecture notes on there in different files and she downloaded the PDF's to read on there and you could also highlight the PDF's. It was quite pricey though. All goes on to some sort of cloud too. DD2 has it now and will see if it suits her

Really interesting to hear that all the books on line now. Books were such a pest to cart up and down stairs.

I'm irritated this evening. Not medicine related, but mocks.

DD's are starting in a week. She's part of a joint sixth form (girls school and boys school merge when they start sixth form) Anyway, DD has been given a list of topics to revise for chemistry. All fine, she can focus on said topics and has been revising for ages. The topics can be quite broad obviously so she's revised everything. The boys school have been given specific questions, and also been given a list saying there will be a question on this, this and this. So basically been told exactly what is on the exams. This has now been shared around a group chat (DD isn't in this group but some of the kids in her class are).

How the heck is this fair? DD is going in tomorrow to try and ascertain some facts, but if they confirm that there is a disparity I am not going to be happy. Especially as these will count towards a final grade, I wonder who will end up with the highest grades. How can a school allow one class to be given so much more info than the other? And more importantly how is this doing anyone any favours?

@MaddieElla
I'm reading furious rather than irritated and rightly so. It is a ridiculous thing for the school - or possibly individual teachers - to do
Best of luck with the situation. I'd find it hard to know what to do in such circumstances but I'm sure others will have good ideas xx

I don't know what the best course of action is either @MaddieElla but I just wanted to say that I think you are absolutely right to be really upset about this. I would be furious. The whole purpose of alternative grading processes to public exams is surely for fair and robust grading that has the credibility to take our DC to the next stage of their education. They deserve that. I hope you get it sorted.

@MaddieElla how confident would you be taking the issue up with the head of year? That's what I'd want to do, but l probably wouldn't do due to fear of being 'that picky mum'.
This is yet another case of our children being totally screwed over this year. I am beyond livid hearing of situations like this, it is so so unfair on our young people.

A worrying thing about the unfairness @MaddieElla DD is experiencing is that the same thing is probably happening at a national level at SOME schools around the UK. Schools are manipulatng the system so that they will have evidence to justify inflated grades. Unfortunately what happened last year has set a precedent. It did not have to be such a shambles and it is all the fault of incompetent OFQUAL management last year combined with a failure of government to manage. Lots of experts and interested observers were engaged in debates which predicted what the outcome would be! Wonder what the school I posted with all A/A* at A level in sciences last year is doing. And I don't want to be divisive, but I am expecting to see private schools pushing harder for inflated grades on the whole (not all, but a significant number) because they are more accountable to parents.

Is any sort of trajectory taken into account? I remember getting the lowest possible B in my mock for a level physics and got an A in the exam. Also in mocks, DD got e.g 5 in history and got a 9 in the exam and her mock grades were significantly lower than her actual grades - partly due to her performance and partly due to school being harsh in mocks.

Thanks all. DD is really stressed about it too. I am giving her the opportunity to speak for herself (and I think a couple of the others in her class as she doesn't want to be the tattle tale) and if she gets nowhere I will absolutely be contacting the school. I just told her to be certain of the facts before she says anything, but I have seen these screenshots of the group chat myself.

She's usually very quiet, but I think she knows that she's the one who will lose out if she doesn't say anything and it's too important.

@WithIcePlease I would hope so. DD was also predicted two grades below what she came out with, and that was in most subjects. She improved hugely in the last few months.

Anybody who thinks their DC might not end up with an offer this year might like to go to the virtual Open Day at Leicester on 27 March. They pretty much guarantee an interview to applicants with AAA achieved and DS1 was more impressed by their course than by Edinburgh. I think they might give preference in offers to applicants with achieved grades too.

