what the hell is UMS? For Cambridge applications..

[papayasareyum]

my daughter is looking at applying to study engineering at Cambridge. She's taken AS maths, but done mock exams in her other A levels (they no longer do AS levels in these)
She attends a state school with high percentage who go to Oxbridge, so I'm presuming they'll be able to help her. But I just had a look at the student room online and it says that your A level predicted grades are important, but you need 95% ums for Cambridge. What does that mean? She got 84% in her physics mock and the grade boundary for an A was low, so she got a high A, but would she need 95% in that exam to stand a chance of Cambridge? Should I tell her to maybe think again about Oxbridge?

I'm not in Engineering, but I'm pretty sure there isn't a fixed number below which they just don't consider you. Email the Admissions Office at the college?

The UMS is the weighted numerical unit mark for constituent modules that make up the Alevel or AS. She should have them on a printed slip.

Ah sorry, I only read halfway.

Traditionally Cambridge relies heavily on the UMS marks to differentiate but Oxford tends to use GCSE results. What were her GCSEs like?

9A * and an A

she can't find anything with ums points on. All her results are on her student portal and she's got her exam results for the mock A levels and will get the maths as result in august. I'm still confused about ums and can't believe I've only discovered about it now through googling! This is what happens when a Mum with an OU degree tries to help her Oxbridge aspiring offspring!

For maths mocks, if you know the year and board she did you can look up the ums for that year.

It's a weird one, in c1 dropping 1 mark in one particular paper dropped a full 2 ums. In some of the applied papers you can drop a few marks and still get full ums.

At dds college, the lowest ums accepted last year at Cambridge was 95 and the average was 97. It's horrid, a couple of oops questions and it seems on the face of it as though it could throw it all.

UMS is basically your centile score, calculated by exam boards for public exams. So the top 1% of pupils get a UMS of 100% for example. You are unlikely to be able to calculate it for an internal mock, so don't worry about it at this stage. The teachers can tell your DD if she is a good candidate!

Didn't they used to say something like the average applicant has 93% UMS in their best three AS exams and the average successful candidate has 95%? Kitten's data is even higher - perhaps because it's for maths?

Thankyou all. We're off to the open day tomorrow and I'm going to pretend I'm not intimidated by all the privately educated kids and their frightfully posh parents. I hope there are others with zero Oxbridge knowledge there.

Don't they do entrance exams too?

Yes, there's some sort of assessment test and then three interviews if she's selected! And then they can say no. But if you don't try, you can't get in. I do worry about her Oxbridge aspirations because she's always suffered with anxiety and the hothouse environment of the most elite university on the planet might not be for her. But she wants to apply and to be honest she'd be stressed and anxious wherever she goes.

Just be confident that the university is looking for the best and can completely see through the poshness and the confidence to find young people with the right spark. Enjoy the day!!

She attends a state school with high percentage who go to Oxbridge, so I'm presuming they'll be able to help her.

We're off to the open day tomorrow and I'm going to pretend I'm not intimidated by all the privately educated kids and their frightfully posh parents. I hope there are others with zero Oxbridge knowledge there.

In view of the first statement I am not sure what posh accents should do to intimidate your DD and you. It sounds as though as your DD will be in as good as position as most private schools from her school background. I would suggest it is more helpful to your DD to have an open mind about fellow prospective applicants rather than assuming a them and us mentality based purely on accent.

It used to be that Cambridge looked at the UMS marks from the Y12 AS exams whereas Oxford use GCSE grades as stated earlier. I haven't heard what Cambridge now look for given that many schools no longer offer AS's.

For your dd, you won't know her AS UMS until she gets her results in August

Oh of course, Cambridge will lose their system when ASs go. They'll have to do what Oxford do too. Or rely solely on the auxiliary testing (?)

Don't worry OP, it'll be much more mixed than you think.

m going to pretend I'm not intimidated by all the privately educated kids and their frightfully posh parents

That's just ridiculous. The vast majority of privately educated kids do not have frightfully posh parents.

Lovely bit of inverted snobbery casually thrown in.

It's not inverted snobbery, she's just a bit nervous.

Forgot to say; Encourage her to look at Oxford too with GCSEs like that.

going to pretend I'm not intimidated by all the privately educated kids and their frightfully posh parents

a [tongue in cheek] emoji clearly needed :)

Off there tomorrow too, however from DS1's experience there the frightfully posh all seem to have quite impeccable manners. His GGF was a miner, they really do happily take all sorts, who all seem to get along without a problem

boys 3, thankyou! It was totally tongue in cheek!

We are far from posh or privately educated!!

I've made sure dd knows which cutlery to use though, just in case she decides to try for it

best be on the safe side Kitten!

I haven't heard what Cambridge now look for.

Cambridge introduced pretests in most subjects last year.

papaya