Nice People 13: Nice Save

PasturesNew

Generali wrote: »

Possibly the most Australian invention ever. An Esky (cool box) that is also a wicket.

https://www.pitchi.com/pitchi/cricket-cooler/10602

I found out something interesting today. If a teacher in Aus writes an original poem on a blackboard (s)he doesn't have copyright over the poem but if they do so on a whiteboard he does!

I'd have thought their employment status was relevant too. e.g. if employed then they don't own the copyright, which is retained by their employer.

Doozergirl

hjd wrote: »

In addition, there is quite a bit of common ground and not worth doing 2 separate subjects. Certainly leave Economics for A level, and make sure he's confident with Maths (that's what I did).
Universities often don't count BS and Economics as 2 separate subjects when it comes to offers through UCAS, thus potentially causing major problems.
I know this seems a long way off, but other universities won't accept candidates for any degrees who don't have a modern foreign language GCSE. Just making you aware in case this could be a problem. Schools don't flag it up often enough.

Cross posted with others!

I'm inclined to agree about the similar mix. I will definitely impart to him what Gen has said about Economics below A Level.

'Business' (or banking, shudder) is where he thinks he wants his future path to lead. He is very comfortable with his Maths.

UCL is the only university that requires a foreign language for all of its courses (and even then, if they don't have one they can sit a short course in first year). The curriculum leader says it is far better not to do it than get a poor grade, hence it isn't compulsory. He is a bright boy, but awful at Languages; I'm not sure I see the point of the struggle.

Looking at the Russell University choices booklet, if you want to study Business or Economics then they'd look favourably on both at A Level, with Maths. We've got another whole two years to think about that, though.

I don't know how it all happened so quickly.

zagubov

silvercar wrote: »

I think there are only 2 universities in the country who are sticklers for this. We did look into it and it wasn't an issue, though no guarantees things won't change.

One of them is UCL, who insist that anyone without a modern foreign language gcse take a foreign language module in their first year.

I can vouch that's true for UCL.
The short courses that were mentioned elsewhere are useful but are sometimes ignored when it comes to applying for the next level of study. Three sciences will be regarded as hard currency when applying for A levels.

In other subjects if there's any chance of switching to another college for the next stage its important to not include subjects where performance will fall below a C as it can pull the grade point average down. Short courses may not be included in this.

Some universities do look closely at GCSE grades as well as A levels for entry to competitive courses (Imperial certainly did for medicine).

silvercar

PasturesNew wrote: »

Next the patio cleared. Next there were some tiny, miniscule flakes. NOW there are MONSTER flakes - some over 1" wide. Slow falling, big flakes. Most flakes melt within 10 seconds when they reach the patio, but are slowly accumulating on the grass.

My friend lives in Detroit. She had 16.7 inches of snow on Sunday. Apparently it was bad that the snow ploughs took till 4am to clear her road.

silvercar

PasturesNew wrote: »

Even I have O level French.... so it's not hard. And I hated the teacher - and he hated me.... so the classes weren't pleasurable to me, nor had I ever been to France (nor have I). And I never did the homework.

I failed 'o' level german. The only exam I have failed in memory. The boys are also bad at languages, they both mustered a 'b'. I have therefore deduced that a 'b' grade in recent times is equivalent to a 'd' in old money.

Generali

Doozergirl wrote: »

'Business' (or banking, shudder) is where he thinks he wants his future path to lead. He is very comfortable with his Maths.

I'd be happy to give careers advice in banking. Does he have a part of banking he's interested in?

hjd

Doozergirl wrote: »

'Business' (or banking, shudder) is where he thinks he wants his future path to lead. He is very comfortable with his Maths.

Looking at the Russell University choices booklet, if you want to study Business or Economics then they'd look favourably on both at A Level, with Maths. We've got another whole two years to think about that, though.

I don't know how it all happened so quickly.

DS wants to be in banking too. Didn't do well in his A levels (friendship group!) but went to a non-Russell Group uni and did Economics. Is now working (first job) as a risk analyst in an investment bank (not directly in banking atm, but plenty of opportunities to transfer). Risk and compliance is an area where supply has not yet caught up with demand; a friend at a very senior level with one of the major banks has confirmed the opportunities, as does a neighbour who is a City headhunter in banking.

Some of DS's friends certainly had their university choices adversely impacted by doing both Business and Economics A levels as 2 of their 3 choices.

Doozergirl

Generali wrote: »

I'd be happy to give careers advice in banking. Does he have a part of banking he's interested in?

Aw! He's bought books about stockbroking. I'm not even sure where it came from. I think it came from him asking me what jobs paid well, when he was about 9.

Generali

Doozergirl wrote: »

Aw! He's bought books about stockbroking. I'm not even sure where it came from. I think it came from him asking me what jobs paid well, when he was about 9.

Market making is a good job, especially if you're the sociable type.

Straight broking is a living that is going to be IT'd out of existence IMHO. Disintermediation has been what the Interwebs has been all about and it just continues to get stronger as a trend. Bloomberg are pushing a broker-free order matching system very hard and we are looking very closely at it at work. If we take it on that will put a lot of OTC brokers out of a job (your son should know what OTC means if he wants to be a broker!).

Seriously though, I'd be happy to have a phone call/email chat with him about banking and various different jobs within it. He realises that the basic day in investment banking is 8am - 6pm (back office) or 7am - 5.15pm (front office) in the UK, right? If you want to put him off, let him know that when I ran the hedge fund ops my day was 5.45am - 10.05pm.

If he wants to get into finance, the best book to start with is 'Reminiscences of a Stock Operator' by Edwin LeFevre. You can get it free online as it's out of copyright. Multiply the money by 75 to get to today's terms. If he can understand the way of thinking then he'll do a great job in The City.

Doozergirl

I'll show him your post tonight, Gen