Psychology A Level/Oxford

[Tesstheteddybear]

Hi my DS is applying to Oxford 2020 for Chemistry. He is a little concerned he may not receive an interview due to the fact he is studying Psychology, Chemistry, Maths not Further Maths, Biology, Physics etc for A' Level. GCSE's are very good.

Has anyone got any knowledge of this - thank you!

@Tesstheteddybear - if you PM me I'll let you have the name of a great book that DS1s school has recommended for TSA. I can also share some of the summer reading list he has been given by his school. They do very good Oxbridge prep and support.

DS1 is applying for Imperial, Durham, Bristol and Manchester as well as Oxford. I'm certain he'll get offers from Bristol and Manchester with his predicted grades but the other 3 are all completely unpredictable, my hope is that he gets one of them. And of course he only needs one.

The TSA is used for a number of subjects at Oxford Errol, so not subject based, but the thinking skills required for Chemistry and Maths should make it relatively straightforward.

Just out of interest do you need all 9's in your GCSEs to get into oxbridge ? Dd is just going into year 11 so I haven't explored all this yet.

The message I get is that 8s and 9s basically get lumped together, and broadly equated with old A*. I think 9s across the board will be a rarity even among Oxbridge entrants.

The talk we had by an Oxbridge admissions tutor talked about how they "score" each applicant. GCSE grades (statistically adjusted for the nature of the school, eg making allowance for schools in disadvantaged areas) are part of that, but more weight is given to predicted A level grades.

Oh, I'd not realised the Oxford TSA wasn't subject specific.

http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/applying-to-oxford/tests/tsa

Well, for that the OPs DSs subjects shouldn't be a disadvantage.

Just out of interest do you need all 9's in your GCSEs to get into oxbridge ?

No. It may vary somewhat by subject, and also (historically at least) Oxford seems to put rather more weight on gcse grades than Cambridge. FWIW, my DD is doing engineering at the latter and had - old style - 6A* (inc A^ for FM), 3As and 3Bs . The top grades were on the STEM side, evidently they understand that people may have asymmetric abilities.

Thank you for that info ..

It's interesting as she and a lot of her friends are predicted 9's in a lot of subjects in a normal state school.. they are hitting these in their key assessments but I guess it depends on how well the other students across the country do next year .

My mind somewhat boggles at schools predicting 9s for any student in any subject at GCSEs. My son is at a selective independent school where it turned out many did get 9s in many subjects, but they were very cagey about predicting such a grade. They might have been comfortable predicting an 8, but they know that a 9 hinges on a lot of things going right (including how the rest of the country performs), so never explicitly forecast them as far as I can tell.

On the other hand, I know of a state school where some pupils were told they were going to get 9s in some subjects - and then didn't.

gubbsy - how many pupils actually got a 9 in Maths, English or a science last year at your DD's school?

I'm not really sure why your mind boggles DadDadDad. My youngest DC was in the first cohort to do all numbered GCSEs (2018) and was predicted all 9s and achieved almost exactly what was predicted (one grade was an 8 but was a whole school coursework issue). The predictions at her state school proved very accurate, not just DDs. In fact she's the eighth of my DC and all her siblings have had very accurate predictions except one where a SpLD was undiagnosed so I have to say whenever I've got predictions I tend to put some faith in them, and with reason as it's turned out.

@ErrolTheDragon .. I don't know , I'm very relaxed about it all and just want dd to be happy so as long as she passes I'm happy with that . She just happens to be very bright and has gravitated towards similar types . I do keep saying the proof will be in the pudding and we will find out next year if it's all correct .. I might try and find out though , certainly her cousin who did his last year got a few 9's so it's possible from a state school.

I think you meant that for goodbye

Oh sorry

Nae problemo. Sounds like you have a sensible attitude!

I don't see that it was meant for me - possibly DadDadDad?

