Oxbridge Aspirants 2022...Part 2...applications submitted now the tense wait!

[TangoWhiskyAlphaTango]

Thought I would start a new thread as part one is nearly full and found thread one to be of great support.

So its deadline week this week for our applicants then the nervous wait begins to find out of they have made it to interview. DD applying for HSPS at Cambridge. We know it is a long shot but got to be in it to win it and she is very keen to try. Looking at the admissions info it does not look as though she will need to sit a test prior but all the best to those who will have to.

@VikingNorthUtsire my DS2 has Imperial test on Friday. That one took us both by surprise! You have to look very carefully in the admissions small print to see it. It gave DS1 a shock. He's applying for Imperial too but hasn't added it yet. For a second he thought he'd failed to register for an important admissions test 😱

Good luck to all doing the MAT. My son hasn’t applied to imperial yet (he’s submitting the other 4 by mid Jan). Will he have to do that test then?

Good luck to all. I imagine for many this will be their first formal exam as they missed GCSEs which means it's tougher for them, let alone all the other challenges of the last 18 months.

@Darbs76 apparently those who apply before Oct 15th do the Imperial test in Nov, and those who don't apply until Jan do it in Feb. My DS has applied for engineering and his test is Maths/Physics based. Not sure even if all subjects require a test.
DS1 doing Cambridge ENGAA today and DS2 doing Oxford PAT tomorrow! Anyone else for those??

Today's ODFODWTF moment...DD just rang to say her teacher can't see anywhere on the cover sheet to "declare this is the student's own work". (Wording from Admissions) just a box for her name and email address.
I am guessing that by putting her name/email, she's effectively saying it's the student's own work and she's happy to be associated with that.
Can anyone confirm that?

@Eightytwenty, is that what your son's cover sheet was like?

Good luck to all DC sitting an AT today!

All of my DC had a cover sheet which had a check list for the teacher, including a specific declaration of own work. The cover sheet didn’t change over a ten year period so I doubt it’s changed, but might have done. I don’t think Oxford would go for implied statements. There was also a question about the precise nature of the work.

Dropped DD at school. She managed half a slice of toast and half a cup of tea. At least BMAT results are available on 26 November. I'm guessing the other ones follow the same schedule?

@kitnkaboodle - DS is doing the Oxford PAT tomorrow. Not holding out a huge amount of hope - he's spent 1/2 term working through past papers in exam conditions and always scores above the mean but just below the threshold interview score. Has had virtually no support from school and hasn't covered yet several of the topics that tend to come up (though has been trying to teach himself a bit). That said, I'm very impressed with how he's approaching it all - he's definitely developing his independent learning skills which are SO important at university (I work in HE...).

Best of luck to everyone doing tests today/tomorrow

No BMAT is different SandyBayley. For the other tests at Oxford the student won't know the results until after the interviews are done.

I am thinking of all the DC with exams today - also dropped DS off at school (@SandyBayley sincerely hope you didn't see me wedge my car and get stuck in a small space near the porters lodge thereby creating a massive traffic jam - I don't usually do school drop off but DS was very late yesterday on the school bus so decided not to risk it today).

It's funny - I used to worry about all sorts of things in the run up to exams (DS did his French GCSE a year early so have tiny bit of experience of public exams plus the drama of entry exams to get into secondary school). What if his glasses broke on the way in to exam? Or his pen ran out of ink? Or he forgot to leave phone outside? Or his calculator ran out of battery? I even worried about world war two bombs because at a girls school in our area a bomb got discovered by chaps doing roadworks just outside the school gates and the poor kids doing GCSE and A level finals were evacuated MID EXAM by bus to a nearby school to finish them. But I had never worried about the exams actually being cancelled! I'm far more relaxed now and only sent in one spare pencil bag and one extra pair of glasses and contact lenses ...

Ha @Horace123 there was a lot of traffic but I don't think it was your fault!

Good luck to all sitting entrance tests today. DS seemed relatively calm externally and was calming and reassuring other students sitting the test at the start of the week.

Well Horace given that you seem to be a parent at the same school as SandyBayley, at least you haven't had to worry about cows on the road or sheep being moved (slow moving sheep nearly scuppered DS1's chemistry A level).

Hi @foodledoff! Engineering applicants always seem quite thin in the ground here ... or is your DS for Physics?? My DS is on his second gap year (don't ask ...) so he is registered at a private exam centre to do the PAT - in Oxford! So we are off there this pm and staying overnight. Just chose that centre because it was relatively close to home, but now looking forward to the minibreak. Let's compare notes tomorrow. @Horace123 - I am exactly the same with projected exam anxiety!! Particularly regarding calculator batteries. But it's been pointed out that: a) for the Cambridge test you aren't allowed batteries and b) most calculators are solar powered...

... you aren't allowed CALCULATORS ... not batteries. Allowing calculators without batteries would be mean ...

How long does the MAT take? I tried to play it cool this morning.

@kitnkaboodle - he's applying for physics (also pretty thin on the ground I think?)

Enjoy the minibreak in Oxford!

DS reported that his ECAA ( economics test) was the worst he had ever done and incredibly difficult. Even his most brilliant friends found it difficult. How did everyone else do?

DS has come back and said the MAT was the hardest he has done, much harder than last year's.

Well that’s one down and one to go tomorrow (MAT and then TMUA).

@Bapple

DS has come back and said the MAT was the hardest he has done, much harder than last year's.

DS also reports that it was 'very difficult' much more so than the past papers he's completed. He never says anything is difficult really, so it must have been. He said if he'd had more time he would have finished completely but he didn't finish the last 2 questions, which has annoyed him. He's very philosophical as he knows it's a shot in the dark.

He's celebrating it being over with a game of 5 a sides and another gig tomorrow night!

Does anyone from past years know when interviews are offered after MAT?