Thread 51 - Covid GCSE Cohort - Summer 24 - End of Uni Yr 2

[Oblomov24]

2024 Summer, end of year 2 for those at Uni.

This is a support thread for our young adults post GCSEs 2020, regardless of their educational setting, and their results ( or life updates for those who went into work or have had results earlier). It is respectfully requested that all are supportive and helpful to each other. If you want to start a debate, e.g state vs private, uni vs employment please don't within this thread.

Some of us have been here since first thread back in yr10, some will be new. Everyone has been friendly and helpful in the past. Everyone is welcome. It is hoped this will continue. We were previously on the secondary board and then further education, now we shall be here in 'Parents of Adult Children' gulp

Our DS/DD may continue down various pathways ( employment, apprenticeships, higher ed). Experience is that everyone is welcomed wherever, whatever their child is doing we have some in work, gap years , apprenticeships etc too. Lots of contributors with different experiences and always sympathy and advice to be had.

Previous thread 50:

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Well done to all those who have got their results, another year in the bag! ds's i think come out on the 18th.

Yesterday we went to view a property for ds...'A room in a luxury flat share', ds said. As soon as satnav said we were 0.5m away whilst we were still on the high street my heart sank. As we turned into the street, i thought, 'Oh no!' DS looking hopeful that we'll pull up in front of a nice block of flats or some such. Nope, we pulled up right in front of the filthiest house on the street. Literally! overflowing bins, rubbish strewn all over the front entrance so you have to hop over smeared rotten food on the paving to reach the door. A lovely aroma emanated from the bins everytime the wind blew..ahh!!! DS looked horrified!

Inside was no better. The agent kept asking how does 'this', compare to your student digs at uni? he obviously thought it was pretty decadent. Everything was tired and worn and dirty. I think what really surprised us was it was obviously the same house on their website..but the colours were vibrant the background was clean white and it looked almost like a new build. What was before us was an extremely old and unkept place. DS tried to be hopeful as we were ushered upstairs to the room. The ceiling was low enough that I started to hyperventilate a little as it felt so claustrophobic, I'm 5ft 1.

We scrambled back to the car afterwards and just sat in silence catching our breaths. Wednesday we're going back to view more properties.

Well done @JustHereWithMyPopcorn DS and @crazycrofter DD.

DS's grades were not great but definitely an improvement on last year (no resits) and apart from one, an improvement on January. Given the year he's had and his limited attendance, he's done well and he see's a glimmer of hope that he can actually get a degree. Having said that, in France, if he misses two lectures in a module in the whole year, he fails that module 🤦

@shimy, that sounds a bit like DS's house in Nottingham 🤣 I could just about cope with it until the first time I saw a rat.
I hope you find somewhere better.

Congratulations to those with results!

Oh dear @shimy that sounds grim 😩 Hoping for more luck later in the week!

Is it just our kids @Heifer @JustHereWithMyPopcorn @mummyinbeds or are Nottingham quite harsh in their marking? I don’t recall people failing exams when I was at Leicester and I barely ever got less than a 2:1? Dd has told me her average for the year and it’s better than her semester one average! 😅 She needs 62 next year for an overall 2:1 and thinks she’ll be fine as she’s planning to go to lectures and not leave things til the last minute! I think she will work harder next year… a long distance boyfriend really didn’t help in semester 1 this year, but that finished in Feb!

@mummyinbeds if your ds does have ADHD then I suspect the motivation of losing his degree might actually get him up and out to lectures! My two both respond to strict consequences!

Ds has amazed me … the boy who struggled to get up for a 9.15 start in sixth form is doing 6am shifts at Tesco and getting up and out on his own! He is still fairly frequently a few minutes late but he wants to improve on that as he knows it might affect his reference in future. It’s a 4 minute drive to Tesco and I heard him close the front door (very loudly!) at 5.55 today 🤣

@crazycrofter I certainly hope you're right. His attendance got worse between year 1 and 2 though, despite resits and an average in the 40's. He lost 5% in one module this year for submitting 24 hours late (he'd had 8 weeks) but got away with submitting his 29 hour exam 2 minutes late.
I don't know how getting up in France is going to work. Lectures can start at 8am. His human alarm clock (me) is going to have to operate on continental time. Thank goodness it's only France!
DS would consider that your DS set off for work a little too early 🤣 I know via DD that DS used to run a shortcut through the village to intercept the school bus.

