Oxbridge applicants 2026 - thread 2

[ArchitectureMum]

Someone has to be the OP and I have no fate to tempt now in this journey.

Congratulations to all the Oxford offer holders. Some lovely stories yesterday afternoon.

Comiserations to those who had different news yesterday. I hope your DC are doing ok and beginning to look positively towards their other options.

Good luck to everyone waiting for news from Cambridge on 28th January.

And hello to all the Oxbridge observers - alumni, parents of past and future applicants. It is always a thread of highs and lows and it was a privilege to be a small part of it for this cycle.

You are where we were 4 years ago. My heart goes out to you and your DD and the STEP mocks and the stress it imposes. I will share our approach and make of it what you will. This was DS's plan: He took his mocks on Sunday mornings on the kitchen table which was cleared of everything and left spotless. He armed himself with the STEP paper, a full pad of lined paper, several biros, his grandfather's wristwatch and a packet of Polos. We absented ourselves just before he started and went out for the 3 hours. We went to a lot of garden centres. It was ritual, made him master of the house for a spell, formalised to an extent and got him out of his bedroom.

All the very best of luck to you and your DD over the next couple of months.

Thank you! It feels so hard watching them go through this big stressful time. I am waiting for the exams to be over and we can take a breath.

DD is feeling the stress too. Worried she won't get the grades she needs and she's not that keen on her insurance option.

We're the same. I told her thqt worst case scenario she can always take a gap year to work and apply for other possibilities wirh grades in hand, but that didn't appeal either. I think she just needs to sit the exams and then see where that leaves her.

I feel for the applicants with really tough offers to meet. DD’s Oxford Medicine offer was very reasonable. DS’s Oxford Chemistry offer was a bit tough, the difficulty was that it was the Covid year when exams were cancelled so he had zero control over the situation.

Sending positive vibes through the internet for all those offer holders with their heads in the books this weekend.

DS is getting anxious about the state of the world rather than impending exams but I think once they actually kick off then things will settle down. He has been working so hard and pretty consistently all this year. I think he has done essay plans for every possible permutation of question. I hate the extra stress as Cambridge in the spring when we went to OHD was so special in a way that his insurance could never match. He hung on for all offers and got rejected by LSE only last week so at least that has solved the idea of insuring an AAA offer which would have been ridiculously risky

Good luck to all of those with oxbridge offers i hope it all goes well for them.
I have to admit to some relief here that DD got declined as her firm offer should be achievable and she is clearly under so much pressure I dread to think what it would be like with a much higher offer to achieve and if she then didn't make it. Best of luck everyone only a few weeks left now.

Best of luck to all your young people. I well remember the stress last year with exams and cannot imagine the extra stress involved in doing it all while trying to achieve offer grades. Fingers crossed for all of you (including the parents).

I would say - while it is quite stressful meeting tough offers - all your DC can do is try to take a zen approach. The offering college believes the grades they've asked of the candidates are achievable for them. Yes, an exam paper can go wrong on the day, and yes - every year there are candidates who don't make their offers. But your young people have already got so far, and - beyond sensible revision - there's not a whole load they can do other than hope for the best with the exams.

It's easier said than done I know, but I say this as parent of a DC who had a higher than average offer for Cambs, and one of his four A-levels had been excluded from the offer.

It did feel high stakes, but he did his best to remain calm. Getting wildly stressed about exams isn't going to help anything. Good luck to all the DC!

My DD's offer includes getting A* in Further Maths - it really added to the stress (especially as FM is her 4th subject) but we are now trying not to focus on it - its just adds to the stress and it is what it is.

This sounds very stressful, and not without reason - STEP is by far the most difficult university entrance exam in the UK.

I thought it might be worth making sure that your DD and other STEP candidates are aware of the free STEP Support Programme offered through Cambridge , which I believe consists of good online materials, and of the STEP resources at MEI.

I haven’t RTFT so I apologise if these have already been mentioned.

Very best wishes to all STEP candidates.

Edit: my post above was for @WishfulThinkingToday

Thank you for the mention! My DD is following this STEP support programme, so she is getting this help (thankfully).

I didn’t think of the Cambridge exams in this way, no wonder she is working so hard. I think it was the shock of trying the STEP 3 paper for the first time that caused her to panic.

My DD looks a little happier today, I think that the rest day yesterday and a zombie film really helped!

Good luck everyone taking exams.

My dd has an Oxford Humanities offer of AAA. I thought this level of offer would help with stress levels but today she had her ML oral and spent the two hours after sobbing that it had gone badly, ending with 'What if I don't meet my offer?!'.

It's the first exam so I hope it's just a stress buildup and release and next week will be calmer, but who knows? She confessed later that the oral hadn't been brilliant, but it hadn't been terrible either. I know she is too hard on herself, but the pressure she puts on herself is intense.

Speaking exams are so stressful! I'm sure she did better than she thinks though. And it's a small portion of the overall mark.

1st Exam tomorrow…will be glad when it’s all done ! Good luck all 😊

First one for DS this am. Good luck to all DCs for the coming week 🍀

Night before the first exam here, hope everyone gets off to a good start.

I could have a good stab at an essay on Streetcar and Measure for Measure at this point.

Very best of luck to everyone!

Love to hear what others are doing for English, such a mix. My knowledge of the Tempest has increased substantially (from zero) in the last few weeks.

Good luck to all for exam season! Youngest is y12 but in Wales so is mid-AS levels, literally finishing up the core maths paper as I type🤞

Quick question- does Oxford have a follow up form to UCAS along the lines of the My Cambridge questions?

And related does Oxford (or indeed other unis) see the AS scores or simply the A level predicted grades for application purposes? I seem to recall eldest had to provide those to Cambridge.
Thanks

@Justlurkingmostlythey should have AS results by application date so will see them with the GCSE results I presume. DD1 had a reduced offer (Exeter) for an A in her Core Maths. dD2 has an offer from Cambridge - nothing noted re having an A too but may have fed into her offer along with the GCSE results 🤷‍♀️

Quick question- does Oxford have a follow up form to UCAS along the lines of the My Cambridge questions?

No. At least DD didn't complete anything extra. The only thing she had to do was submit some schoolwork.

Day before first exam here as well, the one need Astar for :( I don’t know whether DD is stressed or tired. Half asleep and calculator is stuff is still outside. Exam is in the afternoon, so she has time!
Good Luck everyone ! We have come this far and one more month to go

This is my stance too, but met with “what are you even thinking” look 😑