DD ucas predicted grades AAD.

[itsokaynow]

My DD is in year 13 and wants to go to university next year. Her predicted grades are AAD. The D is in Art and Design, and she made a mistake in choosing to do it at A level (She got a 6 at GCSE). If she were doing an academic subject; instead, she would most likely be getting 3 As. She can't study Art more and get better, but she is trying hard to improve her course work to get a C.

She feels she can't now go to a good university. She has GCSE 9 and predicted an A in the subject that she wants to study. Her subject teacher has given her an excellent reference. She has a very strong personal statement related to her subject areas.

She is worried if she is wasting her choices applying to the better universities, but I feel it is a shame as very academically bright. She wants to study English Literature, and she says it is a popular degree subject so feels they won't even consider her application with a D

Any advice I can pass on to her would be gratefully received?

Similar situation here. We wondered about doing another A-level in a year but have struggled to find anywhere affordable in London to do so, only private colleges which cost £10k per subject. She would be able to do another year at school, but only to retake the existing third subject which she is reluctant to do (hates it).
So sad when a bright child's horizons are limited like this from a hurried decision made aged 15.

Just seen marching's post. FS is my area and I will read thread and reply later!

OP whereabouts are you, roughly and what kind if uni does DD want?

Kent, Aber , QMU, Lincoln, Oxford Brookes all might suit : more or less in that order.

I have a league table with grades which I will put on here.

In the meantime, I'd be putting a LOT of pressure on the school to up the UCAS grade : it's not the same as a predicted grade and should be kinder in spririt.

You mention contextual offers... is that your circumstances, or is it a qualifying school? Research has shown that disadvantaged students suffer for lower UCAS grade predictions and less high achieving schools are less likely to 'predict' to aid students' life chances. I am all for realism, but it needs to be tempered with optimism, too.

Has the application gone in??

This is the Guardian's top 30 for film studies. You do need to look as these might be journalism courses as it includes media. It is less likely to dot his than then the CUG table. She also needs to consider how academic she wants her course to be vs filmmaking.

1. Warwick ABB
2. St Andrews AAB/ABB
3. Southampton AAB
4. Exeter AAB/ABB
5. Newcastle ABB
6. Leeds AAB
7. Edinburgh Napier CCC
8. York AAB
9. Lancaster ABB
10. Stirling BBB
11. Staffordshire BBC
12. Kingston 112 points
13. Royal Holloway ABB/BBB
14. Kings College London AAB
15. Liverpool John Moores 112 points
16. UWE 112 points
17. Chichester BBC - BCC
18. Aberystwyth BBB-BBC
19. Kent BBB
20. QMU BCC
21. De Montfort 104 points
22. York St John 96 points
23. UEA BBB
24. Solent 92- 112 points
25. Sunderland 112 points
26. OBU 112 points
27. Lincoln BBC
28. Uni of the Arts London BBC
29. Liverpool Hope ?
30. London South Bank BCC

Aberystwyth does contextual offers.

You'd need to look at English league tables, too, perhaps and weigh it up. Warwick and Lancaster are the best of both worlds in that scenario but may not be realistic.

UEA has been very popular with MNetter DCs this year and is BBB. V good for English : could be worth a punt.

Bubbles - ok there will a big difference dependent on subject I'm sure. The nearest to an Arts type qual in our house is my Grade 6 Piano certificate from 19???? so appreciate I might not be the best one for advice here.
Good luck OP, there seems to be some good info up here for you now

Hii! So I'm actually a year 13 student and this is what I've been told of my sixthform.
Unis will look at grades so have a university that she wants to go to as an insurance choice (comes after the 5) and a firm choice is one she would be happy to go to but will accept her with her grades. Worst case scenario she will have to ring clearing when she gets her grades and get accepted into a university that way. Or she could try and go to a university that accepts UCAS points between 2 subjects. One of the uni I have chosen is 80 ucas points between 2 subjects which is 2 B's. Hope this helps and wish your daughter the best

I would be pressing for the predicted grade to be put back up to a C. It is supposed to be an idea of what the student is capable of at their best and the teacher must have been wavering to change at this point. Harsh not to let the student know face to face too. Then I would make sure she knows the A level spec for photography down to the very last detail and tailors her coursework to fit it exactly. Look at exemplars from other students that have achieved high grades - there will be some on the exam boards websites but many more online. Is there another teacher at the school that could give advice on the photography coursework?
Then apply strategically. Definitely choose one or two aspirational options. This is not the end of the process only the beginning as there are plenty of chances to change the courses, add other ones or go through clearing or adjustment or even take a gap year. Don’t give up hope of getting an offer from one of her top choices at this point. There are so many variables that it is worth a shot.

