The Student Room Group

Universities getting results before we do?

So the universities you applied for get your results the weekend before you do.
For English A level students that will be this Saturday, and they would have made a decision that could change your future. However you won't get to know about it until the following week

Why do they do this? I realise they need the time to organise everything, but surely that has more to do with your placement at the university than the results you earnt?
Surely i should be the first to know what i have achieved? after spending 2 years getting there...

I'm just so stressed waiting and to think that i COULD know this Saturday but i'm not allowed is stressing me out more haha. These last few weeks i feel like i've been sitting around waiting to move on with my life.

Anyone starting to feel sick yet? What do you need for your firms?

Scroll to see replies

i feel im stuck in limbo and im not waiting for results, my offer is conditional on references and i know one reference has been completed but i cant get in touch with my other lecturer (hes on holiday) and im running out of time :puppyeyes:
Reply 2
I'm so nervous tbh!

I have a conditional offer of AAA ! Hopefully i get it..
Original post by RachelSophia
So the universities you applied for get your results the weekend before you do.
For English A level students that will be this Saturday, and they would have made a decision that could change your future. However you won't get to know about it until the following week

Why do they do this? I realise they need the time to organise everything, but surely that has more to do with your placement at the university than the results you earnt?
Surely i should be the first to know what i have achieved? after spending 2 years getting there...

I'm just so stressed waiting and to think that i COULD know this Saturday but i'm not allowed is stressing me out more haha. These last few weeks i feel like i've been sitting around waiting to move on with my life.

Anyone starting to feel sick yet? What do you need for your firms?

Even with 4 working days about half of applicants don't know for sure whether they're in or not on results day. Can you imagine how much longer that would take if universities were trying to make those decisions AT THE SAME TIME as fielding phone calls from current applicants AND Clearing phone calls....

Anyone who missed their offer conditions even just slightly could end up waiting weeks for an answer whereas at the moment with those 4 days most unis will only keep a student hanging on for a day at the most.
Reply 4
Original post by rattusratus
i feel im stuck in limbo and im not waiting for results, my offer is conditional on references and i know one reference has been completed but i cant get in touch with my other lecturer (hes on holiday) and im running out of time :puppyeyes:

oh what! That's really horrible :s-smilie: what are you going to do if you can't get the references in time?


Original post by aqua05
I'm so nervous tbh!

I have a conditional offer of AAA ! Hopefully i get it..

Ouch, AAA! What subjects did you take? Goodluck!


Original post by PQ
Even with 4 working days about half of applicants don't know for sure whether they're in or not on results day. Can you imagine how much longer that would take if universities were trying to make those decisions AT THE SAME TIME as fielding phone calls from current applicants AND Clearing phone calls....

Anyone who missed their offer conditions even just slightly could end up waiting weeks for an answer whereas at the moment with those 4 days most unis will only keep a student hanging on for a day at the most.

That makes sense i suppose... But it still seems a little unfair to me because again that is their admin and shouldn't have an effect on me knowing my results. But if i had my way i'd get my results the minute the exam paper was marked haha xD
Reply 5
Original post by RachelSophia
That makes sense i suppose... But it still seems a little unfair to me because again that is their admin and shouldn't have an effect on me knowing my results.


Meanwhile... back in the real world where things take actual time and can only be done serial - not infinitely in parallel...

In theory, the only way Unis could get them at the same time would be if the whole system was pre-programmed with the decisions - so they give you your formal offer, while also (confidentially) assigning you fallback offer, with a rank. If people miss their offers, the system would automatically allocate the places to the highest ranked people who made their fallback offer.

However - there are many reasons why they'd want to keep the human-factor:

1) to be able to take in to account any extenuating circumstances - exam boards only add a maximum of 5% to the grade, so Uni admissions might still take illness, trauma etc in to account,

2) to be able to take in to account any weirdnesses with the exams (dodgy questions, printing mistakes),

3) to be able to balance diversity - they might find that they had unexpectedly few males or females make their offers,

4) to be able to consider individual exam scores - if you just had one really bad day then your module scores may well show that.

