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Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

Original poster

Applying for Uni 2020

999 replies

daydreamornot · 04/08/2019 11:29

Thought it may be nice to have a 2020 support thread, everyone welcome! (maybe Oxbridge posts could be kept to the Oxbridge thread).

OP posts:
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oneteen · 14/08/2019 12:19

Hello @PiggyPokkyFool. There is lots of very useful info on the medical threads, as your DD sat BMAT or Ukcat yet?

oneofthegiantsisme · 14/08/2019 12:26

Hello, sneaking into the room late (I'll sit at the back!).

My DS is applying for 2020. He's said for the past couple of years that he wants to do Computer Science (OK, it was very specifically game design/programming, but we've talked him out of limiting his options), but is now considering Physics instead, to keep his options even more open. A Levels are Maths, Further Maths, Comp Sci & Physics. He's currently awaiting AS results (we're in Wales), so that will give us a better idea.

He hasn't really started looking at all, which is stressing me out a bit! They went to a fair with college, so he picked up a few prospectuses, but I'm not sure he's really looked at them. We certainly haven't been to any open days. He's mentioned Warwick, St Andrews, Exeter, York.

He's just come back from 3 weeks in the US/Canada at the World Scout Jamboree - prep for that has rather taken up most of our focus for the last year, but I'm hoping that we can now switch to UCAS. He's also just been given a diagnosis of Asperger's, though mostly copes fine.

I think I may need the support of this thread over the next year! DD was at boarding school for sixth form, so they dealt with all the UCAS stuff - I feel a bit like a newbie even though I'm not.

ExCwmbranDweller · 14/08/2019 12:36

Hi oneofthegiants, our DS must have sat a lot of the same exams, we're in Wales and he's done, Maths, FM, Physics and Chemistry. Friends son was also at the Jamboree, from FB the photo's look amazing. We're going to look at Exeter at the start of Sept, actually looking forward to the weekend away with him (we're on the west side of Wales so a bit of a trek.)

oneteen where do you find those stats? Must be for A level with the A. As I've never paid them massive attention before what's your take on that, 55% seems like nothing for an A but the A looks hard!

oneofthegiantsisme · 14/08/2019 12:43

Enjoy Exeter, ExCwmbran - it's where I went, and I loved the place. We looked at both the Streatham & Penrhyn campuses with DD, and she really liked them, but ended up in Aberystwyth. I'm hoping we can get down for an open day - just checked and there's one in October if DS doesn't get his act together to sign up for the September one.

oneofthegiantsisme · 14/08/2019 12:46

Oops, Penryn, not Penrhyn - that's the castle near Bangor! I always get those muddled up Confused

oneteen · 14/08/2019 12:50

They have been floating around TSR and Twitter (obviously not confirmed so could be incorrect), but judging by the press over the last week they look inline with what was quoted (lots of the links were deleted).

We dropped into Exeter a few weeks ago - really lovely campus.

MillicentMartha · 14/08/2019 13:10

Ooo, DS is doing Edexcel maths. That’s the board that had the leaks at A level this year.

ExCwmbranDweller · 14/08/2019 13:23

I wonder how they moderate across the different boards, DS has done WJEC I think, be an interesting day tomorrow comparing grade boundaries. I'm quite stunned actually, Millicent did your DS find it a particularly gruelling exam? 55% seems strange for an A, I would imagine very few of the mathematician children on this thread ever got exam results that low or they wouldn't have taken A level.

Kilash · 14/08/2019 13:33

Those grade boundaries look very odd compared to last year. Ds thinks over 80% was needed for an A and 90% for an A* in previous years and a quick google confirms this. I wonder of Edexcel will publish how they managed marking because of the leak? He did not take AS papers but reports that people he knew found the A level questions were 'framed' very differently to how the textbooks frame them and it threw quite a few.

MillicentMartha · 14/08/2019 13:49

It’s the first year of the new style A levels for maths, kilash with the 2 year course examined in Y13, which would make a difference to the grade boundaries.

oneteen · 14/08/2019 13:52

Was it Edexcel who did something similar with the new style Maths GCSE 9-1 for oddly the same cohort - 2 years ago?

