Medicine 2021 - part 2

[Millylovespuddles]

Following on from the first thread:
DD now has UKAT booked for mid-August. She couldn’t get a driving theory test booked until after the UKAT date, but will keep an eye out for cancellations.
Now, her big dilemma is Oxbridge it not....

@cleanmean we've just gone through exactly the same thing with DD - she was initially predicted a B in Chem, despite pretty much having straight A's or A* in all their tests throughout year 12 with just one blip of a C early in the year. Luckily our school have a semi-formal appeal process and she sent a long email pointing out all her previous results and that she was always improving, not going downhill. They have now re-predicted her an A. I think you should definitely get them to look at it - probably better coming from him rather than you - but with you there as back up if needed. Good luck!

Liverpool take AAB prediction and will offer AAA.

If the B does stand in the end, the "Which Medical School Should I Apply To?" Uberthread over on TSR (thread starter @GANFYD, who also posts on MN) is monitored by people able to advise on suitable medical schools to apply to, if he posts his stats there.

@Cleanmean there are a reasonable number of places that will accept AAB predictions, though an offer would usually be AAA, unless he has an EPQ or contextual flags, which will lower it.
Just let me know if you want any more info.
I know what you mean about schools - my DS has just got 91% on his chemistry mock, but apparently they are only going to predict him an A and one of his choices scores A levels! We are awaiting final decisions before deciding next steps!

@GANFYD, same here for chemistry and physics. Predicting As thanks to a rogue C at the beginning of Year 12 on a hellish test, even though there have been consistent As and A*s ever since.

Luckily she only needs 3 As but I would be annoyed if her Uni choice scored them and she was potentially losing out.

@MaddieElla I am sure there are algorithms they use to decide, but DS has never scored less than an A and they were told predictions would depend on mock results, so we shall await the grade and explanation! In his own inimitable style, he has left his PS until this weekend to write and has now come down with what is hopefully just a stinking cold! Covid swab result awaited. Nothing is ever easy.....

Oh no! Great timing. Hopefully it turns out to be "just" the stinking cold. The last thing he'll want to be doing is his PS if he feels rubbish. My DD has also left hers quite late as she was revising for mocks - we do now have an introduction, and I'm assured she has her timings under control.

Hope your DS feels better soon.

@MaddieElla Thank you! We were dreading it happening for UCAT or his driving test, but got through those, so hopefully can bang together something resembling a PS tomorrow. Not sure we have anything under control here....!!

Ganfyd and all - thank you. My issue with the predicted grades is the discrepancies in how they are assessed. I know a school a mile down the road from ours who are very generous, our school this year have decided to be extra cautious. It shouldn't differ so much from school to school. There should be fair and transparent policy. And this year, more than ever before, schools should have absolute transparency about how they are calculated and using year 12 tests is unfair. The additional unfairness is that they are testing ds and his group next week on the whole of year 12 content and he's been told if he scores an A his predicted grade will go up. That's a lot of pressure, especially seeing as his school had zero online teaching and they never finished year 12 content in the first place. I also think it's best if he contacts school himself but said he can copy me in. My view is that no early entry candidate should be unfairly held back by schools, especially in an already difficult and uncertain year for this years medics.

Ganfyd - hope it's just a cold and he gets his statement done.

@Cleanmean Thank you, we have our fingers crossed!

Just an update - ds has submitted his appeal to his head of sixth form. I don't hold out much hope and he is devastated and feels like he's been written off at the start of the year. Thank you for all the advice on here.

Ganfyd I hope the statement went ok.

I think it's absolutely appalling that school won't support an early entry applicant. If a student has scored 8/9 at gcse, then missed most of year 12 and had zero mocks in year 12 how can school under predict?! It's appalling to under predict without concrete evidence.

The difficulty this year is that if it does come down to teacher predictions if some students feel their teachers are under predicting already or not giving them the benefit of the doubt then it's going to be a very challenging year.

Some schools seem so much more cautious than others this year- my DS has friends in other sixth forms who are predicted a clean sweep of A and A* whereas his college seems very reluctant even with class test results from last year that are similar. One of my DSs predictions depends on his mock results which will only be available after 10 Oct - so cutting it very close to the wire if he has to rejiggle his choices. The teacher has only been in post 3 weeks so little personal knowledge to go on for references etc too. So stressful for our cohort and will be more so if the CAG débâcle repeats itself...

Ds school is the same, they've been very cautious and are not giving the students the benefit of the doubt. It's not a usual school year, they've missed so much of year 12. To make a decision which PREVENTS someone applying for uni is appalling. Unless there is absolute concrete evidence that they will not meet the grades for their chosen course.

Surely this year more than ever teachers need to show some understanding and support.

Cleanmean, if you read TSR or MN you can pick up the impression that everyone else is sailing through the process: four offers etc, with barely a care in the world.

There are an awful lot of hurdles and many good applicants stumble over one or two. Many applicants take a couple of years, some more.

