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....

@opoponax

DD's dream option is Cambridge but other than that I'd rather not risk outing myself (and by default DD too).

DD has an interview at Sheffield and have booked it for Mid Jan so that she has plenty of time to prep for mocks in Dec and then interviews over the Xmas hols.

I really feel for those that have missed out as it’s a huge jump in cut off for interview.

@MazarineBlue fingers firmly crossed for your DS’s other choices - it’s a really tough cut off for Sheffield.

Congratulations to your DD @LaLaFlottes. I feel exactly the same for those who have missed out. It's just an arbitrary cut off point driven by weird circumstances within a group of DC who are all very able.

Huge congrats to those who have been offered interviews.

Really feel for those who have missed out, that is such a big jump in the cutoff. DD was considering Sheff and would have just missed it.

DD texted on her way home from school to say she has a Sheffield interview e-mail.

She's planning on booking an interview as late as possible as there's a lot of tests going on at school in the run up to breaking up for Christmas but most of all I think she wants to leave the decks clear in the hope of getting a Cambridge interview before Christmas.

Here's hoping that other med schools start issuing interview notifications soon for those that missed out at Sheffield due to the higher than normal cut off.

Well done to everyone who have secured interviews at sheffield, sorry for those whove not been successful. Exeter are making interview offers too. DDs friend had an email today and has booked her interview for the 4th December.

It’s getting very real now, keeping my fingerd crossed for everyone.

Apparently for Exeter, the cut off for Tier 2 applicants, which seems to be home students, with predicted A levels is 3040.

DD has not applied there but that's such a high cut off. I don't quite understand the Exeter system, I think they maybe group the achieved A level applicants and then the predicted A level applicants and then rank from there. Apparently tier 2 which seems to be the predicted A level group, was very over subscribed.

Jeez. That is insane.

DD still not heard anything. Two of her choices have started sending invitations but her inbox is empty. Horrible waiting.

Horrible isn't it @MaddieElla

Apparently last year the cut off was 667 and this year it's 760.

It sounds like in previous years, 3 x A star predictions guaranteed an interview. But not this year. These applicants were demoted to a lower tier, and preference was given to achieved A level applicants, of which this year there must be many more.

I do hope people at least knew that 3 x A star predictions wouldn't guarantee an interview before they applied. But a cut off of 3040 is crazy.

I've just read something else on TSR which seems to say that 3 x A star predictions wouldn't have been guaranteed an interview in previous years, so maybe disregard that part of my previous post! Also the cut off was 2810 last year, but applied to a lower tier - although I don't really know what that means!

However it's still such a high cut off isn't it.

That sounds like a massively complicated system at Exeter! And a crazy high cutoff.

I can't take another couple of months of this! ......

I think I need to stay off TSR for now. It's giving me a horrible feeling and I'm imagining her disappointed face if this year is just too competitive for her.

I know I'm being silly and there is still time but it's not doing me (or her) any good checking there all the time.

@IsThisNameTaken it does sound complicated. From what I can gather they've not changed their policy this year, it's just the way they do things has made it super competitive for anyone with predicted A levels rather than achieved. Let's hope it's Exeter's system that has made this cut off so high and it's quite an isolated event.

@MaddieElla I know what you mean and I may have to do the same as it's a marathon not a sprint and we have a long way to go. It's VERY early days in the interview offering though so keep the faith!

That's an unbelievably high cut off for Exeter ( bugger bugger bugger !)

If it's because they have deferred students already holding very good A Levels as a result of last year's CAG debacle it possibly means that this years Y13s are expected to pay the price to keep numbers accepted down to within a set limit. Even if it's because a bulge year was permitted last year to admit all those who "achieved" the grades required and now they need to cut back as accommodation is bursting at the seams, then it's still highly unfair on this years Y13s.

Extremely worried about DD's Cambridge application now as she believes she didn't perform as well in the BMAT as the UCAT. She may have wasted one of her choices, how many more ?

This makes me even more about the Welsh minister abandoning 2021 exams so early. It's just booting the problem forward and sooner or later a year group will have to pay the price by missing out when they're probably better qualified than a proportion of a previous year's cohort now already on a medicine course somewhere.

