Oxbridge 2024 Entry Part 2

[Lightsabre]

Continuation thread (when old one is full) for those supporting dc through Oxbridge applications. All welcome as we enter the next phase.

Gosh that press release is an embarrassing read with benefit of hindsight.

Oxford obviously realise what a disaster it's been to be making these changes, so hopefully they'll somehow find a way to be fair to those who have already done their tests.

I'm sure they will err on the side of fairness - I mean, they want to be fair to candidates but from their own perspective of trying to find the best people, they won't want to set any store by marks which may only reflect the level of disruption rather than aptitude.

What a mess. I hope the affected DC are ok. It's fine to say that these test scores won't count, but that's not much consolation to someone who has been working towards this for weeks or months. And especially those who may not have the best GCSEs or predictions and were relying on test scores to get them to interview. I hope they can find a way to interview a lot more than they usually would in these subjects.

Isn't it just? 🫣

DD has had an offer for York. Waiting for Durham (which we know will be ages), Warwick and Nottingham

Yep. It's all very well to say that they won't take them into account, but that absolutely sucks when they've spent so many hours working for them.

So sorry for all those that had to put up with such rubbish today, and yes the wasted time they have spent; DD’s school jumped straight in with a very strong reassuring message to pupils affected and i am sure others have gone straight to O to make it clear how bad it was - I can’t imagine Oxford can do anything much with todays tests - if at all!

I think the only way they can really make it fair is to interview everyone with the appropriate predicted grades.

But that would be every applicant

Yes, everyone will have good predicted grades, and selecting people with the best predicted grades is a big shift of the goalposts, also very unfair given how unreliable PGs are and how schools approach them in different ways.

I think I remember a similar problem with the bmat when it went online a few years ago. They did a resit , but that was unfair too as it was the same paper and there was some odd definition of who had the right to retake, as I vaguely recall.

What a mess

I bet there are some big old meetings going on in Oxford right now. Such a shame when everything was getting back to normal after the horrors of CAGs etc.

Does anybody have any knowledge on what will be happening with the MLAT (modern languages) tomorrow? Dd stressing a lot over the issues with the system today and apparently the PAT has been moved onto paper but nothing in emails as regards to MLAT as of yet so she isn't too sure what to make of it all, she would like to know asap whether it's going to be online or not! What a disaster and how awful for all the poor kids caught in the middle of it today!

Where can I find the press release
I have a son here who really struggled today after being made to sit an extra 3 hours for the MAT … was meant to start at 9 … finished at 2.30
ive asked his school to fill in the special consideration form
Hes autistic so alot to deal with
so unfair when he has studied hard

@Revengeofthepangolins - it was DD's year (2022 entry) that had BMAT problems. I seem to recall that schools who had been affected (DD's wasn't) applied for special consideration for their candidates.

Hello, no offers yet. DD applied just over a week ago so probably too early. She has applied to Imperial, Durham, UCL and Bath.

How unbelievably shit.

DS had a terrible time at MAT today too. :-(
Very demoralising.

DD did the CLAT today. A bit of disruption at the start, so start delayed by an hour, but she says the test itself was suspiciously easy. She has the MLAT tomorrow which she expects to be tougher. No email to say that it's changed to a paper test so far. Huge sympathy to everyone who had major issues today, what a shambles.

My son sat the MAT and was under supervision from 8.50 until 3.20pm today. He really struggled as he has undiagnosed ASD and diagnosed OCD. It was really hard for him to sit doing nothing for 2 hrs this morning and the stress and anxiety of waiting to start the exam was exhausting. Due to his OCD he doesn't use school toilets so hardly drank any water and so was really sleepy by the afternoon and walked out before his time finished as he was really over it. What a shamozzle. I hope they offer a lot more interviews this year in consideration of all the disruption.

My son also has ASD. To be fair, I would imagine a fairly high proportion of people who take the MAT are on the autistic spectrum. Very far from ideal for them.

Yes, I imagine so. Really hard for all involved. At least my son's school was really supportive and we're very transparent in letting us know what was happening.

MAT was apparently a disaster at DD’s school too. Horrible for all the DC who sat the tests today - really hope Oxford will come up with a fair way of handling it.

DD is sitting the PAT tomorrow, and has also been told it will be on paper. She is most relieved she can use her own calculator - the online tests came with an online calculator that had some strange features which had spent some time over the last week trying to get to grips with.

Test day here. Fingers crossed they’ve gone doors to manual. Good luck to everyone’s DC today and I hope the students affected by yesterday’s debacle are being supported by their school/college. My heart goes out to them. What a shit show.

The exams yesterday were a shambles and I can’t see how Oxford can use the results to decide who to interview. Some schools seemed to have coped well; others left kids with no access to food or facilities for hours including my child. Apparently the information schools had was sparse so they were calling around other exam centres to see if it was just them having issues.

I think the contract for managing the exam online had gone to Tata - isn’t that owned by Sunak’s wife’s family?!

I’m not blaming the school by the way. I actually thought my child’s school were very supportive indeed but they played it by the book - no access to phones/each other etc. - while plan B was formulated.