Current Oxford/Cambridge students support/chat continued (2)

[Panicmode1]

The other thread is nearly full so I took the liberty of starting a new one...

Very sorry to hear that Panicmode1. Some of the exams just seem to have crazily difficult questions. The chances are that if it was one of your DS’s better papers the the moderation will still put him high 🤞

Ds I think has only a couple of times ever said 'thought that went well' to an exam and they've never been uni ones. He's giving off a 'really not great, but not terrible' vibe at the moment. Only one to go though.

I'm not sad that ds doesn't wear sub-fusc for exams but I'm sad that the carnations aren't a thing at C

Having listened to DD's insistence that they were going to go very badly, I stopped asking about exams at all. It'll only freak me out if she repeats this assertion after the fact, and on past form she's unlikely to say anything different. I keep finding other excuses to check in with her, as if, tralala, finals are nothing, nothing at all.

Very good luck to all those DCs still doing exams and for those who've finished - massively well done on getting through them all!

You can never really tell how you've done and I hope everyone's DCs can just relax and celebrate to the full afterwards. DS1 and DS2 particularly enjoyed all the social get togethers, balls etc, post exams - and throughout their whole time at O & C. I think the lovely contrast between hard work and then festivities really heightens the pleasure of the fun.

For those of your DCs who will be leaving O & C at the end of this term, I hope they continue to feel very proud of all they've achieved. Same for those with further years ahead of them at uni. Hope everyone's DC can enjoy the summer vacation when it arrives and get time to relax.

It's great hearing news of our DCs, as many of us have been on this thread for a number of years now. I'll chip in from time to time with news of my DCs and hope that others do the same.

Hearing all your YP challenges with their exams, keeping them in my thoughts especially your DS @Panicmode1

Thank you to those who stick around still to impart their knowledge. It is hugely appreciated.

DD has one (yes only one) Y1 exam on the last day of exams / start of May week so she has been discombobulated by her friendship group / theatre / revs being in abeyance (until now…) she is out this evening for a bit of a jolly and in her own words ‘the last date I can reasonably go out and not feel irresponsible’. She has been home for a few days with head in books and essays (plus visits to theatre) so I know she has been working hard on her submissions so exams in a different vein.

She had a supervision today with feedback on her suite of essay submissions. Following feedback from DoS she is feeling good but also vaguely concerned as her nebulous plan of aiming for a 2:1 whilst enjoying all that C has to offer Is at risk of turning into the college prize of £500 for getting a first in the end of year exams / assessments and she isn’t happy at the weight of expectation that may create.

She is certainly conscious the workload of the NatSci, medics and law students (and others) are very different to her experience.

Sounds good PettsWoodParadise. My advice would be to take the cash and wear any expectation lightly. DD4 is a scholar and has been very clear with me that she is not aiming for a First. I'm just glad that - with two papers still to go admittedly - she seems to have kept her head above water and sounds fine on the phone and on WhatsApp. Much bigger things in life than a First.

Fingers crossed for everyone with DC sitting Finals. DD2 (non O/C) has completed hers now - she is taking an integrated Masters science course which also included a year abroad, so it seems a LONG time since she set off for uni. She's just enjoying herself and imparting her wisdom to 1st years which she is enjoying whilst waiting for her results, which I hope will come in the next week or so. DD1 is somewhere in the Far East. Her plans have changed and the trip seems to be rather like Race Across the World. She WhatsApps us one random photo every day or so. Tuesday's was some characters from Shrek painted on a wall. Today's was the Traffic Safety Prayer Pagoda which might be near Busan - her Geography is so dire, she could be anywhere!

DS had his last exam this morning!

Woop @Ironoaks - I think ds is finishing as I type this!

2nd year done. Omg.

Big relief Ironoaks and PermanentTemporary. DD4 has her last one tomorrow morning. DD1 who normally writes perfectly legibly wrote so badly in her final exam (Law/ 2013) that she had to pay £60 afterwards to dictate the scrawl so that it could be marked. DD4 very pleased this afternoon to hear that her start date for her new life in London isn't until 30th Sept 👏

All done here too.

Whoop for @Ironoaks @PermanentTemporary @Malbecfan and @Karolinska ’s YPs. Hope they’ve got some lovely plans now exams are over.

DS1 is also 'done' - he handed in his thesis yesterday and headed straight to the pub!

My working premise (judging by the pics/ messages sent yesterday) is that DD4 will be waking up extremely late with a very large headache.

Rowing is supposed to feature again soon but I hope not this morning.

