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.

[SecretSquirrels]

MrsUltracrepidarian Again, from memory of the thread 2 years ago when DS1 was applying there were lots of DC left waiting to hear from Durham long after all other offers or rejections were received. DS1 got an offer from them straight away (but he did have 5 AS with 95%+ UMS). His friend was left waiting until April, only to be offered a different course from the one she applied to .
DS2 wasn't keen when he visited, he felt it seemed rigid and the course was inflexible. He might still put it as one of his five though as there is always the offer holders' visit to have a second look.

[MrsUltracrepidarian]

SecretSquirrels thanks .
We are visitng Durham (26th?? Sept.
I am not too keen...

[Needmoresleep]

Mrs Ultra, I think there is a wider point. DS was rejected by Cambridge in January and then we did not hear from his next three choices (UCL, Warwick and LSE) until late March.

Reading student room the following seems to happen. Applications are triaged with some accepted and some rejected early. The rest are sat on. This is more likely to happen for courses which are heavily oversubscribed and where many candidates will be credible Oxbridge candidates, and for those applying with predicted rather than actual grades. Durham, LSE etc need to get their mumbers about right, and need to give every candidate who applies before the UCAS deadline in January, equal consideration. So first they need to wait until there is some movement after Oxbridge offers. Then, especially where there are a large number of mature or EU applicants, they may need to set an additonal exam for some. (It seems that graduation certificates from some EU countries like Italy may not provide sufficient differentation as selection effectively happens after first year University rather than before entering University.) So they can't really score their remaining pool till towards the end of February. After that numbers are slowly whittled down as more places come up or some withdraw. LSE seemed to accept a few more each Thursday and reject some each Friday. (If it got to 4.00pm you knew you were safe for another week.) Durham in contrast, and from what others have posted about the wait, may hold on to their remaining cancdidates and make a decision right at the end.

In the end DS was accepted by LSE and rejected by UCL. Warwick, bizarrely, offered him a course in another department. Its fine as you only need one place and LSE probably offered the best course. However the long wait from October to the end of March was horrid, not least because it can add to the stress of exams. One boy he knew did not get anything, but did get Cambridge on re-application. There is now huge demand for some subjects in top Universities. Its tough. But easier, hopefully, if you expect it. (Says a mother with a DD applying for medicine!)

[MrsUltracrepidarian]

NeedMoreSleep Thanks - this is really helpful - does put it into perspective. Interesting about the Thurs/Fri thing!

[homebythesea]

May I join in?

DS back at school last week, enjoying the novelty of having about 352 free periods in the timetable, we'll see if he uses these productively! He is in major PS "stuffing" mode, so muscling in on school subject related society, skim reading relevant stuff, watching lectures online etc. I am shamelessly ready with red pen on first draft. 3 Open Days to go to before final choices to be made. He has the distinct benefit of having a decent set of AS results in the bag so not worried about retaking any of them.

[UhtredOfBebbanburg]

Despite Attia's point that retaking her less good AS history paper to improve that mark won't help DD1 in terms of A since to get A she has to get the required marks at A2 and if she does, then she gets A* because her AS grade overall was very good, she is being pushed to retake the less good paper to put it on a par with the amazing paper just in case something goes bizarrely wrong with her A2 exam (to provide a safety net to ensure she at least gets an A). Part of me wonders whether it's wasted and possibly counter-productive effort but part of me looks at the many people we know or have heard of who got surprising (in the unfortunate sense) marks at A2 and thinks that belt and braces might not be a bad idea. So she will probably resit that paper.

[Dunlurking]

Uhtred my ds came home from his first history lesson of the term having been told more or less the same thing - that he should repeat an A grade paper to improve the UMS marks to ensure the A for next year. The teacher did a class brutal spreadsheet of all the grades, including that of the A2 results this summer of the year above, showing how unpredictable they are, as far as I can see anyway . One girl with an Oxford place got a very low mark in one paper, and lost her place, and a normally average girl got a high mark. Ds is thinking of a remark to avoid the resit but is worried he might lose his A grade. If we'd only known we would have ordered photocopies of the papers.

[UhtredOfBebbanburg]

Dunlurking - DD1 knew that she had messed up that paper (by her standards) so she was pretty relieved to get her A overall in the circumstances. But yes, the A2 marks at our school have been ...quixotic...in the past and I think the teachers are now really keen to mitigate that possibility in any way they can. So, if a 90+ UMS sort of person got less than 90+ UMS on a paper, retaking is being advised. Just in case they are the one 'how did that person get a mark that low?' person next year.

[Dunlurking]

Well I guess it's reassuring to hear your school is saying and doing the same things as ds's Uhtred so thank you! I feel for our dcs though.

