Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

should I apply or am I waisting my time

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Reply 20

gavinlowe

Original post by dontbtz

Do you have to be invited to sit the aptitude test? Or can anyone and everyone who applies have a go at it? Thanks.

Everyone who applies is allowed to sit the aptitude test. You do have to register for it, though.

Reply 21

gavinlowe

Original post by jordan-s

I'm pretty sure that's a load of rubbish, simply an attempt to draw away the opinion that Oxford is the elitist institution that it is.. But anyway, just my opinion.

If what you say is true what's the point in having grade requirements for applications if you're still going to look at applications with lower grades, surely that defeats the object? I'm pretty sure that the first way of eliminating people from the mass of applications is the ones who's grades do not meet the requirements, with the exception of those with extenuating circumstances .

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

I'm afraid you're wrong. We have grade requirements for admission, not for application. If I recall correctly, last year I invited one or two candidates to interview who weren't predicted to make the standard offer. Of course, we won't make an offer to a candidate unless we think there's a good chance that he/she will actually make the required grades, and those candidates with lower predications have to do extra-well in other parts of their application to get an offer.

Reply 22

Oxford Computer Science Dept

Original post by dontbtz

Do you have to be invited to sit to aptitude test or can anyone and everyone who applies take it?

Everyone takes it, and you all do it on the same day. You normally sit it in your own school, but if you're no longer at school/outside of the UK there are other options. We decide who to interview after the results are in, using your marks for this, predicted grades for A levels (or equivalent), personal statement, etc. There's more info on the test our admissions pages including sample papers and answers.

Reply 23

Oxford Computer Science Dept

Original post by jordan-s

What's the point in having grade requirements for applications if you're still going to look at applications with lower grades, surely that defeats the object? I'm pretty sure that the first way of eliminating people from the mass of applications is the ones who's grades do not meet the requirements, with the exception of those with extenuating circumstances .
This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

We look at all the information we have about a student in order to get a self-consistent opinion of their potential. Research suggests that a significant number of A Level predictions are wrong. However talented and experienced a teacher, there are numerous reasons that mean they do at times get predicted grades wrong in either direction. We certainly aren't going to dismiss a student who's predicted just one grade off the requirements on their third A Level. (If they applied having already achieved their grades, and these weren’t enough to meet our conditional offer that would be a very different matter. But we’re talking predicted grades here. The grade requirements are for achieved grades, not predicted ones. Admission not application. )

We decide who to interview once the aptitude test results are in. In a case like this a poor aptitude test would back up the lower predicted grade and the student would be very unlikely to make it to interview. An excellent aptitude test score would suggest the predicted A Level grades might be out, and we'd want more information. So we’d probably interview the student to find out which was the better indication of what they might be capable of.