Thread 16 - Corona Cohort Year 12, 2021 Zooming through Summer Term

[orangecinnamon]

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Well done to Just Here's DS. Sounds a great result born of hard work!

Another benefit of EPQ is that you can show some passion in your PS and for interviews it can be useful to have the subject and process to talk about as it is supposed to provide a bridge between school learning, where you are generally quite passive, to university, where you should be self directing more.

DS hasn’t done an EPQ but has done 2 group projects this year. One on a subject college set them and one with a local company working on their data. Next year he does an individual project which is his choice. Though they have been a pain at times they will be very useful on his personal statement and as you say Monkey, give him something to talk about if he has any interviews.

He has decided to drop one of the optional modules they run as with 4 A levels, project and entrance exam preparation I think he has understandably been feeling overloaded, keeping a close eye and will set DD on him this weekend as she gets how he is feeling out of him, whereas he can be a bit of a closed book with us.

I do think EPQs are great..if the student has time or they are not doing other projects etc.
They do a lot for students to plant the seed for researching and thinking about writing .

DD is doing her EPQ on a medical ethics question which may help with her Medicine PS/Interviews and also makes up a bit for the hard decision to drop Philosophy as a 4th.

Fools that sounds more than enough re: group projects your DS is doing and infact might even be considered more value than an EPQ especially the one working with a local company. At the end of the day the idea is the same - to develop research skills and to show your passion for something related to what you want to do at uni.

On the subject of “competition” for places next year, I don’t mean to be all doom and gloom but just remembered, the current yr12 is also a high birthdate year! So even without the pandemic competition would’ve been stiff.

@KingscoteStaff my DS did an EPQ on a medicine-related topic last year and said it was really helpful for interviews. I don't think he had space to mention it on his PS though. Sheffield gives reduced Medicine offers for an A*/A in EPQ.

DD is starting her third lot of exam assessments today. Her school still does AS exams, so I guess this is their substitute. They're not being told their marks after each exam. I don't know how many exams DD has got to go until the end of May. Then they've finished. I'm not entirely sure what they're doing in June 🤷🏼.

Anyone else in this situation?

Dd hasn’t been told if they are having exams this academic year yet.

This may be of interest to people who would like to teach their children to drive in their own car under the supervision of an instructor. A friend recommended them, if you live in one of the areas where it is subsidised it may be cheaper than just adding a DC on insurance for a full week of lessons, and less stress too!

under17driver.co.uk/

I don’t mean to be all doom and gloom but just remembered, the current yr12 is also a high birthdate year! So even without the pandemic competition would’ve been stiff.

Oh blimey. I had already thought a year out would do DS good and
I'm becoming even more convinced that applying for 2023 with grades in hand might be the way to go. Assuming he has some grades in hand of course 🤞🙏

[quote Monkey2001]under17driver.co.uk/[/quote]
That looks really interesting Monkey although too far away for us. I'm a little concerned about the insurance side of that based on what they say in the FAQs.

I don't want to think about high birth rate years and lots of deferrals.

Ughhh! Competing with 2 years of inflated grades (50% more A/A* in 2020 compared to 2019 and 2021 expected to be the same) and on top of that the higher birth rate (7%).

All of you taking your dc's out in the car...you must have nerves of steel. I find it so scary and Ds yells at me if I correct him, that makes me even worse, he's had 16 hours of driving lessons and as far as he's concerned he now knows how to drive better than me 🙁

Yes I wondered what results would be like by the time our year get to A levels and how much competition there will be for places, lots deferred last year with covid, I think quite a few will next school year too.

We drive an automatic so no taking DS out in our car unfortunately. Shame as we’ve not been able to get him any lessons so far.

We haven’t heard anything about EPQ, do all schools/colleges do them?
Maybe he’ll do it in 2nd year

@Fiddlersgreen yes dh and I both drive automatic cars too. So we bought a small manual for the dc's. A car for them is fairly essential where we live if they want to go anywhere, as no buses (apart from school buses)

www.gov.uk/government/news/2022-non-exam-assessment-and-fieldwork-requirements-consultation

Consultation open which includes A levels for 2022

Re: consultation on 2022 non-exam assessment and fieldwork requirements - What about the rest (all other A’level subjects) is that to be assumed there will be exams?

We have a small automatic car and a large, heavy, manual diesel, neither are really suitable for a learner. We also don't have space on the drive for a third car, so if we do get one someone will have to park down the far end of the street. Bit of a pain.

@Shimy I read it as it looks like exams are planned
I think it best to assume they are going ahead. If nothing else they will have a firm foundation for their chosen degree.
I know others in different positions will think otherwise but if there aren’t any exams in 2022 I fear the application process for universities of choice will be more of a blood bath than it was this year!

@ProggyMat Couldn’t agree more. I’d be delighted if exams can be confirmed to avoid the ‘bloodbath’ as you say, although I know there are some dc who althoughwork very hard throughout the year struggle to get it all down in an exam. Perhaps a bit of both would help all.

Where deferal rates high last year? I know of one in my DSs year, and I don't think any of my friends DCs did. The general view seemed to be one of might as well go as I can't really do anything else!

I think it should be a mixture next year or non selective state schools which struggled with lock down teaching will have results crashing down. I don't know how it can be made fair, particularly if the grade inflation ends.