Physics, Cambridge and the inexperienced...

[Changebagsandgladrags]

I've joined a schools mentoring programme.

The student I've been paired with is thinking Cambridge for Nat Sci and is leaning to physics. State school, non-selective.

She has A* and A at GCSE (about fifty million of them) but is finding AS harder, currently averaging A/B borders.

Firstly, I'd like to help her with Cambridge. Private tuition is not an option financially. I can help her academically to a point, in Maths and Physics only though. Can't help with Chemistry. But I'm going to stress that it's not an impossibility if she knuckles down. I can't help that much with the actual process, I can proof read her application, but I have no experience of this at all. School can help, and have sent others in the past.

But where else is good to apply? She can only think of Warwick and I can only suggest Manchester. I chose my university based on football and bands and distance from parents.

I fear she's a bit clueless and is relying on the school for all the information.

Gosh, slipshod is right about Lancaster. I never realised!

Does your mentee feel up to doing the Olympiad - closing date is Friday.

Have you talked to her about gender imbalance? A friend's DD found that it worked to her advantage.

Auntimatter, that is because when we did A'levels (I went to university 22 years ago, so similar era), A'level results were norm-referenced, so that only the top 5% taking the exam in any one year would get an A, the top 10% would get a B, the top 25% would get a C and so on. This was irrespective of the actual percentage scored in an exam and worked on the basis that within one national cohort taking the exam, the intelligence level would be broadly comparible from one year to the next. Norm-referencing therefore assumed that the only difference was exam difficulty.

These days, A'level grades are criterion-referenced. In other words, if everybody taking the exam meets the criteria for an A-grade, they will get it. This accounts for the year-on-year increase in exam grades as teaching a strict set of criteria required to get a certain grade is easier than getting students into the top 5% nationally (and, of course, previously not more than 5% could get an A).

Consequently, more students leave school with A grades (and A*, which didn't even used to exist), than the 5% who could achieve it now. Universities therefore have to find other ways to differentiate the good from the exceptional and UCAS tariffs keep on rising.

Back in the dark-ages, when I went to university you only needed BBB to do medicine at a fairly decent university! Grades now are totally incomparable to then.

Not when I did A-levels! Norm-referencing stopped (pretty much) in 1987. Though it appears to have survived(ish) fora while longer. This gives the history:
web.mat.bham.ac.uk/C.J.Sangwin/Publications/2011-MathsToday-Alevels.pdf

Think you may be older than you admit , Magrat.

I read Physics at Oxford. I went to a brilliant women into Physics course at UMIST which if they are still being run is worthwhile. I chose Oxford specifically as I wanted to do Physics and not natural sciences

Lots of Physics degrees spend a lot of time teaching maths and so further maths is useful - though the extra knowledge didn't last long at university.

The interview is a big part of the Oxbridge prpcess so encouraging your mentee to express her opinion and ask good questions helps as well as they are looking for people they want to teach and engage with as well as enthusiasm and ability in the subject.

The other thing that is worth doing is going on some open days - often you can go to departmental open days and that is worthwhile to get a feel. Physics departments have a high proportion of male students and so coming from an all girls school I had been concerned about the change in environment. It was, of course, fine.

But, between 1987 and 2000, there was a kind of not-entirely-criterion, not-entirely-norm-referenced approach, which still limited those able to achieve the A-grade.

(and of course I'm older than I admit - in my head I never got beyond age 25 )

Changebags - which city / county is your mentee located in? We might be able to point you in some useful directions if we know.

CheeseTMouse - seeing as UMIST merged with Victoria Uni of Manchester a decade ago, I doubt it!

sciencegrrl.co.uk/ might be relevant - it's a grassroots women in science type thing

For Manchester specific things of varying relevance to physics www.umass.manchester.ac.uk/welcome/

Manchester is also holding their annual one day physics courses next month www.physics.manchester.ac.uk/outreach/onedayschools/

IoP has some stuff for girls in physics www.iop.org/education/teacher/support/girls_physics/page_41593.html

But as I say, we can be more specific if we know the geographic location

Sorry I buggered up the links

sciencegrrl.co.uk/ might be relevant - it's a grassroots women in science type thing

For Manchester specific things of varying relevance to physics www.umass.manchester.ac.uk/welcome/

Manchester is also holding their annual one day physics courses next month www.physics.manchester.ac.uk/outreach/onedayschools/

IoP has some stuff for girls in physics www.iop.org/education/teacher/support/girls_physics/page_41593.html

Cheese - v. similar here, except the women into physics course I went on was at Manchester University (they had Jocelyn Bell Burnell as a speaker!) and then physics at Oxford - back in the mid 80s! (Again, nat sci wasn't for me as I didn't want to do chemistry ever again if I could help it).

I suppose the point is that there are lots of good resources available as it's still an issue getting women represented in science and so it's doing the research to access that help. And it looks like there is plenty out there.

DS has offers for MPhys (4 years, including Masters) from Imperial, Manchester, Birmingham and Lancaster. All AAA. He is going for Imperial because it's so highly regarded for the specific physics course he wants to do. He seems to have got off lightly with his offer there - some students have been asked for AAA plus STEP, or even higher...

The other three have all said that if he doesn't get the necessary grades that they still want him, but that his place will be initially on their 3 year BSc, and that he can upgrade from that to do the extra year during his course.

Another thing to bear in mind is the financial incentives on offer. DS has been offered cash by everywhere except Imperial - between £2k and £3k depending on the number of A*s he gets at A level. This is not means tested. For students from a family where income is under a certain level, most Russell group universities (and Lancaster, who are not RG) also offer a bursary of another £2k-£3k per year to help with living costs.

Birmingham has a partnership with BP who sponsor a number of students on the Physics course each year and gives them £5k p/a. Again, this is not means tested, and there is no obligation to work for BP upon graduation.

Hope this helps. There are plenty of great places to choose from. DS still can't decide which place to make his insurance offer!

With regards to women in science - there's a physicist at Lancaster who has won an award from the IoP for encouraging more young women to go into Physics. It might be worth emailing her for specific advice... PM me if you want details.