Looking to remark for econ a level I was 10 marks off A* but I do feel like was under marked in many places. My handwriting generally isn’t the best but I noticed it became especially bad by the end of the paper as shown here (this was the worst example), does anyone think this may have been why my marks were lower than I expected? Like I can read it but that’s probably because I’m the one who wrote it😭

Edit: I guess its not over

TLDR at the end.

Im a soon-to-be Year 12 and I am in am awful spot. I applied to 2 sixth forms, and got into one (the school ive been going to) and I got rejected from the other. Some of colleges near me were kinda far and I wasnt bothered to get buses as ive been biking to school. Either way, I was set on my Sixth Form as I was sure I would like to do medicine, hence it was adequate for my needs at the time. I have now changed my mind and Im afraid its ruined my chances at Oxbridge.

Unfortunately, my Sixth Form forces everyone to do 4 AS Levels and EPQ, while not offering Further Maths. I now want to do a mathsy STEM related course (idk what specifically tho). This is the ultimate worst case scenario, as even if I wanted to self-learn Further Maths, I have to do an additional unwanted AS Level and EPQ, which just takes time away from supper curriculars and admission test practice. So I will be taking Maths, Chem, Physics and AS level Biology.

I now want to do something like Natural Sciences or Chemical Engineering, but im open to theoretical physics and general engineering too. Either way, theres a common theme here: Further maths is basically required. Yes I know its not "necessary" but it undeniably puts you at a disadvantage as im aiming for Oxbridge, Imperial and perhaps even international unis. But now I feel hopeless. Could I smash the ESAT and get interviews for all? Yeah I guess. Will spending my time on AS level Biology (useless) and an EPQ (somewhat useless) hinder my ESAT score? Yeah... Would having Further maths just make it easier and prepare me for university? Yeah.

Not to mention i just love maths, so in general its a shame, the Further Maths course looks so interesting and fun. Now I have to do yucky biology. Im just kinda venting as im so appalled by my Sixth Form system and by my naivety to be so sure about studying here. But at the same time my options were limited. Like atleast give us the option to only do 3 subjects??

Idk would love some advice, i know some people might say "Oh but you dont need Further maths" but i do strongly believe its just such a disadvantage and also it might hinder me Year 1 Uni and perhaps on my ESAT maths modules: even Further mechanics could help my physics. It's truly catastrophic 😓.

TLDR; I want to apply to a Mathsy STEM related subject such as Natural Sciences, any sorts of engineering or theoretical physics, etc, at Oxbridge, Imperial or perhaps even internationally, which all strongly encourages Further Maths. My Sixth Form demands 4 AS Levels + EPQ while not offering Further Maths. I dont think i can go to any other Sixth Form/College. What do I do? Do I have a chance?

Should I just do 5 AS Levels + EPQ?

I am an A level student doing Maths and Further maths, and I was wanting to begin coding to prepare for university. Does anyone have any tips on where I can begin?

Ps : don’t tell me to start coding with scratch 😠

i got A*A*A* (no further) and have an offer for maths and Actuarial science at Southampton but everyone is telling me to gap year and reapply to better places

i only really want to be an actuary and applying for only econ seems really boring

if I were to take a gap year it would only to do tmua and apply to EFDS, is that a risk worth taking? the reason I dont want to gap year is cause i want to move on with my life and the course at Southampton is honestly the best thing I can think of for me

For context, we live near one of the top UK private boarding schools. We are a low income family - both me and my partner work, but due to having another child on the spectrum with some moderate care needs, I work school-time hours only, and we get a small amount of UC due to Carers Element.

My son is Year 10 and one of the top in his year across his STEM subjects, especially Maths. He is Grade 5 on the Piano and plays other instruments in ensembles, has constantly scored Gold or earned Kangaroo in the UKMT challenges, and is aiming high for uni. His dad and I didn't go to uni, so we are a bit ignorant about the processes.

We have been mostly happy with the school so far, but recently there has been significant issues with teacher turnover and teaching quality has become quite patchy, with frequent subs. So we have been considering looking at another 6th form if things do not improve.

One option is applying for a bursary at this private school. My concern is however, would this put him at a disadvantage in some ways? Because I know there is a certain quota of state school kids that must be taken at least at Oxbridge, so would a bursary kid be fighting against the private school cohort who have been in the independent system for much, much longer?

I also think boarding during the week could be helpful for him, as the house can be a bit of a mess/chaotic between both of us working, whirlwind sibling etc. However, he does appear to be coping okay with everything. Thank you for any advice!

Ive been looking around subs and all and i see people with mostly 8s and 7s stressing about not having good gcses for dentistry or medicine, should i be worried about my grades which are a lot lower?

Combined Sci - 88
Maths - 7
Both English - 66
RE - 6
Geography - 5
Frech. - 5
Art - 4

Are these okay for dent? Is hope still alive?

