I didn't give up

I applied for a place on an Open University Business School Masters in Research Methods, which is a one year course, and then you do three more to do a doctorate. I've just received an email:

I'm very pleased to tell you that, following your chat with CC and the receipt of two excellent references, we would like to make you an informal offer of a place on our full-time MSc programme. The programme will start on 1 October 2006 and you will receive a maintenance grant of £13,300 and you will not need to pay fees.

I am so thrilled. And incredibly grateful to my referees for their encouragement. I've wanted to do this for years and they pointed me in the right direction to take this first step towards a doctorate.

Stress

Son is soooo stressed. He has had two exams today, both at 9.30, so had to take one, then go into isolation and take the other in the afternoon. You could see at breakfast that he was too tense to do himself justice. And this is the exam that his offer at Oxford depends on so I wasn't surprised when he came home saying how bad he felt. He keeps remembering things that he didn't write on his history paper, tells me how he mistimed questions and looks really glum.