@mummyinbeds How relieved your DS and you must be that he cleared everything. So pleased for you.
DS has already decided he's definitely not taking that place which is a shame as its 20mins walk from his office.
@crazycrofter Well done to your DD!

Good to hear those receiving results and the strategies, if any needed to get through next year. Results issuing seems like forever ago for DD, her uni finishes up everything so much earlier than UK, all good on her results.

She's on her penultimate day of stewarding at Wimbledon, leaving at 05.20 each morning, no break over 10 days. I think there's just been one day of zero rain, her blisters from having daily soaking wet shoes are pretty grim, (she's ended up with horrific cold) and she says the morale of the overnight campers has deteriorated by the day :( However, the upside is getting onto centre/no.1 courts post shift and has realised what the pull is, siting atmosphere of game as the clear reason queuers put themselves through hell. So it's been worth it.

Her spanish has come in very useful too, she's been one of the key translators on-site; it's lifted her day when visitors' faces light up with someone to engage with on their queries.

In other news, I am awaiting delivery of her Irish passport today. On the day it was due to auto cancel from the system from being over 6 months old. 4 x new paperwork/additional proof of address/names later etc etc (seriously, she's only ever lived in the one home for 20 years, all docs were in order first time round), a kind soul in the London Irish Embassy came to her rescue due to her visa challenges for Y3 if she'd remained a non EU citizen. After starting all this in 2018 with the FBR certificate, I didn't foresee the passport bit being an issue (including loss of docs!) so we hadn't undergone the student visa process that apparently takes circa 9 months for Europe if staying over 90 days.

Good luck with anyone considering the application process, though I think DD just fell on the wrong side of this from the get-go, and not a usual experience for all.

What an ordeal @ealingwestmum , I’m glad the passport is in sight now! My brother applied for his maybe 18 months ago and it arrived not long ago.

@mummyinbeds actually I’ve just checked google maps and it’s a 6 minute drive 🤣 He says they’re allowed to be 3 minutes late though 🤔 I don’t envy you being ds’ human alarm clock! I’ve woken up in a panic a couple of times at 5.30 thinking I can’t hear ds, but both times he’s been in the bathroom. But the Tesco job isn’t quite as important as your ds’ lectures!

Well done for everyone with results!

Well done to those passing and no resits, What a relief.

Thankfully no resits for DD 😀
But she is really upset with her results. Thinks she has averaged a 2-2. Second yr Results are 30% towards 3rd (final year). She says she thinks she will need to average 65% next year which would be ok if she hadn't have been working hard already.

@crazycrofter I'm not sure if
Nottingham mark harshly, DD will say yes though.

I think there are definitely areas she can improve on (ask for extensions when 2 pieces of work for different modules are due at the same time). She worked really hard on 1 piece and was exhausted so didn't work so hard on
the 2nd piece and only had 2 days. She cant seem to work on 2 things at the same time..

When I left her this morning it was all doom and gloom bit she seems much better now she has been with her bf. He has just graduated with a 1st so wont help... he will be living in Nottingham for the next 2 years at least working on a grad scheme with guaranteed job at the end. I think that will be better for DD as hr will have his own place so not staying with her for 4 days at a time every other week! That cant have helped her working during term time. Again something which might help her grades be higher next year. Im sure she will stay at his quite a lot but at least she isn't waiting longingly to see
Him kind of thing.

God im just so relieved no resits as that would have made the rest of the summer hard going for all of us!

@Heifer 30% of yr 2 is a bit mean isn't it? i thought most did 40% for yr 2 meanwhile I'm not sure what ds's uni does (Warwick).

Someone here had a bad back & surgery and I've forgotten who it was. If it's you i hope you're recovering very well? how are you?

@shimy its better for DD that only 30% of 2nd year results is used towards final mark. She can now affect the other 60% next year 😀

DD mentioned that her tutor at Nottingham had already arranged online meetings with her small group for the end of the week.
Has anyone else got the same experience? I remember last year people mentioning their
DS/DD hasnt meet with tutor.

@Heifer Ah! she is looking at it from a different angle. I thought a generous 40% would spread the odds a bit more and wouldn't make the pressure of the last yr quite so intense but I can see that only works if you did really well in the 2nd yr. I wish her all the best on her final yr and hope she gets the 2:1 she's after.

