2026 UCAS - Offers, Rejections and then the exams! (Thread 2)

[EducatingRosemary]

Starting a new thread as our original is almost full…

Original thread

There were definitely very few girls!

@Llangewydd57 congratulations to your dc on getting an offer from LSE. DS is still waiting…….

I'll have to quiz my son on that, though I don't suppose he noticed.

Gearing up for muck-up week here. Final day of school on Friday before study leave. 7 weeks today it’s all over. On the home straight now.

@NellyNoMates intrigued - what is muck up week?

Last week of school - costumes, pranks etc. My DC are at a school with a 6th form so my DD has been there for 7 years. No 6th form colleges here. Muck up week (used to just be muck up day when I was at school) is very much a tradition in schools around here. Some go all out and there is trouble and damage caused, others tend to be more sensible and have good fun without causing offence or damage.

My DC are at an all girls’ school with an all boys’ school just down the road. Lots of interaction between the two and every year there are high jinx between them. Usually instigated by the boys - egging cars, getting into the opposite school, or waiting outside the gates at home time, with water pistols, delivering 100 pizzas to the headmistress’s office, kidnapping the head boy and dumping him in the grounds of the girls’ school wearing a silly costume etc.

DD went to school today dressed in a costume starting with the first letter of her name. Tomorrow is primary school day when they all go in wearing their primary school ties, and their hair like they wore it in primary - primary school bags, lunch bags, book bags if they have them. I believe there is also talk of them all meeting somewhere nearby and scooting to school on kids’ scooters if they can all get a hold of one for the day. Wednesday is “on Wednesdays we wear pink”, and Thursday is “everything but the bag” day.

The school also puts on events for them - pizza lunch today, cupcakes on Wednesday and leavers’ BBQ on Friday.

There are always pranks too - some of what I’ve heard so far this year includes wanted posters of teachers plastered all over the school and on the streets around the school, TPing the trees in the school grounds, some of the arty students drawing caricatures on all the teacher’s whiteboards etc

@NellyNoMates sounds amazing fun, my DC had a similar week last year at school, after 7 years, finishing on the Friday with the prom.
No exam stress for us this year and DC back from travelling and starting work again in the local supermarket on Wed. Only stress is deciding which Uni to firm-it’s driving me crazy!
Good luck to your DC and all the others as they start their A-Levels 🍀

Goodness @NellyNoMates that sounds a bit wild. It's all school 6 forms around here (no colleges) and they don't do anything like that. I am quite glad to be honest as that sounds like it could get out of control very quickly.

They are all in school during the exams so end of school is not until June.

Och it’s mostly good fun. There are a few schools that do it to a lesser extent, but it really is a bit of a rite of passage here in NI. Of course there are always ones who take it too far - last week at the neighbouring boys’ school a few boys were put on early study leave, and I’d say that happens every year in some schools. Going way, way back I remember in my day some boys not being allowed to sit their exams in the school but they had caused some serious damage that year. Mostly it really is just good fun with some rivalry between schools - esp if you have a girls’ grammar and a boys’ grammar in close proximity.

I’ve heard of schools in England doing away with study leave at GCSE and A level but that isn’t really a thing here. Some high schools (non-selective secondaries) keep them in for a bit longer, but I don’t know any schools that keep them in all the way to June and I don’t know any grammars (about 45% of secondary schools in NI are grammars) that do. They are all out early May. My DC thrive on home study leave so I’m glad it’s that way here.

Wow sounds quite fun! I remember at school the last week involved throwing eggs at each other and at the school walls, but that was it! Good luck to everyone’s DC as we enter exam time.. and to all the parents too. And special solidarity to those like me who have one doing GCSEs and one doing A levels! 😫 Tesco wine aisle will be seeing a lot of me over the next two months 😂

But I reckon it is worse to have it offset by a year, so you have awful exams every year for several years!

In Wales we have exams 4 years in a row anyway (GCSEs are sat in years 10 and 11, AS levejs in year 12 and A levels in year 13), so it’s not unusual to have multiple kids sitting exams in the same year.

We also have national testing every year from year 2-9.

Tesco must definitely increase their wine order at this time of year!!

Same here in NI, although not all schools do many modules in 4th form. Some do half of every subject, some only do a small handful. My DC only do 3/4 modules in 4th form so it’s not as high pressure. Still, with AS levels, it’s 3 years in a row of very high stakes exams. This is year 6 for us with our DC - 3 more years to go. Our DC just happen to be spaced 3 years apart so as one finishes, the next one starts!

The historical (most common and lowest etc) grades on UCAS have now updated to include 2025 in case that’s of interest to anyone.

Thank you @EducatingRosemary . Edinburgh still aren’t sharing. Sheffield has got slightly tougher. It’s good to have the most recent stats available.

Dd finally firmed Edinburgh for Fine Art. Now for the accommodation application. We are due to move house before she starts, so she'll need to change her address on UCAS first.

What are her thoughts on accommodation @TeenWhisperer? So many options at Edinburgh.

@ArchitectureMum its tricky but I think we’ll figure out 5 options! There seems to be pros and cons to them all. Pollock is quite a walk to ECA but catered. But there are also a few really good uncatered central options.

Can I ask for your thoughts please?

DD absolutely loves kings CL and wants to study history and IR or politics there.

they’ve offered her history only. Queen Mary have offered her history and IR.

she’s torn between which to firm and insure.

would you go for fave uni or fave course? My instinct is to put QM as her firm, but I didn’t go to uni so not sure how much of a factor the location/vibe is.

anyone able to offer any pearls of wisdom?

I’d like her to decide and confirm before exam starts so she can stop thinking about it.

Do they have the same grade requirement?

no, they don’t. KCL has higher and will be a stretch for DD.

So she couldn’t put Queen Mary firm and KCL as insurance because of the grade difference, so either firm KCL and QM insurance or just reject KCL and firm QM?

I’d encourage her to go for the University she’s most keen on, which sounds like KCL. I don’t know much about those courses but is there scope for her to specialize more towards her interests as the course goes on?

Then on results day if she doesn’t get the stretch grades she needs for KCL she hopefully won’t be too disappointed, because she’ll hopefully end up with the course she prefers at QM.

I don’t know much about those unis or that subject though!

I’d encourage her to have a really good look at the course modules and options for both courses she has offers for too, to make sure she is happy with the compromise at KCL

STILL waiting for Warwick PPE here. DS is fine if they don’t offer, but FFS, just say one way or another 🙄. His exams have already started, so I am not allowed to mention it any more.

@EducatingRosemary Most helpful, thank you. DS attended his final OHD today so it’s time for him to firm & insure.