DD had two 3 hour exams today, opposite sides of Cambridge with 1 1/2 hour in between to wrap up admins on the first exam, go back to college, grab lunch and set off again for exam at 1:30pm. The logistics were extremely tight, but luckily she has a bike. We were worried when we didn’t hear from her afterwards, thinking it must have gone so bad that didn’t want to message us, but turns out, she was having a nap. She doesn’t normally nap, but her brain must be exhausted. Anyway, she survived, they weren’t too bad, but she said it’s difficult to know how she did relative to the cohort.

Another two 3 hour exams on Monday, luckily at the same location. Then two more after that. Then May Ball, home and Taylor Swift which she is very much looking forward to.

@Teriyakieverything it's a challenge trying to juggle exams from four different university departments. It's good that she has some fun events to look forward to. What courses does she plan to take in second year?

Thanks @Ironoaks . She is definitely looking forward to focusing more on Chemistry next year.Her Physics is not as strong as her Chemsitry it would seem. Even though she didn’t do A level biology, she enjoyed the biology of cells, but really didn’t like the amount of rote memorisation involved in the exams, so she thinks she’ll drop the biology next year. She thought about Physics, but is she thinks doing 3 modules with labs involved would be too intense, and unbalanced. So it’s between Maths, History and Philospphy of Science or Quantitative Environmental Sciences. Thing with History and Phil of science is that even though she would find it interesting, especially with C being directly involved in some key history changing discoveries, she doesn’t fancy essay heavy exams and modules. So it’s between Maths and QES, and she’s got a bit of time to decide and will see how the maths exams go. In C especially, there will always be people better than her in Maths, I mean, there are genius level Mathmos in C, so she ll have to see…..QES sounds really interesting in terms of pulling all the STEM subjects together at a systems. applications and policy level, as long as she focus on the science and data side of things and doesn’t come out as some climate cult activist. E.g. JSO. That’s kind of the thinking at the moment.::..

@Teriyakieverything I think that's very sensible thinking.

HaPoS - sounds really interesting but yes, lots of essays.
Maths - as she is aware, most of the double physics students will be taking this (especially those interested in theoretical physics) and many of them are able mathematicians. If she is a strong mathematician then this is a nice fit with Chemistry.
QES - wasn't available to DS as it's new, but it sounds really interesting and a good fit with Chemistry.

At the end of first year, DS initially couldn't decide which one to drop out of Physics A / Physics B / Materials / Maths. His DoS tried to persuade him to take all four, which to me seemed insane ambitious.

@Ironoaks I didn’t realise just how new QES is, it does sound interesting, as long as it is not ideologically biased.

So which of materials science or maths did your DS drop in the end after year one?

Yay to your DS and all the DC s finishing their exams. I bet the undergrad years must seem to go really quickly looking back.

@Teriyakieverything
DS dropped Materials and took double Physics + Maths.
Part of the decision was strategic. He did well in IA Materials, but his Physics and Maths marks were higher. Later in the course the number of Physics places isn't capped (any 2:1 is enough) but Materials is more competitive (finite number of spaces allocated on ranking).

He is happy with the choice he made. He had no problems with Part IB Maths and it was helpful for Part II Physics.

Just jumping in here @Teriyakieverything , my DD took HaPoS. Her DoS tried to put her off saying it was very essay-heavy but DD told him she had an A level in English Literature, to which he replied "you'll love it". She sort of did. Even though she is a good essay writer, she found it hard going, especially early on because the way you structure essays for English A level is apparently not how they want them in HaPoS. Once she cracked that, she found the whole subject fascinating.

@Ironoaks is right about the cap on numbers for Materials. DD was pretty sure that was what she wanted to focus on in her 3rd year so knew that she had to ace her 2nd year exams to get there (or maybe that was her 3rd going into 4th year - I can't remember and she's now in Japan so I can't ask her). Numbers were capped at 40 so she was pretty determined and I think she ended up somewhere in the top half of that. She's still based in the Materials Science department with hopefully less than a year to go - the funding runs out in 9 months so she needs to crack on.

It might be a good idea for your DD to ask college parents what they took and how they decided and to talk to supervisors and to supervision partners. Even if they say "don't touch X with a barge-pole" it's still good to find out.

Thank you for the tips and heads up @Ironoaks and @Malbecfan . I didn’t know about the caps and the competitive nature further on. I wonder if 4th MSc in Chemistry is capped?🤔 Kind of brutal how C creams off the most academically able, and then rank them against each other.

4th year MSc

I don't know @Teriyakieverything but it's less likely. Materials is capped apparently due to lab space (according to DD). When I next manage to contact her I will ask. However, she is travelling and not the best at remembering to stay in touch anyway so don't hold your breath!