A level results day 2021 support thread

@Mrs08
It is the not knowing that is so stressful. Hopefully the backup plans will not be needed.

This is my first experience with A level results day and after a horrific GCSE results day I am stressed. No idea of what he will get for maths as not had a grade card for all of y13 due to staff sickness. Was predicted from y12 work only which was enough for a good offer from Bournemouth so here's hoping.
DS is refusing to talk about it, he doesn't want to go to clearing if he doesn't get his first and only choice as no longer wants the insurance choice. He says he wants to go back to school and redo yr13 instead.

I am glad to have found you, I am sitting here stressing alone, because where DS was going for his gap year suddenly put the UK on the red list, as of last Friday, so the programme pulled out all the stops to get him and the other Brits on it (it is an international programme) there landing last Thursday morning! But it means that he is there, and I am here, and I have absolutely no clue how we are getting A level results. He is relaxed about this to the point of being comotose. Admittedly we had to negotiate a whole host of bureaucratic matters, ( although at least he was double vaxed, due to his St Johns volunteer work, so not as bad a some, some of his programme were running around trying to get the second jab) not to mention packing in three days when we thought we had three weeks, and now he is quarantining but then has a week off in a foreign country before the programme actually begins - which is all a bit daunting, and he is busy trying to plan that week from quarantine. And I am sitting here worrying about what if he doesn't get what he needs, and what are we going to do! And I (and he) doesn't even know where he is going to be on the 10th. The programme provided the flats in which they are quarantining, which is great, and he does have relatives there, a lot of the reason to go, but he feels a bit uncomfortable about just landing on them for a week and a half (one set have agreed to put him up, but it feels like an awful imposition, so he is trying to share the burden around a bit, as we have others in other parts of the country, but people are on holiday, and were not expecting their British cousin to just land on them). Completely weird scenario.

@NoNotHimTheOtherOne thank you that is really useful info. It's all changed a bit since my day! Also, whereas I was absolutely set on going to my first choice and delighted to get in, DD seems decidedly lack lustre about her offer (although it's a good course at a good Uni). I'm sure a great deal to do with the fact that she has never been to an open day or had a chance to actually get a feel for the places she was applying to. It all seems rather surreal at the moment. Hopefully things will become clearer once she has results in hand and we know where she stands. A year out may well be the best option in the end.

So, just to get this clear in my head - if DD were to get better grades than predicted, she could immediately phone up a Uni with clearing spaces (that may have been ruled out earlier in proceedings due to thinking grade requirements out of reach) and could possibly be offered a place?

Just to make sure this is clear, it's nothing to do with predicted grades. Predicted grades have no formal/official status. It's if she gets better grades than the conditions of her offer, then she can use adjustment to apply for a place on a course with higher entry requirements. There's no entitlement, though: the institution/course with the higher conditions has to have places available and be willing to take her.

Assuming a student attains the required grades and is accepted by their confirmed first choice on UCAS, how long do they have to accept or reject the place? Do they have to have rejected it before phoning any clearing unis?

They don't have to do anything. The place is confirmed automatically. If they don't want it they have to use the UCAS system to decline the offer and release themselves into Clearing.

You can phone other institutions about what places they have in Cleaing but they won't be able to do much with you until you have a Clearing number from UCAS, which you can only get if you're holding no offers. Some courses might be willing to go through selection processes (e.g. interviews, viewing portfolios) and tell you that they will offer a place if you apply, at which point you have to decline your existing offers(s) and get a Clearing number

Good luck all!

Mine needs 3 A stars for her firm offer and has resigned herself to going to her insurance offer. Happy with that but the main worry now is getting accommodation, she doesn't think she will get any on campus. I was in the same position 25 years ago with the same university and did get campus accommodation, don't remember there even being an issue as I think accommodation was all allocated after results day, think things have changed since then though!

Hi all - Some familiar names here.

DD get's emailed results from school at 8.30am, then we go in for support (and a brunch!) if required. 99.9% sure she will get her firm Exeter offer, reduced to AAB, for putting first. Insurance is Warwick AAA.

We already started buying uni stuff, she got all excited and bought a load of stuff from Primark which all went back, because it was not right, or a bit crap. Just did a big order from John Lewis (I know, very middle class), but already running out of a lot items. Will hit Robert Dyas for kitchen items soon.

Good luck everyone, it has been a crap year, in so many different ways, school disruption, family bereavements, stress, and anxiety. This generation certainly deserve a bit of luck.

Thank you

@storminasnowglobe Hope you all get out of self-isolation on Friday and no one else comes down with it!

In that instance your DD would use Adjustment rather than Clearing. I think she has 5 days after her original offer is confirmed to make a change? If she exceeds her original offer she can contact any University she wants to see if they have spaces and would like to offer her a place. There isn't a list in the same way as clearing so she can approach anyone I think.