Exeter put applicants in tiers, with achieved grades being 1 tier higher than predicted equivalents. So tier 1 is 3 A stars achieved; tier 2 is 2AstarA achieved, 3 Astar predicted; tier 3 AstarAA achieved, 2 AstarA predicted, etc. They then rank each tier by their UCAT score and count down from the top until they have filled interview places.
Last year, cut off was tier 3 (AstarAA achieved 2 AstarA predicted) with a UCAT of 2810+, the tiers above this did not have a UCAT cut off applied. (MN, sort out the asterisk issue, at least for the Education threads)
The year before all tier 3 were interviewed, the 2 years before that cut off was in tier 2 with 667 UCAT.
The issue is in part all the extra A*s from the CAGs last year, part that contextuals only need AAB+ to be in tier 1 and numbers of contextual applicants have gone up considerably, and part possibly the number of places already used by deferred applicants from last year leading to fewer interview places being given (not sure how many they are interviewing this year, whether they have managed to expand places last/this year, etc).
It is a crazy, ridiculous requirement for an interview and will cut out a lot of good applicants. Sheffield is more concerning to me, though, as they just use UCAT, so A levels not taken into consideration for interview, other than as a minimum requirement, and cut off has gone up quite a bit. The point is we do not know who might be interviewing fewer people and where it is the extra applicants and increased UCAT deciles that are the primary driver to changes in cut offs, but potentially a double whammy for this year's Yr 13s.

Gosh that is a very high UCAT cut off for this year's cohort @LaLaFlottes. My DS was a bit put off Exeter by the fact that awarded grades from last year's cohort meant you were automatically in a lower tier irrespective of how good a UCAT you have. Now I'm wondering what Newcastle cut off is going to look like as their cut off is usually pretty high as well as Bristol of course.

So it is not that those with predicted A levels are at a disadvantage versus achieved, but that achieved grades are given extra weighting and placed 1 tier up - rightly so in a normal year, I would say, as a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush and predictions are generally higher than achieved grades. However, last year's CAGs debacle means there are a lot more achieved A*s about this year.....
Even so, achieved 2 AstarA would also have needed a 3040 UCAT for an interview and lower would have been outright rejected

DD applied to Exeter but has not got an interview. She has been offered a place if she converts her application to Biomed or Neuroscience. She is considering this in case she gets no interview offers.

I agree that achieved grades should rightly be in a higher tier. It is just so scary that the increase has made such a difference to who will miss out on interviews this year.

DD didn't apply to Exeter but surely it will be the same across the board. Feel a bit sick.

Totally agree that achieved grades should get extra weighting. It was the CAGs debacle aspect that concerned him. Truth be told though, other med schools appealed to him more or he would probably have applied anyway.

Whilst I agree that achieved grades should be in a higher tier, I can't help thinking that last year's debacle actually left the 2020 A Level cohort with predicted grades as their final grades so they are not achieved grades in the true sense of the word.

Can't help wondering if perhaps it would have been fairer this year, for the current Y13s to have their predicted grades qualifying like for like with the previous year's final grades (which in the end were awarded at a predicted level) instead of slightly lower 2020 "in hand" grades being in the same tier as higher 2021 predicteds.

I second someone earlier's thought that it really doesn't bode well for our aspiring medics, as presumably Exeter is not unique here.

Feel sad that DD may not end up with any of the choices which usually take relatively high UCAT scoring applicants. Her 4th choice Uni, where those securing a place include plenty whose scores are generally more towards average, may be where she ends up. It's a great place but it's her 4th choice.

I am the mother of one of last years cohort and although on average in the UK grades are higher ,in many schools the CAG grades were not the same as the predicted grades. My DC was confident that had they taken the exams, their grades achieved would have been higher in at least two subjects. I was hoping universities would take more note of GCSE and UCAT and less of achieved/predicted A level grades when ranking for interview this year but I think that isn't the case.

@GANFYD do you think this might be the same for Leicester, where achieved A levels get automatic interviews?
Will our DC need much higher points than in previous years maybe?