A level results day 2021 support thread

[Mrs08]

Hi 👋
I thought it might be nice to have a support thread for us parents? (Can't see one in further Ed yet??)
It's been such a difficult time for our kids - and for us! - but the end is in sight!
Ds will get an e mail at 8.30am (apparently) and can go into college in person if he needs help/advice.
Good luck everyone!
X

Hi I’d like to join as well please

Ds2 needs BBC to get into southampton, he is a bright boy and should get an A or A* for one subject…but its a toss up between a B and a C for the other two

He did a number of exams but obviously they were well early!

Good luck to everyone here and fingers crossed

It seems like yesterday I was on the gcse 2019 thread!!!🙃

Hi Everyone
I have DD1 awaiting A level results on 10th and then DD2 GCSEs on the 12th - yay . DD1 needs an A and 2 Bs for her first choice but is still undecided whether she will actually go to Uni this year or not. She seems pretty chilled and is planning to hit the town on Tuesday night regardless of whether it is to celebrate or commiserate.
On the other hand DD2 has always been a high achiever and puts herself under an enormous amount of pressure and is extremely tough on herself if she perceives she has "failed" which in her eyes would be anything less than an 8. So bizarrely, I am much more nervous about the GCSE results than then A-levels right now.

Hello all, good to hear all your stories (sorry for what your ds has had to deal with @ablutiions) and I would like to have some virtual solidarity too :)

DS2 is number three child but it's still stressful. DD went through clearing two years ago, and if anyone here is looking at that maybe, then my advice is to be realistic and only contact unis with a likely offer. Some websites were better than others too.

DS2 needs AAB to go to Loughborough to study biological sciences; his insurance is the same offer (!) at Leeds. Crossing fingers. He has fully retreated into grumpy teen mode (tho some would say, no change there) and it's hard to get a civil word out of him atm. Sigh.

Can I join you? It has just struck DD that she has a week to go until D day.

In any other year we'd be more confident but there has been so much chopping and changing. First her school said that her results would be taken 100% from their own exams in May then later decided to include in class tests from Y13 and Y12 too.

I just want to know now so that we can deal with it.

Like Georgie8 suggested, DS waited for UCAS before going to get his results so he knew he was in before getting the actual grades. It did make it easier.

Third DC going through it here. DC2 had to go through clearing. The process is straight forward, but DC2 was not. Some of the stress wouldn't happen now, back then Maths and FM had interchangeable modules and DC2s had been put together wrong, giving her an incorrect (lower) grade.

DC2 should be straightforward, he has a dropped offer from his firmed choice, but he would still be upset not to get the results he was aiming for.

Dd2 is refusing to look at clearing so I think I might have to secretly look for her - although she's deferred so her offer is for September 2022. If she misses her offer and back up (stupidly the same grades as firm don't ask) what do we do? Reapply? I'm presuming clearing is for 2021 entry only? She has a job lined up for her gap year so doesn't want to go in September.

For those in the know, if DS course is in clearing at this point is that a good sign?
I know it means there are places, but does it mean they may be more likely to accept a dropped grade?
And are there places because they've not given enough offers to fill the course, or that they expect a certain % not to take up the place and that they were not that heavily oversubscribed in the first place.
DS has offers for a popular course (Geography) at good uni's and both are in clearing which surprises me?!

@Bryonyshcmyony and @cptartapp

You might get better answers if you post or look on the higher education board, there are some very knowledgeable people over there and I wouldn't like to give bum information

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!

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.

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.

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

@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.

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.

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

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.

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!

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

@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?

• fab start to year 12!

Where's the edit post button?!

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

@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?

Thank you

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.