Finishing (not starting) Year 13 support thread (number 5!)

[Littleham]

Exam season starts....

Amazin Ahh - London. Think it's the higher ones like Kings that don't guarantee within the M25. The two London ones in DDs 5 (if you count RHUL) both do for firm only. The other choice (City) she would never have firmed, and accommodation so expensive would have had to commute.

Mumslife If we want the new thread to link back to this one, just need to put a link in the opening post on the new thread

Link will need to contain cut and pasted address bar contents from (the last page?) of this thread. Using link instructions to name appropriately.

Once new thread created, if any space left in this thread, can include link to new thread in same way, in final post. Then perhaps ask for this thread to not accept any new posts.

I think an open mind re gap years is a good thing, cos you just never know! DS1 ended up having a completely unexpected and previously unwanted gap year! He got better than expected results, and then changed his mind about the course. He got a job in a supermarket, and reapplied. He got unconditional offers, work experience, money, some maturing and a great reality check! It was all very positive.

Hi everyone
You all seem very nice ladies and by the sounds of it have gone through a lot with your dc with the uni process so have a wealth of collective experience. I need some advice, DD needs to get AAA to get to her firm however, one of the A levels exam sge did Ocr History American civilisation exam didn't go too well, so she thinks she got a B for it. She thinks she can get 2A B but her firm choice have said they don't take equivalents so will still be a missed grade. They will treat it as so and will have to wait. DD doesn't really want to go to her insurance which is AAA. We are in the scenario of, if she is rejected by her firm she is thinking of gap a year. But I don't know what she is suppose to do in terms of:-
Does she resit History again to get it to a A grade or leave it and reapply with the grades she will have this august. And say if she does re apply will her offer be 1 grade subject offer? Or would she be better to pick up another subject to study make her application more appealing?. We hoping it won't come to this but feel having a plan B just in case seems a wise idea. Also she will be taking a partime job if she does gap year. Any experience advice welcomed

Hi mumslife
DD emailed the uni and they said, no won't take equivalents, as her course is competitive, they will only consider her if they have any spare spaces. According to the uni, last year they only took on a handful of near misses. To be honest we hoping she can scrape it through on a wing and a prayer! Since her bad history exam she's gone all out for the other 2A levels, however the email from uni has made her feel her efforts to make the other 2 A levels amazing are going to be fruitless hence plan B all came ahead in the last few days, me and dh are in a state of panic in our heads but on the exterior try and stay calm

Just catching up.
DS had Edexcel Maths C3 yesterday, which he reckons he 'managed well'. Hope so, as this is the paper he needs to get 98% (probably) in to get his A* (as he is not nearly as confident about C4 next week).
Bizee - welcome. I hope your DD can make up her history A from her other papers. Fingers crossed (& prayers)

Please don't panic. It is still possible she could get her grades or be a near miss but if not...

Option A - She can always take a year out and re-sit the History exam. No point applying with the same grades if she has been rejected.

Option B - It is worth looking at other universities. Why couldn't she be happy somewhere else? Those are still fantastic grades. At no other point in life do we say 'if I don't get this particular job I will consider no other'. Either we look at another job or improve our qualifications / CV & try again.

The application system is a bit crazy isn't it? Like something out of a sci-fi film. I now tell my dc to fall in love with a number of universities - not just one.

Good advice from Littleham.

Thanks everyone and littleham, at times like these having someone talk some sense and reasoning is a good thing. We weren't expecting a gap year because dd not wanting to go to her insurance. Maybe DD is having a temporary blip she will come to her senses over the holidays, exams are playing havoc with her mind??. It's just that it was a bit of a bombshell for us.

We are looking at a gap year for similar reasons bizeemum and at the moment I think my Dd is too caught up in the stress of it all to make a logical decision so we're just telling her to wait until her results are in and then we will wing it. She's got a few ideas floating around as alternatives but to be honest I think they need some space from exams to gain perspective.

Littleham your advice is spot on and in fact I'm going to steal your wording of option B to use with Dd if and when the time comes!

Bizeemum have you seen this on the Higher Ed board?

Mumslife Happy to start the new thread.
Do we want one now - something like 'Preparing to start Uni in 2015'?

