What should I do for this for A-Level private test centre results?

[kmo0416]

I retook my A-level exams this year.

I did well in the two others (both A-Stars), but for A-Level History there was a problem.

Last year, I did coursework in which I got full marks: 40/40.

I asked the private exam centre I did my A-level resits with whether I could carry this mark foreward as I was retaking History. They said I could.

In fact, when I submitted my application to do my exams with them in February, I was emailed by them saying that they needed a copy of my “Statement of Results” from my original A-Levels (from 2024) so they could carry forward the marks. I don’t know what they trying to do with that - get my ULN number or UCI number or see the mark? Though there is no coursework related mark on the 2024 statement of results or specific breakdown of results - it just has the grade and the raw mark.

Anyway, I sent them an email with a photo of the statement of results, confirming what it was, and they processed my application, sent an invoice and I paid.

Since they allowed me to pay and sit the exams, I thought that they had managed to confirm that they’d be carrying forward my coursework mark (40/40).

Just for the record, A-Level history is marked out of 200 with 160 marks for the exam papers and 40 for the coursework.

On Results Day, I got my results from them and got a B with the raw mark showing as 143/200. Just for the record, an A-Star is 172/200 and an A is 160/200.

I asked for my scripts back and checked the marks for each paper and just on the exam papers alone I achieved 143 marks so 143/160 (as there are only 160 marks for the exam papers - the other 40 come from coursework).

This means they definitely have missed the 40 marks from my coursework.

If you add 40 marks (coursework) to 143 marks (exams), that’s 183 marks so an A-star not a B.

I’m worried that something has gone wrong as the universities I applied to were telling me on UCAS that they could see I got a B in History and the result came out as a B. So, what happened to the coursework?

Would it even have been possible for the exam centre to book me in for an A-level history test without processing any form of coursework given it is a component of the qualification? If not, would the exam board just give me a 0 for it.

Is this too late to solve as apparently there’s a deadline to submit coursework or a deadline to modify exam results on these basis?

Would it be possible for them to add the 40 marks on to my exam results or not?

Would the exam centre know that they didn’t carry forward the marks?

I tried emailing them but they said to wait 3-5 working days.

Perfect is the enemy of good. You're hanging everything on something that may very well not happen.

Just withdraw from Cambridge. Stop wasting their time... someone else who wants it deserves the place.

I do have my LNAT exam scheduled for a couple of days from now and maybe I should hold off on making a decision on what to do next until I’ve done the exam and then if it goes well, maybe I might feel more inclined to risk it; if it doesn’t go well maybe I might think differently. I’m not sure.

Just go to Cambridge for the year while this gets resolved. You are unlikely to have had much scope to get a “better” place through Clearing even had the results gone smoothly and your best chance to do so now is to do the Foundation year, learn to adapt your skills and mindset, then apply to wherever they suggest. Hopefully your result will come through in the meantime but if you wait and reapply again no uni owes you a place even if you meet or exceed their standard offer grades and it just prolongs your uncertainty.

I know you have a tricky relationship with your parents but tbh I’d be saying the same and physically taking you to make it happen! Otherwise you will be trapped in this cycle of reapplying, hoping for something “better” and not moving on indefinitely.

If you are stressed by the SF questions call the college and ask for their support and advice. However I thought you initially said it was fully funded for the year so you would not need SF anyway.

With the Cambridge foundation year they make you apply to different universities during it because you’re not guaranteed a place at Cambridge for your degree unless you pass the foundation year. But they generally expect you to apply to Cambridge as one of the universities you want to progress onto and I’ve asked them if maybe I could apply to Oxford instead so do the foundation year at Cambridge and apply to Oxford and if I get into Oxford that’s great, if I don’t then I could stay at Cambridge. However, they said that if I didn’t get into Oxford then I would lose my place at Cambridge as well because you can’t apply to both Oxford and Cambridge in the same year despite one being for direct entry for a degree and the other being a progression from a foundation year, and if that happened then I would have wasted a year at Cambridge for no reason. By contrast with the Oxford foundation year, they let you apply for progression at Oxford and allow you to apply to Cambridge amongst other universities as well.

Do the foundation year at Cambridge.
It won't be a waste.
You will learn independent living skills.
If you don't like Cambridge (what's not to like?!) then apply elsewhere for degree.

