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.

MayPolist I did wonder how you could have worked out such a precise and low mark as 11% for AB's DS
Re: C3 - the few people I have mentioned this to were surprised at C3 being taken this for a non- FM student, but DS's school seem, like others on here, to do that. I am not too dismayed that he gets a realisation that hard work is necessary, rather than being in a false state of confidence, as did extremely well in his GCSes, and this is clearly a very different scenario.

Well, we've got C4 tomorrow, the last exam. DS is alternating between 'it's going to be a disaster so what's the point in revising' and 'it's going to be a disaster, I'll never be able to show myself at college if I fail.' To be honest he's just so tired with all this revising over so many weeks, and knowing that this result won't have to go on his UKAS form, that I think he's almost given up. And I can't say I blame him!

We're off to Bath on Thursday. We're intending to drive and I can't decide whether to try and park on campus, or whether it's likely to be jammed solid and therefore better to use the park and ride. Anyone have any idea?

Oops, I should have posted that last paragraph on the open day thread - ignore this part and I'll post it over there!

Morvah, good luck for today..v impressive him doing c4 in yr 12.

DS thinking of bath after we had a really interesting journey in a cab where the driver told us about his son there. But conflicts with Warwick or UCL so we will prob wander down one weekend. Interesting economics course with a year off in the city or industry.

Good luck to your ds for C4 morvah. What an endurance test this exam period must have been for him.

It all feels very end of termy here. Sad to think it is the last time, but great to see the exam stress dissolve. Next year will not be much fun, with UCAS, mocks and the real thing so I am hoping the sun stays out and she can enjoy the fun side of school life.

Needmoresleep it feels strange, doesn't it. Sat in a Yr12 parents presentation about student finance last week and looked round thinking how much we had been through with our fellow parents in the last 6 years - meeting at parents' evenings, discussing options, exams, school gossip. I can't believe this time next year all that will be over. Thankfully one or 2 have a dc in dd's year as well, but the journey with the older dc feels more eventful - facing landmarks choices and events for the first time.

Dunlurking It sure is different second time around. I haven't bothered with any of those talks, DS2 reckons I know more about UCAS than most of the staff because I learn so much from MN .

Thanks for the good wishes everyone. DS said that C4 went better than expected. Mind you, he expected it to be an utter catastrophe, so who knows where on the scale it actually was!

I hardly care to be honest as that's us done! It seems to have gone on for ever. Is anyone else still waiting? I had a feeling someone went on even longer than we did. ancientbuchanan was it you?

DS is at a sixth form college so there isn't the end of termy feel as it seems as though he's hardly started. Pity really as he's loving it and before we know it he'll be finished!

Yup. S2 Monday. And bloody school neither doing proper lessons nor letting their mathematicians revise. Going to revolt.

Congrats to everyone who's finished and commiserations to anyone still going. At least DD's were short and sharp and over quickly.

We're off to Cambridge on Saturday where DD has a Masterclass and I'm going with with her to make sure she finds her way to the venue for the ride. I can think of worse places to while away a few hours.

DD is currently trying to decide whether to do an EPQ. She's carrying on with all 4 subjects next year and is wary of overloading herself. She's come in the top 3 of one essay competition and is intending to enter another one with an end of July deadline and is wondering if they will demonstrate the reading outside of the syllabus/research that an EPQ would show. Any thoughts?

Marni - we might see you there, better wear the MN scarf! DD doing a science class though.

My personal feeling is that if you're doing 4 subjects, don't bother with the EPQ as well. Especially if you spend your time winning essay competitions

I agree with Atia.
DD1 didn't do an EPQ as we knew she wouldn't need it. As the course she applied for requires interviews, she had to spend a lot of time preparing for them as well as actually attending them.
DD2 won't be doing one either. Like your DD, she will probably carry on the 4 subjects plus she is doing an extra AS (I am currently trying to talk her in to dropping 1 of her A level subjects).
Both DDs are doing science subjects. At their school, certain subjects (e.g. History) do encourage an EPQ.

DD2 is doing an EPQ as her A2 subjects don't really show research and essay writing, but she's only doing 3, so will have time. She's presenting it in November though (needs it for her Oxbridge application), which means loads of work over the summer rather than lying in bed all day

When you say needs it for her Oxbridge application do you mean that she wants to have it pretty much done by then so she can talk about it in her PS and (hopefully) at interview?

Dd2 is still deciding.

She's been in a foul mood the last couple of days - am assuming some sort of post-exam comedown/pre-UCAS panic but it's not pleasant. This morning she's gone back to bed and is refusing to get up and go to school. Joy.

Thanks all! I tend to agree that with 4 subjects etc an EPQ isn't necessary. Her English Pre-U also includes a Personal Investigation which is a 3000-3500 word essay for which she will develop her own title/do her own research etc. Think she has to start on it over the summer, which is also when she'd need to get going on the EPQ. So along with extra reading etc I think it would just be too much. She needs to have a break too!

Atia I should think that's what's behind your DD2's current mood. She's only just finished her AS's and now is straight into UCAS stuff. At least DD had a 3 week break in between which allowed her to relax. I'm not surprised she's retired to her bed!

Hellsbells I don't have a MN scarf! But if you see someone wandering aimlessly about the place that'll probably be me! Hope your DD enjoys the day.

