A level results day 2024

[Happyface246]

How’s everyone else feeling about results day? I’ve got one at uni already and 2nd dd hoping to go to Kent in September. She seems ok about it at the moment although think that will change as it gets closer. Me I’m so keeping my fingers crossed she gets what she wants, I know there will always be other options but she loved the open day. Going to struggle with this one going though as it has been a real journey to get to where she is.

Her gcses were very average! So they we would have had no idea really. She just clicked with her a level subjects and basically learnt the entire syllabus off by heart I think

DD got 2 A* and an A. The A was in a subject she was predicted an A star but one of the A stars wasn't predicted, so really happy
How are people finding the grade boundaries? I found the exam board but it didn't show A* as far as I could see....

Oh ffs I'm getting all confused with stars/bold despite trying to edit twice! 🤣

AQA: https://filestore.aqa.org.uk/over/stat_pdf/AQA-A-LEVEL-GDE-BDY-JUN-2024.PDF

OCR: https://ocr.org.uk/Images/714687-as-and-a-level-grade-boundaries-june-2024.pdf

Both have grade boundaries for all grades.

The exam board was WJEC, and the page was laid out the same but didn't have A*

Mine dropped from an a star to an a in her best subject. I remember tho she told me about one of the questions and her answer sounded a bit weak to me, like she’d missed the point? People do get questions a bit wrong on the day it’s entirely normal. She might well have over practiced and repeated an answer she had written before. It doesn’t matter for her uni place - just trying to show that these things do happen

For an A* with WJEC you need to get an A at AS, plus an aggregate of 90% UMS across the A2 papers.

Let me know if that doesn't make sense and I can explain it better with an example.

I think you need to refer to this: https://www.wjec.co.uk/media/s3hf52vg/guide-to-results-as-a-level-june-2024-wjec.pdf

But unis need to do what they can to maximise applications. We lowered our tariff from 128 to 112 and applications plummeted. I want to put the tariff back up but I’m scared the powers that be will want to lower it further.

I will privately admit that I know dd could have got better grades - and I was slightly disappointed BUT York took her anyway with the results she got and made the initial offer despite her predicteds being not amazing. I am hoping this is also because they have looked at her personal statement and see the other good things she has done and achieved. It's about being rounded as well I hope.
Obviously had she not got the place, it would have been harder to be sanguine about it!

Thank you @redskydarknight and @stoneysongs I'll give the info to DD (I'm at work)
It was mainly out of curiosity rather than thinking she should have got an A*.
To be honest she was pretty spent after 2 portfolio subjects and the hours of work dedicated to those, so wasn't as studious revising for the written exams as she possibly could have been.

It's a bit of a pain to work out @Fizbosshoes (speaking from experience as DD needed an A* to make her offer so I have done this a lot and made a spreadsheet of what she needed in each subject lol).

You have to check what the max UMS is for each A2 paper as they are unlikely to be the same, then work out 90%, then look at the tables to see what raw marks are needed to get the required UMS. And take into account that you don't need 90% in both or all three A2 papers, but 90% of their combined UMS overall. You can drop a few marks in one and make them up in another. Each paper could have a slightly different UMS value per raw mark. It's a right faff.

My son was predicted A star A star A so looked at all the top unis for CS. He’s autistic so we had to physically go to each one so he could properly get the feel of it. Out of everywhere we went (inc Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial) he only felt that St Andrews and York were the right fit. He didn’t get an offer for St As so he’s going to York and is thrilled. They can always do postgrads at a ‘higher’ uni later but I think York is the perfect fit for undergrad.

A good mix of students, excellent research, fabulous computer science faculty, very nurturing and a college system which seems to create a nice camaraderie. Not so full on as the elites. Good luck to your son - he might run into mine at York!

Thank you, sounds complicated
Hmmm maybe I'm not that invested then, since it won't make a material difference!!

If DS (maths geek) is bored enough maybe he can give it a try ...although I don't know if we have individual marks just one overall one.

If your children are disappointed I think it's not the results that will affect them going forward but how everyone around them supports them or otherwise. If your child did their best then everyone should be buoying them up and helping them to see that it's a blip not a disaster.

I don't think that there's necessarily a strict correlation between A levels and Uni performance. Other things come into play too, like the level of teaching in the school. Good teachers produce good results in general. A young person with a B in a poorly performing school may well get a better Uni result than a young person with an A* in a hothousing school. Also A levels are very weighted towards exams whereas Uni is much more based on course work for most courses. So those hard workers who don't perform on the day will do much better.

Also, it's a bit like this: you know how you wonder why you got so exercised about how many ounces of formula your baby took and the colour of their poo. Well A levels is a bit like this. It's a marathon not a sprint. And I hope that people will be telling me this when next year's degree results come out and it's time for job hunting!

Great post.

My daughter got CCC and she couldn’t give two hoots because she is currently on her way to Wembley for Taylor Swift concert, the excitement of that overtook exam results yesterday.
she is having a gap year so has time to pick out a subject she fancies studying next year.

Hope she has a great time!

Based on this year if she has a good tolerance for uncertainty she might do well to wait until Clearing day to make her application! Although that can bring an issue with accommodation.

My son got BBDD and was really disappointed. He’s still off to his chosen university, but he’s sure these grades will follow him around for life. He probably should have had at least AABC, but he suffers with IBSD and this caused anxiety during exams; he refused to eat before them and went in tired, with low energy and high anxiety.
Considering this I’m really proud of him and I wish there wasn’t this pressure. I’m sure had there not been, he would have probably done better.

Thank you so much for your advice and wishing her a great time.
Very kind of you. X

I don't think that there's necessarily a strict correlation between A levels and Uni performance

The research shows that there most definitely is.

Read the rest of the paragraph. Yes it might apply on average but not in individual cases, hence 'strict correlation'

Of course there are exceptions. But it is naive to ignore the overwhelming evidence that it makes a huge impact - even when adjusted for type of schooling.

I have been doing recruitment for years and can’t tell you the last time I really checked someone A’Level results - especially if they have a degree. We would look for a pass in GCSE English and Maths (or equivalent) but other than that we look at experience and skills.

Sounds like a great way to celebrate!

I’m the same. Have recruited young people for 20 years. Work in social policy and don’t look at A level results when recruiting if they have a degree.

We use behaviour-based recruitment, so they need real life examples of the required behaviours (i.e. skills) and what they’ve learnt. So life, employment and extra-curricular examples far more important than grades.