Oxbridge 2020

[GinWorksForMe]

Is it too early for an Oxbridge 2020 thread? I'm feeling in need of some hand holding through this process...

DS1 is going to apply to Cambridge for Maths. Doesn't know yet whether to name a college or put in an open application, so any tips gratefully received. We have visited two (very different) colleges and been to a Maths Open Day. It's unlikely we're going to have the opportunity to visit many more colleges as their open days seem to be on Saturdays and DS1 has a paid job Saturdays and Sundays.

Anyone else applying for Oxbridge for 2020 entry and want to share the journey?

Hoghgyni there was a question about a garage door in DDs FSMQ which has put her off maths forever!

sendsummer thank you for those stats. Really interesting. I'll pass them on of course.

Yes, coursework not good. She's usually staunch but even she got a bit tearful and I'm not convinced that me saying 'But surely you backed it up?' at least four times didn't actually help. The very unresponsive memory stick is now with a man (there was no man on the Scottish island we were on) so fingers are being firmly crossed that something might be retrieved. No a dickie bird on her computer though. She's started again, assuming the worst.

How horrible for her to lose all that work.
Hope it's recoverable.

Oh that’s so upsetting for your DD...nightmare scenario...I’ve never heard of a memory stick failing and you’d question yourself for relying on it.

I mean did actually help. I couldn't help myself though. The question just kept coming :)

Those stats are very curious sendsummer. There seems so little correlation to the CAT test.

bionicnemonic it just suddenly went the Saturday before last. The light flicks on for a second then she pushes it into the laptop and then gives up, dead as a dodo. School wants coursework in on the first and third days of term respectively. I've just told her that I'd expect them to be helpful (but also to ask the dreaded backing up question. Apparently her computer says do you want to save it to place a or place b but it doesn't do both, hence it being all in one place).

She wasn’t working from the school server by any chance? DS school they work from the server and can back up to memory stick to take it home but the school system backs up periodically (google classroom I think) he can access it from home too

Many thanks for the suggestions. But no, there seems to be nothing anywhere at all except for on the memory stick but I agree about stuff flooding back. One of her older sisters had the opposite problem very recently: she had her bag with her computer in stolen from beside her feet (all on CCTV, where the thief is seen swapping her bag with a very similar empty black bag). She'd not backed up four months of work on a memory stick (was intending to once it was perfected, the next day) and though the police say the guy is a professional, they say that makes it easier to ID him but much less likely to get anything back (stolen goods pass hands much quicker). I do realise that we're not covering ourselves with glory on the IT front as a family....

A trick I have taught ds is to email drafts to himself. He similarly lost a chunk of Geography coursework a couple of days before school wanted it before the end of term. Thankfully, he had emailed an earlier draft so did not ahve to salvage the whole thing.

Both my DC now write everything on Google Docs, which they claim back everything up for them every 5 mins or so and which they can access from any of our laptops or from PCs at school. I still stick old-fashionedly to Word and a memory stick.

Very sorry about your DD's coursework, goodbyestranger. Hope she is coping ok.
DS is firmly in denial about doing anything with his UCAS form -- even as far as deciding between Oxford and Cambridge, let alone other places to apply. It's going to be a long road to 15 October...

My DS has been given his predicted grades and they are not enough to meet the requirements for Imperial or Oxford on his chosen course. Teacher won’t budge as he says his summer exam mark was too low. DS is confident he will get the grades in the end and wants to apply anyway. It’s a tiny class and none have been predicted A although it’s not crucial for the others. We’ve exhausted all appeals. Their line is that yes he may well get the A but the policy is to base it off summer exam and that’s that.
He’s been preparing for the MAT and thinks if he does well in that it will overcome a low predicted grade. Is he wasting his time if he’s not meeting min grades in his predictions? Any views?

There's a number of questions

1. did your DS know that the results of the summer exam would form the basis of his predictions and if yes did he revise?
2. How far off an A star was he?
3. What were his grades like during the year?

Bpisok
He says he didn’t know but l can’t say whose fault that is. I certainly didn’t know.
His summer exam was A/B borderline.
He’s had A, As and one other B in mini tests. He would have needed a high A to get A prediction.
School won’t budge though.
Given that so many predictions are wrong l’m surprised that Universities still put much weight on them. Surely a lot depends on personality of teachers and school politics in predictions?

@RamblingGambling sympathies...
Will school offer the chance to resit in September?
Re school not budging.. can you ask to see their data on how their predicted grades measure up against actual? They will have that information.DTs school show the graph of predicted v actual every year ( they are very close).
Others will know better than me about having a punt with less than predicted grades.
There’s always the option to apply post results for 2021 but its not ideal I know and he probably wants to crack on.
Good Luck!

That's tough for him. At ds school, pupils who did not get their hoped for predictions are being allowed to retake earlyini the term. School have been quite prescriptive but clear about how they make predictons so other than the retakes, there isn't much wriggle room.

Woud retaking the exams be an option?

I think the only wriggle room is to ask if he can do another test on the 1st or 2nd week back?
No expert but I think DD would have been predicted an A on what you have told us.
They normally say that you could go up half a grade on science/maths but possibly go up a complete grade in a humanity.
Checking how close the schools predictions vs actuals are is a really good idea.

They haven’t offered a resit but he’s spent the summer preparing for his MAT in between a summer job (saving for university) so l don’t think his mark will go up TBH. Wires have been crossed somewhere. I feel for him as he’s a very independent worker and is 100% doing this himself. I haven’t helped as much as l could have l suppose but l feel like l’m behind the curve with University applications, only learning what’s required when it’s too late. Maybe everyone feels similar? He had a part-time job which probably affected things. I should have made him give it up but he said he was coping fine. I think everyone thinks “yes he probably would make it” but because if the way predicted grades work for him he been to be out for his chosen course. It’s a good job he’s tough. All this talk about mental health in teenagers. Yea right. The process is ultra brutal. I think he’ll still apply anyway but may be a futile application. He’s bullish though.

What are his predicted grades in what subjects? I don't know what the MAT entails but I'd have thought working on that during the summer would tend to improve maths/FM performance.

Then maybe ask for a resit? Doing MAT practice will definately have helped his Maths/FM

DS was disappointed with one of his predictions so wrote a letter of appeal at the end of the summer term with multiple evidence of work at the higher grade.

The department very kindly agreed to write him a retake paper and he went in yesterday to take it (having worked hard all through the holiday). We will see on Monday whether they are willing to lift the prediction.

Predicted grades are overestimates 41.7% of the time. A lot of students are over-predicted and don’t achieve those grades on results day.

He just texted me to say there’s no resists available. He says “don’t worry mum l’ll ace the MAT.”
I trust him but l don’t trust the system. DS says admissions know that predicted grades are mostly wrong. I worry for him.

Either he'll do well in the MAT or it will provide a reality check if he's not quite as good as he thinks, in time for him to recalibrate his aspirations and UCAS choices.