We are having very similar issues here. Dd has firmed Cambridge (A*AA) and has York (AAA) as her insurance place. She is having to choose her York accommodation which has brought everything to a head as she says she does not want to go there even if she misses her Cambridge offer.

Her other offers were A A A (Exeter); A* AA (Durham) and AAA (Warwick). As York and Warwick were the only offers lower than her Cambridge offer she felt that she had to choose between them for her insurance offer and she preferred York. We briefly discussed putting Durham down with the same grades as her firm in the hope that one would relent and let her in if she missed the grades but dd felt that was too risky. She has had a lot of mental health issues this year (and missed a lot of school) and thought she would be under less pressure if she had an AAA option. I read last night that according to UCAS research in 2010, 42% of applicants have an insurance choice which is for either the same or higher grades than their firm!

The question is what to do now? She is not going to make a decision yet as we want to wait until her exams are done and she is thinking clearly but I really don't think she will want to go to York. I am wondering about taking York off her form so that if she misses her Cambridge offer, she would be free to try for Durham. However, I am aware that Durham may well not have any English places available. Her other option will be to take a gap year.

Despite the fact that she has had two very tricky papers, I do still hope that she can make her firm. Her predictions are 3 A*s (although I have always felt that is a bit optimistic!) It seems a bit scary to go into the whole thing with no insurance place though.

MrsB after the exams are finished, you could go to York for a couple of days and then see what your DD thinks. My friends DD is there and loves it.
Otherwise if she is absolutely sure you could try and get York removed so she is free to go into clearing if necessary...but that could be risky and in that scenario she would need to be prepared for a gap year.

hellsbells - she has visited York and she did quite like it. I went there and I absolutely loved it and she knows that! I think as she has her heart set on Cambridge she feels that Durham would give her a more similar experience, though why she couldn't have decided this earlier I don't know!

I think she would rather take a gap year and reapply next year, if it comes to it. However, I am still hopeful it won't come to this but we need to be prepared for any eventuality.

MrsB, a friend of DS1 was in a similar position 2 years ago, he firmed a London uni, I think LSE, for economics, AAA with the in maths. He got AAA but his was economics! His insurance was AAB, so he decided to take a gap year and try again. He retook his maths, got the A*, didn't get an offer from LSE, but is very happy at Durham.
I really believe that an open mind, willing to consider different options will be useful on results day.

DS2 needs AAA for medicine, and doesn't want his insurance at all (not medicine), so the nerves will be kicking in big time in August! Esp as not many medical schools will accept resits . If he doesn't get his grades, he will need a big rethink!

I agree Mindgone - an open mind on results day will be very useful. Good luck to your ds. It is all so stressful. Dd finishes on Thursday next week and then I want her to be able to forget about it all until August - not sure I will be able to though!

This might be useful.

www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3387419

Thanks again everyone for wishing my dd well and try point us to the right direction gypsy Mrs B reading your post I totally understand where your comming from. Mrs B can see your angst, if she had insured durham in the first place she wouldn't be in this predicament at all. Me and DH is quite frustrated as you would have thought with good grades our dc have lots of choices but actually in reality they have less choices because:- a) they apply to some of the most competitive courses and uni so expect high grades. b) our dc can tend to be extremely picky and selective so less inclined to be flexible. c) they are so focused and determined on achieving their one goal, this persistence seems to cloud everything else!!. So with all that they would still want to go and try again until they are satisfied with the result or until they accept defeat . They can make things so hard for themselves. My dd only had 2 offers so didn't have much choice of a firm or insurance she had applied to 4 uni with AAA entry requirement and one that was 3 A so cutting it very fine. I honestly don't know why all of a sudden she don't want to go to her insurance. We are gently persuading her to go. We are in the strange position in august of dd getting good grades but not going to uni?? I'm not sure wether we suppose to be happy or sad?? It's all a bit Mrs B* your dd has done exceptionally well so far with having so much to deal with in terms of pressure and health issues, I really do hope all our dc get to go to their chosen uni and us parents can atleast sleep easier at night.

Not sure if it helps or not MrsBartlet but at the Durham post application day for English they said that last year they had to take 10 extra who got their grades so there just aren't any places for people who have missed. They aren't expecting to take anyone with a near miss this year either so it wouldn't have been worth putting them as an insurance choice.