Support Group

[Jess]

Maybe you'd be better resitting AS if you really think you can get better grades. 'Cause, the thing is, if you resit all your ASs in the summer, it'll affect your A2s because you just won't be able to learn everything (which is what you'll have to do - both years' work). Since university applications go on your AS Level results, it'd be near impossible to get a medical place if you've only got Ds and Es, and if you decline your AS grades and don't include them on the form (because you're retaking in the summer), then the admissions tutors will know that you haven't done very well and probably won't offer you a place, anyway.

By the time results come out in the summer, it'll be too late to apply for medicine in '07. However, what you could do is apply for another course (with lower entry requirements) and then if you find you've done well in the summer, you could reject the offer and take a gap year and reapply for medicine in '08, and if you don't do so well then go with your back-up course.

But, basically, if you've got your heart set on medicine and you and your tutors think you can do it, then the best thing to do is retake AS. You'll do a lot better if you retake just the AS modules this year, and then do A2 next year as you'll have less to concentrate on.

I hope that at least some of that made sense... I'm not very good at explaining these things, sorry!

Anyway, good luck with it all.

[claire_louise]

A lot of people find it very difficult to make the transition from GCSE to AS level. I had the same problem - I didn't find the work impossibly hard, but when it came to take the exams I found that the examiners weren't looking for the same things as they were at GCSE, so I didn't do as well as I hoped. But in the second year of A levels I pulled my socks up and got my head round it all a lot more easily. Just keep your expectations realistic - don't expect to get the same grades you did at GCSE - and work hard and I think you'll be fine. Teachers should be able to give you a hand with revising for your resits as well - that's what they're there for, so make use of them!

[flyingwithoutwings]

I feel like I need to lose weight. I'm 170cm tall, nearly 12 and weigh 63kg. That's really bad I want to get down to between 50-55kg. And the worst thing is, food is, like, my worst enemy! Whenever I think of, or eat food, I feel sick and want to bring it back up! Everyone says that I'm pretty and that I'm not fat, but it doesn't change the way I feel about myself! I went through a stage like this at the end of last year and at the start of this year where I actually threw up after I ate, but I got out of it thanks to my friends and a school counsellor, but the past couple of months have been stressful and whatnot and my home life isn't particularly good, either. I feel like this is the only place I can talk about my problems 'cos my friends are probably sick of me complaining and whinging, so you guys are the next best thing!

Sorry if I just wasted a post and bored everyone to tears

xo

[Sam =)]

There is nothign wrong with being 63kg at 170cm I'm 170cm and I'm 15 so you are quite tall my 12 year old sister is abot 155cm or something. Anyways I'm 170cm and about 50kg and according to the dr's that is underweight but I look normal and I eat so much junk it's not funny. Anyways there is nothing wrong with your weight for your height.

Ok no one will probably care and I will sound like an absloute whinger compared to other peoples problems but Thursday my parents sat us down and told us there is no chance left and they are now getting a divorce and even though thay have been seperated for ages it absolutly shocked me and I keep bursting into tears for no reason and I can't eat anything when I do I throw it up I have been shaking ever since they told us. I really didn't think it would hurt me this much but it has devastated me I can't believe it when I was younger and some of my friends had it happen to them I never thought it would happen to me becasue my family was so close but it has I also found out the real reasons for their separation and I can't deal with it I can't sleep, can't eat it has shocked me I really don't know what is going to happen now my mum doesn't work but we live in like a 1 million dollar house which she wont be able to affored and I go to private school I have no idea what is goign to happen now.

