Another path ....... the journey begins

[chopc]

Hello @321zyx @AvocadoPlant @bendmeoverbackwards @BigWoollyJumpers @Braveheart35 @calculatorqueen @ChimneyPot @Dobbyisahouseelf @Eastisup @jano69 @Majaso12 @MidLifeCrisis007 @NCTDN @Notagardener @OnTheBenchOfDoom @Parsonage63 @Pumpkintopf @Peaseblossum22 @quest1on @Peaseblossum22 @SATSmadness @SeasonFinale @Tenpastseven @Vargas @Xenia

Apologies for anyone I omitted to tag

Spain (and we were all going to Italy too until it was cancelled).

Sorry to hear of vaccination difficulties bend, hope you're able to get a solution in time for that much needed winter break.

@AvocadoPlant how is your DD doing now?

@bendmeoverbackwards I hope your DD manages to get vaccinated. My friend's DD is needle phobic and had a great experience at the vaccine centre, gave her loads of time, laid her down, she wore headphones and had her Dad with her.

Ds is having a great time at Durham. I cannot believe he has only been gone 2 1/2 weeks. My heart feels like it has been much longer. Knowing that he is okay, seeing him on facetime (is that what we still call it, video chat? It is through Discord so Discord video?) helps as I can see his face light up when he talks about stuff meaning I can see he is okay.

Apologies in advance this will be a long question. Can anyone help me though? Ds2 has just attended a sixth form open evening. He will definitely be taking maths, further maths and computer science. However, he is torn between two subjects; Economics and Law. Academically neither should be an issue, he is currently getting 9s in maths, 8/9 in statistics and a 9 in History so good at essay writing. The law thing has thrown me a bit. He is definitely STEM, plays computer games that are physics/engineering/aeronautical based. However he also learns a lot about a lot, is interested in everything and anything. He watches endless stuff on YouTube from Kurzgesagt, Extra Credits, CGP Grey, Tom Scott etc and retains the details. He has been interested in what is going on in the world since primary, we are currently watching The West Wing with him.

Academically fine across the board 8s and 9s. However, he struggles with English lit poetry as he says if it is sunny just say it is sunny so we have been working on unseen poetry over summer to try to improve his understanding. He is currently a grade 6 in this and English lang, however I feel that lockdown learning with no marking and no feedback hasn't helped.

Any pros or cons to either economics or law? He is not looking to do law later we don't believe, possibly maths or computer science at uni. He is not sure. I would also say personality wise he is quite rigid, very much black and white which worries me if there is nuance in the law topic like English lit. He is also an avid reader, mainly books about magic ability.

He is doing triple science on an accelerated scheme as they finished combined content before the end of year 10. I don't know why he doesn't want to take a science A level. We will be talking about this tonight but any insight would be helpful. And again apologies for the long winded nature of this post. @Xenia I don't know if you can weigh in on this? I cannot remember if anyone else is involved with law.

Yes non practising solicitor here. Don't bother with law as an A level. It isn't as well regarded as say economics or history (if that is a possibility too). It won't be required should he want to do a law degree and indeed even if he does go for a STEM degree he can do a law conversion which will be by way of SQE going forward anyway.

Sorry perhaps should have tagged you @OnTheBenchOfDoom in post above

@SeasonFinale thank you for that. History sadly not an option, he is good at it but doesn't love it due to being restricted on what they can learn in class. I keep thinking economics is a better option, far more in keeping with his current affairs interest/statistics/maths although I don't know a lot about economics. I just looked at a past paper this morning which featured the housing market in the UK which I think he would find very interesting.

@allOnTheBenchOfDoom Would he not want to do Physics? That's a good combination with his other subjects? Economics is closer to Maths, but I think it's quite a 'written-based' subject at A level, rather than econometrics?

@OnTheBenchOfDoom would he be interested in government and politics if it's offered by his school?

If it's only between Law and Economics I would choose Economics. You do need to write essays but a lot of it is Maths based

@chopc thanks for your input. He is interested in politics both UK and US and they do offer politics but it isn't something he wants to study as an A level. I am concerned he feels like he is following his brother so has ruled out physics which surprised me as he has always been involved in STEM stuff and was chosen for things outside of school to represent school.

Law came out of left field on the open evening. It was something he mentioned a while ago but I thought he was going to do economics. In fact economics was the first room he wanted to go to. He has some time to make a decision.

oh I lost the first part of my reply, @Jng1 Ds1 fell out of love with physics for A level which I think tainted Ds2's opinion of it.

So Ds1 did maths, fm, computer science and physics
Ds2 is looking at maths, fm, computer science and economics/law

@OnTheBenchOfDoom - DD is recovering well - thank you x
She stayed at uni, and is actually talking about going to her first dance team rehearsal this week and has managed to get to the lectures today in person rather than watching the online version. I think the sunny weather has helped as she was able to sit out at the weekend and her flat mates continue to be amazing!

Re your DS I was struck by your comment he enjoys physics/eng/aero games, in which case I would echo earlier posters and encourage him to look again at physics.

My eldest was very set on doing maths at uni until he went to an open day and listened to talks about Maths, Engineering Maths and Engineering degrees. He came back totally knowing that what he really wanted to study was engineering.
He ended up with a degree in aeronautics and space craft design engineering, including designing a vehicle to travel across the moon for his Masters. Without A level physics he wouldn’t have been able to do that.