I think you are self sabotaging / fixated on Oxford or bust.

Burning an almost guaranteed place at Cambridge in the hope of a place at Oxford is insane

If ever there was a person that a foundation year was designed for, it's you. There is no guarantee that either Oxford or UCL will make you an offer & a year at Cambridge might actually do you some good, giving you some space to decide what you do want.

Even if UCL was nominally in clearing for History, they are unlikely to have taken you (even with straight A stars) to do history when you had previously applied for Law, if they had an equivalent (or even slightly lower grades) candidate who was definitely wanting history. UCL would have had plenty of candidate choices in clearing and it’s in their interest to get people who would stay.

(plus you don’t want to be in London, aargh)

Also - going to Cambridge and seeing if it is for you is not a waste of a year for no reason - it’s much less of a waste than going to UCL (in a town you don’t like) and doing History (which is not the subject you want)

OMG @kmo0416 please take the Cambridge place. What "better universities" are there for you to apply for than Cambridge?

Oxford? Not really better as such. Ok for you – you have built it up to be a perfect place. I agree with piggy that perfect is the enemy of good. It’s impossible to find something perfect, basically. You are young so you may not see this, but those of us here who are not know that to be the case.

A foundation year is actually, and despite your amazing high grades, an excellent plan for you, as others say. You will learn to live independently in a wonderful uni with course content that will be well within your grasp. You will be in place at the uni with pretty much a guaranteed spot there to do the full degree, and you will have the chance of a breather year to take stock, get used to living there, learn a few life lessons. This will definitely be a massive benefit to you.

Please please stop chasing a dream of perfection. It don’t exist. But you have found something pretty close. Don’t throw it away.

If your parents won’t support another gap year (understandable) and there’s nothing now in clearing that you would accept, surely the foundation year is the best of your available choices (I think it is the best idea even if there were other options but it’s certainly the best of the possibilities now)

You can do the LNAT anyway, but i don’t think that changes your next step. Then, if you do well on the LNAT and hate Cambridge after a couple of weeks, you can think about an application to Oxford and 4 other places. And if you like Cambridge, then to Cambridge and 4 other places.

It is entirely possible that the coursework issue won’t be resolved and that your B will stand. If the centre mixed things up and misinformed you, then there may be nothing that the exam board can do.

Op.

Do yourself a favour and give up. You have suggested Cambridge doesn’t have the prestige of Oxford. Absolutely bonkers. If you do the foundation year at Cambridge, which you say is an embarrassment to you in any case, I would put money on you dropping out because you clearly hate the whole idea of it.

Get a job and reassess the idea of higher education when you have a couple of years of subjectivity behind you.

UCL made me an offer this year for law!

Super.
But. Are you going to accept?

So much good advice on this thread I've just picked up on. So Cambridge Foundation or UCL?
If you do Cambridge Foundation please don't obsess on the Foundation bit. When I was your age I turned my back on opportunities as thought a step back or because of misplaced pride and with me even a strange sort of arrogance. I was so wrong and missed out because of inflexible thinking.
I hope you make a decision. There is a lot to be said for a Bird in Hand...rather than always looking wistfully in the distance.

But you’ve said before you don’t want to go to London?

That was to start this month & you said no. There is no guarantee that they will make you an offer for 2026. You will be competing against 2 year's of applicants with nothing extra to show for your time, unless you take the foundation year.

If you do the foundation year, you can put UCL as one of your choices alongside Cambridge and 3 others. The chance to go to UCL this year is gone.

(I wouldn’t do this as you don’t like London, but you could do this)

But if you are yearning for Oxford, surely Cambridge is wayyyy closer to the Oxford experience than UCL?!

That ship has sailed, likewise the Oxford offer you missed last year. There is no guarantee they will offer again simply on the basis of resits and interviews. Iirc you have not yet had any relevant work experience, placement or volunteering to fill out your gap year cv, nor put any plans in place. As you get older that becomes more important than results. Eventually you will need to commit to something or time will just tick away and the world move on without you.

Absolutely. That foundation could change your life. You’ve no idea! It will give you the chance to learn things from the start that you wouldn’t have in school and no matter what you go in to do will have a quality and force behind it that most people would not be able to emulate.

What have you decided to do @kmo0416