Results Day 2018

[Groovee]

Hi everyone

Thought that as the 7th is fast approaching, it would be worth doing a thread to for the day and the build up.

Dd needs a B in anything to get into Uni and ds is getting his Nat5 results. Will be a tense morning.

Thanks @prettybird. Yes his assignment let him down. Although the teacher rated the draft as definitely A grade worthy, he ended up with 56%. He's considering asking for a remark which the school will do, but he runs the small risk of his grade being lowered to a C. His exam paper (without the poor assignment) was 68% so still under the 71% result required for an A. He was counting on his assignment to push up his mark.

Any opinions on what is best? Any other subject wouldn't be a big deal but it's the only one he's continuing into sixth year at AH and his confidence is dented also his pride as it's the only B grade he's ever been given and it's the subject most relevant for his application for Law.

Thx

That sounds good brillo, DS2 in a very similar boat and whilst even if he disappoint to uni he will not be looking at a fist full of unconditional like his brother, he has the potential to get at least another couple of highers and get a place somewhere with a reasonable reputation. Although he has announced that he thinks he'd like to be a barman....

Disappoint= did apply

@WaxOnFeckOff thanks, I'm feeling much better. Just hoping it's been enough to keep me out of hospital. Got the GP later.

Ds is fine. We had a chat about looking at his options now. The maths annoys me as when he went in to S4, he was an A grade student. So not sure what's gone wrong and now he has the same teacher to repeat it. Going to speak to the school.

As I said to Dd, I have 4 friends who have stared their dream careers in their 30's, and whilst she of course doesn't want to wait that long it shows it not impossible even if you don't manage it straight from school.

Groovee, sadly some people can be really bright but just not great at teaching or your child just gel with them. We had similar issues, but I am pleased with the option they had for the S6 and S5s who were mainly doing a resit or grading up to Nat5 from 4. They had a really lovely nurturing teacher and a smaller class and it boosted DSs confidence being in a class with less pressure to be a mathemagician. He hadn't had any issues with Maths prior to having this teacher in S3 and we did get him moved for S4 but by that point he was already far behind and lost confidence. My Ds1 had the same teacher and a different experience though as he naturally had a more maths type of brain. I'd definitely push for a change of teacher and I'd also recommend the Carol Vorderman book referred to earlier to consolidate the basics. I think in the end there is no substitute for just practice over and over again.

Alittlewornout She liked St A' s but is very aware the offer would be like a Willy Wonka Golden Ticket so won't be investing many thoughts unless she got an offer. Figure that St A's, Edi and Durham are all equally as tricky for offer so it'll be a case of picking one and not expecting anything. What halls did your DS go for and then end up in?

Thanks eating

Dc doesn’t want to do 3 subjects in 1st year so would prefer an English uni. I think graduating and working a year earlier would make up for the fees.

Considering Oxford, Durham, UCL.

I know a few that applied to English universities this year, offers were conditional on Advanced Highers, one wanted Imperial and the offer was 3 band ones at Advanced Higher.

Hi eatinglesschocolate he ended up in DRA you don’t actually get to choose your hall just the type of accommodation you would prefer eg catered or non catered. No reason your Dc won’t be offered a place St Andrews love a good personal statement and depending on the course it’s not always the 5 A student they take!! They like students who have done a few extras rather than focus only on studying. At the time my Ds got offers from all 4 unis re applied to including St Andrews and Durham. Also if you have the grades Glasgow don’t give 2 hoots about your personal statement. He had 4 As and. a B at higher.My Ds had an unconditional offer from them within 48 hours of submitting his ucas form!!

*@Aurea * dd is currently studying Law at Glasgow. She had AAAAB at Higher at the end of S5 then did AH English and AH Modern Studies plus an OU module in S6 .

She got unconditionals from Dundee, Aberdeen and Strathclyde and was rejected by Edinburgh. Conditional offer from Glasgow was for BB at Advanced Higher - she did ask if AC would be acceptable and was told NO .

She sat the LNAT in December of S6 but knew of others who had sat it as soon as they could ( in September I think). A couple of schoolmates who had got 5As at Higher got unconditionals from Edinburgh and Glasgow for Law and have gone to Edinburgh.

DD has loved her first year and is very proud that Glasgow ahs come out so well in the recent university league tables. We were also impressed with Dundee and she had that as her back up. Having been initially impressed with Strathclyde on the Open day we were appalled by the Applicant day which was poor in comparison to Dundee and Glasgow.

DD went to a state school also - not an especially high performing one btw.

Hope that helps

Yes, our experience with Glasgow (Computing and engineering) was the same, DS had a very early unconditional from them. He's chosen Strathclyde instead though.

@readsalot63

Thank you! That's super helpful. I'm glad your daughter is settled and happy. Do you know if your daughters friends at Edinburgh are as happy?

May I ask what score your daughter achieved in the LNAT? Also if you know what the typical score is for Glasgow. My son is booked in for 4 October as he may wish to apply for Oxford as a long shot and needs it done earlier.

Hi - at the Glasgow open day dd was told they were looking for "interesting people" and that the decision was based on LNAT, UCAS and personal statement .