@AvocadoPlant I always think sunshine massively helps with mood. I am glad she is doing better. Dh had pneumonia at 18 but was at home. He couldn't breathe and his Mum had to phone an ambulance. Due to the wait time they asked her if she could carry him to the car. This is hysterical if you knew that my lovely MIL was 5'2" and doll like whereas Dh is 6'3" and built to play rugby.

Ds2 is a mystery to me to be honest. He says he doesn't want to do physics, he doesn't enjoy it so much despite the computer games he is playing telling me differently. He plays Star Base -"Starbase is a massively multiplayer online game with gameplay focused on building and designing spaceships and stations, exploration, resource gathering, crafting, trading, and combat" plus Kerbal Space Program, similar in building a spacecraft.

He is very rigid with his views and difficult to persuade to ever change his mind. We are talking all week about this so we will see how far we get. It is just frustrating.

Was trying to be quick in case Ds came back into the room, my screen is the giant TV as I have a computer linked to it. Your Ds's course and masters sounds really interesting.

@OnTheBenchOfDoom DD did double maths without physics ( she did 2 humanities), and had to work hard to keep up with mechanics modules, as she was the only one not doing physics.
Having said that, she loved all her sujects and got good grades. I guess it is a balance between doing subjects that ' go together' and ones they actually enjoy.

@OnTheBenchOfDoom yep sunshine is the natural feel-good medicine!

The course was at Southampton uni and is very well regarded.
www.southampton.ac.uk/courses/aeronautics-and-astronautics-degree-meng

But ultimately it’s no use if it means studying something you don’t enjoy.

Onthebench do you have to decide soon? Dc3 still a bit undecided, currently going on a few open days, letting it sink in and then discuss it further

Lawyer here. Don't do law A level. It has no credibility. Would suggest looking from the other end. What careers would be like, what degrees lead to that, what subjects does he need for those degrees.

@AvocadoPlant glad your dd is recovering well, you must be relieved. The dance team sounds good, what dance styles does she do?

Is anyone else looking back a year to when their UCAS applications went in? What a year, so glad that’s over with. I was talking to a friend whose ds has just submitted his application (applying to Cambridge). Not sure I would want to go through it again. Dd3 is unlikely to apply for Oxbridge but with her autism we’ll have other challenges on the way.

I used to mark A level law papers. The people who do it tend not to be particularly bright and it is not one of the better A levels. I would recommend economics instead which although not one of the harder traditional "facilitating" subjects is one of the best that are not facilitating and most state grammar schools (and academic private schools) offer it?

Maths, further maths and computer science and economics is still just one facilitating subject if someone does not count maths and further maths as 2 (they are often lumped together).

Could he do maths (and further maths), geography and economics? (Or instead of geography one of his sciences)

As he is doing 3 sciences and all those are the harder ones it would be more natural to do something like maths, physics, biology for example (and further maths) which might leave medicine open to him too if he is science minded ( you would need to check with doctors on that though...)

Only do maths if you are very good has been the advice at our schools because although very good people get A star etc if you are not very good you often get D or E whereas had you done something like history or geography or economics or biology you might well have come in with a higher grade. It tends to be an all or nothing subject.

@bendmeoverbackwards I’ve been thinking a lot about this time last year too. Yes- What a year! So stressful and so many hurdles!

Yes Im glad DD2 isnt doing early entry so we dont have that stress again.
This time last year it was all sent off while this year DD2 has drafted a single paragraph of personal statement and picked 2 of 5 unis. She is complicating things by double applying ( to unis and local art foundation) as she fancies a gap year.

Thank you to everyone for your thoughts on Ds2's A level choices. How am I here already? Just as one leaves sixth form another is deciding. It has definitely snuck up on me.

Re the maths/fm @Xenia he gets over 90% on all maths papers so a very secure grade 9 and consistent. His yr 10 mocks grades were mostly 9s. He is dead set on maths, further maths and computer science as he loves these, did maths for fun with Ds1 and has done coding stuff since primary school. He is not interested in medicine at all (squeamish) or pharmacy.

I have found everyone saying don't do law helpful so will steer him toward economics. As to timing, sadly, yes his application needs to be in. It is oversubscribed and even though he is in a feeder secondary, there are many of them and they don't choose based on your academic ability. Instead they look at things like "attitude to learning" which is on every school report, luckily Ds is outstanding across the board. Also how involved are you with school clubs, not necessarily representing the school but what clubs do you join in with? They also do a personal statement which is basically a mini UCAS personal statement.

The system notes when you applied so the earlier the better as apparently this counts as part of your attitude to learning. It would piss me right off but the sixth form is oversubscribed and often the courses are oversubscribed. It is an incredible sixth form so it is worth it.

@bendmeoverbackwards Dh and I were only just saying this time last year... it feels so much longer than that. Would Ds2 consider it? He is very able but also very lazy so all the extra prep for the entrance exam would probably make him say no. Having a child with autism must add a whole other level of worry and stress to what is already a stressful process.

Economic sounds the right choice in that case (instead of law). 4 of my children did economics AS (of the 5 children) and I think it as two of them who did it to A2 (upper sixth). One said it was the most useful life A level in terms of understanding business, law, the economic system etc.

@bendmeoverbackwards thank you! DD has joined the modern jazz competition team. She was very lucky given that she was too ill to attend the final round of auditions, but was offered a place after sending in some dance tapes.
She’s been dancing since she was 3 and was part of the BBO dance scholars scheme until 6th form.
I’m really pleased that she’s been able to continue dancing at university.