Oxbridge 2024 Entry Part 4

[Lightsabre]

New thread as our dc start the rollercoaster ride of interviews.

OMG your poor DD! I suppose the college doesn't want feedback to be influenced by the outcome, but honestly, that's not considerate timing!

Wow @catmomof3 that must have been a shock for her!! Hope she's recovered. I imagine the uni is under pressure to get substantial feedback on applicant experience this year with the test mix ups but still it's a bit tone deaf in terms of timing!

I've been away from this thread over the Christmas and NY period so HNY to all!

Not long to wait now for o. I will be glad to have closure for DS either way, too many ifs and buts at the moment.

Term starts for DS on Tuesday, he did his mocks before Christmas so should have a fairly relaxing start to the term. Good luck to all the DC doing mocks at the moment.

Ds is a bit tense here as his mocks start the following Monday. I'm glad he's not sitting a mock on Tuesday when the Oxford results come out. He has an Imperial interview which clashes with one of his mock exams so it's going to be a hard 3 weeks now. We have a family party and a few days away in Feb half term to look forward to at least.

We also need to book a couple of offer holder days for two of his choices. They may well become his first and insurance choices. He's decided to drop the 5th choice (his third offer).

@Lightsabre @lifeturnsonadime good luck for this week. I can relate to the point that it will be good to know either way by Tuesday. My daughter has mocks that start on Monday and she has two on Tuesday and had just come down with a cold and conjunctivitis which is not great timing! She's joked that she might have red eyes anyway on Tuesday. I'm finding this last part of the wait the toughest!

Mocks started for my son on Thursday. As expected Maths didn’t go well as he has not put in enough work - I don’t think he has ever scored below 80% before so hopefully it is a relative rather than absolute disaster. He is trying to practice as much as possible for the next paper. Latin went very well though and not expecting a problem with its other papers or History as he is only being tested on the units they did in Y12.

What will be an issue is the tube strike! His journey to school by tube is easy and takes a reliable 40 mins door to door. It is 6 miles across London though so it is a different story by bus. Getting there isn’t so bad (about an hour) as long as he leaves very early, but getting back could well be 2 hours plus. I offered to see if I could arrange for him to sit the mocks at home, but he has decided to give it a go as there may be strikes during his actual exams. At least for the real thing it won’t be on four consecutive days though thankfully.

My son got a feedback request from his Cambridge college on Wednesday. Thought it would have been sent to everyone, but it appears not so will have to try and not read anything in to this now 😂.

Looking forward to celebrating all the successes on the 9th and overall am envious as it will put the end to the uncertainty.

Hi all. Also took a break from the thread over NY, so happy new year to all.

DD has her first two mocks on Tuesday - so a very tough day. I’ll also be very relieved once we know one way or the other. She definitely won’t be reapplying; she now has offers from all four other options so, assuming it’s a no from O, post mocks we’ll probably do a couple of offer holder days so she can make a final decision and then concentrate on her A levels.

I do rather envy those whose DC's have their other offers in - the ability to take Tuesday as a junction in the road and say "right, now we know you have those options@ is so much more appealing than "right, let's wait and see what might happen with the others then".

DD has mocks starting on Monday and has one Tuesday morning.

She had an email about feedback on the interview process from the college she applied to - another person she met at the choral scholarships auditions also did. The only thing she seems to be reading into it is that it asked for feedback by 9am on Tuesday so she thinks she won’t find our before her mock exam that morning!

Am quite glad she’s gone to the library to revise today as at least her presence isn’t casting potential gloom over the house

Durham offer in today. Nice timing to soften Tuesday's likely outcome.

That’s good news. Do you mind saying which subject and if contextual or not? Thanks

Happy New Year to all. Tuesday seemed to be an age away but suddenly it’s upon us!

My DS is distinctly tetchy whilst insisting he doesn’t care either way and believes he won’t be hearing good news. He has unconditional offers (he has grades in hand) from two universities but is unlikely to hear from his two very much favoured alternatives to Oxford until some time over the next months I guess. This means it’s very uncertain in his mind if it’s a no on Tuesday, which isn’t helping!

Very best of luck to all your DCs on Tuesday (and of course to those having to wait longer for Cambridge). I hope they have the answer they hope for but if they don’t that they can shift their attention with resilience to the many other fantastic options out there. Knowing either way and pressing on is what I’m looking forward to!

@WombatChocolate German Aaa non-contextual.

DS had his mocks before Christmas and did well in two, but flunked maths majorly. He is more than capable but teaching is abysmal and there are twenty students in the class, many of whom got 5s and 6s at GCSE. His school was in the paper the other day for being well below average in the performance tables (the worst performing mainstream school in the borough).

In a way, I dread him being offered a place and him not making the grades more than I worry about him not being offered a place.

What is a feedback request in your son’s case? I asked Dd if she’ll get feedback from her C college and she said she could ask for it after offer day.

@Maggiethecat It was the college asking for my son’s feedback on his experience of the application and interview process rather than a request for feedback on him. You can request feedback, but as your daughter says only after offer day and also only if you were unsuccessful.

@zen1 would a maths tutor be an option? Can recommend an online one if that's useful

@stoneysongs thanks - that would be useful. I’ve looked locally but can’t find one with the knowledge to teach A level.

I have pm'd you @zen1 👍

oxford would be a magical place to study but dd has an offer elsewhere that is probably a better course for her. So she will move on and aim for that if it’s a no on Tuesday. I don’t think she was asked for feedback on the process but I think on the whole the process was thorough with all the work submitted and the interviews. Dd is a state school pupil so maybe that is in her favour or not but we shall see. Best wishes to all and I for one will be glad to get this one behind us one way or the other!

DD is now fixated on getting an offer from Durham. It’s the last one besides Cambridge for her to hear from. Previously she was a bit nonchalant about it and favoured Exeter. But now I think she’s seeing it as half way between the two with some added prestige thrown in. She has the amazingly low offer from Exeter but I think there’s a bit of reverse psychology at play now in that she almost feels like firming Exeter is too easy and like she hasn’t worked hard enough for it. 🤦‍♀️

She’s booked offer holder day for Exeter. Doesn’t seem too bothered about her other offers (Warwick and Lancaster). And who knows if she’ll hear from Durham before the offer holder days!

I do think Durham's tendency to have many pupils still hanging out there as the offer days come round is a disgrace - it's their process and their offer days - they ought to be able to coordinate them.

But pupils still have time to submit their UCAS forms so it's hardly a disgrace

The A star students tend to get their offers earlier

@Rollergirl11 my DS is the same. Durham will be firm or insurance depending on Cambridge outcome. Is preferring Durham over Warwick for the collegiate aspect, lower offer so better insurance and it’s closer to us, with easier public transport links.