DD scored 29/42 on lNAT - the average the year she sat was 21/42 and apparently Glasgow were looking for "high teens". DD says "according to some people " Glasgow don't pay much attention to personal statement - but that wasnt the impression I got at the Open day.

1 of dd's schoolmates started Law and something else at Edinburgh but is not continuing with Law as she didn't enjoy it. The other girl seems to be doing well enough but is not a close friend of dd - this is a very small sample and I wouldn't base a decision on this !

Good luck to your ds

Aurea - if it's any consolation, ds' Physics assignment last year dropped him from an A to a B, only getting 11/20 for it despite his teacher having thought the draft was worth 19/20. At the Parents Evening she said that UCAS had changed the marking schedule after the assignments were submitted and had said that only a tiny tiny minority might be affected.....Sod's law that ds was one of them

The re-mark only got him one of the two marks he needed to get an A

Fortunately he had, even before the results, changed his mind about what he wanted to do (from Maths/Physics/Astrophysics to IR/International Law) and had already started crashing Modern Studies.

The school should advise on whether it's worth going for a re-mark, but not sure they'll actually re-assess the marks per se, as opposed to check the adding up. Maybe a teacher - like Lidlfix could advise.

Ds did say the Modies assignment was the biggest variable as they get such a free reign and it depends on the marker and their knowledge.

It might be best for your ds to concentrate on his AH. He's already got his A in his English Higher which will be an important one. As far as I can make out, Modern Studies is no longer the easy option it was considered back in my youth (a long time ago )

@prettybird

Thank you for your words of wisdom.

His Mods teacher did say that there were a few 'weird' assignment marks so he may have had a difficult marker. I understand that you can have a clerical check or a total remark with a senior marker, where the first mark is ignored. For this there is a fee of £50. I think he is erring towards taking the remark. The chance of a C Grade is slim, as is a A grade, but at least he won't have a 'what if' scenario. He stills has the other 5As to fall back on.

When does term start in Aberdeen?

@readsalot63

Thank you for this information.

Your daughter's LNAT score is fab. My son is currently working through tests from a subscription website called Arbitio and he is scoring between 20 and 26. The practice test online I think he got high 20's though.

Fingers crossed the offers come in before too long. He will apply to UCAS the beginning of October.

Thanks once again.

Aurea, it's only schools that can request and pay for the remark/clerical check and it's down to school or council policy as to whether they will do this or not. DS was 1 point short of the A he needed for Edinburgh and had scored 98% in his Nat 5 but the school would not apply for it.

Luckily the head of department has already agreed. She was his teacher last year. She said my son could decide and she would support his decision.

Lucky you! I ended up having to raise a formal complaint (about that and many other things) but got no-where. I felt completely powerless as you have no chance of applying and paying for it yourself. Inn private school you can just ask for them to apply and they will bill you (so I am told).

I really hope your son does get what he needs, the school must feel it's worth a chance although they obviously can't influence the result :)

His Mods teacher has just been appointed SQA co ordinator for the school and does have a soft spot for my son (possibly unfair) as he does a lot round the school as he's Head Boy. She is also aware of his Oxford ambitions and rates his ability.

He does attend a state school, but I guess they must have a bit of money put aside.

I'm sorry that you weren't given the same opportunity.

Ds' school was very good about re-marks if you were close to the boundary and if they were surprised - but neither re-mark changed anything (his Chemistry Nat 5 in S4 had also been 2 marks off an A) - although he got 1 mark extra on each occasion

I think I had to sign something that said I was prepared to pay the school if the re-mark didn't succeed - but on neither occasion was I asked to pay up anything.

FWIW - I think ds got into Aberdeen (not Law, but a popular course) on the strength of his personal statement. He goes up the weekend of the 1st September (can get into his flat on 1 September and the information session for parents/carers is in the afternoon of the 1st, but he has an important last probably rugby game on the 1st for his "Glasgow" team, so I suspect we'll be going up on the 2nd ).

He'll be 17 for all of Freshers Week!

Sorry but what is LNAT?

No worries Aurea it is in no way your fault and I'm glad that some schools do take these things seriously and provide appropriate support. In the end that was one of the smaller issues we had with them and I think that Edinburgh wouldn't have necessary been the best choice for him so it was of little consequence. He also ended up turning down HW and Dundee as he decided he wasn't ready to move away from home. So then it became a choice between Glasgow and Strathclyde as he can travel daily on the train. He chose Strathclyde in the end and at the moment I think he has made absolutely the best choice for him.

It's so hard really but i do think it's unfair when all DC aren't given the same opportunities especially when sometimes it seems to be whether your face fits or not. DS is extremely quiet (something they were supposed to be supporting him with) but despite being told by the HM that they valued and appreciated him (during one of many apologies by them for major fuck-ups) they were unable to provide any tangible examples of that being in any way true. Being quiet, working hard and being not a bother to anyone gets you absolutely nowhere. It's a tough lesson to learn as a teenager that none of that is valued. Anyway rant over and best of luck with it.:)

LNAT is the Law National Admissions Test. You need to take it if you intend to apply to Glasgow and several of the (considered) better universities in England: Oxford, LSE, UCL, Warwick, KCL etc.