Can anyone explain this to me? Ucas Tariff Points.

[Scabbersley]

Dd was looking at a uni on Unistats. There is a part which says:

"These are the actual tariff scores for students who started this course in 2014-16 expressed in terms of the new UCAS tariff."

10% of the students who started the course had 192-207 ucas points.

So 3 x A and an A EPQ is 'only' 196 tariff points

That seems huge for Sports Science and what would the other points be? A typical offer for this uni is ABB.

Lots of people do four A levels, and there ate coaching, music, BTec type things which sometimes count.

And the high scores are only for 10% of the students.

when do those types of things count?

On a sports science course, especially at the 'top end' of sports science unis you will find that a lot of the people on the courses are VERY good athletes and they may well have a 'compensation factor' in their offers.
Some sports science courses, at certain universities have high expectations because they want high achievers both academically and sporting ability. They will take the top academic students and the top sportsmen and will not take those looking for an 'easy ride' through uni.
The top sport science people really are scientists - and are probably going in with A's in Biology, Physics,Maths etc.

Yes I get that they want 3 A's - that's what they ask for - AAA /ABB

I stupidly forgot to factor in 4 A levels! Noone does 4 now at dd's school (well I think 10 out of 160 might be!) But that coudl be 4 A levels at say, 3 xA and an A* which makes more sense.

And we know its not an easy ride! But thank you allmycats

And these are grades achieved, rather than offers. So they may have had an offer of 3 x A's but achieved 3 x A*s and an A.

I think I understand it now!!

Crikey. Just looked at the Wikipedia tariff table. 30 points for a music Grade 8 distinction? That's practically an extra A-level.

Crikey. Just looked at the Wikipedia tariff table. 30 points for a music Grade 8 distinction? That's practically an extra A-level

I know! Lots of unis don't go on the tariff though.

Also, in 2014 - 2016 most schools were still offering AS levels so most applicants would have had 3 A levels plus 1 AS and some would also have the EPQ. I think you could be missing the obvious here as well, which is that very high tariff scoring applicants are likely to have presented with the old-style BTEC. Before the recent reforms it was not unusual for applicants to achieve DDD* in their BTEC, thereby achieving a huge number of Tariff Points.

Sorry I meant to say triple D* but it did not post correctly.

ah! so how many points did you get with triple Distinction star at BTEC? Is it harder to get that now?

that sounds much more likely as the Sports Science Extended Diploma is very popular

2 bored teenagers at home "studying" so they were playing fantasy tariff calculator earlier. They inform me that the YMCA sports qualifications give ftonnes of points (32). Dance qualifications also generate points and if they do a lot of different styles they may have multiple awards (this also applies to musicians who generally play multiple instruments).

Also Scottish students who do 6th year generally have excess points. 5 As at higher is the same as 3 A* A levels and then they might do another 4 in 6th year.

It is all pretty meaningless though cos most Unis go on actual subjects sat at the main exam diet and discount multiples /overlaps.

So triple Distinction was/is exactly same points as A* at A level. Add in an extra AS, EPQ or random other BTEC (not unusual for BTEC applicants to present with the equivalent of more than 3 A levels) and you're there on the points. And, yes, triple Distinction is much harder to achieve following the reform so the stats may well fall over the next few years.

It's in the university's interests to record as many tariff points as possible, regardless of whether the offer required them. So every music, drama, dance etc etc exam gets recorded. As do extra A Levels (Crit Think, Gen Stud etc).

The more sought after unis ignore ucas points and deal purely on A level grades. They also ignore music exams, Duke of Edinburgh awards and other spurious things.

They also ignore music exams, Duke of Edinburgh awards and other spurious things

That's not necessarily true.

Dd has been talking to Loughborough and they look very favourably on a good level of sports participation and coaching courses.

Not for ucas points admittedly but on the PS

So a child who can get a grade 8 distinction in a music exam is offering “a spurious” thing! It’s such a shame when children who are gifted in something other than standard subjects or sport are somehow less worthy! I suggest grade 8 in a music exam is very worthwhile and says something about the young person. Probably more then kicking a football. It’s more academic. It may not be worth much for sports science, but it shows dedication, talent and study for years to achieve something.

Grade 8 distinction for Music would obviously be relevant if you want to do a Music degree. It really is irrelevant otherwise. Schools love telling pupils that all these extra activities are good for their ucas points or their PS. However it seems universities are really not bothered. The top unis want the best possible grades and the rest of the unis want ‘bums on seats’ and pretty much take anyone and everyone now.

Even those universities who don’t make offers based on tariff points will look to record as many extra qualifications as possible because it bumps the tariff they report up. All universities have to report this for all their students, regardless of the type of offers they make.

So a child who can get a grade 8 distinction in a music exam is offering “a spurious” thing!

Spurious for university admissions, not spurious in their own right.

In 2014-2016 they were using a different points system from the one currently in use.

In 2014-2016 they were using a different points system from the one currently in use.

The original post quotes from th Unistats website, which says that the historic points have been converted to the new tariff - so A* = 56, A = 48 etc.

I don't think grade 8 music will ever be wasted. Dd2 will have grade 8 lamda drama and grade 8 music by the time she does a levels and jolly proud of them she will be. It's almost irrelevant if they aren't taken into consideration by unis, she did them for herself!

I'm hoping dofe isn't vitally important as neither top two did it!!