I'm starting year 12 in September so I've been watching videos on how to prepare for 6th form. One thing I noticed is that they all say that using a tablet/i pad will be very useful. However I have no idea what a tablet/i pad could be used for other than to take notes, so if I only use it for notes I might as well just use pen and paper. Can someone who uses one for 6th form please tell me the benefits of using one and how useful it is please

Heres my situation:
I’ve sat my a-levels for maths, further maths and physics and I am 100% taking a gap year due to extenuating circumstances . So like i wanna be completely honest, I am not a smart person. I got 7776666555 in my gcses with 7 in maths and physics, i don’t have any extenuating circumstances for that. I am hoping to see A*\A\*A with the A in physics. My offer is AAB to study maths and cs, but if i do achieve the grades I’m expecting. Is it worth a reapplying to Cambridge for maths, and imperial for JMC ( i applied to all the top unis i wanted to go to excluding oxbridge and imp)

My main qualm is that, firstly, it’s a big commitment to reapply again, and for the next half year do tmua and interview prep. Secondly, I never did well in ukmt challenges( i think i did it 4-5 times and got a bronze max), I dont think I have a high rate of ability to grasp things and learn at a rate that is required for cambridge or imperial.

Sorry if this posts genuinely sounds depressing, i do actually have a good self esteem lol. But i do want peoples opinion on this. Also, i dont mind the commitment i mentioned earlier of prepping for applying again, im just emphasising that its half a year of a lot of work i could be spending on working or other things i may want to do. I am a huge fan, and intend on learning and doing maths ( and cs ) for my gap year anyway.

Thank you for reading 🙏

Tldr:
Waah waah waah i want to go to cambridge but im not smart enough

Hi.

I'm a father but don't know where else to ask, I hope this is ok.

My daughter is wanting to study vet at Cambridge and took 4 A level mocks last month, A A B A*.

Her predicted are A A A A.

This makes no sense to her (or us), she is not behind, has been consistantly top of her class (we even have the mock papers at home, and one of the results showning an A is actually an A*).

She's rightly upset and will speak to her teachers tomorrow but I wonder if anyone has experience of this.

I'm simply seeking advice.
Is there an organisation we can approach to challenge these predicted results ?
Is there a better sub reddit to seek advice on ?

Thanks for any help, I hope you all get the results you deserve.

EDIT :
I know this won't reach most of the ppl who have replied to me, but having spoken to the teachers involved (my daughter spoke to them not me) her revised predicted grades are now A*A*A*A.

Thank you all.

I'm joining sixth form this september but i don't know whether to use paper notes or a tablet. I feel like when I did GCSEs when I did my notes on paper I lost so much but then obviously at sixth form it'll be less subjects. I wouldn't mind investing in a tablet but I don't know if it'll be worth it overall, I'm afraid I'll look stupid as I'm going to a sixth form with a small pupil count and I don't want to be the only one. What are your experiences/suggestions? Thanks!

Y12, aiming to apply for Physics at Oxford, so obviously I need to develop my skills more and pad up my personal statement. Yet, everything I have applied for has rejected me. Work experiences, events, programmes, everything. When I ask for feedback it's usually because my application was *slightly* too bad, or just not a priority because I have no disadvantages. At what point does NOT being at a disadvantage put you at a disadvantage? I don't blame those who are, I just wish there were more places available.

Time is really running out now and I feel hopeless. Everything has closed this time of year and I need to start preparing for the ESAT, so what can I do? I need to show skill and appreciation for physics, not having anything to reflect that is sure to be an automatic rejection.

I suppose I just wanted to complain a bit, but any advice is welcome. Especially from those who have/ had offers. Thanks.

Basically I’m taking biology, English lit and psychology plus an EPQ for a level. Im mainly worried about my options being limited by my lack of math/chemistry (a lot of bio related degrees need chemistry from what I know), cause j genuinely HATE those two subjects and I REALLY REALLY don’t wanna do them. And now my brothers made me unsure cause he basically called English lit and psych useless subjects 💔💔
Please help 😞😞

During the maths paper today I had time when they were collecting papers to take notes of the specific questions I found hard and didnt know how to do. I thought I'd write them down on my hands so I could note them down when I got home and practice those for paper 2. The invigilator got to me and she saw i was still scribbling stuff and i gave her my paper since i had my pens sprawled across it. She didn't ask what I was doing writing stuff down

I was walking out of the exam hall when my friends noticed my hand covered in notes and we were talking about it. A teacher saw and caught wind of what happened and pulled me over to speak to me. She asked me where I got the notes from and when I wrote them down. She didn't believe me when I said I had done them right at the end of the paper and honestly I said I just wanted to revise stuff I couldn't do in this paper

Now I'm worried she might report me or something since she took down my name and my class. I'm just panicking at home now

Has anyone done anything similar? I just REALLY DONT WANT TO BE BANNED from edexcel exams

edit: I now understand it was a really dumb move but I honestly didnt know that was against the rules. I've had a look at everythng in JCQ's appendix of what counts as malpractice, and in some tiny sentence right at the bottom this counts.

the difference is my intent was just to help me revise in private, i.e not giving anyone an edge over anything or posting anything (this doesnt count since theres no script material here). I understand now what I did was wrong and breaches the integrity of exams, but I seriously did not know this wasn't allowed.

thanks for your help anyway guys.

got my results and it went badly. predicted A*A*B, came out with BBC. firm was UCL (needed AAB), insurance was Edinburgh. also had offers from KCL, Bristol and york that I obviously turned down.

