GCSE summer 2020 thread 6 - Carry on Corona Cohort, Further adventures aboard the Corona Charabanc.

@sirtobybelch are you able to tell whether universities, and particularly medical schools, are likely to be careful about assessing GCSE results for this cohort?

It is my understanding that around 80% of results are likely to be what they would have been if exams had gone ahead, but that leaves a significant minority which will be higher or lower than they would have been.

A lot will depend on each University and their individual financial /admissions situation. Regardless of Covid, the loss of international students (especially from China) is a worry for some institutions. We may still be on a 'bums on seats' type scenario , even though home student numbers are expected to take an upturn (in terms of birth years).

Some courses will always be competitive...studentroom is often good to find out if GCSEs really are that important but i'd take it all with a pinch of salt ...the sector is really turbulent at the moment. Those institutions that absolutely require certain grades at GCSE level have to make it abundantly clear in their documentation.

@singingstones Yes Ds is doing Civil. For seem reason Mech Eng is very popular as is Aerospace so probably more competitive. Given the decline of manufacturing in this country this always puzzled me

Ds did not meet the published standard offer but they still took him. As always, the key is to get the offer in the first place.

Yes that's the point of the new system isn't it, that this year's results are not wildly better or worse than previous years'. Some DCs will do better and some will do worse than they would have done in exams, so there may not be exactly the same people with medicine standard GCSEs, but there should be roughly the same number of them.

I can't imagine that the universities will look very differently at this cohorts GCSE grades.

DD is hoping for a strong set of GCSE results to support a medicine application. Statistically speaking such a set of results (if she were to achieve it) will be as common (or not) as in any other year. I think the universities will differentiate in exactly the same way as in a 'normal' year.

Interesting Decorhate, it's on the website now but only for some engineering courses. Here's mechanical engineering - aerospace, design and architecture are the same/similar, but not civil, electrical, computers or robotics.

www.bath.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate-2020/mechanical-engineering/meng-mechanical-engineering/

@singingstones My older Ds has just finished a first year engineering course at Bath. It may not be the same one you looked into but I don’t recall high performance in GCSEs to be part of the entry criteria. He mainly had a mixture of As and Bs

Yes I think you're right Piggy, I just checked a few more Bath courses and found nothing like the requirements for engineering. That's reassuring. Can't see anything on the Warwick website but haven't searched particularly thoroughly.

... and the universities will be well aware that this is corona cohort. Although they may be more worried about current Y10 and Y12 for whom the quality of teaching has been so variable for such a significant time.

I think that Bath one must be specific to Engineering. I just looked at MFL and it doesn't say anything about GCSE other than the minimum requirement of the 4 in English.

Some subjects at some unis specifiy a 6 in maths, for example.

@AnneOfCleavage loads of them take gap years - from DS's friendship group only 1 went straight to university, it may be that it becomes a culture in a school. Lots decided not to apply until they had grades.

They'll be applying next year though shimy for 2022 start so you'd hope it will still be fresh in their minds.

It's just hit DD that Uni is 2 years away (I suggested a gap year as she's a summer born and at 1st she was up for it but last night said she thinks she ought to be with her age group) and that she'll be an adult and have to do washing, shopping, cooking etc whilst studying and this realisation shocked her.

Thing is, by the time it gets to their turn to apply to uni (2022), Unis will have forgotten about them being “Corona” year, so I don’t think the same leniency will apply to them.

Thank you @RoiseCap and @Shimy

Just had a look at Bath and for example the entry requirements for engineering say

GCSE grades are an important part of selection for this course and we typically expect students to have a good number of GCSEs at grade 7-9 or A-A*.

A bit nervous now, even though DS doesn't want to do engineering, or indeed go to Bath. The only course he has shown an interest in so far is at UCL so has the language requirement but nothing else at gcse apart from maths/English grade C.

@OrangeCinnamon1 I think a lot of performers are shy - DS1 is, but happy to play exposed roles and sing solos on stage because he is not being himself.

I think all universities will be careful about reading too much into GCSEs for this lot, although I had not heard that Bath and Warwick focussed on GCSEs. For medicine some places use GCSEs very heavily, but you just have to be strategic about your choices if you don't have all 8/9 grades, some contextualize for your school and others have very minimal requirements - e.g. Bristol 7 for Maths, 5 for English and don't look at the rest.

Well I don't know if it's got stricter but I do know one of my DNieces got into Bath for maths with just 1 A* at GCSE (in maths) and then 4/5 Bs (and 3/4 As) because she went on to ace her maths and further maths A levels. I imagine with the uncertainty of this year they might also be more lenient with GCSE results. Hopefully it won't totally close the door for your DS.

Bath is definitely asking for manly A’s, DS was being really ambitious that he might just ace the GCSE requirements and then work on A’levels and he was predicted highgrades, but he’s not a natural A student and not in high sets so he might just have had that snatched away from him.

@Shimy I didn't know about Warwick's? And I thought Bath's was just along the lines of 5 or 6 A*-B GCSEs, which if you're on track for the appropriate grades at A level should probably be anticipated?

Sorry Warwick.

Bath, Earwick

@singingstones I think in the past it has only been UCL for languages, but even that can be worked around by taking a language course in first year. I know some for medicine also recommend not applying with less than x amount of As (sometimes 8 or 9!) and for Oxford my DD was told % of A GCSEs was important, but no exact requirement for either.

I fell off this thread a bit but I think it's hit DD2 today that her time at her year 7-11 school is over! It's been a really lovely school and her sixth form is sort of attached so not exactly a change, but she has a few close friends going off to colleges, and it is a sixth form that merges with a handful of other schools. Her year 7-11 school was brand new when her older sister started but has developed into one of the best state schools in a short time so she's been very lucky.

@Shimy which universities have gcse grade requirements? I didn't know about that, I was quite relaxed about results day until now!

Can’t believe results day is only 5 weeks away, thankfully DS doesn’t have the stress of getting particular grades & my heart goes out to those who are. So much uncertainty.

I’ll be interested to read the A-Level thread of their results day.

I think they'll definitely build up that stamina again, once they start normal lessons, homework and deadlines etc.

We've heard nothing about acceptance into 6th form, they've all chosen their subjects and done A'leve bridging work so I can only assume everyone's in. My worry is actually more whether ds will now get the grades he needs to apply to some universities he's set his heart on asking for mainly A's at GCSE.

@AnneOfCleavage I have read something similar from other sixth forms. Fingers crossed you may not have to worry much.