A Level Results Day

[3catsandadog]

Hi If UCAS does not update first thing before the school opens for result is it a bad sign that the offer has been missed.
Good luck to everyone awaiting results :)

3cats I love your advent calendar idea. Can we make tomorrow flower day? I need an excuse to buy a bunch to cheer the place up and it sounds like we could all do with a bit of pampering right now. Tomorrow =

Someone else can choose Thursday’s treat!

UrsulaPandress The school should be able to advise you re: a re-mark. I would only tell a student to pay for a re-mark if they are 3 UMS (or fewer) of the higher grade boundary, or, and this is rare, if the head of department for that subject has seen the paper and is confident there is a significant marking error.

I would also take into account the student's predicted grade / opinions of their subject teacher(s).

I would advise a student very strongly NOT to go for a re-mark if they were 3 UMS away from the LOWER grade boundary, and also advise caution if they were 4 or 5 UMS away.

university embargo dates we have been given are:

• SQA – 18:00 on Monday 30 July until 09:00 on Tuesday 7 August
• JCQ – 14:00 on Friday 10 August until 06:00 on Thursday 16 August
• reformed BTEC RQF qualification will receive their results from their summer exams on Wednesday 15 August.

This means, although students will receive these results on Wednesday 15 August, decisions remain under embargo until 06:00 (UK time) on Thursday 16 August.

Skiiltan would that mean they would have to wait on accepting their insurance then? That could be a gamble in terms of having somewhere to live.

Unfortunately, yes. Going for a re-mark is always a gamble. If your insurance choice is somewhere with severe pressure on accommodation - e.g. anywhere in London - you are risking a struggle to get accommodation if your re-mark doesn't lead to your firm choice accepting you and you're left trying to get accommodation at your insurance choice after all the clearing recruits have been dealt with.

Students have to try to make reasoned judgements about what they'll do if they don't get into their first choice. Some will take a gap year rather than go somewhere they didn't really want or where they can't find acceptable accommodation.

There have been a few references to "expensive private halls". I'm afraid all halls are expensive, and they are all - one way or another - private. With the uncapping of student numbers and the efforts to create a market in HE there has been an arms race to improve quality of accommodation, sports facilities, etc. to attract students. All of this costs money, which the universities have to borrow against future tuition fee income (which may or may not materialise). They will either do this directly and seek to make as rapid a return as possible (because there are all sorts of other things they also need to borrow money for) or else contract the service(s) out to private contractors. Either way, rents get higher & higher and, regardless of whether they are university-owned or managed by property management companies, halls have to make a return and are not in any way subsidised.

Skiiltan yes I agree. I don't see that money helps especially either if a student misses the uni allocation because the real issue is social - missing out on sharing with fellow students. Money isn't a solution. That was my point to OYBBK.

Oh God this just gets worse! So if she DOES have a single subject very near miss (less than three UMS from the next grade) and the firm agrees to wait for a remark (in itself an unknown), the insurance must then be kept on hold and she will in all likelihood miss out on her accommodation choice. Is it me or does this whole system seem ridiculous....?

It is a ridiculous system.

Complete novice here so pls indulge me a little. DS just completed yr 12. How does Clearing work? Pls explain to me like a 5yr old When you find a course in Clearing you’re interested in, does it have to be at one of the 5 universities on your UCAS form or can it be anywhere? then you ring up the university? can anyone go through clearing and what happens to your firm, insurance etc I need the meantime? Thank you.

NovellNetware The UCAS website will update on results' day to show your son whether his firm or insurance has offered him a place. If he hasn't achieved his offer, his firm or insurance MIGHT offer him his course anyway or offer him a place on an alternative course at the same uni (which he would then have to choose to accept or not accept).

If he goes into Clearing, he can look at courses at all universities, not just the 5 to which he applied. His school should help him. He would then phone the universities and essentially conduct a short phone interview to get a place on one of the courses in Clearing.

Hope this makes sense? Make sure your DS listens to the talks etc. at school about all of this and knows the procedure.

Just dropping in to wish all you the best of luck for results day. My DDs are in consecutive years so we went through this last year and the year before.

