Ask an Admissions Tutor IX, 4th August - 2nd September

And lastly, can you provide any resources to help my referee with his duties? Again, my teacher has no experience with UCAS.

I am applying for Law. I have 11 A* at GCSE and AAAA at AS. However, I did my AS levels in Wales where AS counts 40% towards the A level. I got 100% ums in History, 96.5% in Literature, 94% in Maths, 90% in French. Would Cambridge look at this ums and how would the UMS average be calculated? Also how strong is my application based on grades alone among applicants?

Firstly, thank you very much for taking the time to do this forum, it is so helpful.

I am just starting year 13 and will be applying for Biological Natural Sciences. I am currently studying Chemistry, Biology, Maths, English Literature and the EPQ for A level. I am predicted an A in English Literature but I know from conversations with various people at the Cambridge Open Day that English Literature would not be included in an offer. I am therefore considering whether I should:

a) Continue with English to A2 as originally planned.
b)Drop English and concentrate fully on my other subjects, (I am concerned this may disadvantage me against others applying with 4 or more A levels and as it is not a reformed subject I will have no AS to show for it)
c) Drop English and study Further Maths AS (if this is possible in my timetable)

I was wondering if you could give me your opinion on the above and whether any one option would be considered better or worse than the rest.

Thank you for your help.

Hello,

I am starting year 13 and I will be applying for Economics. I'm currently studying Maths, Further Maths, Economics and Government & Politics for A level. I am thinking about dropping Politics.

However, I've heard that some universities dislike applicants with maths, further maths and only one other A level as it is apparently too narrow. Would my application be disadvantaged if I applied with Maths, Further Maths and Economics?

In short, which would be better for my application:

A) Keeping all 4 A levels to A2
B) Dropping politics.

Or would it not matter?

Thanks for your help.

Hello everyone and welcome to a new Ask an Admissions Tutor thread, back for its fourth year.

I will be here for the next month to answer your questions about admissions to Cambridge, especially if you are planning to apply this year but also to help those already holding an offer for this year and waiting for your results.

Do please fire away and I'll answer them as well and as quickly as I can.

Dear christs admission,

I am applying for a100 medicine with the following:

Mathematics: 300/300 UMS

Biology : 298/300 UMS

Chemistry paper 1 : 65/70 raw marks (A boundary being 56, B boundary being 49)
Chemistry paper 2 : 65/70 raw marks (A boundary being 52, B boundary being 45)

Physics paper 1: 65/70 raw marks (A boundary being 46, B boundary being 40)
Physics paper 2: 57/70 raw marks (A boundary being 45, B boundary being 40)

My questions are:
1: for my linear subjects, physics and chemistry, are my raw marks high enough to be worth declaring ?
2: if they are, do I state the individual marks for each exam and the respective A boundary and B boundary? Or just A boundary or the whole boundary from A down to U.
3: how will you use the boundaries to assess how good the raw Mark is? I.e. Will you use extrapolation of the linear relationship of the grade boundaries to gauge how good the raw Mark is? By this I mean, the gap between a C (60% UMS equivalent) and a B (70% UMS equivalent) is say 5 marks, and the gap between the B and the A is 5 marks, so 90% UMS would be another 5 marks above the A boundary, and 100% UMS equivalent will be another additional 5 marks above the 90% mark. Do you assess raw marks in this manner? Or is it more holistic in the sense that, oh this candidate dropped x marks on these papers. That's not very good because he dropped X marks.
4: if I do provide these raw marks, can I upload it as an electronic transcript, along with the boundaries for my subject instead of through the reference?
5: in terms of my current academic record, on a scale of 1-10, how competitive of an applicant do you think I am currently, ignoring the bmat and interview as of now.
Is it good enough to apply to cambridge for medicine ( more in terms of my raw marks/ ability in physics and chemisy) ?

Sorry for the incredibly long post, and your help is greatly appreciated. i fully understand if you are not allowed / cannot answer some of the questions I have asked.
Thank you so much for your time!

Hello!
I'd like to apply to Christ's for 2017 entry in History. However, I'll only turn 18 in the May of my first year. Will this be a problem for you?
Thank you!

Also, is the Singapore Integrated Program recognised in place of GCSEs? (These students are not required to sit the GCE O-Levels / GCSEs)

Hello, I'm a Canadian student planning to apply for History this year.

On UCAS and the COPA I've noticed that SAT results are entered separately by subscores. For History, would scores in Reading and Writing be more relevant than Maths? I have 760 in Reading, 750 in Writing, and 670 in Maths, which produces an aggregate score lower than most other applicants. I really regret not having studied more in preparation, and now I worry that my SAT will weigh down the rest of my application.

In terms of other marks, I have good grades from my last school term and 5s in AP World History, European History, and Art History (all self-studied). This year I expect my school marks to stay in the high 90s, and I'm planning to self-study English Lit, French, and German as well. Would I be a competitive applicant on paper? Of course, I know that the PS, teacher reference, subject assessment and interviews are also very important.

Thanks!

(This is just because I'm curious: Do college pets just wander around college grounds all day?)

Hi Dr Spencer,

I'm a Northern Ireland student thinking of applying for Economics.

Results to date:
Maths (92% UMS in AS; 86% in A2)
History (94% UMS)
Latin (88% UMS)

I will complete History and Latin A2 this year plus Further Maths AS and A2.

I have seen the sample pre-interview tests on the Economics subject pages but wondered if there were any other examples of the Mathematics MCQs. From my research on-line, the standard of the questions is higher than A level or the Senior Maths Challenge whilst the format is unlike STEP - does you know what the questions are based upon and whether there are any other sample questions that I could use for practice purposes?

Finally, many thanks for taking the time to provide so much useful information.

Hello and thank you for your question. You have strong grades and will be a strong candidate on paper. Your UMS average would be calculated from the best three subjects (History, English Literature and Maths). You will qualify for compulsory pooling if you are not made an offer by your original college.