Kilash · 14/08/2019 13:55

Ah yes, I had forgotten that Millicent

oneteen · 14/08/2019 14:03

Just looked at the Grade Boundaries for the A levels DD is taking; Biology looks fine with 68% for an A...Chemistry is quite tough at 85% for the A...(both OCR) but seen AQA as yet.

MillicentMartha · 14/08/2019 14:08

ExCwmbranDweller no, sorry. He’ll be doing the A level next year. Just the AS this year. Just interested for next year. They may have to look at how hard they’ve made the new exams.

PiggyPokkyFool · 14/08/2019 14:32

Yes @oneteen - UCAT safely negotiated - decent score and band 2 SJ which she was happy with - VR she found really hard compared to mocks and that was her worst section. Plenty of options based on last years cut offs which we haven't discussed yet as she is off doing a week in our local hospital at the moment.
I'm on the medical threads but I like my 'old' GCSE buddies too. We shared a stress that bonds you forever!

oneteen · 14/08/2019 15:22

@piggypokkyfool - Well done to your DD, having a good UKCAT score will certainly take some of the stress away (if that is possible).

goodbyestranger · 14/08/2019 15:41

Millicent it doesn't really matter what the boundaries are, if it's broadly as hard to get an A* one year to the next and those at the lower end don't lose out on their correct grade.

AChickenCalledDaal · 14/08/2019 17:17

Well done MillicentMartha's DS. Lovely to hear a success story!

Hope everyone waiting for results tomorrow gets what they hope for.

MillicentMartha · 14/08/2019 18:35

Thanks, Loose and AChicken Smile

I do understand how the grade boundaries work, Goodbye. Even so, an exam where you can only get 55% and still get an A isn’t properly balanced IMO, so I do think Edexcel should be looking at the difficulty of this new style exam.

sandybayley · 14/08/2019 18:47

@MillicentMartha - I think I agree with you. Whilst people might get the grades they deserve they is something fundamentally dispiriting about an exam where you can't even attempt large sections of it. That kind of experience just serves to put people off certain subjects and causes unnecessary anxiety when waiting for results.

KingscoteStaff · 14/08/2019 19:01

OK, not a Mathematician here, so explanations are welcome.

A level boundaries are percentage based - by that I mean they are adjusted so the same percentage will get an Astar each year.

This was the first year where the gov offered financial incentives to schools for more maths A level entrants.

The ‘extra’ students encouraged to take Maths to gain the money are likely to be the lower achievers at GCSE.

If the cohort has increased disproportionately at the bottom end, what does that go to the grade boundaries?

Pinkfizzy · 14/08/2019 19:13

Hello all!

I would like to join - no AS's but really quite surprised at the Maths grade boundaries. Whilst Goodbyestranger is right that the boundaries are adjusted to be fair, I am dismayed as this happened to the same year group at gcse; the net result is significant discouragement to prospective Maths A level students. If you face such tough papers, then if you are usually an A* grade /80% sort of person, you will KNOW if you have only got around 50% & that, possibly illogically, has discouraged people from taking Maths A level - down by 5000 from 91000 last year iirc. That is actually a bit of a problem for the country & the economy in the long term.

So - I'm not sure that having quite such a difficult exam really helps differentiate candidates for universities. With a range of 55% to 100% for A, it may be that universities need to have an A & an A** to sort students...(kidding- sort of)

Anyway, just musing aloud.

oneteen · 14/08/2019 19:16

@millicentmartha - It looks like the OCR Grade Boundaries are even lower at 53% of a grade A and 13.5% for an E. It just seems that the exam boards struggle with setting the right level of questions on new exams.

Two of DD's books arrived today and it's nice to see her so keen to start reading them Grin, she actually did some work on her PS too...

I don't think I'm looking forward to this time next year.

MillicentMartha · 14/08/2019 19:20

I think that for A levels it’s not a consistent percentage of the cohort that get the same grades. The exam boards do a calculation looking at previous average attainment and relative difficulty of the exam, but if anyone knows better please do enlighten me.

For GCSEs it’s been tied over the first years of the new exams to the previous percentages of the old ones but if it’s completely inflexible to percentages of the cohort getting particular grades it doesn’t allow for improvements in teaching etc. Therefore they are no longer tied at 7/A and 4/C.

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