2015 Yr 12 support thread

[Needmoresleep]

Mocks this week, and the reality of AS exams in a few months is starting to hit home. I don't think it will be an easy journey, so would welcome some company.

C3 for dd2 today and then she is done! Seems like a long time since she started her oral exams, and fortunately just in time for her birthday tomorrow! Good luck to those also doing C3, and General Studies :)

HB the problem seems to be that there is a shortage. So a couple of clinics did not have any and the third said they had a lot of people coming to them as they were receiving weekly batches. We can see the practice nurse in a week, but she would then need a test and even if the practice were prepared to do it they might not have vacine. I also worried whether it might take a week or so to be effective.

Given the need to get the forms in really quickly I think we probably need to go down the private route. But kicking myself that I did not check at some point that all the childhood vacinations were done and on record when we had enough time to go via the NHS. Not good to hear that it's painful as well.

Good luck with the remaining exams. DD is exhausted, but it feels like summer has started.

Good luck Needmore. DD's friend has just had the TB one done in a hurry as the uni health forms were due in but she still needed the 'test' to be done a few days before the vaccine. DD's were done a week apart.

Unrelated to work experience but maybe of interest. Last year when DS1 started uni they wanted a full printout of his vaccination history. Also the NHS introduced the meningitis C vaccination for new university students.

Home you get her sorted Needmore

I think it must be so much worse if your dcs are trying for medicine or oxbridge, or both Needmoresleep The interview process and extra reading and tests pile even more pressure on everyone. The autumn term/early spring term become yet more exam periods.

Music is even worse. :(

Oh dear. Just had a text about C3 from DS which says 'probably my worst exam ever. Will be lucky to get a D. Everyone saying it was a horrible paper.'

What a bugger.

If everybody says it was a horrible paper, that's good, Morvah -- or at least better than everyone else thinking it was a doddle.

DD2's text was "where do I sign up to retake?" I'm not getting upset before August 13th.

Thanks for that, Lancelottie - I just feel so much for him because he's worked so hard.

Have looked on the Student Room and most people so far seem to think it was pretty hard.

I hope the other DCs on this thread found it better than DS!

Oh dear Atia sounds like your DD didn't like it either. Poor things. Thank goodness it's Friday and they can have a bit of a rest tonight before starting on C4 . . .

Narvinectralonum is it one audition for each place or are there recalls as well?

So sorry about C3 Morvah and Atia. I shall be here on Aug 13th with you.

No word yet here from DS - impressed but those whose DC communicate with them . DH says DS will probably arrive home at 9pm and casually mention he needs to obtain a tame aardvark for tomorrow.

Dd2 is a huge pessimist - she's now gone through the unofficial answers on TSR and thinks she's got around 63, which is unlikely to be quite the 90 ums she wanted, but she's finding it hard to care because now she's finished!

So she'll either be happy with what she gets in August, or she can retake next year, or she can just say, sod it, no more maths - she's got the AS now, and is doing three other A2s. Plenty of time to think about that

Hope it wasn't as awful as your ds first said, Morvah - does he have anything else before C4?

Good Luck with the tame aardvark for tomorrow MrsU Hope he had a better exam than Morvah and Atia's dcs.

Dunlurking - one audition for each place but there may be second audition on the day at some places. Some places also have written exams. Some places also interview as well as auditions/written tests. And it is different at each place - no consistency. The written tests may differ from place to place (obviously the written test itself but also what it is). Some places have set pieces, others don't (but I've heard advice at open days saying 'don't do something off the audition list from somewhere else - from tutors not from students or parents), there is little or no cross over between the various lists of set pieces at least for DD1's instrument(s).

How far ahead do you get the audition pieces lists then Narvinectralonum? How many things is she having to learn, and how much notice will you get for her audition dates? Must be a nightmare planning it all.

They are listed on websites. It's not entirely cleear if they may change before the autumn but probably not.

AIUI you don't get very much notice at all about audition dates. It's a complete nightmare (my job involves international travel, we live in a stupid place with useless transport links and we have 2 younger kids (one much younger) so DH can't just leave them to take DD1 gadding around the country if an audition is when I'm away. And I'm definitely going to be away A LOT in the autumn. :(

DS said "unbelievably horrific" about C3 and knows he has also made at least one silly adding up mistake. He is so depressed. We have agreed resits and a gap year.

He was also furious that at one point he appeared to have to countermand the exam board's explicit instructions to work a proof.

One friend thought likewise but many didn't find it too bad. So he accepts it was him, not the paper. Even so, he had been doing quite well in the practice papers.

Shit shit shit.

DS arrived back - I asked him if it had been unbelievably horrific, he said no, it was believably horrific - he is expecting to re-take.

Oh FGS ancientbuchanan your Ds is as bad!! He said 'his life was over' because of One adding up mistake!! If that's all he did wrong he has probably still got 11% UMS

100% UMS not 11%!!

No, no, to be fair, he knows he couldn't do two questions at all. Really couldn't. Whereas his mates could.

He knows it isn't the end of the world but equally he knows that it's pretty pointless applying to top RG which is what he wanted.

I've done the usual well, you tried your best, but his unanswerable response is yes, but it isn't good enough. And he usually know how he has done. So I believe him.

Does he have any chance to resit. My understanding is that C3 is often (more normally?) taken in second year sixth form. Eg after two years experience of A level work. So if he gets good UMS on the other maths papers perhaps Unis might see a poor grade in this paper as too much too soon.

Jab done. A huge lump on her arm. Doctor explained it was not particularly effective so more normally used to help reduce contagion within a proven outbreak than to protect an individual. Next stop is to work out how to satisfy the GP that she has had chicken pox so he will sign off. I remember it vividly but we stayed well away from doctors surgeries. DD thinks there is a photo of her at 18 months covered in spots. It's proving a real treasure hunt.

Thanks everyone for the words of comfort! They can resit next year and yes, I do think that C3 is usually taken next year. Only the maths and further maths lot at DS's college take it a year early, but I gather from DS that loads retake it next year. I don't quite see the point of taking it this year then. Why not just wait another year when your confidence is less likely to be eroded quite so dramatically? Hmmph.

Apparently DS's mate, who is a maths whizz and hoping to do maths at Oxbridge, said he thought it was a horrendous paper. QED.

Hope injection lumps go down, DoE expeditions are successful with or without aardvarks, and that all exhausted DCs get a good night's sleep!

yup, resits is what we are expecting now.

I hate the effect on him at the moment and it is going to be shit until and then after August 13.

OTOH, better to learn coping strategies now and to have the courage to pick yourself up and go on than have to learn them later.