Another Path to Greatness - Part II

[BigWoollyJumpers]

Here we are.

Parents evening last night suggested (no formal announcement from the school yet and I don't expect one for a week or so) that our school will be using the mini tests for all non-essay and non-coursework subjects and might not use them for subjects where students have completed coursework and have lots of essays available for evidence.

Remember too last year schools believed they were pegged to a certain number for A* and As etc because the algorithm was going to moderate using past performance and historic data so some did make their grading fit historic results so pupils were genuinely in competition with each other to achieve a place in the rankings to allow them to get that grade.

This time there are no rankings. They are merely chasing their grade and if the teacher feels they are good enough for an A* they can award it without worrying whether the figures suggest they can only give 5 but they have 8 who deserve it. Yes there can be some form of EA but only if schools massively play the game I suspect

@Chilldonaldchill

Parents evening last night suggested (no formal announcement from the school yet and I don't expect one for a week or so) that our school will be using the mini tests for all non-essay and non-coursework subjects and might not use them for subjects where students have completed coursework and have lots of essays available for evidence.

Yes we are not expecting to hear officially from exam boards until close to Easter although sensible schools will have various plans drawn up in anticipation of what may happen or plans that can be tweaked. As can be seen on here it is better to wait a couple of weeks and present the definitive plan rather than add/take away different things and further distress pupils (and parents).

I am so sorry for last year's and this year's group of pupils. My sons are student age so nothing like as affected. Also if it were one of my sons he is pretty good at exams, does really well but never did much until just before and then pulled it off really well. Assessing people earlier on is not going to help people (often boys - last minute merchants some of them) like that.... although I think his B in his best A level, best result in the private school and his university subject and subject in which he won the school prize would have been an A* this year as he was predicted 3 A stars by the school and the very disappointing results in that whole year group with the B being the top grade would not have happened under teacher assessed grades . So I suppose some win and some lose.

@ifinditkindafunny
No DC should apply for 4/5 universities all requiring AAA. All Dc should have an insurance with AAB or even lower. So if they do not get the grades needed, they do have another option.

I do think there will be further grade inflation this year. So what are the universities going to do? Pay more students to defer and therefore offer fewer places next year? Again!

PresentingPercy, yes I am aware of that, in fact I know a student who missed out on their Oxford offer as they dropped a grade and then had no offers because all their other offers were the same as the Oxford one!

My DD does have an insurance AAB offer however doensn't really want to go there. I know sounds mad, why did she apply? We only managed 2 uni visits pre covid so, like all other students, has had to look at courses and make best guesses. However ultimately there is never any guarantee of a place and the work just continues.

I don't have a lot of sympathy for universities, they knew this years student had had a very disrupted education and an announcement was due. They could have all decided to offer later, nothing forces them to offer early.

Judging by this thread they have not all offered early. Some DC will already have grades but deferred. It’s not easy for anyone. If more DC qualify for the courses they might actually need to read the personal statements! Maybe that’s the delay? Then reduce the grades they will take. Many highly respected universities often do this. It’s not even 1 March yet so it’s not that late. I do think early offers mean at least some dc can plan.

@ifinditkindafunny I can understand. My DS only had four places he wanted to go but put down a fifth as he thought he will consider going there. However as time went on he has lost interest. We didn't opt for choices with less than AAA requirements for History (top 2 choices were A*AA) as we felt if he couldn't achieve that then we should all have a rethink as no point going to lower tier Uni for the sake of it

@PresentingPercy

I do think there will be further grade inflation this year. So what are the universities going to do? Pay more students to defer and therefore offer fewer places next year? Again!

*@PresentingPercy*

It's now known and acknowledged that Oxford & Cambridge sought to head this off at the pass by simply making substantially less offers this year. That way they don't need to pay off/allow deferrals and prevents problem being booted down the road to next year *.

This is precisely why many of us are here sharing our experiences along "another path to greatness". It's what this thread is about. Our dc were all not successful in securing an offer from O or C this year.

This is a horribly exceptional year for Y13s and it's beginning to look like it is hoped that applicants will just accept their lot of being the unlucky year and take up second/third/fourth/fifth choice places elsewhere.

* unless of course rejected applicants decide that they really want to apply again next year in potentially more normal circumstances but obviously the more who do that, the less normal it is and if there's grade inflation this year additional DC may feel their grades are now then high enough for an Oxbridge application whereas it wasn't this year based on predicted grades at the time of UCAS submission. Personally I'm hoping DD doesn't fancy re-applying as my chocolate and wine consumption has escalated way too much throughout the process to calm the nerves.

