Oxbridge-Aspirants-2021-New-Thread-3

[Baaaahhhhh]

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/4016760-Oxbridge-Aspirants-2021-New-Thread-2

New Thread !

Tiny phone.

*everything that can be done

No A levels in Wales- blimey- no idea how Camb are going to navigate this one. I would expect that Welsh students are going to have to really shine in the interview and admissions tests... they will all get a stars if applying to Camb so Camb will not be able to over offer. Bit of a blow to the Welsh hopefuls that..

@ClarasZoo I would be surprised if England doesn’t do the same. Sadly, DS would rather sit his exams too...
it’s going to be an interesting ride.

@Lemoncurd 3 x A is Warwick's standard Maths offer which will be reduced to 2XA A if your DD does well in MAT. DS took MAT last year and he had his offer lowered - Imperial also did the same so Warwick Imperial and Oxford all ask for the same grades if a certain threshold is reached in MAT. Your DD will know before she has to register for STEP but iirc it is Step 2 that is needed for a reduced Warwick offer. DS got his reduced Warwick offer through before he heard the outcome of his Oxford interview. He was told the result of his MAT test once Oxford had offered.

[quote WarmAndco3y]@ClarasZoo I would be surprised if England doesn’t do the same. Sadly, DS would rather sit his exams too...
it’s going to be an interesting ride.[/quote]
My son would rather sit them too. But his teachers firmly put him in the A star group so it wouldn’t be a disaster. I just think it’s demotivating though...

Hoping England does not do the same as Wales.
No offers here yet ( Physics ) but many he has applied to are known for being later with offers. Interview for Manchester via zoom, surprisingly long time slot 90 mins but some of it is info about the university ( I think )

Re: EPQ My DS worked really hard on his, it took the whole of Y12 and he produced a really good piece of work and received an excellent grade. But even better than that he has learned an enormous amount about how to organise a large body of work over a long time frame, very useful for Uni! It was certainly no 'box ticking' exercise and only 40 of the 80 who started it managed to finish it. I don't think it will let him have lower entry grades for his course but it was a substantial part of his PS.

@olliepolly

Hoping England does not do the same as Wales. No offers here yet ( Physics ) but many he has applied to are known for being later with offers. Interview for Manchester via zoom, surprisingly long time slot 90 mins but some of it is info about the university ( I think )

What other Unis for Physics? We still have three spaces to fill!

I think some EPQs are very valuable - the ones that demonstrate practical application of a science subject, for instance.

Not very convinced by the yards of “The Brontes vs Jane Austen” or “Elizabeth I as a feminist” yada yada that I saw at open day.

I just don't understand the Welsh plan, judging from the BBC write up.

"Assessments will be done under teacher supervision, and will begin in the second half of the spring term. They will be externally set and marked but delivered within the classroom.She added cancelling exams would also give time for teaching to continue through the summer term. Teachers would have flexibility on when to take the assessments, within the "context of results timelines".

What I don't understand:
-The solution to having had less time to teach the syllabus is to sit exams half a term earlier.
-The external examiners don't know what sections of the syllbus the children haven't yet been taught, given that everyone is taught in a different order (I am far from sure politicians have noticed this point) so how can the exam be set fairly - surely better to have the half term to finish the material?
-How do they keep any sort of exam security if different schools sit at differnent times?
-And the same even more so within schools if children are covid/isolating

• Why is taking an exam in lent term in a classroom so much better than taking an exam in the summer in an exam hall?

for starters...

Revenge - I think possibly the logic is that, for most students, teachers have an idea of the grade boundaries they will probably fall into. So they can do lots of mini tests as evidence of this over the next term. If students are self-isolating, they only miss maybe a ‘mini test’ and there is still other evidence that will enable them to make an assessment for that student in the context of that school.

Well after that email this morning from Durham saying that they were working on dd’s Application, she has now received an offer and also a contextual offer if she firms them up.. She feels like the Cambridge admission test did not go well last week and has been down in the dumps since so this is a real boost.
I hope very much that others hear soon .

So I’ve seen biology offers have been given out from Bath now which would be the same department as biochemistry.

@Beetlesand

Well after that email this morning from Durham saying that they were working on dd’s Application, she has now received an offer and also a contextual offer if she firms them up.. She feels like the Cambridge admission test did not go well last week and has been down in the dumps since so this is a real boost. I hope very much that others hear soon .

DD has just had the same. She was happy with the way the Oxford exam went last week, but nervous about the prospect of an interview, so this has cheered her up considerably.

Claras zoo
Lancaster , Durham, Edinburgh
All highly ranked and regarded

Congrats @Beetlesand and @DahliaMacNamara 😊

Firstly congratulations to @MatureStudent21 and @quest1on on the offers and anyone else I may have missed in the rush to write this before my lovely Dh puts dinner on the table.

Madness re Welsh exams as my son's school in England do WJEC for English lang GCSE. Luckily he is sitting them 2022. The whole process of them being sat in classrooms is ridiculous unless they all sit them at the same time like an exam and have an invigilator in there rather than a teacher whose bonus may be based on grades.

Re Cags, Ds sits an end of topic test all the way through year 12, so did those until lockdown in March and then has resumed them in year 13. He will sit full mocks in December complete with study leave. So they are constantly testing and recording anyway and did before covid as a way to keep a student informed of their progression.

EPQs do offer a lot for unis, some reduce their offer by a grade with a high grade EPQ. I don't think they are box ticking, I think it teaches some real skills on research and presentation.

DS has also had an offer from Durham a couple of hours ago. It is a reduced offer and also a contextual offer. Usual entry requirements are A* AA, they have offered AAA or AAB for contextual. It is for computer science.

@Claraszoo. DS is a Physicist. He chose Imperial, Durham, Birmingham and Bristol. Manchester was considered but too close to home.

Yes, congratulations to DahliaMacNamara and Beetlesand 's DDs! Whether it is from a first, second, third or even fourth or fifth choice, every offer feels like a real confidence boost. Goodness knows they can all do with that right now.

Oooh. Congratulations to your DS with his Durham offer @Onthebenchofdoom.

We've not heard from them yet. It took ages for DS so we're not losing hope.

Congrats to the Durham offers!

Out of curiosity, can you explain the “reduced and contextual.. AAA and AAB contextual? I thought contextual offers were offers below the published tariff to reflect disadvantage, so why does the candidate have to firm to get it? Or what the difference is between reduced and contextual?

@olliepolly

Claras zoo Lancaster , Durham, Edinburgh All highly ranked and regarded

Yes Lancaster seems good!

@quest1on

Revenge - I think possibly the logic is that, for most students, teachers have an idea of the grade boundaries they will probably fall into. So they can do lots of mini tests as evidence of this over the next term. If students are self-isolating, they only miss maybe a ‘mini test’ and there is still other evidence that will enable them to make an assessment for that student in the context of that school.

@quest1on That I would understand, but they seem to be proposing major externally set and marked exams, not flexible little tests to inform teachers. All v puzzling

[quote whiteroseredrose]@Claraszoo. DS is a Physicist. He chose Imperial, Durham, Birmingham and Bristol. Manchester was considered but too close to home. [/quote]
Thank you- good inspiration!

The other 2 on DS list are of course Manchester ( interview pending) and Oxford awaiting outcome of PAT etc
Any idea when oxford physics will release interview dates, I’m thinking last week in Nov with interviews from 9/12 onwards.