GCSE summer 2020 thread 6 - Carry on Corona Cohort, Further adventures aboard the Corona Charabanc.

[FoolsAssassin]

The summer of discovidtent for the Corona Cohort trudging on towards results day.
Ofqual have done them a little video to explain their results:

Please feel free to join us to see what twists the next bit has in store for us all.

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@AnneOfCleavage loads of them take gap years - from DS's friendship group only 1 went straight to university, it may be that it becomes a culture in a school. Lots decided not to apply until they had grades.

I think that Bath one must be specific to Engineering. I just looked at MFL and it doesn't say anything about GCSE other than the minimum requirement of the 4 in English.

Some subjects at some unis specifiy a 6 in maths, for example.

... and the universities will be well aware that this is corona cohort. Although they may be more worried about current Y10 and Y12 for whom the quality of teaching has been so variable for such a significant time.

Yes I think you're right Piggy, I just checked a few more Bath courses and found nothing like the requirements for engineering. That's reassuring. Can't see anything on the Warwick website but haven't searched particularly thoroughly.

@singingstones My older Ds has just finished a first year engineering course at Bath. It may not be the same one you looked into but I don’t recall high performance in GCSEs to be part of the entry criteria. He mainly had a mixture of As and Bs

Interesting Decorhate, it's on the website now but only for some engineering courses. Here's mechanical engineering - aerospace, design and architecture are the same/similar, but not civil, electrical, computers or robotics.

www.bath.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate-2020/mechanical-engineering/meng-mechanical-engineering/

I can't imagine that the universities will look very differently at this cohorts GCSE grades.

DD is hoping for a strong set of GCSE results to support a medicine application. Statistically speaking such a set of results (if she were to achieve it) will be as common (or not) as in any other year. I think the universities will differentiate in exactly the same way as in a 'normal' year.

Yes that's the point of the new system isn't it, that this year's results are not wildly better or worse than previous years'. Some DCs will do better and some will do worse than they would have done in exams, so there may not be exactly the same people with medicine standard GCSEs, but there should be roughly the same number of them.

@singingstones Yes Ds is doing Civil. For seem reason Mech Eng is very popular as is Aerospace so probably more competitive. Given the decline of manufacturing in this country this always puzzled me

Ds did not meet the published standard offer but they still took him. As always, the key is to get the offer in the first place.

A lot will depend on each University and their individual financial /admissions situation. Regardless of Covid, the loss of international students (especially from China) is a worry for some institutions. We may still be on a 'bums on seats' type scenario , even though home student numbers are expected to take an upturn (in terms of birth years).

Some courses will always be competitive...studentroom is often good to find out if GCSEs really are that important but i'd take it all with a pinch of salt ...the sector is really turbulent at the moment. Those institutions that absolutely require certain grades at GCSE level have to make it abundantly clear in their documentation.

@sirtobybelch are you able to tell whether universities, and particularly medical schools, are likely to be careful about assessing GCSE results for this cohort?

It is my understanding that around 80% of results are likely to be what they would have been if exams had gone ahead, but that leaves a significant minority which will be higher or lower than they would have been.

I work for a university. Not only is the loss of international students a concern, so is the fact that when we exit Europe at the end of this year, all students will pay the full wack in international fees as European students will no longer qualify for home fee status. The difference in what they pay will be huge!! It will therefore mean less of them will come to study here. Universities will take a huge financial hit!!

Monkey2001 that's encouraging to know. She seems to get on with students who are a bit younger anyway as is young for her year so this could work in her favour. She also isn't into drinking yet so won't have all that out her system. Round here vodka seems to be the girls choice of drink which seems terrifying to start on. Perhaps they were on the flavoured cider and weak rum and cokes at 14 but DD seems totally out of her depth. The boys just seem to drink beer.

Thread slipped off my watch list. Sympathy to those who know the children who died from drugs. What a tragedy for the families.

DS knows nothing yet about results day. Seeing a few friends to play sport but no just socialising happening.

Bath entry requirements for Management

Here’s hoping all our dc get the grades they need for the next level and beyond!

For Psychology Bath say:

We are aware that the context in which you are studying can have an impact on your ability to perform your best in exams and coursework, or limit which subjects or qualifications you are able to study at your school or college. We take this into careful consideration through our contextual admissions process.

The list of schools is not as bit as it is for Bristol or Birmingham, but bright children at poorly performing schools will get a bit of help there.

Big, not bit, grrrrr......

Just a thought...do we move to 'Further Education' for next thread? That feels odd somehow !

I think we stay on Secondary until after results and then move to FE. I think as we approach and go through results day there will be a lot of posts! I certainly remember that from when DS1 did his GCSEs a couple of years ago.

This thread is making me think about university for DS2, which is probably quite sensible. At the moment the universities are doing virtual open days which makes it feasible to visit a lot more than you can when it is all physical, so we have the opportunity to sign on to virtual days in the autumn and visit a short list in summer 2021 if the world is normal again.

Does anyone have a DC considering Engineering? My head is stuffed full of medicine after 2 application rounds for DS1, need to swerve across.

No but Dd is considering Southampton and apparently it is very good for engineering. There is a facebook group called WIWIKAU (what I wish I knew about university) started by two mumsnetters (i think) a couple of years ago which is helpful for subject info etc

I always call it weeweecow in my head

@Monkey2001 - I feel like I'm your follow-on with DD planning for medicine and DS2 planning for engineering (he's just finishing Year 10). I do know he's registered his interest to apply for an Arkwright Scholarship next year as school wanted people to make their plans clear ASAP.

Don't we stay here for sixth form? Certain posters descend the minute you go to FE, sometimes helpfully, sometimes not.

I thought we went to FE when uni applications start?

Doubting myself, now.

I think we can tell from this where Bath has been oversubscribed!

I used to like the old school prospectuses that told you how many places there were and how many applicants per place.

DS still wants to do MFL , with a view to being a football club interpreter.... niche...

I think FE is more vocational courses rather than A Levels? Though maybe it depends on whether your dc are staying at a school that has a 6th form or going to a 6th form college. It’s all schools around here.

I’ve one dc doing medicine & one doing engineering. After the process for medicine, engineering is much less stressful - not least because you know they will invariably get in somewhere regardless of results whereas medicine is often one chance to get it right.

I agree Southampton is good for engineering- I really liked it but Ds preferred Bath.