Medicine 2022 - The final furlong

[Monkey2001]

Support thread for aspiring medics.

We want all our DCs to succeed, whatever their school type. We share knowledge to help them to achieve their goals, celebrate success and support if things don't go well.

Offers are in for some, others on waiting lists, others doing their A levels and planning a gap year.

Best of luck everyone for great results on 18th August, we will be here to celebrate, commiserate, advise and generally support you for the last stage of the 2022 journey. 🍀

Previous thread - www.mumsnet.com/talk/higher_education/4464984-Medicine-2022-Decision-time

2023 applicant thread - www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/4459778-Medicine-2023-Entry

DS drove to Boardmasters last year. Took six hours to get out of the car park before driving home.

Hello everyone. Hope Boardmasters does not give everyone Covid again this year!

DS starts his hospital job on 22nd August, is feeling anxious about results, but not as anxious as he would be if he actually had an offer. UCAT postponed from 31st Aug to 10th Sep as job is starting earlier than expected. He is really looking forwards to the job and feeling positive about the gap year. If Newcastle makes him an offer on results day he will only accept if they let him defer as he is committed to the job until the end of March.

Stressful week ahead!

DD has survived Boardmasters! They seemed to have a dreamy experience this year - glorious weather, fab music and lots of K Cider! She was in her element. Fingers crossed she doesn't bring back a nasty dose of the 'rona again. We all caught it off her last August!

Meanwhile I'd love to be a fly on the wall at Exeter med school this morning. Given 3 A stars was a requirement for interview, I wonder how many actually achieved it?!

@MidLifeCrisis007 they have a v v long waitlist at Exeter. Might mean some places become available, but you actually only need AAA to get in.
But please don't listen to the press about grades - they have no more idea about them than we all do. Yes, they'll be lower than last year (because some schools were ridiculous last year) but they'll be fair and the usual spread. But that doesn't make a good click bait story. Stay away from social media until Thursday !
My DD was at Boardmasters and it looked beautiful this year.

I have also seen pictures of Boardmasters. DS2 looks like he had a fabulous time. When he gets home I think he'll sleep for a week though. He's on a train to Paddington and says he'd like a wash.

Good luck to everyone waiting for news this week.

@mumsneedwine why make subjective A Level predictions a key element of interview selection when they know that some schools are far punchier than others in their predictions? Surely they could at least link the offer to the predictions to make it have some substance.

@opoponax that is the mystery ! Not sure anyone understands their policy 🤷‍♀️

@opoponax because there is a gap between perceptions and reality! Edinburgh is the same, Aberdeen also score predicted A levels but give you an extra 5 points for achieved grades.

Exeter used to have a band difference between predicted and achieved - so for non-contextual applicants Band 1 was 3 A*s achieved, a non-contextual applicant could not get Band 1 with predicted grades, being Band 1 guaranteed an interview and usually Band 2 was also safe (predicted 3 A stars or achieved 2 A stars and an A). For 2021 entry you needed well over 3000 to get an interview at Exeter as a non-contextual applicant. So for 2022 entry they said that effectively achieved grades are currently the same as predicted with 2 years of CAGs/TAGs in the system, so predicted 3 A stars is treated the same as achieved 3 A stars. Of course the majority of people predicted 3 A stars won't get them!

It is clearly unfair that Exeter, Edinburgh and Aderdeen all shortlist using predicted A levels, but don't link that to the offers. In my opinion they should increase their standard offer if they want to use the A level predictions as a scoring element for shortlisting. Our school will predict an A star if you have any chance of achieving it!

Aston had a very odd policy this year. Their scoring algorithm only uses A levels if they are achieved, otherwise ignores them. This meant that an achieved applicant with AAA and perfect GCSEs did not score enough for an interview, but somebody predicted AAA with a few points dropped at GCSE scored more! During the application cycle they adjusted that so that achieved applicants would be assessed on the higher of their two scores.

Good luck everyone waiting for tomorrow. Be aware UCAS will undoubtably crash at 8.15am so give it a few minutes and try again. Think I'm more nervous this year than I've ever been as it's been such a weird year and all the students have worked so hard, through various covid outbreak for them and staff. 🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞 to your all. Your kids are superstars to have got this far 🥰.

I am dreading it. Dreading seeing the look on my son’s face if he doesn't get the grades.

All the speculation in the press doesn't help, although I note they are saying grade drops, but still better than 2019

I have loved this thread, it has been a much needed steadying influence over a very stressful year (DS A levels, DD GcSE, DD2 11+ , 1st time of y2 SATs for me as a teacher) and mum diagnosed with terminal cancer.

So thank you thank you to everyone on hear for being so generous with sharing their knowledge. And fingers crossed for all our young people tomorrow…

@kackle I am starting to dread it too (plus, I have twins, the other one is pretty much a shoo-in for her chosen course and has started to buy stuff for her move at the end of the month....). We have a Plan B (gap year and resit) but yesterday started to consider a Plan C in the event of a disaster ...... wasn't much fun and we didn't really get anywhere!

Good luck to all, I look forwards to seeing lots of good news stories. And if the results are disappointing, a gap year was the making of DS1, and DS2 is fully reconciled to his.

Our dream scenario is that he gets AAA+ and gets a results day offer from Newcastle which they allow him to defer. He is looking forwards to his hospital job starting on Monday. But he has developed resilience this year and will face whatever fate throws his way.

@Monkey2001 I'll be thinking of you tomorrow morning. I'm in school from 7.30am until, well not really sure yet. Who knows if anything will pop up but going to try ! Good luck to your DS - he deserves the v v best 🥰.

Aww, thanks!

Same sentiments here @Monkey2001. I've got everything crossed for your DS.

Hello again everyone. Really wishing you all the best of luck for tomorrow.

Don't know if you remember but DS is on the reserve list for Sheffield.

Just to add to the tension, we've had a call today to say that DMIL is on end of life care. It's not a huge shock but really don't know whether to tell DS tonight or not.

So sorry @pritipatelsmaker. That is so hard. Hoping the best for all of them tomorrow. Will be picking ds up from the airport soon, hopefully he'll be so tired he'll sleep well. Can't help feeling worried!

@PritiPatelsMaker -such a hard time for all of you.

DD on waiting list for Sheffield as well - not heard anything from them - I presume if she gets good grades she will need to phone them. Horrible limbo land.

Good luck to all today .

DD on waiting list for Sheffield as well - not heard anything from them - I presume if she gets good grades she will need to phone them. Horrible limbo land.

Yes he's been sent the numbers to ring a while ago. It's horrible though isn't it as even if they've got the grades, there's no guarantee that they'll get in.

Sorry, I think I'm being a bit pessimistic with everything else that's going on here

@PritiPatelsMaker when did he get the phone numbers? DD says she has not heard anything- aghhh!!!

when did he get the phone numbers? DD says she has not heard anything- aghhh!!!

He's still in bed but I think it was when he got the information telling him that he was on the reserve list and what happens next.

He dug it out a couple of weeks ago and put the numbers into his phone.

Good luck all! Xx

@PritiPatelsMaker sorry to hear about your DMIL. I think I would not tell DC yet if I wanted them to be able to celebrate their A level results without that constraint, but you know your own child best.

We were sitting in your seat two years and we are waiting for A Level results today for DD2 so similiarly stressed.
Good luck to all 🤞🏻