Shimy that flat sounded like every place I lived in as a student! 😂

Well dont to your DCs @crazycrofter and @Heifer - hoorah to no resits!!
DS says that this years results are only 25% of his degree so I'm hanging on to hope of him dragging himself into a 2:1 by my fingernails!

@Heifer yes DS gets no 1-1 tutors, his tutor groups are 6-8 students.

@ealingwestmum it took 2.5 years for me to get my DSs on the FBR, I couldn't face the passports after that! DS turned 18 while I was doing it so they stopped communicating with me and would only email him then. We had to send new photos in also. You're giving me flashback nightmares! 😫 Hope the passport arrives soon!

Ah yes @JustHereWithMyPopcorn DD was also a child applicant, but they told DH all good as he’d already started the process, they’d stay on the same application ref. Then Covid closure, DD now an adult, they rejected it and put her to the back of the queue. The 2 year queue.

I’m with you, if she hadn’t been a language student who has every intention of working overseas if possible, I would have given up long ago. But the access to Erasmus terms, on top of further reduction in fees for EU students (including to health services) just made it too compelling.

I’m hoping it’s like childbirth, my memory will erase the pain over time 😂

Dd says her split is 1/3 second year, 2/3 third year, which is good for her as it gives her a chance of pulling herself up to a 2:1. Sounds like all our Notts kids are in the same boat. I’m sure your dd will find it easier having her bf living locally @heifer, it will free up more time for her.

@ealingwestmum i think I’d have lost the plot if they had made DS start all over again, you have all my sympathies and respect in your endurance! I’ve told DS1 if he wants the passport he can deal with that himself now. 😄

@crazycrofter for his summer job ds2 used to leave for work at 7.55am he needed to be there at 8am. Ds3 is currently doing work experience at the same place, I have been leaving at 7.45am we arrive a couple of mins before. So ds2 must've been late every day. He might have scraped a few mins of the journey. That's ds2 though, he's never, ever in a hurry.

Ds had his results today. He had some higher marks and some lower. The average being 70. So he's just scraped a first. He was actually expecting higher.

Ds has messaged from Australia. He said the bathroom and kitchen are so dirty. He says they can't have been cleaned for years. He's keeping food in his room, that is clean. He's bought sliders for the bathroom. The cooking facilities aren't good either. He said it's takes ages to boil a pan for pasta. He's living there for a year. So he will have to get used to it. He found a place online where they play 5 a side football. He went by bus, the driver told him he needed a bus pass, they don't pay as they get on. The driver let him on anyway, but the driver on the way home said no, so Ds had 2 and half hour walk home. He's almost out of money now. I offered some but he said no. Both his savings accounts are asking to send a code to his mobile. I've ordered a sim but it's not arrived yet. Then I have to get his old number onto the sim. So that will take a while.

Well done everyone.
Ds failed 2 of his 3 papers and is flying home from camp America for resits.
He had feared one failure, tax, they all came out completely non-plussed (so one has to question the teaching and exam preparation of the teacher if all of them were so stumped) . But that's irrelevant now. Plus that doesn't explain the 2nd paper. Too cocky? Underestimated it. I always thought doing 3 at a time was mad, because we only ever did 2 at a time. But still... I don't yet know how long he's got until resits? A few weeks? Re-Studying for 2 papers in such a short time will be hard. But he must pass, or else he's thrown off the course!

Just checking in. DS went back to Brum today to work on his internship whic is rather dull. His Edgbaston job only gave him 3 shifts in the end so he's a bit broke. Still somehow managing to afford interrailing with DS1 in August.

He can't seem to work out his results ratios but his results this year range from 58 % to 75% . The marking seems really subjective. He thinks his average is about 66%.

He's been made sports editor of the Birmingham Uni Newspaper. I told him not to mention there are three of them!

That will be good experience for him @Piggywaspushed ! Is he still hoping to go into journalism?

On no @Oblomov24 , the Nottingham curse strikes again, what a pain 😬 Are they uni-set exams or ICAEW papers? All I can remember about my ICAEW exams is they were hard! Can’t remember how many papers we did at a time 🤔

@icanbewhatiwant ds2 will hopefully learn some things from this experience! 🤞

Yes, I think so!

He's trying to get on to some sort of alumni mentoring programme with Ben Shepherd.

oooh! @Piggywaspushed That internship sounds great. Didn't know BS went to Notts. Hoping he gets onto the program and hope this will be the beginning of a very illustrious career for your DS.