Mock results advice please

[mrsnjw]

New to the whole university application process. My son is in year 12 and just received his mock results. A in business, b in geography, c in psychology and b in core maths. Adding all these up it comes out at 136 points. I think he can take psychology again towards the end of summer term and he will revise and work hard to improve the grades. What now in terms of uni places? Will they accept 136 points of will he have to secure a bbb which is what his preferred uni require. Does an a balance out the c? Many thanks for reading.

Depends on the uni! Plus he’s got most of next term to get a better result and persuade the teachers he’s a B not a C! If the course is under subscribed (eg MFL) they will probably take him. If it’s very popular then it’s more dicey. However he really needs an aspirational choice or two, two about right and maybe one at BBC. He’s got 5 choices and he should use them. Not sure the core maths will count - have you checked? It is usually a score from 3 A levels. Not additional exams that are optional. He should aim for BBB in the A levels or better.

The predicted grades won't be based on these mocks

They'll do more at the beginning of year 13 and use those results

Thank you

Look at past papers and the mark scheme

Most universities ask for grades rather than UCAS points (they may offer alternative acceptable grades). And schools make aspirational predictions.

Exams taken before May of Year 12 are also not mocks.

They'll do more at the beginning of year 13 and use those results

Not necessarily, it depends on the school. Our predictions are based on exams taken in June of Year 12.

Most mocks are graded extra severely to "encourage" students to work harder, our school told us they purposely lower all grades one letter so surprises are "positive". Keep practicing using previous papers and mark schemes - it helped us immensely to know what the looked for answers contained and how they were worded, which raised grades for the kids.

Don't rely on a high grade cancelling out a lower. For a popular course like psychology they may well insist on specific grades, not ucas points. You can check in Clearing later in the summer for which might go lower than their standard offer.

Yes I remember looking through clearing last year. Do they lower the grades if a course goes into clearing? Thank you

And you need to establish whether the mock was only based on material covered so far or an actual paper.

Some do, some don't.

@LIZS good point. I know they included a question in one of the exams, worth a lot of marks, that shouldn't have been in there because they hadn't taught it yet 😳

They look at grades rather than adding up points, and they seem to specify a certain grade for the subject they want to take at degree too.

You need to establish with school or college how they set the predicted grades and when.

Students in yr12 are usually told this multiple times from the start of the course. It is unlikely that marks gained by April will be the final or only thing. Do they have end of year exams? These often form the basis of the predicted grades. However many places also consider work through the year and will allow some uplift for improvement.

Some have very rigid policies where only exactly what is achieved in a set of exams or several aggregated assessments will be used….to ensure fairness.

The key is to understand how the place your DC is at does it.

I'm an EO and I run Alevel practice exams.

In my school the pupils sit exams in June, which form their predicted grades. They are offered one resit opportunity in September.

You should check if this is an option available for your son.