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......

@bendmeoverbackwards. Those GCSEs sound pretty good and n any case. Then they are contextualised, so are they better than average for her school? You may find that your dc’S contextualised gcse score is better than that of a DC at a selective school with straight 9s. No idea what data they use for the contextualisation though, so one can’t calculate it oneself

DS also taking the HAT tomorrow. He did one last practice tonight and is getting nervous - I think the importance of it has only recently dawned on him! DS has also been told to bring ID along (to his own school) so we've dug out his passport.

Good luck to all of the other exam-sitters tomorrow!

@Pumpkintopf she's had offers from Bristol and Manchester of AAB and ABB respectively.

Good luck to everyone sitting admissions tests tomorrow! Dd has decided not to think about hers any more and just concentrate on catching up with normal school stuff.

Congratulations to your dd on her Warwick offer @Baaaahhhhh, great news.

@Tenpastseven, not sure when Oxford let candidates know about rejections or interviews. I think the date might vary by subject, but probably around the last week of November.

Ah I see summer - tbh I'd say she should be pleased that they want her enough to make her an offer, shows they'd like to have her. Not sure how much a lot of unis dip below standard offers now given predicted grades can be so variable.

@bendmeoverbackwards Those GCSEs are great - Oxford class 9s ,8s and A* the same. The GCSE grades are contextualised and are only part of the shortlisting criteria. For D1's course, it was a combination of GCSE score, HAT score and submitted work for the other subject. Then they aim to interview three students for every place and work out the cut off point from that. The weighting of each element changes as you move through the process, it's detailed in the History admissions info .
I don't want to be specific about D1's college or course as it's very outing, it's very small numbers for history joints!

DD offers have all been standard. We have seen other candidates with better predicted grades and clean sweep gcse's getting reduced offers on TSR, so maybe those are contextualised? Again, it seems pretty random, but for DD three A's are achievable, so I suppose it doesn't really matter.

DS in a dreadful mood this morning saying he barely slept - looked very weary and needed a hug. It's quite hard on them isn't it? I know DS will do fine, but it is such a lot of pressure to contend with.

Good luck fellow NSAA takers today!

Good luck to all those taking the exams today. I'm totally in awe of what these kids are putting themselves through. DD is doing the HAT. She seemed quite chilled last night and this morning and ready to get it over and done with. She actually said the questions (from past papers) are always really interesting and in other circumstances would actually enjoy doing it if it weren't for being under pressured timed conditions. Timing on it will be her biggest challenge and if she finishes. She still hasn't finalised her written work to submit. Hasn't anything recent to hand in apart from her exam essays she took in Sept as no essay work was done over lockdown. Only been doing coursework this term as well. She's decided against one of her exam essays because they were written under timed conditions so she took it upon herself to write an essay of her choice over the weekend and it's currently being marked by her teacher. Will see tomorrow if she thinks it is good enough. If not, back to square one. Talk about cutting it fine though.

jalfrezi DS said the same thing about really enjoying doing the past HAT papers. Just as well as they are signing up for several more years of the same!

Good luck to all today. I was ever so slightly in awe of dc when they left this morning

Jalfrezi Same. DD still not got an essay. I just have to trust that the school and DD will get their act together tomorrow, and that they will submit something acceptable, and in time!

DD loves source papers, they do a lot (another reason for a lack of essays)....... hopefully it will stand her in good stead.

Just got her in in time this morning, no traffic, but local council have decided to put up endless roadworks since I last went in, even those little bastard crossings in front of main traffic lights, which aren't co-ordinated. Got a bit tense in the end!

Let's get a thread going, this is almost full:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/4070531-Oxbridge-Aspirants-2021-New-Thread-3

It's definitely better to submit something done in the normal course of the syllabus, whether timed or not, rather than a special essay set for the pupil and marked with an eye to an Oxbridge application. Coursework (or a section of coursework) is fine.

The coversheet signed by the teacher will make it clear it was a special assignment - the teacher has to say exactly what sort of essay it is.

Very best of luck to those dc sitting tests today.

We had a "wobbly lip situation" last night from DD as she feels she could have done much better and is beating herself up about running out of time.
It's sods law, she had a great UCAT (needed for her non Oxbridge choices), knew it was going well all through the test etc etc, but then had a below par performance for BMAT which is needed for her first choice Uni.

We're going to go online with a glass of wine in hand this weekend and "re-visit" the images and virtual tours of her non Oxbridge choices to find things to look forward to if she goes to any of those.

Well done and congratulations to all the DC that have managed to get over this hurdle of exams, in the whole process.
It’s now a case of waiting, the challenges of these times will hopefully make them all resilient.
Next it will be looking at interviews.. Another step along the pathway.

Come and join us on the new thread @WarmAndco3y - it's already started.

Ooooh!!! Where can I find the new thread?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/4070531-Oxbridge-Aspirants-2021-New-Thread-3