It may be different now, I went to uni in 2010. Most offers were still points based then. I came out with A(star) A(star) D. It became apparent in year 13 that I wasn't going to be able to bring the D up much, and the unis I wanted to go to said as I wanted to do the subject I was projected A(star) for, that their advice would be that I prioritise that and sack off the D, as long as I still passed it.

That's what I did in the end, and I got into a top 15 uni, my first choice. It's not the end of the world, but definitely worth talking to the unis about it. MN May disagree with me but a good uni is not everything. I dropped out of my good uni and went to a poly in the end. Came out with a first and got a place on one of the top graduate schemes in the country.

One off DD's friends wanted to study law at Kent but did not get the grades.

She achieved ADE in English Lit, Biology and Maths. She was offered English and American Lit at Kent via clearing with those grades. She is loving the course.

Kent will almost certainly offer her with AAD.

IMO less young adults are going to university at the moment. For the first time ever I have seen previously oversubscribed courses at good universities in clearing. I think St Andrews with a D is pushing it though.

There's less of them plums that's why. The proportion going is stable, but the U.K. population of 18 year olds is currently the lowest it's been for years. Starts to increase next year though.

I actually work for a university, and I've spoken to many parents and kids with similar concerns.

Don't panic: most students don't aspire to a 'D' grade but two As is fantastic and I am certain she will be able to access most English courses in the country.

Universities publish entry requirements based on predictions, but as the year goes on the situation can change. Currently the trend at most universities is for published entry requirements to go down, but also for universities to confirm places for students who achieve lower grades than were either published or predicted. As others have mentioned, universities have attempted to grow with more places available but fewer 18 year olds.

Russell Group doesn't necessarily mean the best. Many universities outside the Russell Group have invested well and raised standards above even those older institutions.

My advice is that she carefully consider what she considers a 'good' university, she actually has a huge number of options. Rankings are a tool, but they aren't perfect. I can think of some cases where some long standing very high ranked institutions have received bad ratings in the Teaching Excellence Framework or complaints that undergraduates felt like fodder where being taught by PhD students.

In reality, what takes place in lectures and seminars at a university ranked say 20 and one ranked 40 might be the same. In a different table with different metrics they could swap!

I recommend she looks carefully at the modules offered and the structure of the course. For example, some universities make teaching the entire works of Shakespeare compulsory, which won't necessarily be for everyone! It's also worth checking what research centres they have and what they specialise in.

Does she want to do a joint honours? English and subjects such as Creative Writing, Journalism or Film are popular, especially if she's struggling to make up her mind. This is a very personal decision but I don't recommend Film as a Single Honours to students unless they are 100% committed to a career in Film and very driven, such as making films or writing about it already in their spare time. Not everyone may agree with this, but I think an English Lit degree has more transferability than a Film degree.

She also needs to consider accommodation: will she be guaranteed a university room? How much will it be? Will she need to take public transport to lectures? What's the average cost of living? What kind of part time jobs are there?

She also needs to think about location, such as, does she want to be in a major city or a campus? What student societies are there? I always recommend visiting and getting a 'feel' for the environment. Any university that makes her an offer will invite her to some kind of post-application Open Day (different universities may call them different things).

When it comes to her 5 choices on UCAS I'd recommend 3-4 that are ticking the right boxes for her with high requirements and 1-2 options which are solid choices but lower published entry requirements. Then, when the offers come in, go and see them and see which one becomes her first choice, and pick a lower offer as her insurance choice.

We are South Manchester area; however, she would rather go out of area. She qualifies for only a very few contextual offers based on our postcode only. Other criteria rule her out of most.

