dd seems to think she needs A's to get into a good university...is she right

[brimfull]

please give me some reassuring facts to tell her.SHe's had her maths As results for some exam ,not the final or anything ,and she is disappointed she got a B.She says she may as well drop it after As.

She doesn't know what she wants to take at university,probably something businessy.But surely a B grade is ok..isn't it?

Depends on the university and the subject. I think I needed ABB for my chosen uni (to do English), other offers were BBB and BBC.

Alos, the advatnage with modular exams is that I presume she can pull it up to an A grade later on . But I think a B in A-level Maths is pretty impressive

I work at Durham and most offers are up to AAB. It varies a lot on the subject though. If she wants to do something businessy, she should do maths. B is pretty good, people know maths is a 'proper' A level and so a B here means more than an A in some subjects (general studies, etc!).

Yes I do as well effie.Why she feels a failure getting a B is a mystery.She has got some seriously clever friends though.

it all depends on the uni. If she wants to do something like medicine, dentistry then thats a differant matter or if she is aiming for oxbridge

Sounds like overachieving girl syndrome to me ;). Try and help her to chill out a bit!

She's in yr 11 so is doing this early ,other subjects are physics,french and music which she'll start next yr ,so don't know how she'll find them in comparison.

No not aiming at oxbridge or medicine/dentistry.

She's doing this early and she's worried at getting a B? She's done brilliantly

I think so too effie

i think it is very competitive now. my talented niece got 4 A s plus AS levels and also 11 A* at GCSE and she didn't get into any of her choices. she is doing english at London Kings next year now. i was v surprised (and also anxious, I did english on CC back in 1977...wouldnt have even got in now) seems astonishing

I'm at Durham I got ABBB but I wouldn't get on my course now with those grades.

If she is worried then she can always ask her teachers what she can do/what weaknesses she needs to focus on to pull it up but as others have said a B looks pretty good and remember many teachers set tests that are harder than the exam to make sure students are well prepared.

Since she has an idea of what she wants to do her best bet is to get online and take a look at some websites, start to think about where she might like to go and look at the typical offers.

Just saw she is doing it early and will be doing physics too. That is fab! I would def keep the maths even if she does get a B at the end as it will help so much with physics. I didn't do maths and struggled with some aspects of physics because of it.

Thanks for replies-I'll try and persuade her to keep up with the maths.

It's not just grades either - your personal statement will say a lot about you - does she have outside interests she can put forward there? I'm guessing she plays an instrument as she's doing A-level Music. My offer from a good university was ABC. That is 13 years ago now though (gulp)

She plays flute and is doing DofE (like everyone else though).
SHall enroll her in skydiving course immediatley..god the pressure on these kids.

It's a long time since I did my form but I think the idea is to show commitment and interest in whatever it is you do - not necessarily who does the most to the higest level - although yes the skydiving ones do stand out a bit I expect What you could do with is the view of an admissions tutor - there must be one around here somewhere!

Former admissions tutor for Med/Vet Med. Our uni is usually looking for AAB in its most popular courses so that includes Psychology, Business and English as well as the clinical subjects. "Straight" Sciences, Engineering and Languages have slightly lower entry requirements (usually BBB).

The admissions process I was involved with was a little unusual so probably not applicable here, it involved online assessments to sift for interview candidates, personal statements were not particularly bothered with and referees' statements just checked to make sure no negative comments e.g. "over-confident", "forceful". This uni does have a degree of central decision making so anyone who doesn't meet the basic GCSE/A level criteria set by the School is binned before they are even viewed by academic admissions teams in Schools. There's no advantage to doing more than 3 full A-levels.

Dropping maths because she's getting a B seems a little OTT unless she's worried about workload?

thanks marialuisa-interesting about the personal statements .

Well atm she's still p'off she got a b but will stick it out I think.

Sounds like my DD!

She got 11 A*'s at GCSE and is freaking as thinks may not get 5 A's at AS level! Thinks needs 4 A's, but is aiming for Oxbridge, Warwick, LSE or similar - where they apparently do look at GCSE & AS results as so popular (according to HER sources).

It's such a terrible pressure - she had her last mock exam today, so hopefully will chill out this weekend.

Well she's gone off this weekend on a DofE practice weekend walk,mightily pissed off as she's just come on.TO top it off all her team mates are the ones who got 98% on the maths exam .I've just told her they're not normal

Maths is one of the hardest a levels you can do. My brother got BBC, got in to a goodish uni and is now earning 100k+

Seriously a B grade at a level maths is not somthing to be pissed off about!

Anybody who doesn't quite make the grades they need can always take a gap year (or two) - it makes all the difference, if DS1's experience is anything to go by.

He got BBCC in 2006 - History, Politics, Eng Lit & GS, forget which grade is which but they were nowhere near enough to get into one of the "good" universities to do Politics - they mostly want AAB or ABB. He didn't even apply for a place in 06, I knew he wouldn't get As (lazy, and not as smart as he thinks he is ) so told him not to bother.

He then took 1 year out doing nothing much, and in Autumn 07 - with some fantastic guidance and support from a senior teacher at 6th form - he rang round the ones he was interested in to find out if they would consider him for autumn 08 with those grades. Several still said no, but he got his UCAS application in for the maybes just before buggering off to Chamonix for the winter as a Snow Ranger with Esprit.

He now has unconditional offers from Newcastle, Liverpool, Lancaster & Bradford - stated requirements for this year's Y13s AAB, BBB, ABB & 280 points (what?) respectively.

(And his GCSEs were very average - A in Maths, otherwise mostly Bs and a couple of Cs - actually I'm wondering now if they mixed his application up with someone else )

very encouraging wendy,
bluejelly-you're right,she should be proud of herself.Although her teacher said that this exam was the easiest of all of them to come.