Oxbridge Aspirants 2021 - New Thread (2)

[Baaaahhhhh]

Sorry posted last message on the last thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/3757768-Oxbridge-Aspirants-Sep-2021

Here is the new one......

DS isn't applying for Oxbridge (so I probably posted on the wrong thread), but those in his cohort who are also got their reference read to them by the head (it being only Oxbridge and medicine applicants they are dealing with at the moment because of the early deadline).

@goodbyestranger

Revengeofthepangolins my DC manipulated their sentences to end mid-line, thus defining paragraphs.

@goodbyestranger That occurred to me rather late in proceedings and DS had wholly lost interest in the formatting question so I left in the empty lines.

The psychology of editing is curious – when I first looked at his draft my reaction was “How can you cut this – it all flows so beautifully” but then having, of course, found places to trim and refine, I couldn’t begin to imagine putting it all back again as the text now felt tighter. I did point out that if took the spaces back out he potentially now had four spare lines and 280 odd characters to play with, so did he want to try to use them to include a new though or expand on something, but his look was so withering that I desisted in that suggestion

@bimkom At the moment this thread is partially serving as an early UCAS application topic while the general one hasn't yet really got going so definitely no "wrong topic" aspect

In my case, DS is not a strong Oxbridge applicant, so I will soon be migrating to the main thread when it gets to full pace!

I wanted to share a couple of resources that my students have found really helpful in their university and Oxbridge applications:

For Year 13s/Upper Sixth: Free Interview Workshops and Personal Statement Checks

For Year 12s: A year long programme covering all parts of the university
application programme Next programme starting in January 2021

Apparently the Scottish Ed Minister has today announced the “5s” (which I think are equivalent to GCSEs) will be cancelled for Summer 2021 - however, the “Highers” will go ahead, but be 2 weeks later?

Do does this mean, in typical style, GW eg al will follow suit? How can you have Scotland going teacher assessment, but not England and Wales?

And if they cancel the GCSEs, surely it’s inevitable the A-levels will be cancelled as well?

@TripleTime, I don't know whether it's because I am on my phone, rather than laptop, but clicking on the PS link just gets me an anonymous Google Docs form, which has This content is neither created nor endorsed by Google. at the bottom of it. Who is actually providing these services?

I have recommended the TSR PS advice service to DS2, should he feel he needs an outside view, but wouldn't advise him to upload his PS to an unknown destination.

DS2 was also shown his reference, and asked for some information to complete part of it as the teacher for that subject only joined school last year.

One of his teachers is back from two weeks self-isolation, and another is just starting!

The thing I particularly noticed about the Scottish announcement was that there will be a plan in place. Let's hope GW follows.

It's a bit lame to cancel Nat 5s this early.

At the moment the line is that they're cancelled specifically to enable the two sets of higher exams to go ahead.

At DS’ school, nobody has seen the references or had any input. I hadn’t realised it was an option in any school. They have 200 in the year though and maybe 100 doing early applications so I guess they can’t get into it with everyone.
They wanted it in in mid-September. They checked the PS and pinged it back to him as apparently he’d entered himself as an EU student! Then when he corrected that, they sent it off with no further ado and he found this out by receiving a notification from UCAS and confirmations from Cambridge and LSE on the same day.

“At the moment the line is that they're cancelled specifically to enable the two sets of higher exams to go ahead.”

That’s strange because aren’t they scheduled in different weeks anyway?

If they’re claiming there’s too much disruption to the 5s, why would the Highers be any less affected?

I reckon what will happen now is that GW will murmur some nondescript humdrum, but then announce on about Friday that GCSEs are also cancelled. I also have one doing GCSEs next year and not sure if this is good news or not.

They will also close pubs one week later to coincide with half-term, but I don’t give a hoot about that tbh.

The focus has switched to ALevels being the most important as they, obviously, feed into university. Cancelling GCSE exams, and moving towards assessments is much more workable. After all, much of the rest of the world only examines at 18. I actually have a feeling they may well be cancelled forever, and that our GCSE cohort will be the last to be examined.

@Baaaahhhhh. If GCSEs really went permanently, universities would be left with no firm basis to select on - just references and predictions which can’t be compared between schools, and PSs which could be written by anyone. I wonder what they would do then? At the top end I suspect there would be an extension of entrance exams or some sort of SAT/ACT equivalent.

In Scotland of course the situation would t be so extreme as they have highers done before UCAS

The government is consulting on having university applications after A'level results. In which case GCSEs could be ditched I suppose.

UCAS submission done, next event in the process will be BMAT in November.

Nearly the same here @SATSmadness -UCAS form just in, next is ELAT in November. Wondering if they’ll sit the test as normal though, or have to sit remotely. I guess exam desks tend to be socially distanced anyway!

Has everyone started preparing for the tests? We've just started tonight, ordered DS a book off Amazon for the TSA that includes questions, plus answers and explanations to the past papers and then some new mock papers. If we do it all it will take ages, so will have to do the best we can. It's difficult when they've got lots of college homework and tests to revise for as well.

Hi all!

I’m a bit of a late joiner- DD’s got UCAS sent off on Monday and excitingly she got an offer from Bristol today
No entrance tests required here but DD’s friends have started preparing for the BMAT ‘properly’ this week (after earnestly promising to start every day since school started, she tells me)

Right. DD's application went in tonight.

Only 3 universities at the moment - those are the courses she is absolutely sure about. Others are all much of a muchness so she will add more if needed at a later date.

No additional tests BUT the interview (if she gets one) would usually include a drawing task and an essay one. Who knows what they wil replace that with online.....

Congrats to your DD @summerlovinn Bristol is a fab choice! Hopefully DDs will be sent by school today. Will be interesting to see when offers arrive!

Ucas just about sorted here- dc said that It will probably be submitted today . 5 uni choices but I am slightly worried that there isn’t really an insurance choice as such as they all seem to require v high grades (IMO) . Dc thinks one will offer lower as they did summer school?and possibly perhaps lower offers due to where dc did gcses. .Admissions tests early November.

Any NSAA takers around?