And they turn up at medical school grateful to be there and determined to do well. Others may turn up thinking they are God's gift to everything. But hey. Wait a year or two and it would be very hard to tell who got the early offer and who was picked up mid August on their second attempt. DD says that some of the very best in her cohort came through the foundation year.

There is also an amazing array of careers. DDs tutor group had an informal guessing game of who wanted to do what. They got her right, they also got the would-be GP friend with astounding empathy and communication skills right, and the one who has wanted to be a pathologist from the get-go. The very very important attribute for a successful career in the NHS is resilience. Plus an interest in patients (unless you want to be a pathologist).

If the school don't play ball, he puts all of this to one side, and puts his head down and shows them that he is capable of three As. And then next year, assuming that he is not picked up this, writes a stonking PS that talks about how he is determined to be a doctor and that this year's experience has taught him a lot that he can apply both in his degree and in the years to come. He can see a goal and work towards it.

That said, I hope the school give in.

Needmore - couldn't agree with you more. If school don't change the prediction then he'll just have to get his head down and try and get his 3 x A and prove them wrong. He's decided that he only wants to apply if he has 3 x A prediction so if they don't change their mind at least he won't have the stress of UCAS this year and can focus on studying hard.

His main concern is that if it comes to teacher graded cags next summer, because they've kind of already made up their mind about his grades it's going to be too difficult to get them to change. But I've told him that if results in 2021 come down to teacher predictions they'll have to base them on evidence and tests done during the academic year. As long as he performs well his predicted grades should reflect his effort levels and not what he is predicted right now. Of course, I didn't share with him my fears that if it does come down to predicted cags then yes there is a chance he could end up with awful grades too as there seems to be no consistency from one school to the next.

Does anyone know if you can go through clearing if you've not submitted a ucas application?

Does anyone know if you can go through clearing if you've not submitted a ucas application?

Anyone who applies through UCAS after June 30th automatically has to go into the Clearing system and I think that looking at it from the other perspective, anyone wanting to apply via Clearing has to to make an application via UCAS.

But to apply 'cold' for a place for Medicine through Clearing (if any places were available) would be nigh on impossible of one was required to have UCAT / BMAT and one hadn't sat the exam back at the right point in the cycle?

Are you sure?

Certainly I knew someone who was offered SGUL in clearing in part because he had conveniently taken his UCAT for the following year at one of the first sittings. (He had a UCAS application in place, then rejected his offers as he had changed his mind about subject and decided to reapply for medicine the following year.)

Clearmean, if he can identify any medschools that he would like to go to and who might look at him with his predictions, why does he not have a go. I can recognise that there might be a fear of failure or rejection, but if he can treat it as a training exercise, he will be a stronger applicant the following year. Plus he would then be better placed to try for any of the clearing slots that might come up.

(A willingness to have a go even if the odds are against you is another of those life skills worth acquiring.)

Is anyone’s dc doing the BMAT? Dd is very lost on how to prep and is now panicking that she’s left it too late so any advice would be great!

Betty2480 there are lots of past papers on the Cambridge Assessment Admissions Testing website. Section 1 is akin to UCAT type questions. Section 2 is made of of science and maths questions. Section 3 is an essay. My dd found the best way was to work through all the past papers - starting by spending as long as it took and then practising doing them to time. The greatest problem is the time pressure. She did one essay and asked a teacher from school to look at it for her.

@Betty2480 my DS is doing the BMAT and has not started revising yet! Bit of a worry but he has mocks next week so wants to focus on them - will only get the results and predicted grades a day or two before UCAS cut off. It all feels quite last minute this year, especially as the UCAT final deciles are probably coming out later than usual...

Betty my ds hasn't even started thinking of bmat. He is bogged down with mocks for the next 3 weeks and like mazarine's ds he will not get his final final predicted until a few days before the UCAS deadline. It's all very fraught at the moment because school have said the mock results will determine the predicted grade. This seems unfair as the mocks are on yr 12 content which want fully taught and ds doesn't know what content will pop up upend so had to revise full year content for each mock coming up. I am hoping he sits the bmat but it seems unlikely.

DD isn’t doing BMAT as she’s happy with her UCAT score and UCAT Unis but I think some of her friends are using the BMAT resources from Medify which are about £40 I think - could be worth a look?

@Powergower That seems unfair regarding the predicted grades - shouldn’t they really take into account their performance in year 12 overall too? Like a general overview?

Lala yes they are considering year 12 too, but based on that they've said everyone would be a C/D so they need new evidence. It's ridiculous really that they can't predict based on knowing each student and taking 6 months of missed learning into account. Only the Philosophy teachers have done their predictions based on past performance. They've predicted A* for ds. the science department has given everyone a C/D for now until the results of the tests come out. Talk about piling on the pressure, especially for early applicants in an already fraught year. Ds is feeling confident he'll get what he needs but lots of his friends won't know until the very last moment if they will even be able to apply for the early entry courses due to predicted grades.

@Powergower that is really tough - so much pressure like you say. it doesn't seem right at all. Surely they should also take into account the GCSE grade as well and the fact that all the DC can now crack on and make good progress.