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....

i think trying to stand out could backfire!!

I think it will help when interview invites actually start to appear. That will get them even more focused.

@MaddieElla good plan! Surprise interview questions will keep her on her toes

Just seen the news re Welsh exams being cancelled for 2021 - I wonder if this will translate across to the rest of the UK (probably many months later!) and what impact it will have on medical offers this year? My DS would actually prefer to sit exams ironically!

Oh wow.... I'm not surprised, but didn't think they'd announce it so soon though. I can see this being the way all boards will go, even though DD would also prefer to sit the exams.

Oh wow - I agree that this could well be the way it goes across the board eventually. I am not sure what DD would choose given the choice between exams and not.

If it's based on classroom assessments like in Wales then she may be happy with that, as it could mean they would have their results sooner? She's been doing well in all of the classroom assessments, but it would heap on the pressure throughout they year to never drop a grade wouldn't it!

I think it would make it very hard for Universities to give places, with some candidates having exams and others not...

@Millylovespuddles

DD will be very disappointed. Several of her cohort have already said that they do want to sit A Levels as a chance to show what they can do.

I suppose it's possible that Unis may make less offers this year just because this may become a reality across the UK. If all those hopeful/on a good day/lots of hard work between now and exams type grade predictions have to stand as CAGs then there'll be so many who meet their grade offers compared to a normal year where the actual exam performance sifts out a percentage of applicants.

if Welsh applicants get a place based on CAG grades is that an uneven playing field for the rest of the UK applicants ?

You couldn't make this whole sorry saga up could you ?!

I've just read the news and it sound like the papers that will be used in Wales will be externally set, done under teacher supervision and will begin in the second half of the spring term.....so not actually a grade from their overall classroom work.

It says that they will still be externally marked too.

Teachers have some amount of choice regarding when students sit the exams.

This still sounds very much like exams to me...??

It does, and surely they aren't thinking of having them earlier than exams would usually be? Not only would they have lost all the time this year, but they wouldn't get the extra revision time?

I know DD came home and said her teachers had mentioned February exams. I hope to goodness these won't be the only marker for awarded results.

DD very much wants to take the exams and not be awarded CAGs.

Yes they are saying that they would be in the second half of the spring term, which would allow the summer term to be used to continue teaching.....so to continue teaching content that would never be assessed then?

Also if they are set externally, but teachers have flexibility over when they are sat, would that not mean that the content could easily end up being shared to those that sit them later?

Seems a little flawed to me, but I may be missing vital points!

I thought it was already agreed that the exams would be taken at a later date.

I wish they'd ruddy stick to a UK wide agreement!

Yes @LaLaFlotteswe seem to be on the same page. We might be on the wrong one, but still.

You have to wonder whether for our cohort, GCSE's and the UCAT and BMAT will matter more somehow as these were sat under normal, level playing field scenarios?

Less offers could be a factor too which would be a nightmare.

Would universities be able to change the goalposts now, and rely more on GCSE, UCAT and BMAT than they have stated on their websites? That wouldn't seem fair, but they would have stated those criteria when they assumed that A levels were happening?

I was hoping exams would just go ahead, but this could be a real spanner in the works.

Are the UCAT and BMAT more of a flex in the system than the GCSE results? I guess it varies a bit depending on which med schools you are looking at but the ones my DS chose all specify meeting GCSE and A level entry requirements whilst the UCAT threshold for interview varies by year. That's just the med schools he picked though - Newcastle, Bristol, Sheffield and Manchester. I'm no expert!

@MaddieElla happy we are on the same page!

Now this also brings up the question - if there were to be fewer offers, will there be fewer interviews? I.e if they know that they normally interview X amount of people for X amount of offers, will the interview numbers change accordingly, driving up the cut offs? Or will there just be less places and the offer to interview ratio lower?

Again, we just don't know but it adds to all of the uncertainty doesn't it.

Might as well just get started on the gin now.

Seriously though, this is going to stress DD out. She was happy to know she was taking the exams at a later date. They just cannot give them less time.

@MaddieElla definitely time! Are you in Wales? Something in my mind is making me think you are but I could very well be confused!

@opoponax I don't really know - I guess I am just thinking out loud about how the removal of A levels might affect things and what the Unis might do in light of this. If they feel they can't rely on A levels any more I'm not sure what they might turn to instead.

How about this for a suggested way forward.... unconditional offers based on GCSE's, UKAT/BMAT, PS and interview

That, and more gin please!

No, not in Wales. I'm being premature saying DD will stress about it as we don't actually know if England will follow suit.

@MaddieElla sorry! Totally wrong about Wales

@Millylovespuddles - now that's a plan!

Another vote from me

Well it seems from TSR that Bristol have started sending out interview offers. We know however that DS won't get one anytime soon, as his UCAT wasn't good enough - we are borderline for Bristol, so if he gets one at all, it will be right at the end of the period. It would seem that the interviews are all for dates in January, but are starting to come out now for the top UCAT scorers.

Actually, it seems it is the widening participation people who have just got the interview invites, not the top UCAT scorers

Certain people who were part of widening participation are apparently guaranteed an interview at Bristol (maybe other places), and it is those people who seem on TSR to have received interview offers.

Oh wow. Fingers crossed he gets an interview @bimkom

Thanks @MaddieElla - Bristol was/is DS's gamble, he should be reasonably safe for interview (we hope, although anything could happen this year), for his other three. He could have applied elsewhere where he was more certain of getting an interview, but given that anywhere else that we substituted as his fourth would rank, in his estimation, distinctly behind the other three he has applied to- and he really like Bristol, we thought, let's go for it. Truth is, he really likes the other three he has applied for as well, and thinks he would be happy at any of them. So we have accepted that an interview at Bristol is dicey, but we are still holding out hope. And if he doesn't get any offers, he can always try next year (when he swears he will go to a test centre, he is convinced that it was online issues that did him down in the UCAT - not significanlty enough to be out of the running in many places, it was still a good score, but not as well as he had been doing in the practices or as he had hoped).