Details about how it works are here:
www.ucas.com/ucas/undergraduate/apply-and-track/results/ucas-adjustment-if-youve-done-better-expected

Do you think she might want to try for somewhere else if she does better than predicted?

So, just to get this clear in my head - if DD were to get better grades than predicted, she could immediately phone up a Uni with clearing spaces (that may have been ruled out earlier in proceedings due to thinking grade requirements out of reach) and could possibly be offered a place?

Yes she can also go into adjustmemt

• fab start to year 12!

Where's the edit post button?!

@pistachioicecream oh no! that is very lucky then that your DS's school are emailing the results! I can commiserate as we are also self isolating at the moment but released this coming Friday 🤞🤞🤞

So, just to get this clear in my head - if DD were to get better grades than predicted, she could immediately phone up a Uni with clearing spaces (that may have been ruled out earlier in proceedings due to thinking grade requirements out of reach) and could possibly be offered a place?

Assuming a student attains the required grades and is accepted by their confirmed first choice on UCAS, how long do they have to accept or reject the place? Do they have to have rejected it before phoning any clearing unis?

Hi all,

Waiting for A-level results here too. Like many others DS has had a bumpy two years. After a fab start to year 13 he really struggled in first lockdown. He's also had to deal with some challenging health issues with his Dad (my ex) which have not been easy. Then changing his mind about what course he wanted to study a week before the initial UCAS deadline added to the stress.

He now needs ABB for his firm choice (engineering at Lancaster). Bizarrely needs AAB for his insurance (Cardiff).

We watched this video from a Professor at Nottingham Uni with some advice about how to choose which University to put as your firm or insurance offer which we found really useful.

I'm definitely more nervous than DS. He seems calm about the whole thing. I'm having nightmares about a C in maths which might see him rejected from both!

His results are coming out by email at 8am on Tuesday morning I think. Which is lucky as he's currently in bed with Covid and we're all self-isolating, which doesn't end until Wednesday next week

Good universities often give their clearing places to teens who did better than expected, not worse. I know there's adjustment for this but I know for a fact a few rang Bath University in 2019 with really good grades and got into a course in clearing - they had AAA rather than the BBB predicted!

Interestingly the course that DD's friend got accepted on with CCD is in clearing this year with grade requirements of ABB-BBB.

The moral of this story is to make phone calls, all universities are different and some are more flexible than others with grades

A word of warning. Some universities accept so many extra students through clearing that the only accommodation they can offer is a 40 minute bus ride away in a different town. Kent were bussing students in from Ashford and Bristol had similar problems.

Thank you @Oldowl
That's really eye opening to hear that your DS did not get accepted with the grades he achieved despite the unis going into clearing . I had always assumed that unis with clearing spaces would be pretty flexible on "near miss" grades. Quite shocked but good to know so we can mentally prepare!

We really don't know what grades are going to be in the envelope on Tuesday. DD's work and grades improved drastically in Y13 (she actually thrived working independently at home, one of very few who did I'm sure... but for various reasons it just suited her) however the school decided to use assessments from across Y12 & Y13 which may not reflect the actual level she was achieving by end of Y13. They also sat many, many assessments under exam conditions between Jan-May 2021 but were not given results - so really have no idea whether on target for projected grades or not

Hmm. I'm not sure it's worth doing a humanities course at a clearing university which will take people with CCD. A more vocational or scientific course then maybe.

Need to come up with a plan B, which will no doubt mean doing nothing and reapplying next year.

@storminasnowglobe www.ucas.com/clearing-launch?stage=subjects

@cptartapp It depends on the university and course. My son's first choice and insurance both in clearing last year (and this) yet they would not accept him with one dropped grade. He needed ABC (firm) and BBC (insur) and got ACC, so on results day he was rejected from both courses and put into clearing.

The University of Kent are usually good for clearing places. DD had friends given good courses with ADE and CCD.

@cptartapp sorry if this is a silly question but where do I look to see if a particular course is in clearing already?

cptartapp whilst covid makes it a bit more up in the air, Discoveruni is a website that gives some idea on the previous years ucas points acceptance.

Good luck back!

It’s been awful, hasn’t it? Family circumstances meant our youngest had 6 days face to face since March 2020.

Desperately hoping individual circumstances have properly been taken into account and the cohort can move on with their lives in Autumn.

Hello all - I'm so sympathetic to all of you. My DS has similar a story to some others on here. Way back in early 2019 he had to drop out of Year 12 because of mental health issues. He switched schools for Y13, then lockdown... Unsurprisingly his CAGs last year were grim. He sat exams last October and got AAC. This May he resat the C subject and also took Further Maths for the first time. Has uni offers, but if he does well on the 10th we're aware that he might well bin those, take a second gap year and reapply all over again to his top choices who weren't interested in him this year ... it's been a very very challenging 2 years!