Starting Y13 (y12 support thread contd)

[AtiaoftheJulii]

Well, I filled up the other one, so here's a nice new one to get us through dropping subjects, Uni open days, personal statement writing, and UCAS applications

Plenty of and and (nicely-intentioned) s available!

If your daughter had an insurance place for BBB and she got BBB in her results, then she would automatically have her offer for Essex turn unconditional. Even if she missed one grade and got BBC, then Essex may take her anyway.

If she then looked at clearing to see somewhere like Southampton as BBB, she would have to ring up Essex directly and plead with them to release her quickly. That would be a gamble, as in the day or so it takes to be released, the clearing space might have gone.... However, it is a gamble if you don't have a low insurance, as it could go wrong the other way (if you see what I mean).

I think in the case of grades being better than offer requirements, you can ring the higher uni and ask if they'd accept you, then ring your actual firm or insurance and ask to be released so you can then apply for the higher uni. I think!

You can ring the higher uni and find out if you are suitable (sort of a verbal offer), but you can't actually apply until you are released from lower uni & get your clearing number (so there is a time delay).

This actually happened to my dd1 this year and she decided to stick with her insurance as she really liked it anyway.

Re Southampton, was it really ALL courses that went in clearing at BBB?
Unless we were looking at the wrong section of the website, the course Dd1 would be interesting in was still showing ABB, same as original.

mumslife That's quick getting predictions first day back.
DD1 not back at school till next week, but wasn't expecting any predictions for a fee weeks.

See this link -

www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2766660&page=9&p=49283025&highlight=clearing%20southampton#post49283025

There were some exceptions though. For example, the MA Languages kept the same grades, but the BA Languages went down to BBB.

Can I ask for some advice please? My daughter (at a selective, academic school) got 4As for her ASs and was thrilled. She achieved the A* UMS equivalent in one of them. She has returned to school today and been told that her predictions will remain AAAB, and I am outraged on her behalf.

The B is in English. To give a bit of context, her teacher is renowned for having "favourites". Three of those favourites (whose work my daughter was urged to read by the teacher at parents evening, as examples of how she could improve!) scored lower than my daughter on the examined module. She got 94% UMS in her examined module, and got a B in the internally marked coursework. She naturally feels that in something as subjective as English, this teacher is biased (to also give a bit of context, she had the same teacher in years 8 and 9, and always received low marks for her work. Yet in the year 9 end of year exam, marked by someone different, she got over 90%). As the A2 has an even bigger element of coursework, she is worried that this teacher's negative view of her will scupper her chances.

My daughter was set to give up English given her teacher's lack of faith in her (and her consequent low opinion of her own abilities) but the A at AS has given her pause for thought. But if the predicted grade remains a B, that may scupper her chances of an offer from her top uni choice which asks for AAA.

Any advice please? Thanks in advance!

That doesn't seem fair! What does she want to study at University? Is it English? Also where does she want to apply?

Thanks Littleham. Can see the SR discussion about lots of BBB courses, but following the link on that thread for Southampton, most courses showing at ABB. Unless it has since changed.

Horsemad Also planning to be there this Saturday.

Beingfrank that does sound harsh. if she really wants/needs to continue with English, can she transfer groups and have a different teacher for A2, assuming more than one group?

Loads of them were BBB (I remember logging on), but perhaps they have gone back up for the new audience? I wrote the History ones down for dd2, so I'll try to dig them out for you. Although it may be different next year of course.

Littleham Plenty looking at History on this thread - but DD1 is Music .
Definitely looked day after results day, and was ABB then, which is the general requirement. think History usually higher.

Have dug out newspapers from results day. The Times article (Sat 16th August) said...

'Courses offered in clearing at the University of Southampton with BBB entry tariffs were filled within a day as it reached its student number cap, but many degrees with higher admission requirements remain available.'

So I guess Music stayed in the 'higher admission' category. I've kept all the newspapers, so if you want to find out if a particular course went into clearing - let me know.

University of Southampton History courses in clearing 2014 - QV31, RV11, RV21, RV41, V100, VL12, VL13, VV41, VV51, WV61.

Wondering now, when they regularly go into clearing at the same grades, does that mean less likely to keep offered place if dropping a grade?

Thanks for your replies!

No, she doesn't want to study English at uni (she is looking at business/management type courses). I don't think a change of teacher will work due to timetabling, and I agree that dropping English is the obvious thing to do. But she loved English at GCSE and is having second thoughts about dropping it now and maybe regretting it later.

Glad you agree that the prediction seems harsh, I think it is. The justification is her performance in the mock, and work during the year - 50% of which is marked and assesses by this teacher. She has another teacher as well, in whose course she always scored higher, but it seems that the view of the other teacher (who is more senior) carries more weight.

I think we will take this further within school, I think there is a principle at stake and they are in danger of selling pupils short.

Very unfair, but have no fear - she will be a very attractive proposition to universities.

beingfrank does she have any external moderation options on coursework at all. Or indeed just a view from the school as to why it received the mark it did, and what she could do to improve on it for A2 coursework.

4 A's is a great result though and Uni's will see that on her UCAS form, if she applied to Cambridge they'll also ask for the specific UMS scores. With those scores she might want to consider the A*AA entry level Uni's as a serious option.

Boys - I'm not sure about the moderation. Oxbridge is not on her radar at all, but I agree she should have courage to apply for AAA courses, if she drops the English and can get her A prediction raised to A for one of the subjects.

I think she suffers from being middle of the road at a very academic school, and needs to realise how well she has done. She is still living in the shadow of her GCSEs where she got two Bs (entirely due to very poor writing coursework units in MFLs, which I/she still cannot understand, when all the other units were A or A and if her work was so poor to be at C or D level the school should surely have given her an opportunity to try again) At her school, only 5% of GCSEs are B or below so she feels less clever than her friends who got straight As or As at GCSE. Our advice at the time was to put those Bs behind her and nail her ASs, which she has well and truly done so I'm very proud of her.

I personally think it is a no brainier and she should drop the English, but I almost think she wants to show that teacher what she is capable of.

*Brainer not brainier! Freudian slip!

Beingfrank, if it were me I'd be speaking to the Head. Even if nothing changes, at least you know you tried. It does seem odd they've predicted a B.

Found it! Southampton University - History and Geography were both in clearing at BBB (which is what I remembered from logging on August 14th) - see link.

www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2785105&page=28&p=49334723&highlight=clearing%20BBB%20southampton%20history#post49334723