Continuation of Oxbridge 2025

[BananasAllofIt]

I for one still have a kid waiting to hear about interviews. Thought I'd carry it over...

For anyone waiting for Oxford maths, maths and stats, maths and comp sci, shortlisting will happen next week. (From the Oxford maths livestream.)

Still no news for ds waiting to hear about history at Oxford. I really hope he hears today and can either have a relaxing weekend (which he probably won't as I don't think he'll easily shrug off not getting an interview) or have the time for interview prep, which he has started anyway just in case. Don't know whether that was a good idea or not...

He has 3 friends all waiting, two for stem subjects and one I think PPE and none have heard. It's a state school with no support really aside from teachers telling ds if anyone gets in it will be him, which while obviously well-meaning I don't think was very helpful. He has offers from Bristol, KCL and Nottingham and, unlike everyone else on here, is not excited about any of them, which we will obviously have to work on if it's a no from Oxford.

He'd not mentioned anything really until Wednesday then went on TSR and saw lots of people saying history would be yesterday, would be yesterday, which it wasn't, for him anyway.

Hope everyone still waiting gets the answer they're looking for soon (today!).

I hope it's today too, especially for the subjects that interview w/c 9th December. My dc is really fed up now. She's at a state grammar but it's not been particularly supportive and the first interview practice she's getting is today. She's not feeling very enthusiastic as the longer she waits the more negative she has become about the whole thing.
Unfortunately only one other offer on the cards too as the others she's applied for are the ones that are notoriously slow (Durham, St A etc)

Oxford admissions are very good at rooting out gifted candidates. They frequently interview candidates with less than ideal GCSEs where other markers flag promise. But very few candidates with less than stellar GCSEs apply, so beware of concluding by extrapolating.

Aha! Here is the new thread, I thought it was quiet. Checking in. DS has the Cambridge interview confirmed but is waiting for Durham (and, unusually, Lancaster).

Anyone here want to talk about ESAT/TMUA scores? (No worries if not, there's nothing much that students can do about them now!) The fact that the Pearson website crashed on the morning of results release for around six hours added to my stress. (I should be used to it as a teacher, the UCAS site crashes most results days!)

I read that the scoring for TMUA has changed and last years' 6.5 is equivalent to this year's 5.

Not sure DS knows that - he's sitting TMUA in January and thought he'd just received a generous offer from a uni that only wanted a 5.

I don't know when or why they changed this, but it said 6.5 on entry requirements page for uni when I looked about a month ago.

My DD has an interview for Cambridge (admissions test done and dusted too) with offers for Durham and York. Waiting to hear from St A and Edinburgh. She likes all of the places but loves Cambridge so it's everything crossed here.

That’s all a bit Waiting for Godot, Beckett would be proud.

VLADIMIR: Well? Shall we take this boy?
ESTRAGON: Yes, though we did not want that boy.

(They do not take the boy.)

They wanted more granularity among the more able candidates.

@PhotoDad DD is still waiting to hear from Cambridge for engineering. Her ESAT was okay, not spectacular better than the mean, but still within on one std dev from the mean. So, it shouldn’t rule her in or out, I suppose.

She has terrible nerves before exams. It was the 11 plus all over again with vomiting outside the test centre on the pavement etc. We thought she was passed it, as she had sailed through GCSEs.

She had the opportunity to mention this in the additional paragraph that Cambridge gives you the opportunity to write, but she didn’t want to. So no special pleading. For all we know, she felt queasy and hadn’t slept much, but did it really make much difference? Who knows? In the end it’s part of who she is, and Cambridge might be a pressured environment, so perhaps best to let water find its own level and all that.

We think DD’s subject invites are likely to come out today so feeling the nerves. Definitely not the be all and end all and already has four great offers but hard not to feel invested to some degree after all the prep of an exam and submitting written work etc so it will be good to know one way or another

Good luck to all those hearing back today.

Just want to say that we are the same - if that helps. My poor DS2 went to school today with a terrible cold and a high temperature (he insisted to go). He can get terrible nerves but have been trying to keep cool, but the mock, TMUA, MAT, and now the peer pressure of interview invitations, it finally became too much for him.

Thank you. Fairly sure it's going to be a no - he wasn't at all confident with the MAT. I am looking forward to knowing for sure though as I dislike uncertainty!

Fingers crossed for him. If he gets an interview, there will be another period of uncertainty while he awaits a decision. It’s like descending through the circles of Dante’s inferno, 😂

@coffeerevelsrule ds waiting for history at O here as well. Not sure where he saw it but he reckons he won't hear anything until Monday.

DD has an Oxford interview! MFL + Linguistics. No date as yet but the intention is very much stated.

She also had a mock interview yesterday through school which went well, but I don't think was detailed on the subject content. Anyway, it's all in her hands now.

DD waiting for Econ management at Oxford. She really doesn’t know how the TSA went and she’s expecting Monday for notifications … who knows.

Maths interview letters and rejections have started.

There is a TMUA thread @PhotoDad

DS scored 5 which is 6.5 in old money. His friend A scored 4.5 and has a Cambridge interview. His friend B scored 7 which shows how stiff the marking is - friend B sat his A level maths at the same time as his GCSE maths and achieved A* in both. He is a very gifted mathematician so when he said the TMUA was hard, we knew it was extremely hard.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/higher_education/5188249-tmua?page=3&reply=140162775

Here’s the TMUA thread.

Good luck to everyone still waiting to hear

DD has an interview for History, Oxford. Yay!

Well done to your DD simonthedog
My DD also got good news about her Oxford interview!

Still nothing here 😫

Still waiting here too, I really hope it comes today either way just so he can get on one way or another.

Well done to all those yp getting interviews and fingers crossed for those still waiting.