Applying for Uni 2019 Part 7: IB and A Levels are but a memory, we're relaxing and let's not even think about the 15 August yet!

[NewModelArmyMayhem18]

Carrying on from the previous thread which filled up very quickly.

, and for everyone

strawberrieshortcake that's interesting about the Wednesday grade boundaries leaks. Thanks for that!

Of course , in amongst all this about English grades is the fact that teachers' performance is measured by the performance of pupils and the 'accuracy' of our predictions is often called in to question. That's a farce!

I shall be saving this Ofqual proclamation for PM discussions....

Last year, we queried a student who got a top B on one paper and failed another (B in her coursework) and were, indeed, told that both papers reflected an accurate assessment of her ability and were 'within tolerance'. Harumph.

Goodness the anxiety levels for me are going up, as I expect for everyone here. My DD has had a lovely summer so far as a dinghy instructor working away from home, we had a family holiday and she had a trip to Greenland but now reality is kicking in for us. She phoned me today to say she had a dream that she got ADD in her exams and was trying to convince her top choice to take her! She needs to get A(maths) AA for her firm or A (any) AA for her insurance so not much in it except her insurance is in clearing which is what she thought might happen hence her choice of insurance. She did Edexcel maths too to add to the stress! I keep saying to her we have plan A.B and C but not sure exactly what these are although have a few ideas! Good luck to everyone's DCs and thank all you lovely people for the useful links and advice you have shared :-)

Thank you for the reassuring words. Had a glass of wine and calmed down. DS says he will look at other uni's if he doesn't get his firm. Is there a website that lists all the courses still in clearing.

Also his course at NTU is no longer in their clearing list. Am I right to think that this means they wont be reducing the grade as they now have enough students.

I’ve noticed a lot of people saying that their course was in clearing and has since been taken off? Perhaps now the universities have the results, all their spaces have been filled?

mines, where are you finding this clearing list? Or do you just know from the uni website?

You can search on the UCAS website, piggy

Try this link Piggy

www.ucas.com/clearing-launch

I’ve also gone onto the websites of various unis & made a note of their clearing hotline. A few allow you to pre-register an interest also.

I am doing all this on the sly though as I am the only one stressing it appears.

Thank you strawberries, that makes much more sense.

thanks and hello everyone :)... sorry popped out to take Ds2 driving.. I'm trying to get him through the test by the end of the summer...
my 2 are like chalk and cheese, not at all competitive with each other, in fact oblivious to what the other is doing strangely.
So what happened with ds1 last year is that he didn't do any work and got BBC.. needed AAA for Econ at Loughborough.
We weren't prepared for clearing, he was adamant that it was Loughborough or nothing. Come the day, he panicked and we did spend the afternoon on the phone, but decided to have a year out as the uni choices were just not good enough in our opinion, to justify the price tag. He was at a state grammar, so in our case, (and the vast majority I think) you cant retake year 13, you can resit the paper as an external candidate but you are on your own for the year. You don't need to retake every paper and you can also carry over the practical.. so for maths fo example, he had 2 papers with A, has carried those over and re-sat the other 2.. He still doesn't think he has AAA, he thinks the horrible chem paper will drag him down but we'll see what happens on the day. Now he is a mature student (20 in oct) they might take him anyway.
Basically, if it doesn't go the way you want on thurs, don't panic, it really isn't a massive problem if they need to resit and I was surprised at how many of his friends have done this. I also think he's benefitted from the year out.. he's worked quite a lot and its been really good for his confidence and social skills. the year has also gone very quickly... that said, I'm ready to be shot of him now.. he seriously hogs the bandwidth! :D

I couldn't get the car started in the carpark earlier. DH came down, got it going but it sounds awful and has two warning lights on. Just hit me, if the garage can't fix it by Wednesday, how am I going to get DD to her school if she needs support (two hours in rush hour)!!

Putting that aside, DD says she will phone her firm and fight for her place (even though they're unlikely to accept lower grades). She doesn't really need the school to do that, but one teacher (she's his only pupil) has said he'd be there to help her with the call (I half got the impression he'd be speaking to them as well), but if we can't drive on Thursday, it's going to be a pain.

Her courses aren't in clearing.

One way or the other, I think lots of us will need a glass of wine, G&T on Thursday.

