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.

DS doing Oxford Maths Admission Test today cos Imperial want it. Imperial don't give any feedback on result but if you don't do well you don't get an offer.

Remembered passport at last minute. The time he didn't take it in for an exam a teacher who knew him had to verify that it was really him.

Sent form in a month ago and haven't heard from Bristol yet.

Our neighbour keeps geese so he can get some practice fending them off if he goes to Warwick.

Poor magpie!

Bethan
it was entirely the bird's choice.
It would walk from one building to the other - in and out the main doors and then blag crisps in the bar.
It was too fat to fly after a while

Heard from York yesterday to say they will make an offer, but if she comes for an interview it will be a lower offer .Although she probably won't go to York she thinks it will be practice for the 'big one'

DC now home and said he found the MAT very difficult. He felt the style of questions had changed from previous years and the questions were not only trickier but on different areas of Maths. I guess they are trying to make it more difficult to prepare for. Ho hum.

it was entirely the bird's choice.

Pmsl!

DD said the ELAT was 'ok'. Still not sure if that's 'ok' as in good or 'ok' as in so-so. To be fair she probably can't really tell herself so I'm trying very hard not to push her for more info.

Also pmsl at It was entirely the bird's choice!

Bethankate- my DC didn't sit mat but I know those that did were told not to post specifics until Thursday at 5pm .you don't want to give anyone who hasn't sat it yet an advantage over your dc

I don't think DS was aware of that but went on TSR straight after I'd posted & realised & felt awful! Immediately contacted mumsnet HQ & asked them to delete post but it's still there.

Apologies for the slight delay, BethanKate - we've withdrawn that post now.

Same as not sharing interview questions/reading material with others. Interviewers do not have an endless stock of questions and you don't want to give deadly rivals a heads up on what may be asked.

I think it is quite a long shot that international Oxford/imperial maths applicants will be scouring mn for clues .I am sure your Ds will have done OK, bethankate - if it's a harder exam for one its harder for them all.

Heard from York yesterday to say they will make an offer, but if she comes for an interview it will be a lower offer confused.Although she probably won't go to York she thinks it will be practice for the 'big one'.

York is far lower ranked than Oxbridge for maths (they will be taking AAB/ABB students in clearing). When they "interview" applicants they are not allowed to give qualitatively different interviews to different applicants i.e. they can't treat somebody with A* predictions differently than somebody with A predictions. This means that their "interviews" cannot have the challenging mathematical content that Oxbridge interviews do. The interview will probably be a gentle chat about the course, encouraging her to put them as firm/insurance if she doesn't get her top choices.

If she wants to go to see the place, fine, but I don't think she should anticipate that this interview will be anything like an Oxbridge interview. If she wants to practise for the latter then her best bet is to practise STEP/MAT papers.

My DS took the Oxford PAT yesterday, reported that the Maths bit was Ok and the Physics was pretty Ok (read what you like into that!). I assume we won't hear anything until they invite for interview (or not).
He has an offer from Warwick already (A*AA) and an interview at Exeter next week. Not heard anything from Imperial or Sussex yet.....
Can't help feeling the whole UCAS process is really outdated - with modern technology couldn't they come up with a system where everyone applies after they get their results?

Can't help feeling the whole UCAS process is really outdated - with modern technology couldn't they come up with a system where everyone applies after they get their results?

The issue is not technology: it is that universities would know absolutely nothing about their student numbers a month before teaching had to begin. Timetabling is extremely complex these days - it takes several months to arrange a semester's teaching and one has to know approximate numbers months before starting. Similarly for accommodation - allocation takes a long time, it can't all be done in a few weeks. Most importantly, without knowing approximate student numbers it would also be impossible to ensure that you had enough academic staff. You can't just go to Randstad and get a temp in to teach Quantum Physics or Molecular Biology!

I don't think anybody would be expecting a York interview to be the same as a Cambridge one in terns of content!! But what us useful is the experience of an interview situatuon- talking to unknown academucs. Remember most teenahers have literally zero experience of interviews up to now when schools are starting to run mock interviews.

They will presunably ask her to talk about areas of mathematical interest stated on her PS, which Cambridge have expressly stated they will do in one of their interviews

DS now has 4 offers 3 at AAB one at ABB. Final one is Exeter who I gather are notoriously late in offering (?) and will likely offer AAA which he doesn't think is worth the gamble based on work so far this year. He also says he doesn't actually want to go to the ABB place (sigh) so it looks like all eggs will be in one grade basket so to speak....

Does anyone know the timetable for rejection after Oxford tests? Do you get a rejection email, or does it appear through UCAS, or are you just left to dangle until all hope is lost?! I daren't look on the student room because I can't stomach the awful overachievers braying that the test was the easiest they'd ever done.

don't know about Oxford, but Cambridge tell their school referee the outcome, and let them break the good/bad news. DD2's not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, and either way she'll end up sobbing all over the head of 6th form again

My DD has had an offer from Exeter, homebythesea. I also had the impression - probably gained from MN - that they were typically late in making offers!

Goodness, well done to everyone with offers already! DS's form only went in on the Friday before half term, which meant a whole week's delay as there was no-one at college to attach the references and send it on so still waiting for the confirmation that it's gone!

WEll DS has submitted his 6th form college application (Y11) so now I have two children sitting and waiting

don't know about Oxford, but Cambridge tell their school referee the outcome, and let them break the good/bad news

is that definitely right? DD had to fill in a data protection form and we read it as an authorisation to give feedback, if requested, to the referee.Surely the decision comes through on UCAS 'track'

So do you get an email from UCAS and then see there's a rejection?

There's limited information as no one's dc ever seems to get rejected!