Year 12 #1 - GCSEs are sooo last year!

[bpisok]

New thread to see us through to Christmas?

DS2 is at a partially selective state school. 11 pupils went to Oxford or Cambridge this year.

At the moment his shortlist is mostly high-ranking, competitive universities.

At the end of Y12 the school will tell him what predicted grades they'll be putting on his UCAS form, and then he'll know where it's feasible to apply to, and whether he needs to set his sights a little lower.

Personally I agree that it seems unfair, but I have been googling and I can see the guidance for applicants on the supplementary but there's nothing on the teachers version to state what the 'comments' could/should be within the additional info.
It's not totally impossible to imagine something that says 'I have been a xxxx professor at xxxxx college for xxxx years before coming to this school and believe that DC will thrive under the tuition of the xxxxx department at xxxx college since DC has a keen interest in xxxx aspect of the course which is only taught at xxxx college'.

It's therefore Cambridge specific since it is about the specific course and the Uni. The person writing the comments would be putting their reputation on the line but it may just swing an interview

Not good and very far from fair but I can sort of imagine it......but then I have always liked a good conspiracy theory.

And I feel I must reiterate that DDs school only put a very small number of candidates in. They are always the top performing in the year so would have a good chance anyway.
It may/may not add any value. As goodbye suggested it may even alienate some of the tutors so may even have a negative impact!!!

And DD doesn't want to go to Cambridge 😀

bpisok a lawyer would conflate the guidance for students and teachers because they mirror each other's terminology.

I don't think any aspect of any course is taught exclusively by a single college is it? I don't think so but happy to be corrected.

But no, Cambridge isn't going to blatantly hand out any additional advantage to independents, it just isn't plausible. Unless of course.... the admissions guys want to encourage these additional statements from the independents (who are by far the most likely to write them) and thus to piss off tutors and thus to advantage state schoolers (conspiracy theory #2 :)).

Just to reassure anyone worried about grades or thinking it may be a bit of a 'lottery'.

I think whilst the majority of applicants will have 6 or more A*s. many do get places with less if they can demonstrate they have something to offer.

From experience we were incredibly impressed with the information provided on Cambridge and college websites and by speaking to admissions people at Cambridge so please use that rather than take what schools say as read. Some dc can be mislead either by teachers not in the know or worse by teachers who think things still operate as they did when they went there !!

Lastly again from experience Cambridge (and presumably Oxford too) admissions tutors are incredibly diligent and professional and select based on a combination of actual results, predicted results, admissions test. reference. PS, supplementary statement, submitted work and interview (remembering that there are usually at least three interviews not just one.)

They know what they are looking for and have years of experience looking for it and we were at least confident at the end of the process that it had been a fair system. They are looking for people who excel in their field, who really want to study that subject in the way that Oxbridge teach it, and who they feel they would enjoy teaching,

sorry for the ramble - I just wanted to dispel some of the myths that its some sort of mystique attached. Clealry courses are oversubscribed and some miss out - those that don't get a place have to be reminded that tutors are selecting from equally good candidates and some miss out by very small margins - but in my experience too some that have missed out are those that just applied because they thought they ought too because of the high grades or the school or parents pushed them too - I think you have to really want it and be able to demonstrate you want it too be successful and that is far more important than how many A stars you got.

And yes they do look at grades compared to the rest of the school - interestingly my DC score on that as the general results at the school are very low (non selective indie with high proportion of SEND) but its a bit unfair as value added is high and I know DS benefits hugely from being there. But I guess that's an exception to the rule - and the benefit is tiny. I think its hilarious that parents think they gain by moving to state sixth from - surely they would gain more by the higher grades the dc might get at a high performing indi ? !

Oratory1 at the Oxford open day in July, DS2 was told by admissions tutors that they look at the school where GCSEs were taken, not just the current sixth form.

Almost 400 students seem to have applied for the HE+ scheme run in conjunction with Cambridge at DD's college, with a few more days before applications close.