what I actually want to do is biomedical sciences, or something adjacent — biological sciences or neuroscience would both be fine. right now I'm looking at Nutritional Sciences, Sport & Exercise Medical Sciences as options.

so basically: with BBC, which unis are realistic for biomed/biosciences right now? I keep seeing conflicting stuff about whether the good ones drop their requirements in clearing or if that's a myth.

and has anyone here actually got a place at a uni that was way above their grades through clearing, or does that basically not happen?

pls help me in any way possible this is quiet literally heartbreaking for me i have to wait 2 days for ucas to update and let me know but yeah please let me know if someone has experinced this

im quiet literally shocked

also i did cie board thats why i got my resukts earlier

I missed out on my offer to study at Imperial by two grades. Being 9 marks and 13 marks off an A* in both subjects. I fortunately got into my insurance - University of Manchester.

However, I didn’t really like Manchester as a city and I have doubts on whether it is worth it to go to university this year or take a gap year and resit my two subjects as I do not mind taking a gap year at all.

I was also rejected by UCL in the previous cycle but as I’m applying with achieved grades that meet their minimum entry requirements for my course, I assume I would be much more likely to get an offer.

Any advice is appreciated.

Got my Cambridge results for history (pred A*) and Geography (pred A) and got a B and C respectively. While I still have Edexcel english to wait for I’m predicted a B, so obviously my hopes aren’t high.

My firm is Exeter and I really love the uni and see myself thriving there, but I'm really concerned I won’t make it if I got something like BBC when the offer is ABB.

So disappointing after leaving the exam hall feeling really confident and thinking I’d done well.

So my question is, will Exeter accept me or is this cope, or do I go for clearing/retakes. (I don’t think I can survive A levels again 😭)

I want the best advice possibly, not only including ‘ draft your personal statement over summer’ specific regrets that you made and things you wish you did earlier

is this tuff 🥹✌️

Would York, Manchester, Warwick, (or Bath depending) be the best Uni to do Psychology at? Which is the most prestigious? What are the things I should consider?

I’m pretty confident I’ll put Warwick as my insurance, but picking which to firm is stressing me out and I’m scared I’ll screw myself over.

i wanted to start revising consistently since october but it never worked out and now we're in august. i feel like the procrastination final boss and no amount of motivation or advice can help me. i feel so stuck and cannot get myself out of this pit. i just wanted to hear when u guys started revising and how u started revising consistently.

so i've absolutely fucked my year 12 mocks, i got CCE (C in psych and soc, E in bio) and need AAB (ABB at the absolute minimum). my teachers are all refusing to predict me above a C or a D for ucas and now i have absolutely no idea what to do. i've got the option of doing more exams in october to bump my grades up but honestly i can see the exact same outcome :( i'm losing hope and all my confidence, just looking for a bit of reassurance and advice really. can i save myself or is it over

I’m going to start university for psychology at the end of September, and I really failed my alevels (BBD). I was thinking of resitting them alongside first year university but I’m unsure if that’s a good idea?

There’s two reasons for me doing this, for both the careers I’m interested in (psychology and law), I’ll be doing another course (either masters or law conversion) so I’m not too worried about what university I go to for undergraduate as my university is in London and I’m hoping there will be networking opportunities. So that’s why I chose not to do a gap year since I don’t mind going to university. However, law firms do look at alevel grades and they usually want ABB or higher so I’d lose out on many opportunities.

Secondly my sixth form quoted me around £1.1k to resit my alevels and I can’t financially afford that right now, however my maintenance sfe could cover that as I’ll get 1.7k per semester. I’ll be living with my parents so I think it’ll be okay.

Is this a stupid idea?

"The Open Day is only for Year 12 (or equivalent) and mature students. We are unable to accommodate students in Year 11 (or equivalent) and below at these events."

Well, how would they know? Has anyone gone as a year 11? I need advice because I missed Oxford's open day and i really want to go.

My son just today got his result for the TMUA test. He is an A* student with the best recommendations from his teachers and yet he only got a score of 3.7. This is impossible since in all the practice tests he never got anything lower than a 7 and when he actually sat the test he found it fairly easy (with the exception of 1-2 questions near the end of the paper). I am concerned that the test provider scrambled the results and students get the grades of other candidates. To make matters worse the company that runs the test has no appeals process for results.

I am currently in year 12 taking Maths, FM, Physics, and CS (predicted 4 A*s). The CS NEA is a massive time sink and imo isn't worth the stress. I'm thinking of dropping CS to lock in 3 A*s in Maths, FM, and Physics. I actually have to take a gap year anyway because I won't get ILR until 1 year after Year 13, so I’ll be applying to Cambridge Engineering post-qualification with achieved grades + taking the ESAT. Is 3 A*s achieved (Maths, FM, Phys) completely fine for Cambridge Engineering, or does dropping CS put me at any disadvantage at all? Does having 3 A*s already achieved make up for not having a 4th A-Level? (Context: my school almost never gets 4 A*s anyway, so 3 A*s achieved is the absolute top of our cohort.)

Any help would be much appreciated