Her school don't seem to care about Art at A-level. The department's teachers all lack experience and are new to teaching. My DD says it is their first A level class. No experienced teacher is overseeing things. Her teacher's issue mainly seems to be with my DD presentation of her work. She has good ideas. Her written work is of a high standard.
She did both Art & Photography at GCSE and got 6 in both however Art had her in tears with the stress. She got 9 & 7s in all other subjects so think she has made the wrong choice that she realised too late.
She did ask the school if she could do another A level this year, but they said no.

She is aware that St Andrews is most likely not an option; she knew it would be unlikely before her grade dropped. She has contacted them to see if it is even worth applying.
She is not bothered if her university is Russel Group. She would rather compromise on the uni than the subject. It is important it is joint honours with English, she will consider journalism instead of film but not Media studies.

That list is beneficial. Some good options I hope she may be happy with. Thank You.

If in Manchester, Lancaster may be an excellent choice. Not near, but not far. It is brilliant for film. Competitive entry, though.

What tasty says is really important : the published grades are guides; it's not necessarily what they will offer or what she needs to get. Do bear in mind, though, that photography A Level will interest film departments so they might wonder about the low grade. Does she have any experience in or enthusiasm for film that she could highlight?

I am not sure English ahs more transferable skills : they are actually similar and , in fact, film is more diverse and eye opening, I think. But, certainly, in the jobs market (say if she wanted possibly to pursue teaching) the English degree is more directly useful. I have an English degree so no axe to grind about film vs English! They make an excellent combination. Journalism is much more vocational and practical.

@RedPandaMama, if expressing my own personal opinion of Lancaster, I can assure you that it would not be anything other than favourable, based on the experience of friends and of the friends of our DC who are current or recent students of a range of subjects

Not really relevant but I'd say Lancaster is a highly ranked university - joint 7th with Imperial College according to The Guardian 2020 uni league tables, possibly one of the best therefore in the UK?

She should definitely be prepared to be open to adjustment and possibly a gap year so as to end up on a course that best suits her if she does not like her offers with her current predictions.
She is very unlucky with her teaching but if her written work and ideas are good for the photography then following the suggestions of SarahMused for looking at exemplars from high grade students to improve her presentation should get her to a C at least. Is there anything like a local adult education evening course in photography that she could join next term to access outside teachers for help?

Although it may not feel like it now, the skills learnt in achieving a portfolio in visual creative arts will be very valuable in her future career options so worth making that extra effort as long as it does n’t compromise her grades in English and Psychology.
In her personal statement she could include few lines to state what she has learnt from her photography despite the difficulties, her interest in visual arts but the differences between photography and film. Others like Piggywaspushed will advise better on how much PS counts for degrees including film studies.
Her EPQ in French must be a positive for her application, including if she has developed interest in French films?

where can you see where is/isnt a high birth rate year?

My child is in y10 just starting GCSEs, was a high birth rate year for school places. I take it that means will be more 18y olds looking for uni places in his cohort? (great ..)

I think the PS is fairly important for film and English, focusing on personal interest in reading and in films, and any skills developed (especially research ones) both in school and beyond if she does any extra writing, for example. One thing worth noting is, that unlike many courses, it is still quite common for film degrees to interview : Manchester does, as does Warwick Interviews for journalism degrees are also fairly commonplace..

Her PS is strong. It is mostly literature focused, though, with a little focus on the film side. She's been to a few literature & film events/lectures/photography exhibits. Some ran by the universities. Luckily plenty is going on in Manchester. I think she has mentioned some European films too.
In the summer holidays, she did journalism work experience. Her photography course work project is on movement. She has got an outstanding reference from her English teacher. Everything is excellent apart from the D.

I will get her to try to find other A level work to work on her presentation.

Has she submitted it now? Deadline looming!

I think she will definitely get offers, but then will have to work to get that Photography up!

She will be submitting on Monday. Deadline 15th Jan.

Good news. If she gets it in Monday she might get an offer or two before Xmas but unlikely as they tend to shut down offices this weekend so she will have to be patient.

If you want any film related advice before Monday, feel free to PM

The application went in on deadline day and she has heard back from one uni, so far. Bangor have offered her conditional with only 104 UCAS points so should be a good safe choice.

If she is not completely happy in August, as the last option she is going to take a gap year and do an extra A-Level while doing work experience or voluntary work.