universities - how much weight do they put on specific exam boards???

What a load of bollocks. Can't imagine they have time to give a toss. How long do application forms get looked at for, on average?

Your key concern at the moment is that the Govt have cut additional student numbers so it's going to be difficult to get into university at all this year, and future years if funding continues to go tits up. Clearing will be a non-starter, for example.

I can't imagine anyone giving a teeny tiny monkey's chuff about GCSE boards. Some Russell Group superstars might care about A level boards, and those vs IB etc but even that would be both controversial and a waste of people's time.

Anytime around now, University administration is going to be slashed and burned anyhow (cos that's what John Denham says) so there will be even less time or resource to worry about this level of detail.

Good A levels, good application, good interview, right choice of course: that's about all you can control.

Universities do not favour certain exam boards.DD1 and DD2 were not asked about GCSE exam boards.

OP - could your friend be getting muddled up with the issue of iGCSE (international) vs the normal ones? The former are more rigorous and a few schools have started to do them and there is some concern that in the future, if a lot of schools do them, this could disadvantage children from schools where they do normal ones, if the gap between the two continues to widen, but it is not really a problem yet.

Off with her head, impertinent commoner!

HRHQE2--why have you downgraded yourself. Surely you're HMQueenElizabethII, Her Majesty, not just some ole highness, darling?

Oh, gosh, yes - this, if it were true, really would mess with access policies (and Widening Participation funding) wouldn't it? That's even if anyone had the time to do it...

Same as Fircone - in antediluvian times my grammar insisted on doing Cambridge board exams because they were the best, the hardest, and taken note of by all the best universities.

Was bollocks then, as I found out later from my uni tutor - they took no note whatsoever of which board. I sincerely hope it's also bollocks now ....

Another one in uni admin here, not admissions but I work with the admissions office. Each applicant must be treated the same. If two candidates meet the entry requirements of say GCSE A* in French and some experience of France (these are completely hypothetical requirements BTW), then we MUST make both candidates the same offer - otherwise we breach our Fair Access Policy and risk not being able to charge top up fees. If we interview candidates rather than make offers based solely on the UCAS form (the exception now rather than the norm) then I guess there would be some room for bias towards particular exam boards, but in reality it just won't happen!

When I did O and A Levels a hundred years ago (early 80s), my grammar school banged on that they would only do the Oxford or Oxford and Cambridge Board for exams. They maintained that they were more difficult, and therefore more valued, than exams of other boards. I remember being shown by a teacher the maths O Level paper from another board and the teacher triumphing that it was so much easier than the one we had to do.

It seems unfair if the boards aren't standardised and some children are doing more difficult exams. Conversely it's unfair too if some candidates are preferred because of their 'fortune' in being able to sit a more difficult exam.

HRH, it was only according to a poster on that website who appears to know what she/he is talking about from other posts, and usually provides very sensible and even handed advice.

Personally, I am glad that University admission officers don't take any notice. As I said in my other post, I didn't think they did.

I just hope it isn't one of these things that only those 'in the know' are aware of and there are children taking exams in Maths set by boards which are then dismissed by 'good' universities thus denying them a place through no fault of their own. Which is presumably what the OPs 'friend' was hinting at.

margot, according to whom - Uni admissions officers? That would surely only be relevant for Maths/Science - dh thought the whole idea of looking at exam boards for his subject in his uni was laughable, and they have huge applications and v. high standards.

Just been looking on the infamous eleven plus website and it appears there does seem to be a pecking order in Maths exam boards.

No idea about others, but I'm admissions person for English at Oxford, and I never even look at the details of boards. We really go more on written work, the new 'test', and interview. I've done admissions at UEA, Reading and Exeter, and they didn't look at boards either. But some might in some subjects - think I hear languages and maths are most variable.

This sounds like the sort gossip that does the rounds in my very MC area, with a lot of excellent state schools vying with the private schools. It's a sort of one upmanship.

Now my older DCs are safely at Russell Group universities I can look back and see it is just total nonsense. No doubt, as others have said, there are one or two totally obscure examining boards in daft subjects but, in the main, most of the examining boards are much of a muchness.

They definitely do ask for examining boards on the UCAS form though.

DH and I have both been involved in admissions at Russell Group unis for some years. I'm pretty sure that roomforthree is right and exam boards are specified for all exams. Neither of us have ever considered putting any weight on the exam board in question and have never come across anyone who has. I guess it's plausible that in a particular subject there may be a potential issue with a board but it's nothing I've ever heard of. The only way I can think of that it might be relevant is if the student is being interviewed and the interviewer is aware that certain boards cover certain topics so the student should be able to answer a question on those topics.

I really wouldn't worry.

I do uni admissions. We do not notice or care.

Yes, specified for both GCSE & A Level.

No they add the points up according to the grade and type of qualification NOT the boards, I honestly wouldn't worry about this.

The exam boards do need to be specified on the UCAS application. At least this was the case when I applied last year. But I can't see how this could be used as a method of discrimination.