long, long road

[woolymonkey]

Spidermonkey hasn't got an offer from Hills Road for A Levels. He's really disappointed because he loved what he saw of the place and really wanted to do Electronics as well as Maths, Maths, Chemistry and Physics.

The really strange thing is that only 4 kids in his whole school got offers. The school is so stunned they held a special assembly about it! In a normal year, about 25-30 do, which would have put Spider comfortably in. No-one knows what's going on--no-one who talks to me anyway--but the grapevine suggests that other schools are being treated more or less as usual while Monkey Academies is being set a much higher threshold for some reason. Weird.

On the plus side, he has a nice, we-really-want-you offer from Long Road to do all the same A Levels except Electronics, and Long Road is clearly going to be full of bright Scientists next year, many of them from Monkey Academies, and he'll have more dyslexia support, less pressure, and more time to carry on with all his music activities. So it may be all for the best. But it will be a heck of a bike ride from Girton.

Anyone have any tips for studying Electronics at home, clubs, evening classes, etc? He's not all that bothered about whether it gets him a qualification. He just loved the taster at Hills Rd and would like to do more so he can make an informed decision whether to consider studying it at uni later.

Comments

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

That's a shame (and quite peculiar), but I'm sure he'll do well at Long Road.

I loved Electronics at O'Level, but hated the module I took as part of my Physics degree as it was dry as an old, dead bone, filling your mouth with chalk dust as you sink your teeth into the subject and it crumbles. Loads of Practical Electronics type sites with projects for hobbyists out there if that's what Spider is into (rather than calculating the response curves of op amps).

[woolymonkey.livejournal.com]

It's starting to look as though Electronics For Fun is the way to go. Spider is often better when allowed to do what interests him rather than what teachers tell him to ;). Hmmm.... I wonder if an electric tortoise pen would make a good starter project?