I think anyone planning to reapply to Oxbridge next year with grades in hand should at least research what the average offer holder has by way of grades before doing so (and this in most cases is not the standard offer nor usual offer in the case of Cambridge) as an AAA course often has an average of 2.5 A* in those that get in. UCAS has recently introduced a lovely tool where these types of stats can be checked by the school UCAS adviser.

Yes, I’ve seen people on the student room saying they’re reapplying (or had reapplied) because of meeting the standard offer. But a reapplication needs to be substantially above AAA to be in the game. And next year, inevitably, there will be a lot of top grades. It’s tough for those who truly are full-house A* achievers. The entrance exams are going to have to be super-tough next year....

A* was brought in to help identify the top of the range As.

Perhaps we needed a set of pandemic year only subcategories

A* level I
A* level II

A grade - level I
A grade - level II
A grade - level III

(somewhat akin to the Uni grades 2:1 and 2:2)

Giving teachers more flexibility but sadly not reducing the huge task of grading ahead of them.

@IrmaFayLear however the current year 13 will hopefully be able to back it up with equally stellar GCSE grades.

Although there are some candidates with stellar AL grades with less than stellar GCSE grades due to doing AL in subjects they are good at/ passionate about ........

School UCAS adviser said to treat standard offer grades as the minimum required but this advice was merrily ignored by one of DD's cohort. He's already had 4 pre-interview rejections for medicine. Lesson sadly learned I'm afraid but he's apparently hoping for teacher assessed A*s as intending to re-apply grades in hand next year. DD may yet find herself in that boat too even after heeding the same advice.

It is a difficult year. I did notice a sea change between my sons gong to university in 2017 and their sister 13 years before. For a start on the identical course the younger one had 2x the number of pupils doing it in Bristol as 13 year before as the Government changed the rules to allow unlimited places to those with AAB and higher provided the university had the physical space. that son also had a back up offer (Edinburgh) with the same grades as his first choice - very risky whereas in his sister's day her back up was substantially easier to get into (Royal H) and was a real traditional back up as I had in my day. However in 2021 we are in a completely different situation yet again.

I feel "done"!

WRT Cambridge- irrespective of the reduced offers, they picked the people they want and DS wasn't one of them. Why they didn't want him is something we will not know.

I think he should be able to meet the grade requirements for his first choice so whilst waiting for LSE it shouldn't make a huge difference if he meets the grades of his firm. However unfair this year is on the high achieving DC's, it is what it is.

I need to pull myself together and support DS get the most out of the rest of the school year and hope they are still able to finish off the school year on a high with some fun events.

Hi, just checking in after a while. So, according to someone on TSR who phoned LSE today, they have made no offers as yet for any undergrad subject, though they have been slowly rejecting since November.

LSE sent out a mail in January to say that decisions would be delayed this year, although everyone would hear by the end of March. But why not just say, “offers will be made in March,” rather than have people wondering week by week?

As for Durham, still nothing, but DS is past caring.

It’s hardly rocket science to see on WhatDoTheyKnow that year on year for Geography BA, they offer to about 90% of applicants - ie. probably everyone who has the minimum grades and probably some who don’t. Of course this year will be different, but still, they have no qualms about students waiting for 5 months or more in a normal year. This is just plain rude, in my view - a cynic might say they are trying to make the course appear more competitive than it is. Otherwise, what is the point of sitting on applications for months? Boring and very off-putting (maybe this is the idea)?

Good @chopc
Me too..
Onwards!

Durham Geography have started coming through this evening @quest1on. Is that what you are waiting for? Sorry, I have lost track of who is waiting for what!

Any news on History @SeasonFinale?

Nope, sorry!

Thanks @SeasonFinale - DD's friend has been waiting for Durham Geography and got her offer about half an hour ago!

@SATSmadness
The problem will now be: where does this end? Whatever Oxbridge did or didn’t do, this thread is full of DC waiting for other offers from universities with similar problems and people who deferred from last year who have first priority. There are going to be considerable problems if there is more grade inflation before the previous years have worked their way through the system. Basically DC get into this situation for several years to come and what if the overseas students come back in larger numbers?

Just de-lurking to say that DS had his offer for Law at Durham today. We’re delighted as he didn’t get a place at C but he’s very excited about the prospect of Durham now.