Starting Year 13 - September 2015

[hellsbells99]

Welcome to Year 13!
Their final year of school;
Applying for university/college/work/apprenticeships;
A year of 18th birthday parties;
Going to their first nightclub (unless they already have fake ID!);
The year they turn into adults!

DD2 has been back at school for 3 days and has lots of work already.

[hellsbells99]

Welcome Sue!
DD2 hasn't started her personal statement yet but she is busy playing her guitar and singing with DD1 ready to go busking tomorrow.......a change in priorities is needed, I think

[AtiaoftheJulii]

Well Sue, there is a short induction ceremony .... The more the merrier; hope the AS's went well

Dd1 had a party here for her 18th - 30-40 people, surprisingly civilised! Dd2's isn't until June, so I'm keeping my head in the sand about that.

[SueDunome]

Thanks The party ds is going to tonight is at the girl's house. All guests are staying over, so it's take a sleeping bag and booze. He's got an invitation for a more civilised one at the end of the month though - dress code: black tie, so we've invested in a black suit he can dress up or down, depending on whether it's being used for interview or party.
AS went extremely well thanks - 4 As.

[Kez100]

DS goes back on Monday and, for him, it's all about looking for work (with progression opportunities) or an apprenticeship. and trying to pass his driving test so he has that to put on a CV.

[LIZS]

Ds' history remark has come back 3 ums higher but not quite enough to change grade so it looks like he'll have to resit that paper next summer Apparently his whole set were lower than expected on that paper.

[zazas]

If it is OK I would like to 'sign in' too :) I think I am going to need support as DD1 is our first (out of 5) and it is a right balancing game between the whole Year 13 / university and her emotions...although this afternoon she has been a little more of her usual self and I am feeling slightly more hopeful we will all survive! She has back at school on Friday - although a review day so starts in earnest on Monday. Unfortunately due to mixed messages about school holiday dates we didn't return from our holidays until 1am Friday - she was on her way to school by 8am, out again that night at 5pm to work at an event she had promised to help - with a 6am start this morning - needless to say she is exhausted! Perhaps not the best start to a new school year!

Is still dithering about taking a Gap Year - so she is not sure if she is applying this year or waiting until next year. She has a remark in the process which might change things... Off to Leeds Open Day next weekend - hoping it is our last one!

[EllenJanethickerknickers]

Hello. I popped in on the old thread, but probably need to be a more regular member of this one.

DS1 has been back 2 days. He's dropped computing to concentrate on maths, f maths and physics but is a third of his way through his EPQ. He did well in his AS levels and has received his predicted grades on Friday, A A A. A bit disappointed in his f maths, but it's a realistic set of predictions, (hopefully.)

He moved from a comprehensive to a grammar last year. Lots of his old comp friends have struggled with AS levels. Most have done essay type subjects and the workload seems very high. Many would have gone straight into work in my day. (Old gimmer)

DS is lucky that he enjoys maths and physics so doesn't see it as work. He has found he's not so keen on stats or decision maths, which means he'll have to work at them to do well, no bad thing. I think if you find maths 'easy' then there's not as much workload as essay subjects. Even if you find eg English Lit 'easy' you still have to spend ages on essays.

We visited Southampton today. All good apart from the nightmare shuttle buses to the city centre which added a good two hours on to our day! Didn't spot any MN scarfs, but DS did see two friends from his sixth form and two from his old comp. (which was nice.)

No noise about his PS as yet. His school are pretty hot on advice, so I hope he's not leaving it too late. We've been advised by the school to 'butt out' of helping with PS,) apart from grammar and spell checking etc.

[EllenJanethickerknickers]

And with that last sentence perhaps I should butt out of grammar and spell checking as well!

[MorvahRising]

Signing in here too!

DS goes back in Monday and is doing maths, computer sciences and physics with AS in further maths and an EPQ. He's done his PS draft and as he's a very fluent writer I think he's done a good job with it. Like others upthread my job is writing (freelance copywriter) so I've tried to hold off commenting as it would be very easy to take over!

EllenJane Southampton is DS's top choice. He was very enthused when we went earlier this summer.

[Needmoresleep]

We had a very difficult August with both DD and DH hospitalised, for different things. (Both recovering and should be fine - but scary at the time.) Luckily the volunteering/shadowing/UKCAT were done during July, but the PS and possible self-guided tours have suffered.

I am therefore employing the same tactic, as I used with my son, who had no excuses. Which is to write a first draft. Then never look at it again.

The main aim was to ensure that the school were aware of anything that might be relevent. But I have also realised that DC have never written anything like this before, and obviously they feel everything is riding on it. Both got stuck, essentially, on the first paragraph. Indeed I found guidance I found on the Internet suggesting you start on the socond and leaving the first till last.

Its actually quite easy to write something basic, at least for somone else. You don't have the same level of emotional investment. Four paras, starting with the why, adding some evidence, and then ending with the EC. Gaps to fill in the detail of reading etc and bullet points if need be. DS was horrified (honestly by then writing something was a lot easier than continuing the nagging) and immediately set about personalising it. But at least I knew the content was there. There were further edits from school, and he claims not a single word I wrote remained in the final version. That is good. At least I got him started.

DD is even further behind the curve, but only told me the school's deadline for a first draft was the next day, at 10.00pm. She eventually submitted her first couple of sentences and my "passionless" outline and bullet points. At least I know the school have all the material, and she will have learnt an important adult lesson, which is if you have something difficult to write, just get something down and then review. Editing is always easier.