It is funny seeing you all refer to the A stars as I'm naturally linking the A star to a grade 9 and an A to a grade 8 and writing off any ambition DD has, but of course it doesn't map across like that. I'm hoping that anyone looking at DD's results doesn't do the same as me, but the 7-9 = A to A star is going to taking some getting used to.

Oratory spot on! That is why we -forced- persuaded DS to stay put as it was the best chance of getting the grades required!

Changing the subject slightly I mistakenly assumed debate chamber courses were humanities based but just had a look and some are maths, physics and cs. Has anyone tried them.

It is funny seeing you all refer to the A stars as I'm naturally linking the A star to a grade 9 and an A to a grade 8

I agree; people suggest that a certain number of A* grades at GCSE indicates suitability for applying to Oxbridge, but I don't know how to convert that into number grades.

It would be helpful to have an idea of what numerical grades might be new equivalent of e.g. the six A* grades mentioned upthread. Perhaps as an average point score?

9999998888 would give an average point score of 8.6

8888887777 would give an average point score of 7.6

Perhaps the modern equivalent of A A A A A A A A A A is somewhere between the two?

Changing the subject slightly I mistakenly assumed debate chamber courses were humanities based but just had a look and some are maths, physics and cs. Has anyone tried them.

DS2 attended Physics 1 last August. He really enjoyed it.

Oxford claim to equate an 8 to an a star therefore not requiring 9 s but of course we don’t know how that will pan out in practise.

The new system will work as long people don't assume that all A stars must be a grade 9, so a mere (!) grade 8 gets pushed down to the equivalent of an A.

I do think that it's slightly annoying that schools no longer publish their % for 5 GCSEs etc. DD's school managed to have 51% getting a grade 5 or above in both English & maths. Luckily for us, our catchment school only managed to get 37%, which combined with our postcode technically makes DD live in a low achievement area. There may yet be perks in being too lazy to move house! I think there may be 1 or 2 every few years who get to Oxbridge, but any university place is still considered aspirational.

Not thinking of dropping g one a level yet as a) don't know what to drop and b) until dgd makes up her mind to which way she's going she will have to slog on!

Same here sost. DS still persevering with double maths and enjoying it but I can see it being dropped when exam prep ramps up.

I've been counting an 8 as being in the lower slice of the old A* and a 9 as being in the upper slice, with a 7 as an A. That's what our school diagram to parents said. Has that shifted?

I think technically a 9 is top of an old A* and an 8 is mid A star/top end of A. 7 is the rest of the A (if that makes sense!)

But Oratory is right that Oxford say they regard an 8 as equivalent to an A* for now.

Thanks.

That is just ridiculously untidy though.

That’s my understanding Cherryburn.

I do wonder if all this Oxbridge talk might put the average poster off this thread. In DS2’s year there was a separate thread for Oxbridge related stuff with those posters and everyone else still posting on the general year group ‘chat’ thread.

What do people think?

It is, but it’s because there are now 3 grades (7-9) covering what was 2 before (A*/A) so they don’t map exactly.

But even if Oxford counts an 8 as an A* they still can't help seeing which students get all 9s as opposed to all 8s, now that they're distinguished. I know that's almost too bleeding obvious to say but still :)

Perhaps the fact of counting an 8 as an A* only matters for Medicine where they feed the numbers into a computer and do the whole selection-for-interview process very mathematically. Not sure if any other subjects have started to do it that way yet.

Ellen the only thing about that is it's divisive in a different way. Any second the thread will swerve back off Oxbridge stuff I expect.

Might work as the Oxbridge talk may ramp up come next September - but we d want people to stay in this thread too, don’t want to lose anyone - would folk be happy to follow two threads

But goodbye I think gcse s are only a part of the whole selection package so maybe they think providing you’ve got enough 7 s 8s and 9 s to justify your a level predictions they go by the other stuff to actually select