My daughter is in Y1 of Uni. When picking her GCSEs she thought she wanted to be a scientist but ended up doing three essay based A levels. When picking her A levels she thought she wanted to do one subject at Uni, but ended up doing another. It really helped her visiting Unis and attending sample lectures to decide between a couple of routes. She also did an EPQ which she could pick based on her strongest interests and that really helped her make up her mind. By the time she finished her EPQ at the end of the summer between Y12 and Y13 she had made her mind up and hasn't regretted her decision. She just got some amazing feedback from her Director of Studies on her latest submission and supervisions. She is a rather self-driven soul and could have floundered if she took a year out without it involving a lot of plans and she wanted to focus on her A levels rather than plan a year out. She thrives on structure and direction. Each young person is different as to what their comfort zone and motivations are.
All her immediate friends also went to Uni the same year and they met up over New Year and swapped notes and one of her friends visited her in Cambridge just last weekend and she is planning to visit one of her friends in Glasgow in March after her teaching ends so I think she would have felt left out too. Saying that a gap year can work well as others have suggested. I have seen that if they are considering a maths heavy degree then some universities don't like a gap year unless they can prove they are keeping their Maths fresh and current as they get rusty quite quickly with maths so doing FM in a gap year may be an option. At my daughter's school those doing FM were on a different accelerated path so they timetable way general maths was taught would have made it difficult to come at FM later on in Y12, but other schools may well be different.
All her immediate friends also went to Uni the same year and they met up over New Year and swapped notes and one of her friends visited her in Cambridge just last weekend and she is planning to visit one of her friends in Glasgow in March after her teaching ends so I think she would have felt left out too. Saying that a gap year can work well as others have suggested. I have seen that if they are considering a maths heavy degree then some universities don't like a gap year unless they can prove they are keeping their Maths fresh and current as they get rusty quite quickly with maths so doing FM in a gap year may be an option. At my daughter's school those doing FM were on a different accelerated path so they timetable way general maths was taught would have made it difficult to come at FM later on in Y12, but other schools may well be different.
Statistics: Posted by PettswoodFiona — Wed Jan 31, 2024 11:29 am