Yeah, you're right, I scrolled too quick

I'm not really sure why your mind boggles

Well, I thought my post explained my experience to suggest why my mind might somewhat boggle. At the state school I was referring to, I know a pupil predicted 9s in a number of subjects who got none in the end, and slipped to 7s and 6s in some cases - full credit for their achievement but I do wonder what the school was thinking.

Quick google shows in 2018, 732 pupils in UK got 7 or more grade 9s, so it is rare. So, to address an earlier question, even if all of those took places at Oxbridge in 2020, that still leaves 6000+ places for the lightw8s who didn't. (see what I did there? ).

goodbyestranger - I forgot to add, well done to your DD - that was a massively impressive set of results.

@goodbyestranger I have to say my DC's State school is also loath to hand out "predicted" 9s. As it is so tight to get a 9, and they also are very concerned about the mental health pressures encountered by GCSE and A'level students.
Let be honest if you predict an 8 - and the student gets a 9 they are happy, but they are tend also to be happy if they "only" get an 8. However if predicted a 9 they can beat themselves up if they get an 8 and see it as a "failure".
And even worse in some subjects e.g.English Lit, some questions can be "easier" to get good marks on than others e.g. the one on Macbeth might be a stinker but the one on Romeo and Juliet is straightforward but with plenty of opportunity for extra marks. But the grade boundaries are calibrated for the paper as a whole, not taking into account different texts.

I have spent the past two years talking my very ambitious DD down from thinking it is 9 or nothing. A 7 or 8 is perfectly respectable. (As is a 5 or 6, or for some even a 4.)

@MollyButton I agree and I have told dd school that she would work better with targets of 7 and to exceed them rather than 8/9's and just scrape through .. she is particularly good at German and History though and got 9's in all her key assessment so I guess on that basis it is possible so they have to reflect that in her targets .. I do however completely agree with you .

I don't see the point in predictions unless they're a genuine assessment.

I can't see the point in saying 8 if you mean 9, that's just silly.

Also, the figure of 732 which came out on results day last year was a strange one, which was designed to accommodate the independent sector which almost entirely fought shy of the new tougher exams in their first full year. So I think it was 732 (pre appeals) who got 7 or more 9s in the reformed exams. Thus someone like my DD who got nine 9s and an 8 wasn't included and there were 21 at her school alone who got those grades. I don't really think the figure of 732 means very much at all.

In other words an independent school students who achieved seven Grade 9s and whose other GCSEs were IGCSEs would be included, however bad their results in the latter, whereas all those DC who achieved seven or more Grade 9s at a state school but had even a single Grade 8 or below would not be included - and there are probably a lot of those.

I haven’t yet predicted a 9 officially, though I have told a couple of students that I believe they will achieve a 9. I agree with dad too much pressure and the risk that some students would then see an 8 as a failure.
goodbyestranger I don’t understand your posts at all. Would you be so kind as to explain again what you mean?

I'm typing with the most incredibly poor internet on a Scottish island, so it's quite painful to post at all.

If you tell me what your query is, I'll clarify if the technology allows!

I differ about predictions. Plenty of those students you're concerned about will find a prediction of an 8 bad for their mental health. Arguably you're simply adding pressure earlier. Better in my view to be straightforward.

If it's about the figure of 732 I think I've explained already that that figure was a figure for all those students achieving seven or above straight 9s in the reformed exams regardless of grades in unreformed exams - but it excluded those who got more than seven or more 9s if they slipped a grade in any reformed exam. Seems simple to me!

@goodbyestranger - the thing is that those much quoted figures are fundamentally flawed because most independent schools did a mix of GCSEs and IGCSEs last year. DS1's school (which is one of the 8 identified by the Sutton Trust for numbers sent to Oxbridge) did a mix.

So no one in DS1's school could have got more than 4 or 5 9s as the rest were still lettered. But more than a 1/3rd (50+) got straight 10+ A stars and 9s and won't show up in those figures. The same will apply for a lot of other independent schools.