[UhtredOfBebbanburg]

I don't know if it's policy across the board or just that subject or just that teacher, mind you. DD1 could stand to improve another paper in another subject actually but isn't being advised to retake. Which is good because I don't think she has the time.

[homebythesea]

So DS comes home today with news that the PS has to be done by the end of the month, before we have done the rounds of open days

The theory being that early applications are more likely to get good / unconditional offers

That surely can't be right can it? I'm just annoyed that the original deadline of half term has been changed. I think the school is panicking somewhat as it looks like they over predicted last year and many didn't get into either firm or insurance places. They've been told to choose an insurance which offers at least one grade below the others across the board (ie where others offer AAA, choose BBB or below as a "banker"). For DS subject this is quite tricky.

[AtiaoftheJulii]

Gloria see my post on page 1 for the numbers re B/A/A*

Dd2 got a low mark in one history paper, but she's not bothering to retake. Most modern languages degrees don't have particularly demanding entry requirements and she should manage two or three A's out of 4.

[AtiaoftheJulii]

home no, any university will tell you that any application that's in before the deadline has the same chance of success. Not quite sure how that works, but that's the theory. And taking a couple more weeks on the application is probably better than rushing into a not-fully informed decision.

The general advice is to have one or two aspirational, one/two/three realistic, and one or two back-ups. So if say you think you might get AAB, you might apply to one AAA, three AAB, and one ABB or BBB. Adding a BBB when you're hoping for AAA seems a bit too pessimistic?

[Needmoresleep]

Homes, as above. Universities have to give all home/eu applications received before the UCAS Jan deadline equal treatment. There is NO advantage in getting then in early. Even if you did you could simply put down one University and add the other four later after you had been to all the open days.

Equally I am not sure the advice on 'banker' is correct. It really depends on your child's attitude to a gap year. The effective advice from DS' school (v. academic London private, so very high aspirations) was to treat UCAS as a two year process. Be realistic but aim high first time round. Work hard for your grades. If need be, apply again the following year.

It depends obviously on what course, and what grades most universities are looking for. However going to University it effectively a big investment decision. DC should not be advised to aim lower than they need.

[hellsbells99]

One advantage of early applications is to try and get any interviews (if relevant) out of the way by Christmas (before mock exams etc.)

[AtiaoftheJulii]

I thought that for anything non-maths the AS ums added up to 200? I was talking about the overall mark, not separate papers. I know the split isn't necessarily 50-50, papers can be weighted differently.

And then for maths it's out of 300 and the A* rule is slightly different.

[hellsbells99]

Atia - the sciences are out of 300 in total too.

[UhtredOfBebbanburg]

Music is 300 in total too.

[eatyourveg]

Hurrah! Pen has found paper - 2 paragraphs of the ps done, ds isn't sure if he should mention being on the spectrum - don't think anyone in college knows other than the staff who read his application. He doesn't like to talk about it and declined sen support but has thrived currently on course for triple distinction* so I'm not sure how to advise him.

On the one hand it could be seen as barrier that he has managed to find strategies to manage so maybe worth mentioning but on the other, its just who he is and everyone is different from the next person, in which case it doesn't add anything and is no different from saying I have blue eyes and brown hair and wear glasses - so what? who cares?

I think when ds went through ucas there was a tick box question on the first half of the form under personal details so maybe its better to tick that and it needn't go in the ps at all.

Anyone else had dc who were similarly unsure?

[RhodaBull]

Hmmm, I think I read one admissions tutor's comment that medical issues should be for the school/college to document. Otherwise (and I'm not saying your ds comes under this category!) everyone would be finding something that might give them special consideration.

Ds has some issues and I will check if the college is going to mention them. I really don't think it would do him any favours if he writes about difficulties in his PS.

[UhtredOfBebbanburg]

DD1 isn't mentioning her issues in her PS at all. Her school on the other hand will be doing so. DD1 has too much stuff that could go in her PS as it is without that. On the other hand if she was applying for a course where her challenges were a relevant benefit (eg if she wanted to do teaching and specialise in SpLDs for example) then it might be a different story. But she isn't so it's not. It is however something that they need to know about for the purpose of adjustments at interview/tests - hence the school mentioning it.

[homebythesea]

We had a good chat last night. He doesn't want to end up with an insurance that is too "low" for his abilities (hope that doesn't come across snobbishly!). The problem with his subject is that most places ask for anything from AAA to ABB then there is a jump down to BBC and below. BBB would be ideal as an insurance but we can't find one that is in a place he would happily live for 3 years...

So he has decided to stick to his guns, apply as planned then (assuming he gets offers!) if he doesn't get the grades/there's nothing through clearing he will take a year off and reapply
He's predicted AAB (AABC at AS) so the AAB type places ought to be OK

She says.....