[Jess]

Sorry for the lack of capitals here - it's copied and pasted from my LJ and I just prefer to write in lowercase - but I just need a rant and I figured here's as good a place as any. It's about my best friend, with whom I seem to be having a few problems right now...

she pours her heart out to me and tells me how sad she is that she feels that she has to go through life on her own, and that she wishes it hadn't worked out like this but that it just has. she wishes she could stop bottling everything up when she feels sad. fine, fair enough - i know that i wouldn't want to live my life like that. but then she tells me that it's wrong of me to be so trusting of people, because they only end up hurting you if you let them get too close. but, surely, if you don't let people get close and trust them, then they can't help you through the difficult times of your life?

she's always going on about how sorry she is that she's been such a bad friend to me over the last year; yet when we try to talk about why she feels so insecure and untrusting of people, she blames me, sayng that when she tries to tell me things i "just shout" at her. and she brings it up every damn time, no matter how long ago it happened. and then she tells me that this shouting makes her insecure and untrusting - basically blaming me because i've happened to have proved her insecurities about people letting you down right. well, i'm sorry (and call me a selfish cow if you like) , but after all the sh!t i've been through with her i think i'm perfectly entitled to shout.

she really is a walking contradiction.

yeah, okay, so she does have a pretty crap home life - she suffers a lot with nightmares, she self harms, her parents are going through a very rough patch at the moment - but i'm only human, i'm not perfect, i can't give totally unflawed advice all of the time!

but, the thing is, i love her too much to ever walk away. i don't want her to be able to say to me that i've let her down by proving her insecurities right and running when it gets too much. 'cause then she'll think she's justified and nothing'll ever get better. it's not just 'cause of that, though. we have so much fun together, so much, and she's literally the only person in the world who understands me. i honestly can't imagine my life without her. it's not because she's my little "project", or anything, like some people have said, but just because, problems aside, she's the most awesome person i've ever met.

i'm sorry, i don't know why i just wrote all that, i just needed to get it out.

[Oxidizer]

Haven't been to the doctors yet - not because I'm avoiding it - I've just got a screwed up bodyclock . So I'll probably get an appointment next week or something.

Though I feel really horrible lately and have been 'inspired' by Thinspo and Pro-Ana sites to lose more weight. It's a self-competitive/addictive thing to get thinner and thinner and I don't know why. I think it's reading how many calories other people have compared to what I do that is making me feel lousy, despite being a fair bit slimmer then them when looking at pictures. I've upped my calorie in-take to 500 a day now - but feel like it's too much. It's all in my head, I know this, I just can't, you know, get it out?

[rachel&kim]

I've hit absolutely rock bottom today. Just worried about my mum - she has cancer - and what's going on with her and my dad because i think they're going back to court as soon as they can get a date fixed and it's just all getting a bit on top of me. Think I'm going to go for a really long run, that should get some of the stress out.

Sorry if this is random, feels good to have a moan about it though.

[Cerise]

That's terrible, rachel&kim. My SIster had cancer a few years ago and it really upset and worried me. She was alright though, thank god

A Friend of a friend who was in fourth year died on Wendsday, and I'm really upset right now She was a great Person.

And I'm not able to go to the funeral tomorrow. life sucks

[claire_louise]

Haven't been to the doctors yet - not because I'm avoiding it - I've just got a screwed up bodyclock . So I'll probably get an appointment next week or something.

Though I feel really horrible lately and have been 'inspired' by Thinspo and Pro-Ana sites to lose more weight. It's a self-competitive/addictive thing to get thinner and thinner and I don't know why. I think it's reading how many calories other people have compared to what I do that is making me feel lousy, despite being a fair bit slimmer then them when looking at pictures. I've upped my calorie in-take to 500 a day now - but feel like it's too much. It's all in my head, I know this, I just can't, you know, get it out?

I hate to sound bossy Andy, but if you say you'll go 'next week or something' it's unlikely to happen. You need to make the appointment as soon as possible or you'll just keep making excuses to put it off further and further. Increasing your calorie intake is great, so don't you dare feel bad about it! See it is as something to be proud of, not a bad thing. And I know it's tempting to look at slimming sites, but please try not to. They're the last thing you need right now.

Lecture over! But please do make the appointment.

[Oxidizer]

Thanks for the encouraging words. I definitely will, it's just my bodyclock is pretty screwed right now, and I end up being too tired to go. I'll make an appointment for Monday, I keep getting this weird pinching sensation with my chest every now and then (but it only lasts a split second or so) and I'm either losing balance or feeling faint. Either way, I fell down yesterday and looked a total idiot, which definitely has to be sorted!