Both times DD had an acceptance email from the university between 7am and 7.30am, when UCAS Track opened and we saw that their places were confirmed. We didn't get actual results until we went into school.

DD1 could see that the course she'd applied for was in clearing the day before she got her results. The entry grades had been lowered so she was pretty confident that she'd got in. In the end she had done better than expected so she went through Adjustment and was accepted onto another course in the same department which had had higher entry requirements.

DD2 was offered AAB but got A* B C and still got in, which was a relief. In this instance it was good that we'd had the acceptance from the university first. We knew that they would not have taken her with these grades in previous years so we felt fortunate.

My nephew also got his results last year and missed out on his first choice. Although he called and spoke to the department they didn't take him and as he no longer wanted his insurance he decided to go through Clearing. It took a few days to get sorted out but he has ended up at an entirely different university (not one he'd looked at before) and has been really happy there. He got a place in hall and made loads of friends. DSis and I are certain that he is happier there than he would have been at his first choice, so it all worked out well in the end.

Novell - you automatically go into clearing if you have no offers - so if firm or insurance have tuned to unconditional you cannot go into clearing, unless you ask whichever you hold to release you. Which means you no longer have any offers. (If grades are better, you can do the same through a process called adjustment, but you don't need to be released to do that and can keep your offer till you decide.)

You phone round and get one or more clearing offers, then pick one and refer yourself to UCAS.

I understand from DD2 that the 'conversion rate' from insurance offer to acceptance is fairly low, something like 60%. I expect that there will be a couple of factors at play, accommodation will be a big one but also a changing of thinking by the student as time has moved on.

DD2 has a fairly complicated spreadsheet which gives a Plan B though to about Plan Z2 as she has listed all possible combinations of results and preferred options for each result. To this she has added email addresses and phone numbers.

You should worry. I have one daughter getting A-level results on the 16th and another getting GCSE results on the 23rd..

It's results day next tuesday in Scotland for all DC. This is my 2nd year in a row with both DSs getting results on the same day. not great when one does very well and the other not so much....

Good luck to all. DS1 off to Uni in Sept but all his offers were unconditional as they were based on his results last year so nothing to worry about for him as he has accepted one and knows where he is going.

Locked, Titchy Thanks very much for you answers to my query. Much clearer now on how you get into Clearing process. I’m so full of nerves and don’t even have a Dc awaiting results . Good luck to you all.

Gnome plan B to Z2 is seriously impressive.
We have plan A and a black hole.

I don't think DD even knows what a spreadsheet is. No plan A here, let alone B, C, D etc.

DS1 has Plan PigsMightFly and Plan WillActuallyHappen.

Sadly he can't apply for accommodation at WillActuallyHappen until PigsMightFly have seen his A-level results and turned him down.

NoHaudinMaWheest it isnt uncommon for unis to offer places on affiliated courses if the required grades have been missed and the course is fully subscribed eg offer a place on a BSc rather than an MSci or on a foundation course with transfer to the degree program on successful completion.

LoniceraJaponica I'm an accountant so everything gets planned in a spreadsheet (I even drew the plans for an extension using a spreadsheet - the only plans ever drawn for it and the builder referred ton them!).

This seems to have rubbed off onto DD2.

Gnome my job involves working on spreadsheets all the time, but DD hasn't needed to use spreadsheets for her A level subjects.

LoniceraJaponica we have a family habit (okay, it's me who has the habit!) of using spreadsheets whether appropriate or not! This is what seems to have rubbed off onto DD2.

Another with no plan B. First choice offer was lower than second choice.

If its a near miss for us DS will take a year out and live in Spain for a year. I think he quite likes the idea!

TheThird Love the name of your plans,

I've had a GCSE or A level results day every year since 2013 (3DC, oldest DC had some early entry GCSEs). Three more to go after this year. One year was a combination of both. DD is fairly convinced that next year wil be too, as she will have resits alongside DS2's GCSEs.

Another one with a higher insurance than her firm. She felt her firm (UCL) was less likely to have wiggle room.

Two weeks seems ageees away - this is my worst year by far

We also have no proper reserve. My daughter's first choice dropped its offer by one grade so it is the same as the offer from her reserve.