What Admin will be required on Thursday?

Hi everyone. Checking in for the countdown to Thursday now - 🍷at the ready for getting through the stress....

A friend is an admissions tutor for a Russel group uni, in a subject that often ends up in clearing.

She says they're not in clearing yet, but they may dip in for 2 hours on Thursday morning. This is because they picked up a few students who were deferring last year... so although the course is full they'll still be taking calls on Thursday for next year!? Seems to be worth knowing.

Framey I think what you're saying is that you can also get deferred places through clearing - is that right? Yes, worth knowing if so!

I'm probably missing the point entirely, but for clearing courses currently listed on the UCAS link posted above, will the grades needed if they call up on Thursday be the same as what is currently listed next to each course/ uni on the clearing list?
I ask only because the clearing courses DD might be interested in are listing AAA which seems too high to attract students who have missed their grades.

One if the unis I looked at (DS's firm) said that grades may change during clearing & to call.

Sooner... yes that's what she said, it could be useful.

I also don't understand the UCAS clearing search tool.... if you use the UCAS points slider it seems to suggest that some courses will accept lower grades than their published grade requirements.

Is that right? I'm looking at worst case scenario grades and there's still lots of courses coming up in the search results.

I have found the ideal distraction for Dd. We are currently returning home from Europe and there are 2 very loud posh English late-twenty-year-somethings voicing their opinions on the world. Dd and I nearly choked with laughter on ‘I am going to write a letter to Southern Rail because they are using too many words on their announcements’. They then decided their letter may fail (in culling the sentence length of train drivers) because it’s too heavily unionised.
They are now onto whether you should shoot someone if they enter your home.
As we are coming home today results day has ‘hit’ her and she was feeling down but this double act are making us giggle.

ok.. IME..when it comes to clearing...
pick the uni's you want! there's no point whatsoever in going somewhere you dont want.. its so much money for not a good experience!
get together the details of the uni's you want and their phone number...whether they are listed in clearing or not.
you will also need their UCAS number and a copy of their personal statement and all the info on what qualifications they have..
phone all the uni's they would like to go to and ask... there is no harm in asking, they can only say no... they tell you very quickly if there's no chance. your dd/ds needs to do this... we found out last year, they are not impressed with teachers of parents asking unless its exceptional circumstances.
don't settle for something crap for the sake of it... a year out can be totally fine, honestly :)

@minesawine I think the Daily Telegraph is the paper to get first thing on Thursday for Clearing courses. Probably can source the info online but sometimes having hard copy is preferable.

Ingles2 thanks for your tips - useful to know.

I am going to have a conversation with DS tomorrow about Plan B, C and possibly D.

I reckon the early birds catch the worm on Results Day so students may need to move fast (not something DS is renowned for!).

Are teachers at school supportive about advice as to what to do next? Certainly one of the admin questions is to prompt DC to check in with heads of department about priority remarks (if appropriate). DS's school has stats suggesting that 'upgrades' constitute fewer than 20% of remarks for A Levels.

@ZandathePanda that sounds the best type of distraction!

During my research earlier I noticed that some of the Clearing hotlines open very early - eg 6.30 for Liverpool.

Probably worth making a list of ones you think your dc would be ok with that are showing places in clearing & getting the contact details - the uni websites are all now highlighting the details for Clearing on their front pages

@Ingles2 that is great advice thank you. My DD said she's not going to check track but is going to find out actual results at school so we had better be up early. I have got the clearing telephone no and email for her firm and insurance but nothing else yet and I'm not sure she has done much.
@ZandathePanda that distraction sounds hilarious if a bit annoying. Something to focus the mind elsewhere!

oh no problem... at the time we were so disappointed.. ds1 not so much, he knew he hadn't done any work.. but some how thought he was going to wing it, which to be fair, he did at GCSE and got 13A* or something ridiculous.. he's grown up a lot, so always a silver lining! :)

There are many supportive parents on here, who've obviously prepared their DCs for uni application and results day and I'm not knocking you at all, but am I the only one who hasn't done anything (other than worrying if our car will be fit for the journey worst case scenario)? DD is totally on top of what she needs to do (or not) results day, and I know I can't get involved - I haven't even seen her ucas application or have her log in for ucas.