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.

I find it curious to read most were not disrupted. I didn’t meet anyone who wasn’t disrupted across a variety of schools. Was that true or hyperbole? I guess Oxford have access to the access logs in some way. My DC didn’t even get to log on!
To make the resit optional is very strange indeed but I guess they’re trying to balance it all out if most were unaffected as per above.

What happened with the MAT?

Everything that could go wrong did.. The system fell over - some were unaffected, some kicked out after 30 mins, some couldn’t get on at all. No response on the hotline..

Some kids were kept in exam conditions while they worked out what to do. Others allowed out to mingle despite having seen questions already. Many were waiting hours without food or drink.

What could go wrong did. Only ELAT was worse!

@eggsbenedict23 the Oxford server kept crashing for some applicants during the exam,, it meant the exam took twice as long as it should and was highly disrupted for some people. Some exam centres were able to print paper copies quite early on and others weren't. My DS being the only one in the school sitting the exam thought it was the dodgy school IT system and this made it even more stressful. Communication from Oxford was poor and they could have acted earlier as there were issues when the exam was sat 12 hours earlier in Australia and other countries.

Yes @O2HaveALittleHouse there is no mention from Oxford as to how they will identify and deal with the cheating within centres and answers being fed from overseas to the UK.

@mushroom3 what makes you think there was cheating within centres? Or indeed from overseas? The time zone issues have always applied, surely

@Revengeofthepangolins there have been several posts on the student room about this.

I find it curious to read most were not disrupted. I didn’t meet anyone who wasn’t disrupted across a variety of schools. Was that true or hyperbole?

Selection bias maybe - more likely to hear from people who've had problems than from those who haven't perhaps?

Maybe it just affected those in the UK and certain other countries

But yes I'm surprised they're saying most were not affected. It is worldwide though

My DS was affected

His college applied for special consideration for all of them so they'll be taking the new test

Sounds like similar story to what happened with the BMAT for medicine applications two years ago. Some DC were lucky and were unaffected and others had major disruption. I think the process then was that, if you hadn't been able to complete anything on the test, you could take a second one. However if you had completed some of it, albeit with major disruption, you just had to run with your first test result accompanied by a generic request for special consideration. Really unfair on the DC affected.

Am actually surprised they didn’t opt to rerun the ELAT. It would have been far fewer affected applicants ie 1000 applicants vs 5000 maths applicants, the markers were presumably lined up. I guess they must think the one piece of written work is a reasonable proxy. I had wondered if they might ask for 2 pieces, but DCs college seems to be saying it’s just one.

With the MAT it froze on Q1 so no one had access to the rest of the paper

@Dafrty yes, I wish elat was rerun too

DS’s sixth form college weren’t affected by the MAT disruption.

ELAT can't be marked anything like as quickly as a short version multiple choice MAT.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if they didn't interview more English students than usual this year though, esp with the interviews being online rather than in person. Much easier to adjust.

Thanks for letting us know @ladsmum . You the only one who has reported no MAT disruption for their DC.

Ah so there was one! I’m glad it worked for some and that the claim that most were unaffected might actually be right.

My DC is doing the test again but not happy about it as has more or less abandoned non-maths subjects at this point and had been hoping to ramp up as mocks are around the corner.
This route was always a long shot so we had a chat about whether to carry on but for the sake of just knowing, they want to.

Most were affected by MAT disruption at DDs school and for some reason they appear to have been given a message fine not to take around midday. One did not retake at that point. DD said they were kept in exam conditions and not allowed to talk but the delays gave extra time to think about questions but overall were bad.

DD was TSA. She has had acknowledgement from college now, no photo request.

@O2HaveALittleHouse Pretty much same situation here! All a mess.

My DS is so disillusioned after the MAT mess. As he has coursework to catch up on and the mocks, I don’t think much extra work will be done for MAT part 2.

Have added a Part 3 continuation thread as this one will be full soon.

Oxbridge 2024 Entry Part 3 www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/4930216-oxbridge-2024-entry-part-4

Mumsnet amended the title as I made a typo saying part 4 instead of 3. I'm sure this thread will move fast soon as interview invites and declines start to appear.

No news on any offers or interviews for ds other choices yet. I'm grateful now he didn't have to sit an entrance test for Ox given the MAT and ELAT fiasco. Hope those dc affected will be treated fairly.