DD1 is doing an EPQ (they all do at her school). I'm worried that her autumn is going to be busier than most people's exam term, what with all the auditions/interviews and the EPQ presentation. She's probably going to work her long listing in a national poetry competition (the shortlist was the placed people) into her PS somehow but I don't think it will do her much good seeing as she isn't applying for English. Her EPQ might be beneficial to her interviews - will give her something to talk about anyway. Sadly none of the pieces involved can be worked into her audition programme at most of the places she is applying to (she might be able to include some of it in a couple though which is something). She has A2 GS tomorrow, her final exam. She seems very flat. :(

EPCs seem great:

1. to gain the skills needed for an extended piece of work, ie research, structure, argument. If your DD is winning essay prizes this does not seem needed.
2. Perhaps to demonstrate you can carry heavier workload than the minimum 3 A levels. By all accounts students at Oxbridge and indeed elsewhere, are expected to work very hard. I assume it can't do any harm to show you are up to it, but 4 A levels or an additional AS would do the same.
3. Because you are really interested in something. But again essays cover that.

We felt the same about DofE. It sounded great fun, however DD was engaged in some time-consuming EC which provided similar opportunities.

DD's private school does not offer EPQ but expects them to do presentations, enter essay competitions, attend external lectures and similar beyond-the-mark-scheme stuff.

The tiredness is evident, though not as bad as last week. However the summer looks equally daunting. Thank goodness her school breaks up two weeks earlier than most. She has two weeks "work experience", including one in a hospital. (The vaccinations are on-going as I confused HPV with HepB so thought we were there when we were not.) She needs two weeks to prepare for UKCAT, and is talking about entering an essay competition (which she probably ought to do). She is pretty sure she will give BMAT a miss, unless her AS are really good and her UKCAT is awful. This rules out Oxbridge and a couple of London hospitals, but saves another set of practice. I am glad I have booked a family holiday as this forces a break.

She is now booked onto a couple of other London open days, which hopefully will give her some insight into the differences between courses. She needs to get her forms in quite early in the autumn, as the school needs time to review and process before an October deadline, so DH and I are keen that she sees somewhere outside London. DH is not from London and is already worried that DS may spend his whole life within Zone 1. However DD seems to have little interest in leaving. (This seems to be pretty typical, with a high proportion of children we know, both state and privately educated, opting to study in London.) By chance I am passsing a good University with an open day, on route to somewhere else, so could drop her off, which would give her a chance to consider campus life. However she says she can't spare the time. Hopefully she will come round. Part of the problem is that to get through it all she is tackling one thing at a time, and so really has not given what she wants from University life much thought. But she probably should as she will probably only have enough time to see a couple of places in September.

One more year...

Atia - her course needs her to submit two pieces of extended writing/essays (which I think can be school work, but Maths and Chemistry don't really lend themselves to that ) - one can be a partially completed EPQ (although hers should be finished by that point), so she's having to get another essay title set and marked by her teacher as well.

Oh yes, of course, I forgot that aspect. Should have remembered as dd1 had to do that, and if dd2 will have to if that's the path she chooses too. Hadn't realised you could use an EPQ, but seems obvious now :) What does your dd want to study MyVisions?

Thanks all for your thoughts re DD doing the EPQ. She had a chat with the Head of Sixth Form who advised her not to do one in light of her workload both over the summer and in Y13. I'm very relieved!

Though I have been following the Open Day thread I thought I might revivie this one as DD has not been to any Open Days yet. I'm not sure why she has been so resisitant. She's interested in what others have to say about Durham, Warwick, Cambridge etc. Including the fact that not everyone loved Cambridge: one finding the subject talk patronising, another preferring the course and campus at Warwick. I think it might be because she has wanted to focus on school life. As a dyslexic she has tended not to enjoy education, but suddenly she is having a ball. She does not have to struggle through essay subjects and loves being at the top of the school. Its almost a pity that she only has one more year. Which I suppose is why she has not focussed on next steps.

She says she does not want to take a gap year but perhaps it would be a good thing. So many don't get medicine offers first time round that it is as well to have a silver lining if this happens to her.

She's broken up, but still busy. A weeks residential volunteering, a weeks shadowing and then 2 weeks working on UKCAT. Time though for a family holiday and hopefully enough time to write a PS, an essay and do some background reading. The sun is shining. All good!

DD1 has been doing a lot of work (allegedly) on her EPQ. But she's had the week from hell (3 sort of open days - one proper open day, and two instrument specific days at conservatoires involving a fair bit of playing; performing at a music festival yesterday and doing another music thing right now - plus of course the hideous weather which has knocked her for 6). And apparently she has two massive essays to submit tomorrow and Tuesday, which will have a major influence on the reference the school gives her (for Ucas, not (one would suppose) for ucas conservatoires. So, a fair bit of pressure there. She seems under the impression that a not quite completed (or at least not submitted) EPQ can't be used as one of the pieces of written work for Cambridge - is this wrong? After this week we have decided to knock open days on the head completely. We have spent literally hundreds of pounds on travel and hotels and the cupboard is bare. She needs a rest, too. She won't get much of one during the summer since she has three weeks of music stuff. I wish she was taking a gap year, to be honest - although that would stretch the finances even more (because of a bigger overlap with DS at university assuming he goes).