Getting the results 5 days sooner wouldn't affect the anxiety of the people who've met their offer - you would just have cranked up the adrenaline sooner. For those who narrowly miss their offer and would then have to wait 5 days to find out what was happening, it would be hell.
Reply 6
I couldn't agree more with you, I hate that universities know our grades before we do. Making the decision of whether we're accepted or rejected. Makes me feel sick, I've been worrying since my last exam, even though I know there's nothing I can do about it.


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App
Reply 7
Original post by RachelSophia
So the universities you applied for get your results the weekend before you do.
For English A level students that will be this Saturday, and they would have made a decision that could change your future. However you won't get to know about it until the following week

Why do they do this? I realise they need the time to organise everything, but surely that has more to do with your placement at the university than the results you earnt?
Surely i should be the first to know what i have achieved? after spending 2 years getting there...

I'm just so stressed waiting and to think that i COULD know this Saturday but i'm not allowed is stressing me out more haha. These last few weeks i feel like i've been sitting around waiting to move on with my life.

Anyone starting to feel sick yet? What do you need for your firms?


I feel so sick i cant sleep lol. Gotta get AAA :/
Original post by RachelSophia
So the universities you applied for get your results the weekend before you do.
For English A level students that will be this Saturday, and they would have made a decision that could change your future. However you won't get to know about it until the following week

Why do they do this? I realise they need the time to organise everything, but surely that has more to do with your placement at the university than the results you earnt?
Surely i should be the first to know what i have achieved? after spending 2 years getting there...

I'm just so stressed waiting and to think that i COULD know this Saturday but i'm not allowed is stressing me out more haha. These last few weeks i feel like i've been sitting around waiting to move on with my life.

Anyone starting to feel sick yet? What do you need for your firms?


Same here. I kept thinking / worrying about from the pass few days and I don't think I can stand anymore when I get to know my firm choice wants to accept me or not... Aiming to get 220 points for now :|
Reply 9
I'm scottish so just got my results yesterday (very early at 1:30am, I stayed up I was that nervous). Here the SQA send the results to both the unis and the schools a week before we get them. This really annoyed me but trust me, once you get your results, you won't care if they found out before you.
If anything they just shouldn't tell you they've been sent earlier to other people. I think it's just the fact that you know someone has seen your grades before you and you're worried that you haven't done well enough. But like I said, once you see how excellently you've done you probably won't care.
Original post by RachelSophia
So the universities you applied for get your results the weekend before you do.
For English A level students that will be this Saturday, and they would have made a decision that could change your future. However you won't get to know about it until the following week

Why do they do this? I realise they need the time to organise everything, but surely that has more to do with your placement at the university than the results you earnt?
Surely i should be the first to know what i have achieved? after spending 2 years getting there...

I'm just so stressed waiting and to think that i COULD know this Saturday but i'm not allowed is stressing me out more haha. These last few weeks i feel like i've been sitting around waiting to move on with my life.

Anyone starting to feel sick yet? What do you need for your firms?



Here's an even worse thought that's been stressing me out: someone, out there, knows what mark I got! (IE the examiners who marked my papers). But hten again, all our papers have to go through like double-checking or whatever from senior examiners to make sure examiners aren't too harsh or anything, and then there's the whole sorting out the grade boundaries for this year etc...

Also, whilst unis get your results the weekend before you do, some unis also send out their decisions before results day. I know of a girl who was told by Bath that she got in the day before results came out.

I agree with PQ tho, but I'm also stressing out over my results; I need AAB, but in the run up to results day I keep thinking of everything that could have gone wrong in the exams and thus make me miss my grades... Although the uni I've firmed (Uni of Manchester) has quite the reputation of letting people in who missed their grades by 1 grade anyway! Sooo hopefullyyy even if i get ABB I'll still get in :smile:

what do you need?
(edited 11 years ago)
Original post by KatieSouter
I couldn't agree more with you, I hate that universities know our grades before we do. Making the decision of whether we're accepted or rejected. Makes me feel sick, I've been worrying since my last exam, even though I know there's nothing I can do about it.


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

I know,i feel like one exam went badly and i was hoping for a B in it... but i aimed higher tohave a safety net haha. Good luck!

Original post by Dentistry:)
I feel so sick i cant sleep lol. Gotta get AAA :/

I really hope you get that! I can't believe how many people need AAA or AAB. Where you hoping to go? :smile:

Original post by cheungstar
Same here. I kept thinking / worrying about from the pass few days and I don't think I can stand anymore when I get to know my firm choice wants to accept me or not... Aiming to get 220 points for now :|

Where's your firm?
I'm sure you'll get 220 :smile: assuming you have 3 A2s and an AS?

