Mock results advice please

[mrsnjw]

My son is year 12 and has just received his mocks results. He got an a in business, b in geography, c in psychology and a b in core maths so a total of 136 points. He will obviously work hard to improve the psychology although he seems to think his school will let him resit at the end of the summer term. What now? He has his eye on a course that requires bbb. He will have enough points but not three bs. Would an a cancel out a c? Many thanks

If the offer is expressed in terms of grades, it's the grades that count. So ABC doesn't meet the terms of a BBB offer. But I think it's important to get things in perspective. These are only mocks, so it's perfectly possible that your DS might get one grade higher in the actual exams. Does his school have a policy that they won't give a UCAS predicted grade that is higher than the mock result?

@MadridMadridMadrid I have no idea. How would one find that out? I guess we will be invited to school for a year 13 open evening. He has said that the teacher can put what they think. A kick up the bum is a good thing and might get him more focused. He could have done so much better in his GCSEs if he had studied harder 🙄

Former admissions tutor here. My university is Russell Group. @MadridMadridMadrid is essentially correct, and I am very glad you asked, OP. Many assume incorrectly until it is too late but if your DS can resit his mocks he still has time to improve things.

When a degree programme isn’t filling up for whatever reason, an applicant who has Firmed with ABC when the offer is BBB stands a decent chance. But that’s a big risk. And in order to get the offer in the first place, unless the programme is having a really abysmal year, you need to meet the relevant offer (standard ir contextual)

When the offer is made on UCAS tariff points, there is more flexibility. It is the ‘total’ that matters.

@poetryandwine so these mock grades will be used in his ucas application? Gosh that's quite a quick turnaround considering they have only been going a-levels for eight months. Thank you

So what makes some unis offer via points and other grades? Out of interest 🤔

Hi, OP -

Usually but not always these mocks are the basis or a big part of the basis for the PGs. There is no rule about it that I am aware. If a student has Mitigating Circumstances for a bad mock they should make the school aware, with evidence.

Probably for reasons to do with their historical educational missions, traditional subjects and universities tend to be somewhat less flexible, requiring a set of specific grades and sometimes requiring or recommending specific subjects. Newer subjects and universities, and some vocational subjects, attract more mature students and more nontraditional students. The flexibility

of UCAS tariff points works better for them.

Of course this dichotomy isn’t perfect

Depending on his usual work his predicted grades could easily be BBB. I teach MFL and often predict a grade higher than the mock result if I am confident the student will put in the work.

Thanks all

It will depend on how the school operates. It sounds as though your DS still has end of y12 exams to do? So those results are probably more relevant. Most schools will use all recent exam results, homework, class tests and their knowledge of the pupil and the subjects to arrive at the predicted grades used in the UCAS application.

Putting it bluntly, the higher up the league tables the unis are, the less likely they are to use UCAS points.
The traditional unis use grades. The former polytechnics/colleges tend to use UCAS points.

Ds did badly in one of his y12 mocks and he spoke with his teacher and she agreed to reassess him in September (she let him do an exam paper one lunchtime and marked an essay he had written in none exam condition) so he could improve his predicted grade. It was extra work for the teacher so he was lucky she agreed.

This is all beginning to make sense now. Thank you. The siblings do definitely reep the benefits of having an older sibling who goes through the hoops first 🤣

This is why I hate the UK system. But it is the system so we have to comply.
Predicted grades in my DD's school were based primarily on the summer term mocks. The students were told if they were unhappy with the predictions they had the summer and early autumn to present evidence they should be changed. Whether this was a few essays, additional artworks or a test sat in September depended on what type of course it was. There is no point over predicting, getting an offer then missing the grades.
But there is an alternative. My DD applied after her results. She was predicted A star A B. She got A star x 3. This meant she was able to apply to universities that she wouldn't have attempted just on her PGs. It works the other way too - if results are lower, they can possibly retake and will also know what unis to aim for.
There's time for your child to improve, but also be sure to look at universities with a lower entry requirement. Some unis will take a student who has slipped a grade on results day, but there's no guarantee of that.

I’d be surprised if a school did mocks so early and used them as predicted grades for UCAS. My DCs schools said mocks taken in May/June ie end of year 12 would form a basis for predicted grades that were issued in October of Y13. Predicted grades at many schools are what the student may do on a good day, so if they got a B in a mock but have generally been working at a B/A then they may well be predicted an A.

This is why it is good to have 5 choices on your UCAS: by decision time in May your DS should have a good idea of what he is likely to achieve and he can therefore decide what may be safe and realistic choices.

Does he know yet what he wants to study at uni? Some subjects are much more competitive/popular than others.

Yes, OP, as PPs are implying the mocks your DS took do seem early. Could there be more at the end of the year? Or perhaps this is because of the resit opportunity your DS mentioned - the grade(s) from that would surely be used instead of the older one(s).

It depends on the school - speak with the HOY or head of KS5 to clarify.

Are these end of year 12 exams? The school my dc attended mainly based UCAS predicted grades on full set of exams taken in pretty much the first couple of weeks of year 13. They then had mock exams in the January of year 13 when final predicted grades were issued.

The school I work at the year 12’s are currently sitting exams which will be used to base UCAS predictions on.

Both my children only received offers based on 3 A levels (youngest was also doing a non related BTech but that was not included in any offers.

Sounds like many schools have different systems. Does he not have to apply January next year? He wants to do a business related course. Many thanks for responses

January is the equal consideration deadline except for Oxbridge/ medics / dentists and I think vets? which is October so schools will issue UCAS predictions early in the autumn term of year 13.

UCAS opens this September - the deadline is January, but schools need time to do their bits so they will probably give young a deadline of before Christmas - and it's nice to have an offer or two by Christmas.

Has he got any open days lined up? They tend to be in the summer term.

As above per January for his 5 choices. He then doesn’t need to narrow that down to one firm and one insurance until May. So he has a lot of time to consider and see how he’s doing.

Many unis have large cohorts on business related courses so the numbers aren’t as restricted as say healthcare ones. Most unis offer some form of business related course too.

Yes we have four open days booked as trying to go to the one furthest away in the summer. It will be good to go early so if he likes the aspirational one he knows he will have to work hard. What is the common number for people to visit? 🤔

@RefreshingCandour I thought the timelines were shorter maybe I'll relax a bit then 🤗