Another tip then for scientists, is to find a friend who is naturally good at writing. A friend's DD has apparently already written half a dozen PSs, though still has her own to do...

[SecretSquirrels]

I never saw DS1's PS until he finished it and to my shame I expected it to need a lot of work as he is not a natural writer. In fact it was amazing. It didn't follow the normal pattern, not a single EC in there, but his total immersion in his subject shone through in a naive sort of way and it did the trick in getting him offers.
DS2 is also sciencey but has a knack for writing. He has done several job applications which are very good practise for a PS. He too has no EC whatsoever but he does have two quite unusual part time jobs which should give him material to work on. All he needs now is to decide on the subject and make up some waffle about why he wants to do it.

[MrsUltracrepidarian]

(EllenJane love the username! There is a September-ish chill in the air and you have reminded me to get out the warmer clothes )
LOL at the DD'd friend who has written several other PSs and not her own
Gotta love these daft teenagers.
DS is another one who we thought had it all under control, but decided after the AS results to do a differnet subject, so back to square one as two of the open days he attended are at unis which don't offer the new preferred option...

[LIZS]

Glad your trip went well Ellenjane. Ds was looking at the politics side so probably didn't cross paths. Dh wouldn't wear a scarf !

[SueDunome]

DS and DH were also at Southampton yesterday. I didn't go due to the one guest rule. Can I ask: do you all abide by this or ignore it? DH said they saw a fair few complete families there yesterday - I guess only one representative would have been able to go to the talks, but it would have been nice to get a feel for the place.

[EllenJanethickerknickers]

I didn't know there was a one guest rule! As it is, I'm divorced. Everyone else we saw that we knew were there with both parents, but many were with one only. Open days weren't the done thing in my day, you applied blind for your 5 just using prospectuses and a book of probable offers and then had an interview at the five with no parents! Though fees didn't exist and grants were available, so not as much investment required by parents, I guess.

[ISingSoprano]

The open days we have done with ds and dd have on the whole been me OR dh. Having said that dd has specifically asked for both of us to go to her next one in October - we certainly won't all go to the talks though.

[SecretSquirrels]

DS has been to most on his own. I have taken him to 2 because of logistics and I went into those talks with him (pre-booked). We did see some entire families including one with a crying baby which seemed a bit OTT especially as numbers were limited. The sample lectures he went in on his own while I had a nose round.
I think it was useful to him to have one of us there as I seemed to pick up on points that he missed.He is now going back to unis he has visited before and liked, but to look at other courses.

[BernadetteMatthews]

DD went back on Thursday and has been told that they want to predict her AA/A A

She is still deciding on universities but is keen on Exeter. Am I right in thinking that she's better off being predicted AAA so they make a nicer offer?

Does anyone think being predicted higher grades is a bad thing?

Nice to see you all on here btw

[SecretSquirrels]

Unrealistic cted grades can be a Bad Thing. A friend of DS1 with mediocre AS results got offers based on optimistic predictions. He didn't up his game as he somehow viewed it as fortune telling, he missed both offers by miles and his mother blamed the school for getting the predictions wrong .

In a Chemistry talk at Sheffield they said that they only use predictions to make a decision. I thought most unis took AS grades into account.
DS has seen his teacher references but didn't mention predicted grades.

[Northernlurker]

Most of the unis dd has looked at seem to have hinted that they don't really look at AS grades but only at predicted. Of course now AS is over and done and she did fine I would like them to look at that too

Needmore - sorry to hear you've had a bad time. Thank goodness she'd done the UKCAT. Dd did hers last week and we're all still recovering I realised on Friday as I cam home from work, that that was the first day for what felt like weeks I hadn't had to ask how the UKCAT prep had gone.

Interesting what you say about the first paragraph of the PS. Dd's first draft had a cracking 'first' paragraph but orginally placed about 4th down in the text. Both dh and I said 'MOVE THAT'!

[BernadetteMatthews]

I think the predictions are realistic but would rather they went low so she's not put under loads of pressure, especially after what happened this year

[SecretSquirrels]

Ours will be the last cohort to do the current AS so maybe unis are starting to look more at predicted grades?
That certainly wasn't the case two years ago for DS1 who was asked by some unis for his UMS as well as AS grades.

[Dunlurking]

Great to have a year 13 thread for us. Just checking in as well. Needmoresleep I'm really sorry to hear of yourdd and dh's hospital stays. I hope they're both recovering OK.

Ds starts back tomorrow so we're hoping the photocopies of his Physics papers are back so we can decide on a remark. Even though he is dropping it I don't like the D grade sitting there as his 4th AS subject when he is applying for A*AA courses at Exeter and Bristol (assuming he gets suitable predictions for the other 3

[Dunlurking]

Sorry posted too soon. Dog sitting on my hand! Meant to ask if anyone had any thoughts on the 4th (dropped at As level) subject grade mattering. Ds says I am overthinking it!

[MaddyinaPaddy]

Checking in.DS2 not going back til Tuesday.I think the LEA made a cock up on dates and they got an extra week this year.
PS was written and distributed at the the end of last term.Very enthusiastic and clearly written by him , but needs a bit of playing about with
Continuing with 4 subjects to A2- Maths, FM, phys chem and possibly self studying some more maths modules because he will need to know them if he gets an offer which requires STEP
Interesting to see what predicted grades are