Oxbridge-Aspirants-2021-New-Thread-3

[Baaaahhhhh]

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

New Thread !

Jeez @Baaaahhhhh. Those are tough odds.

And another useful insight...

Last year's HAT scores

www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/550183/response/1309492/attach/html/5/HAT%20Marks%202019%20Aweys.xlsx.html

@bendmeoverbackwards

Thank you *@Revengeofthepangolins* so does contextualising the HAT score mean taking into account the school the candidate attends?

Yes. Presumably based on GCSEs but I don’t know how it is done. Seems a bit odd to me given it is meant to test fundamental history skills, not facts

@bendmeoverbackwards he is mostly enjoying Oxford, he managed 3 weeks before having to self isolate and when he finishes on Saturday he will be locked down. He says he has an insane amount of work (3 hrs lectures daily plus another 5 + hours doing problem sheets and reading) but hey- there's not much else to do! He says his tutors are very nice and make everything very clear.

@bendmeoverbackwards I also remember the waiting for interview - DS also wanted it very badly and said he could live with not getting an offer but really wanted to interview. It's sad that they won't get the full 3 day experience - DS really enjoyed his 3 days there. Fingers crossed for all that they get the opportunity to interview.

That's good @HuaShan I really feel sorry for this year's freshers, it's so hard for them not to have the usual first year experience. Let's hope things improve for them next term.

@Baaaahhhhh

This is what you need bendmeoverbackwards

www.history.ox.ac.uk/admissions-facts-and-figures

The percentages change as the process goes along....

Thank you @Baaaahhhhh what's the difference between 'shortlisted' and 'pre-interview'?

I still don’t see how mechanically you contextualise a HAT score using the average gcse outcome for a school. But clearly there is a way.

The whole thing is tricky because clearly going to a terrible school is likely to unfairly lower gcse results but it does have slightly odd outcomes at the other end of the scale, especially as 9s and 8s are not distinguished. If a pupil goes to a school where 91% of pupils get A*/8/9 I don’t suppose a straight sweep of 9s will give a score of much over 0, and no amount of work can budge that.

And lest this precipitate a row, my son doesn’t have straight 9s and doesn’t go to the referenced 91% school - I just find the issue curious. And intractable at both ends of the spectrum.

@Revengeofthepangolins is the school the one where the candidate sat their GCSEs or the one where they are sitting their A Levels? My dd was at a highly selective state grammar for GCSEs but moved school for Sixth Form to a semi selective school. Not sure if that's better or worse for her?

Thanks for that @Revengeofthepangolins. I'm trying to move my work to be phone based as we speak also. Meanwhile our youngest is still expected to go to school. It's all a bit crackers.

Bendmeover, ‘shortlisted’ means invited to inteview. I guess ‘pre-interview’ means the step before that, so application in and aptitude test sat where appropriate.

PAT not a disaster, didn’t finish all questions.
At least it is over.
Not sure when interview invites go out.

@theoriginalpaul
DD did the TSA in an independent centre today but did not mention anything like that.

That must be very stressful for your DS. I hope something can be done to mitigate the problem.

@theoriginalpaul

Our son took the TSA today, during the exam a number of students had difficulty with questions failing to download during the exam. For him 10 initially failed, 7 eventually appeared, 3 never did. The school tried to rectify the problem by issuing different laptops but to no avail. He’d done a huge amount of work and I feel terrible for him - aside from being unable to answer the 3 missing questions, I think it completely threw his timings and obviously caused a heap of unnecessary additional stress. Has anyone heard of other schools having any issues? I’m wondering if it was related to his school or a bigger problem. TIA.

That sounds really grim. Poor chap

@Tenpastseven - we had a similar 'close contact' situation a month ago, but were told very clearly that other dcs could still go to school, dh could go to work, etc... I WFH so not a problem for me. You only need to take action if symptoms develop, cross fingers that doesn't happen.

Do you know how close the 'close contact' was?

DS sat the HAT today, feedback was not really forthcoming but managed an 'ok' - whatever that means? More importantly he still has to upload his course work. I must admit I've been very 'hands off' but couldn't stop myself reminding him about it today!

@Vargas they sat next to each other for a double period on Monday 😬. Pretty close.

Poor lad @theoriginalpaul. This whole process is stressful enough without that sort of shizzle to deal with.

DD said today's HAT went okay. She's just pleased to have it over and done with. Thanks for the great shares, I particularly enjoyed the HAT scores breakdown of 2019, I love data!

DS did the HAT today and he said that he enjoyed it but he didn't think it was his best essay ever. I think it would take the pressure off him if he heard from his other first choice UCL. I don't suppose anyone on here knows when they usually start making offers?

@LaundryFairy my son had his offer from UCL in January when he applied in 2016.

Thanks Summer15comming - good to know not to expect anything soon!

DD had an exchange with college this evening. Very impressed they were answering emails late into the evening. Started by confirming that they only wanted marked standard essays written in course of normal daily study and relating to school work. DD then pointed out that due to circumstances she didn't actually have any of those. They came back and confirmed that many students are struggling this year and that an extract of EPQ was acceptable and just get teacher to note on the form. Sorted. Will send off tomorrow.

Sounds extremely stressful for your dd, @theoriginalpaul. Is there any possibility of submitting an extenuating circumstances form, if the incident affected his performance but was outside his control?

Sorry to hear about your dd too, @Tenpastseven, just what we are all dreading! I hope he’s able to carry on covering the course content from home and that the next two weeks go quickly.

Sorry, @Tenpastseven - I mean your ds!