Original post by closey95
I'm scottish so just got my results yesterday (very early at 1:30am, I stayed up I was that nervous). Here the SQA send the results to both the unis and the schools a week before we get them. This really annoyed me but trust me, once you get your results, you won't care if they found out before you.
If anything they just shouldn't tell you they've been sent earlier to other people. I think it's just the fact that you know someone has seen your grades before you and you're worried that you haven't done well enough. But like I said, once you see how excellently you've done you probably won't care.

Oh lucky! How did you do?
Exactly. It's just the thought that's making me nervous, I like to be in control and i have none right now haha

Original post by goussberry09
Here's an even worse thought that's been stressing me out: someone, out there, knows what mark I got! (IE the examiners who marked my papers). But hten again, all our papers have to go through like double-checking or whatever from senior examiners to make sure examiners aren't too harsh or anything, and then there's the whole sorting out the grade boundaries for this year etc...

Also, whilst unis get your results the weekend before you do, some unis also send out their decisions before results day. I know of a girl who was told by Bath that she got in the day before results came out.

I agree with PQ tho, but I'm also stressing out over my results; I need AAB, but in the run up to results day I keep thinking of everything that could have gone wrong in the exams and thus make me miss my grades... Although the uni I've firmed (Uni of Manchester) has quite the reputation of letting people in who missed their grades by 1 grade anyway! Sooo hopefullyyy even if i get ABB I'll still get in :smile:

what do you need?

Ohh good luck! Let me know if you get in :smile: what do you want to study?
Reply 12
Starting to feel pretty nervous, I only need ABB but i feel my Classics exam went horrificly so I dont hold out much hope now :/
Original post by RachelSophia


Ohh good luck! Let me know if you get in :smile: what do you want to study?



Thanks! You too!

English Lang, at uni of manchester :smile: you?
Reply 14
Original post by RachelSophia

Oh lucky! How did you do?
Exactly. It's just the thought that's making me nervous, I like to be in control and i have none right now haha


I done a lot better than expected :smile: (except for English, which keeps annoying me because it's normally my best subject) and I had more than enough for uni :biggrin:

Yeah, it was definitely the lack of control and the feeling of being in 'limbo' regarding my future that done me in
Original post by RachelSophia
That makes sense i suppose... But it still seems a little unfair to me because again that is their admin and shouldn't have an effect on me knowing my results. But if i had my way i'd get my results the minute the exam paper was marked haha xD


Okay, so you get your results at the same time as the universities.
You find out that you've missed your offer by one grade.

You then have to wait an entire week to find out if the university has accepted you because they need time to balance their numbers and sort everything out as they didn't have any grades to work with in advance. During this week period you can quite literally do nothing other than twiddle your thumbs and count down the days until the university is able to communicate this to you.

I'd imagine that would be much worse than having a few extra days to wait to find out your grades and your university place at the same time!

Original post by goussberry09
Also, whilst unis get your results the weekend before you do, some unis also send out their decisions before results day. I know of a girl who was told by Bath that she got in the day before results came out.


That would have been an error and Bath would have had a serious telling off for doing so.
Universities can not and will not communicate decisions to applicants in advance of A level results day. The only time it happens is if a university does it in error - and we're talking one university, with normally a small handful of students, and it doesn't even happen every year... so the chances of you being involved in a particular admin error where you find out your result earlier than you should are pretty much zero.
Original post by RachelSophia
I really hope you get that! I can't believe how many people need AAA or AAB. Where you hoping to go? :smile:


Thanks man, I appreciate it. I REALLY wanna get into King's for Dentistry:smile: hence the name XD, where you hoping to go?
Reply 17
felt like **** all summer worrying about results day tbh
see u all on the other side
Original post by wwelol
felt like **** all summer worrying about results day tbh
see u all on the other side


I hear you bro/sis :frown:
Original post by RachelSophia


Where's your firm?
I'm sure you'll get 220 :smile: assuming you have 3 A2s and an AS?



Bath Spa. Just 3 A2s,actually, but since my results were quite bad in my last year exam and I dont really think i can do very well this year...

Quick Reply