Very high ums - but who actually sees them?

[Sparrows12]

My DD is lucky to have achieved very high ums scores in her AS exams - in particular she scored 100% in her (fingers crossed) chosen degree subject, which is a great confidence boost. But who actually ever gets to see ums scores (apart from Cambridge)? I looked on the Student Room website and there was a general "coolness" that anyway 100% ums scores aren't such a big deal, which left me feeling a bit flat. Is it fairly normal, or rare? This is English. If there was an admission tutor out there with some advice that would be great. Why aren't ums scores included automatically as part of the application process? It seems a waste of useful information. I'm guessing it could be included in her reference?

It can be included in her school's reference or even in her personal statement. At my DDs school, if it were full UMS ( not the same as 100% but let that pass) then it would be mentioned.

Whether it's unusual or not depends on her school and group of friends. Not at all unusual in the top 10 indies but would be unusual in a state comp - so it's all about context.

And well done to your DD - it is a great achievement - enjoy the moment! She's now in a great position to apply wherever she wants.

You'd think it was much more common to get full UMS in science subjects but it's surprisingly common in the humanities too. ( anecdotal experience, 3 kids now gone through the system).

I am fairly sure ds managed to manually enter his unit grades on UCAS, so instead of 'A' it said 'A (100/100)' or whatever the score actually was. That way, he didn't need to waste space on personal statement oor reference mentioning them.

They were declared on UCAS I think. You don't have to though

The personal statement certainly wouldn't be the place to mention full marks, it's up to the teachers to mention full marks in the school reference. My DC never put it on the ucas form either, but then none applied to Cambridge.

If you apply to Cambridge you have to put it in the exam results section - it's not in the PS. So if you apply to Cambridge it is automatically in your application for everyone else to see. And there is nothing stopping you putting the scores in if you're applying somewhere else - the other unis will never know why you've put them in. ( you need to have about 93 average for them to be relevant for Cambridge so it would be counterproductive if they were lower than that or thereabouts)

You can also put it in the supplementary PS for Durham, I guess, but the teachers reference would be the more usual place.

Supposing you're not applying to Cambridge, and have great ums scores in one subject which you would like to show off about, but only just scraped a grade for another subject, which you're not so keen to bring attention to! Would it be really obvious what was going on if you listed one subject but not another? I suppose if you had an A* prediction for the good subject that that would imply high ums.

Oh well, I guess they talk about this at school, I was just wondering!

They definitely look at them in Cambridge admissions for all subjects to differentiate between otherwise identical candidates (experience here from the decision-making side of the desk). High UMS results much more impressive from state pupils though.

The only thing you can realistically do vis. other universities is request your DC's teacher put it in their reference. Definitely don't put it on the PS.

Don't list mixed results, simply leave it to the teachers. They should always flag up 100%, or even any marks in the nineties, especially with non maths/ science subjects.

This is really helpful thanks. I had the same issue with gcses, where she achieved 100% across all the humanities and modern foreign languages and 97% across all 11 gcses but especially as she didn't get all A*s, a "score" out of 8 etc doesn't really reflect her achievement. Not a state school, but nowhere near a "super-independent" - one or two Oxbridge successes a year, and some years none at all. This sounds like a boast-fest - it's not meant to be - you couldn't possibly share this with someone you knew - one of the joys of mumsnet!

Not just Cambridge. When DS did his UCAS application last year there were others who asked for UMS, Durham for one.
He got full UMS in a lot of AS and A2 modules. It certainly mattered to him and his nerdy friends and he also goes to a none selective state school.

Ds got full UMS in one if his Eng Lit papers this year. Hope he hasn't peaked to soon. Not sure he wants to study literature at Uni though despite being very good at it.

Don't Cambridge ask for raw scores rather than UMS because so many of their applicants have 100 % of the UMS? You can drop quite a lot of marks in some subjects and still get 100% UMS, so they need raw scores to separate candidates..
I don't want to rain on your parade but DS1 who is no genius got 2 AS physics modules with 100% UMS ,but only achieved an A at the end of A2

You don't know your raw scores though. (I think?)

Cambridge ask for UMS. At least they did last year when DS applied.

Queenof I was talking about DD having scored 200 out of 200 across the whole AS i.e. 100% - so I guess that is called a "raw score" then. Why does it all have to be so complicated?

But you don't know the raw scores, just from the score sheets. They only show UMS. you can then use the Ums converter to see the raw scores but as a pp said, the range of raw scores that equals full UMs can be huge..... so someone who scores 'full marks' can actaully get the same UMs as someone who scores 90 percent (depending on the subject, the year, etc)

Sparrows I guess the bottom line is that lots of kids get full or almost full marks in some or all subjects and a very few unis require marks declared but most don't so it's best left to the teachers to flag up full marks in the school reference, definitely if the results are mixed across all subjects. DS1 got 100% in almost everything as far as I recall but didn't put it down anywhere. though I guess the school said (never saw the ucas reference nor did DS, so we don't actually know). Relax, your DC is clearly able and will do fine.

DD got 100% in her English. Several did at her school, both for AS and A2. I'm not sure it is actually hugely unusual?

depends on your definition of 'unusual' surely molio

depends on your definition of 'unusual' surely molio

Crikey - posted too soon - new keyboard.

if 8% of students at a2 get an A* (varies by subject but thats about the average) and thats awarded mostly for ums over 90%, then if there is an equal distribution of marks between 90 and 100 ums, then about 1 % of students get 100 ums, roughly

so whether thats unusual or not is a subjective description but it would pout you in the top 1% of candidates for that subject.

at some schools thats not unusual at all but at others it would be.

Agree Beck but in the context of applicants to the top unis the field narrows and that's the starting point of the discussion. At those unis, it really won't be that unusual. It's very good of course, but not ground breaking IYSWIM.

thats a good point molio - my explanation was from the point of view of all A2 candidates - seen from the uni side it is pretty typical.

BeckandCall I think Cambridge ask the Exam board for applicants AS raw scores, not the student himself.

really queen - ive never heard that - its certianly not in their very detailed admissions manual (i admit ive read everything in there!)

still, happy to say that current DD going to cambridge is my last one to take public exams and apply to uni so i can stop my deparate reading of all 'if this then that' scenarios!