The Student Room

[2rebecca]

Any other mums spending too much time on this inappropriate forum?
I read last year in Tim Dowling's Guardian comumn about his wife spending hours on this and even having a pretend student id to join in discussions and thought she was nuts.
Now my son is sitting his highers I'm reading what other students think of the exams he's just sat, and reading threads about possible university courses he may do.
I don't want to be a mother who lives through her kids but it is all fascinating.
Wish something like this had been around in the 80s, although suspect it may have just been yet another distraction from getting on with my revision.

When ds was doing his ucas applications I found it really interesting too. I even bookmarked his first choice applicants thread!

I remember that column :)

I nose around it as a teacher!

Yes, it's a great site, unlike a lot of the parents on it, my username makes it clear I'm a parent.
Ds1 and ds2 had a much smoother ride through the application process because of all the information on the site, and I have also been able to pass on tips to others applying to the subjects/universities my dc applied to... Will be getting involved again soon as ds3 will be applying next Ucas cycle.

The medical student and Oxbridge info is particularly valuable, there's lots of stuff about student finance, interviews, exam tips etc.

Btw, I have had a couple of "students" pm on the site me to confess they were actually parents!

Me too! I confess! But I have never posted, only snooped around!

Oh Gosh, yes.

They have a free service where they will read over a student's personal statement (submitted privately, not on the open forum), and they will offer suggestions for improvement. I'm sure it was partly that help that meant DD got 5 offers, including Oxford.

The whole application process would have been a mystery without TSR. I stalk the Oxford applicants pages, in fact I've probably read the whole Oxford forum . I'm also very partial to all the heated "Warwick V Durham" and "St Andrew's V Exeter" threads.

Some areas of the site are infested by, well, kids, and can be bit sex obsessed and juvenile, but that's fair enough, the Uni / Ucas stuff is amazingly helpful and the posters seem very mature (probably because, as I now find, they are all parents )

I can't recommend it enough for parents who want help demystifying the UCAS application process.

I've just snooped. The personal statement thing sounds good. Some of the examples of personal statements are very impressive, I'm amazed I got any university offers as mine was very amateur in comparison, but then everyone else's probably was then as well..

I've snooped! It is fascinating in a very weird way. I can never imagine any of mine posting but they did used to look after exams (and then freak out that all the geeky kids on there who had posted the answers had got different things to them).
Really useful for UCAS and choosing universities/accommodation.
When older DC were graduating/applying for jobs (summer jobs or big firm london city jobs) they got lots of tips on there.
Great site, but I always feel a bit weird going on. DD says she sometimes snoops mumsnet though (she is 23 and in a career with children so maybe that makes it more acceptable?!).

Another guilty snooper here. I've found it really useful for info about UCAS application and choosing uni accommodation.

I know what you mean Happymum22 about not being able to imagine your own kids posting on there, I think the sort of kids on there are like another species. My son would sneer at them I think.
My son and his friends are all bright and expected to do well but they don't seem to discuss the exams except maybe briefly how it was on leaving the hall, then it's forgotten about. The kids on the Student Room seem obsessive about how to get full marks/A*s and how people answered questions. Then again, I don't think they fall into the category of bright but lazy coasters.

I agree, they all remember what they put for mcqs as well which I find surprising for subjects like maths and physics where you might have made a silly mistake. Perhaps they have time to write their answers on the question paper.
I'm not sure spending so long going over your answers just after the paper is helpful. I always tried to have a short non exam related break then move on to the next subject.
I think redoing the exam would just have stressed me out.

My son seems to just play computer games for a while afterwards!