On the subject of frustrations, listen to this one (and be warned). DS got offered and accepted a vaccination offer for lateTuesday afternoon (on the grounds of his St Johns volunteer work). He woke up yesterday morning with a high temperature so didn't go to school (the temperature came down with paracetamol, and stayed down, and from what we can understand one in three people who have the AZ vaccine have side effects including high temperatures), but school took all day to get back to him and then insisted he get a PCR test before he can come back into school. So we had to schedule that this morning, and I booked the appointment via a link on our council website to two mobile units roughly in our area, and they sent us two emails and texts, but didn't include a QR code (or register it on the NHS system), so when he got there they didn't have all of the necessary. In the end he did the test (he was the only person there at 8.30 in the morning with four staff) and had to phone 119 to register it over the phone. He is tearing his hair out, as he has mocks starting on Monday. And while it is mostly a 24 hour turn around, it could be five days so he misses his mocks. I did suggest to him that maybe he should delay it until after the mocks, but he felt that if he was offered it he should take the opportunity and get immunised as fast as possible. The whole thing has eaten up oodles of my and his time over the last couple of days, and seems crazy. Once these get offered to everybody in the country, are they going to test 1 in 3 in order to satisfy themselves that a temperature is vaccine related and not Covid 19 related? And apparently if you are taking a PCR test, the whole household is to isolate, and legally I am not sure there are any exceptions for people who take a PCR test when they are sure the symptoms are vaccine related. So I have kept DD off school (DH and I are working from home anyway). But please do take note if any DC are offered the vaccine at inconvenient times.

Such a bother all that. I really hope test comes through promptly.
I had a temperature after my 2nd Pfizer vaccination and I didn't know what to do. Work said to do a few lateral flow tests so I did and eventually managed to find some guidance that said i only needed a PCR if temp lasted more than 48 hours post vaccination. 38+ on day 1 then down to 37.5ish by day 3. Luckily I was able to WFH
You are right - guidance should be given at the time of vaccination as to what to do in the event of a temperature as it is so common and potentially disruptive to so many especially as they come down the age ranges to more people living with families

@WithIcePlease - where did you find this guidance? DS had a temperature from around 6am when he woke up with it until he took the paracetamol at 9.30am It was 38+, but once brought down by the paracetamol it stayed down, and that was it. Arm stayed a bit sore, and he was a bit headachy yesterday, and he is still a bit tired today. But of course the temperature was just at the time when he would normally go off to school, so we phoned the school to tell them, triggering the whole sorry saga.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-vaccination-what-to-expect-after-vaccination/what-to-expect-after-your-covid-19-vaccination#side-effects

Although a mild fever can occur within a day or two of vaccination, if you have any other COVID-19 symptoms or your fever lasts longer, stay at home and arrange to have a test. Further information on symptoms is available onNHS.UK.

(The Scottish version words it even more clearly that a test is not required if the raised temperature, a recognised side effect, is the only one of the three 'official' symptoms of coronavirus suffered after the vaccination).

@MarchingFrogs thanks. We found the scottish version, but didn't think the school would listen to that. So anyway we phoned the school and told them, and they went off and did some research, and contacted somebody or the other, and the conclusion was that he needed a PCR test. We now wish we hadn't asked, but it being first thing in the morning, and us needing to tell school anyway that he wasn't coming in, it seemed the obvious thing to do.

This was similar advice from elsewhere official. I think it was from an nhs trust website but sources they mention here may point you in the right direction
I can't see properly after eye Hosp appointment so can't look more atm

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachmentdata/file/965177/COVID-199vaccinationprogrammeeguidanceforrhealthcareworkerss26Februaryy2021v3.4.pdf

This is from PHE. page 21
Some earlier NHS sites do say that a test is needed if pyrexia but these are recent ones

@bimkom that sounds very frustrating and annoying but thank you for the warning.

@MaddieElla how did DD get on today with school?

Just going back to the amount of offers in schools etc. DD goes to a large sixth form college so I'm not sure of the number of applicants and offers. However, she has two friends also applying and currently they have 5 offers and one reserve list between them from 11 interviews.

DD has been lucky enough to receive a Sheffield offer too this week which she's very happy about.

My thoughts are most definitely with those still waiting - let's hope some more decisions are made very, very soon.

Well done @LaLaFlottes DD. DS has got a Sheffield offer too this week and is very pleased.

I am also thinking of those still waiting and hoping for lots more good news soon.

Congratulations to both on Sheffield offers
It makes so much difference if they have just one early in the process and I really feel for those still waiting without an offer.
Manchester takes a lot of students. I don't think they've sent any offers yet and for DD's last 2 options (which she is waiting for), it'll be the end of the month so there's plenty of time yet