Starting Y13 (y12 support thread contd)

[AtiaoftheJulii]

Well, I filled up the other one, so here's a nice new one to get us through dropping subjects, Uni open days, personal statement writing, and UCAS applications

Plenty of and and (nicely-intentioned) s available!

Hope your dd gets well soon mumslife. Dd has had the same, along with half her year group and half the teachers! She has now shared it with ds and myself (although I am nowhere near as bad as they have been with it). I have kept ds off school for the last 2 days in an attempt to stop it spreading to his school and because he is in no fit state to run around a rugby pitch which is what he should have been doing yesterday.

Hope your DD makes it through the day, Mumslife.
Horsemad - yes we sit and wait now I think. DD's school have registered her for the Oxford tests - and I have ordered this book to help us get an idea of what will be required, but none of her other choices ask for interviews so we just need to wait and see now. Although I am a teacher, I don't teach A-level myself so this is all a learning curve for me.

I am so impatient, I will be doing my own head in once that form has gone...

Application submitted and paid for! Just got to go through the school for the references to be added now & they have been written as dd2 has seen them.

Thanks webwiz and mumslife

I think DD is aiming for end of half term latest. Expecting to be quite busy in November/December, so better to get it out if the way.
Hopefully some more info. will come from the school soon.

My DD got a D in Sociology and was gutted so we paid to get the paper back with the mark scheme so she could see where she had gone wrong. Her teacher looked at it and took it straight back to the teacher in charge of remarks and asked for it to be sent off immediately. Anyway she has got it back and it's gone up a grade so University visits are back on . Royal Holloway on Saturday. I am so pleased her teacher was on the ball.

It's scary how many papers are incorrectly marked; how can that happen so often?

Brilliant news, Tapdancingmum. I am shocked at the huge number of mistakes that are made. We had the same thing with DD's history paper - I had it remarked and she went up a whole grade. So glad your DD can feel more confident about university applications now.

Excellent news tapdancingmum.

Great news Tapdancingmum
We're also off to Royal Holkiway tomorrow.

That's good news tapdancing. I can't believe the marking this year...so many similar stories. Why is nothing being done about it?

My year 10 daughter (dd3) took an English GCSE early and was predicted an A. She got a B overall because one of the papers came back low which everyone thought was a bit odd (compared to three high papers). We were not too bothered, as she could have done it again in year 11, but the teachers sent it back for a re-mark anyway. It has just come back as an A & the paper in question went up by 10 marks!!! How could they miss that many marks?

Is it more usual for DCs to see their school reference, or not? DS hasn't seen his.

DS has seen his reference Mindgone the head of sixth form went through it with him earlier this week.

dd1 saw her reference.

She liked Royal Holloway - the campus is obviously beautiful, and the lecturer doing the subject talk was great, friendly and funny but clearly knew his stuff and loved his subject. Said they interview everyone for Classics (don't know if that is a university-wide policy though). The "but" for her was then living in Egham/Englefield Green for the next two years.

I thought it was a bit odd that the actual Student Union building shuts at weekends, although there is another building with a bar etc on campus that's open. I asked our tour guide if it was quiet at weekends, and she said, "oh, you can always go up to London to go out" and was telling us about coach trips to clubs. So it seemed a bit London-student-wannabe?

But, dd has put it on her form!

Interesting about the weekends but luckily we only live about 45 mins away and are hoping she might be able to take her car.

Westminster next week then Oxford Brookes at the beginning of November.

Must ask her about her personal statement and reference. I hope she has them sorted

DD1 liked RH too. MIxed messages about what happens at weekends- seems it depends what societies you are in. But as theyhave nearly a third international students, they can't all go home. Liked all the accommodation we saw.
Not sure if same for all courses, but contat hours seemed lower than others we visited, but need to double check that.

Loved Royal Holloway. Campus nice, accommodation lovely, course talk very good and she likes the structure. Beautiful buildings but suspect she won't spend much time in them as her lectures take part in another building. Students and staff are friendly and the entry requirements are achievable. All round ticks all the boxes.
We shall see how Westminster compares next week

I've only seen pictures of RH, but it looks gorgeous.

DD1 has done another draft of her PS today. She is still struggling to decide out of 6 universities though.

Dd has had confirmation from 3 of her universities that they have received her application - the waiting game starts here!