Hot to maximise chance of an offer at York or Bath

[Failingteenparenting]

DS very focused on going to York or Bath to study Politics with International Relations. At Bath he would do it with Russian as a new language.

Both courses seem pretty oversubscribed. Both have A*AB as average offer. He is predicted exactly that. His GCSEs aren’t great (3x8, 5x7, 2x 6). He has a great reference from his politics teacher and some work experience with an MP. He is studying AS French but nobody seems to count that.

anything we can do to maximise chance of an offer?

I hope your DS enjoys Lancaster @user4750. Mine has had the best time (tho frustrating that a lot of the marking wasn’t done in time for results. He is still missing 2 out of 3 exam papers, and at least 2 essays).

He’s really excited now. It’s such a great university (safe, sociable, beautiful and top ranking!). How has your DS found the IR course? We went to a fabulous offer holders day with sample sessions run by two lecturers who DS thought were amazing and so enthusiastic about their subject.

He’s really enjoyed it so far. He’s doing PIR and took a philosophy module as his minor.

He says he has enjoyed his IR module the most.

He has had such a great time he hasn’t actually come home for the summer and moved straight from his townhouse on campus to his second year accommodation in town. We’re 4.5hrs away so too far to nip back home for an afternoon.

He’s been working as a student ambassador for the uni, so doing open days/offer holder days, and I think will continue with that next year (possibly covering your offer holder day? If you saw a super super tall blonde guy that was probably him!)

He’s really happy. Not doing as much work as I’d hoped! 😂 But enough to be getting a high 2:1, so I can’t moan.

Did a lot of partying at the beginning of the year but calmed down a fair bit by Christmas- tho their body clock is typical student. His younger brother went and stayed with him after exams and was the first one up at awake at 12.45pm…

We’re visiting him next week! Very excited as not seen him since Easter. But it’s lovely to see him bloom- he was a bit of a shy homebody before he left.

My ds got Bath for firm and Surrey for insurance for Politics /IR
Surrey impressed with it's more applied feel, friendly lecturers and Think Tanks.
He loved Bath itself and much bigger department. Something about York put him off though loved York city. Found Bristol overwhelming.

I am actually one of many who suggest where dc went! However Bristol does offer the year abroad snd that makes it a useful choice. I’m sure others do too. But I suggested Bristol as geographically it’s close to Bsth. I do see why @Failingteenparenting DS might have found it chaotic in the circumstances but if you live near the uni, it’s in its own environment.

@Piggywaspushed Do you know Charlotte Owen? I made it clear it was no student I knew. Her trajectory is clearly questionable! Baroness of Alderley Edge! Also, one swallow does not a summer make! A friend chose politics at a top 10 uni as they said they had links with Westminster. For one competitive placement it turned out! So it’s all about who you know. Not what you know. Political activism seems vital.

To be fair, I don't think everyone who does politics degrees wants to go into politics tizer, just as not everyone who does a history degree wants to be an historian.

Hmm. Not from what I’ve seen. Why even look at IR and Russian if that’s not the goal?

It may well be, but not all degrees are vocational. Politics can lead to loads of options.

Very few politicians have politics degrees .

Seems like he has a lot in his favour
He just has to apply
Has he been to the open days and talked to people there ?
And he can always do a masters at either place later if he ends up going some place else
Dont tie up in knots. Apply and hope for best

Apologies if this has been mentioned elsewhere but is he doing an EPQ or would that be an option? My son had an offer of AAB lowered to ABB on the basis of getting a high grade in his EPQ. This was for philosophy though so it may not be a university wide policy. He did the work for his EPQ mainly in Year 13.

@Failingteenparenting I know you have said he struggles with his biology course and is working hard but what is he doing specifically to get that from a low B to a comfortable B or even an A? There are some incredible resources out there that he can access over summer and when he is back in year 13.

YouTube with Primrose Kitten who covers both OCR and AQA and their entire content. There are past papers and their mark schemes showing exactly what they are looking for including key words and phrases. I would advise him to go through each question, write down his answer and compare it to the mark scheme. What is he missing? Also worth looking at the examiner's report on what went well and what they are looking for in future. Students who also post on Youtube as well as teachers. Hopefully there are AS ones as he won't have covered all of the biology content yet.

Don't just rely on the class teacher. Ds1 had an A level physics teacher who constantly messed up the maths parts. Half the class were also doing maths and further maths so would politely tell him he had got it wrong. Yes, he complained, we complained. If your son has access to his paper that he sat for year 12 mocks or any other papers then I would suggest he goes through and looks at any question he didn't get full marks on and work out why. If he has written in what he should have put he can do the paper again and see if he improves his mark. I suppose it depends on how much he wants to get that grade up, it would absolutely help him with his application. Entry grades are usually the lowest grades, he will be up against applicants with higher grades.

Below is a guide to working out where he can improve. This applies to physics, I am unsure how much maths there is in biology but it may help. It is called MARCKS and you write a letter code next to the non-full mark questions to see if there is a pattern

Maths error - Did you make a mistake in your maths?
Application of knowledge - You know and understand the content but couldn’t apply it to foreign situation/this question
Read the question - Did you miss a key term such as explain rather than describe because of how you interpreted the question but ultimately you have the knowledge and understand the topic
Communication - You understood the application but the wording you used to communicate didn’t get the marks. Could be specific terminology especially in biology
Knowledge - Is your knowledge weak? Do you understand the concept?
Statements - If it’s 4 marks but you wrote 2 points and you can see that even though you filled all the lines you were lacking in points

Ds found this very useful to up his grade in physics.

@Piggywaspushed I know they are not vocational courses but many students seem to think they are. Hence IR being added in.

Daughters finished her yr 13 and in relation to biology, well teachers were not that great, so I helped in a fashion. We did notes, acronyms, watching ''biorach'' who is really good, primrose kitten. Both are on you tube. Also got some revision cards from snap revise. Practice papers. By her year 13 mocks she was 1 mark off an A, when in year 12 she was a C. So its worth him trying various methods to help make it stick. @user4750 DD applied to York, but also got offer from Lancaster and shes been there 3 years now (sciences). Both unis are really good.

Is there any chance of him doing the EPQ? Bath give lower offers to students with an A or A star in EPQ.

Great he's doing an essay competition. Doesn't matter if he doesn't win - he can still say what he learned from the research in his PS. What does it inspire him to read / research / do next, etc?