u/Select_Rip63

I'm applying for Biological Sciences at Imperial and am currently booked for ESAT on 12 October, but I'm considering moving it to January. I'd really appreciate opinions. I'm doing Biology, Chemistry and Maths A-level and am predicted A*A*A*. Imperial is the only choice I need ESAT for.

I'm clearly improving in my ESAT mocks (using esatlab), especially in Maths/Bio, so I therefore think another three months could make a significant difference.

Why January: I'd have much longer to improve and could focus heavily on ESAT over Christmas. My brother also argues that my November/January school mocks don't matter much for admissions because I already have predicted grades, so I should just maintain ESAT alongside A-levels until Christmas.

Why October: I've found balancing ESAT with three A-levels genuinely difficult—it feels like a fourth A-level. Doing an hour a day plus weekends earlier in September didn't really improve my scores; the past 2-3 weeks I have just been doing ESAT and bare minimum of school work and my scores have been improving. My school performance has already suffered, and postponing could mean another three months of trying to balance everything.

In conclusion:

October: lower ESAT score than I'm probably capable of, but it's over and I can focus entirely on A-levels.

January: potentially much better ESAT score, but risk affecting my A-level work by having ESAT hanging over me for another three months.

For anyone who's taken ESAT or been in a similar position, what would you do? Did anyone choose January, and was balancing it with Year 13 manageable?

Hey, I'm 17, going into Year 13, and I've recently become really interested in business, consulting and strategy and would love to explore it in more depth.

I've had a few opportunities to get some experience with it so far, including spending three weeks at Cornell on a business pre-college programme where we developed our own food truck business, taking part in a consulting strategy project for a local business through school, talking to people working at places like McKinsey and founders of different businesses, and I've recently been accepted onto the Q5 Youth Panel in London (anyone else?).

I'd really like to keep exploring this area just because I genuinely enjoy it rather than for a CV/personal statement, but I'm not entirely sure what else is out there except a couple competitions that ALL require teams or the deadline has passed :0

Does anyone have any recommendations for:

- Individual business/consulting/entrepreneurship competitions (especially ones that don't require a team)

- Insight days, programmes, work experience or internships ( for summer/27) that accept sixth formers/18-year-olds

- Good books on business, strategy, consulting or entrepreneurship

- Anything else you think would be genuinely useful for someone wanting to understand the field properly

Would really appreciate any recommendations or advice on where to look! :)

I'm in Year 12 at a boarding school in the UK and have coeliac disease. Lately, I've realised how stressful food has become for me, and I'm wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience.

Our school tends to group all dietary requirements together, so gluten-free meals are often also dairy-free, vegan, and free from other allergens. I understand that catering for lots of students is difficult, but it means I rarely feel confident that food is actually being prepared with coeliac disease in mind. My biggest concern is cross-contamination. I worry about shared utensils, unclear labelling, and whether staff fully understand that even small amounts of gluten can trigger an autoimmune reaction.

Today, for example, they served pizza for the first time - they previously had said they can't offer gluten free pizza because they couldn't buy a gluten free base (which is bs) so I was so sceptical that the pizza they were serving today was actually gluten free.

Does anyone else with coeliac disease feel like this, especially at school?

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this :)