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Bad Ucas Teacher reference - How will this affect my chances?

Our teacher wrote our references VERY late and she emailed everyone the day before yesterday to say if we wanted a copy emailed we should let her know. Well i did and received an email from her last night at about 11pm with my reference. Now parts of it are good but there are 3 issues in it that i'm worried about. 1st she says she thinks my best subject is politics even though i'm applying for psychology, 2nd she says that she thinks i have a learning disablilty (which is slightly insulting and more importantly not true) and thirdly she has made spelling and grammatical errors for instance referring to me as "he" instead of "She". Worst part is the minute i was sent the email i checked on ucas and it says my application is being processed by ucas etc. The uni's i applied 2 are between 30 and 50 on the league tables so average i assume. Will this reference hurt my chances of getting an offer?

Reply 1

Tsukuyomi

15

TeamPrincess

Our teacher wrote our references VERY late and she emailed everyone the day before yesterday to say if we wanted a copy emailed we should let her know. Well i did and received an email from her last night at about 11pm with my reference. Now parts of it are good but there are 3 issues in it that i'm worried about. 1st she says she thinks my best subject is politics even though i'm applying for psychology, 2nd she says that she thinks i have a learning disablilty (which is slightly insulting and more importantly not true) and thirdly she has made spelling and grammatical errors for instance referring to me as "he" instead of "She". Worst part is the minute i was sent the email i checked on ucas and it says my application is being processed by ucas etc. The uni's i applied 2 are between 30 and 50 on the league tables so average i assume. Will this reference hurt my chances of getting an offer?

what a ****, go to the head of sixth form and report her... either way depending on your predicted grades, you should get an offer

Reply 2

Salome2

TeamPrincess

Our teacher wrote our references VERY late and she emailed everyone the day before yesterday to say if we wanted a copy emailed we should let her know. Well i did and received an email from her last night at about 11pm with my reference. Now parts of it are good but there are 3 issues in it that i'm worried about. 1st she says she thinks my best subject is politics even though i'm applying for psychology, 2nd she says that she thinks i have a learning disablilty (which is slightly insulting and more importantly not true) and thirdly she has made spelling and grammatical errors for instance referring to me as "he" instead of "She". Worst part is the minute i was sent the email i checked on ucas and it says my application is being processed by ucas etc. The uni's i applied 2 are between 30 and 50 on the league tables so average i assume. Will this reference hurt my chances of getting an offer?

I'm sure it will be fine. Your exams, personal statement, and interview should outweigh all that. It's not your fault your teacher is so irresponsible and incapable of proofreading.

Reply 3

grape:)

22

I think they will look past the things that she said which are bad about you because she can't even get a personal pronoun right.

Reply 4

Clarity Incognito

11

TeamPrincess

Our teacher wrote our references VERY late and she emailed everyone the day before yesterday to say if we wanted a copy emailed we should let her know. Well i did and received an email from her last night at about 11pm with my reference. Now parts of it are good but there are 3 issues in it that i'm worried about. 1st she says she thinks my best subject is politics even though i'm applying for psychology, 2nd she says that she thinks i have a learning disablilty (which is slightly insulting and more importantly not true) and thirdly she has made spelling and grammatical errors for instance referring to me as "he" instead of "She". Worst part is the minute i was sent the email i checked on ucas and it says my application is being processed by ucas etc. The uni's i applied 2 are between 30 and 50 on the league tables so average i assume. Will this reference hurt my chances of getting an offer?

I cannot say for definite, of course, because it really depends on the strength of the rest of your application. Unfortunately, unless you are well above the criteria (grades etc.) that they ask for then the reference will perhaps be taken into more consideration. Apparently, references aren't taken into account as much any more because universities know that students eventually get to see them and so can be distorted, really subjective in favour of candidate when they shouldn't be. Of course, you will be up against many able students who have a good reference. On the other hand, the clear negligence of the teacher might be obvious through her spelling/grammar errors. In other words, it really is hard to gauge and no one on here will be able to give you an exact answer on what will happen but I wish you luck nonetheless!

Reply 5

Sweet Pea

I read my reference before it was sent off and thankfully it was excellently written.

yikes.

Have you checked with the teacher that they didn't just send you the wrong student's reference by mistake. If the learning disability thing is definitely not right and they think you're male not female it is just possible that the wrong document was sent...
Good luck

Reply 8

jayshah31

14

No, the second the university reads it they'll take action to ignore it or contact the school. Bad references don't put you in any worse position, just as good references don't give you that much of a 'boost'. Don't worry.

Reply 9

Notker

3

TeamPrincess

Our teacher wrote our references VERY late and she emailed everyone the day before yesterday to say if we wanted a copy emailed we should let her know. Well i did and received an email from her last night at about 11pm with my reference. Now parts of it are good but there are 3 issues in it that i'm worried about. 1st she says she thinks my best subject is politics even though i'm applying for psychology, 2nd she says that she thinks i have a learning disablilty (which is slightly insulting and more importantly not true) and thirdly she has made spelling and grammatical errors for instance referring to me as "he" instead of "She". Worst part is the minute i was sent the email i checked on ucas and it says my application is being processed by ucas etc. The uni's i applied 2 are between 30 and 50 on the league tables so average i assume. Will this reference hurt my chances of getting an offer?

Maybe they'd take pity on a transgendered retard? :biggrin:

Reply 10

unprinted

19

How much contact do you have with this teacher before your exams? If they were not critical to my success, I would be complaining.

Don't worry about it affecting your chances though. If anything, you are likely to be seen in a more favourable light if you can get good results with teachers like this.

It was in the days before these were shared with the pupil, but the most successful reference I ever heard about from an admissions tutor included lines like 'we recommend you do not accept this pupil's application'. The whole department went 'we have to have this one'!

Reply 11

Individual

2

Of course with the introduction of pupil/teacher conferring when writing a reference has decreased their importance significantly.

However like said before, unless you are substantially above the predicted grades, the reference is taken in to consideration. If your teacher has put down she thinks you have a learning disability, that is classed as misinformation and potentially your teacher can have action taken against her for that.

I recommend first going to your head of sixth form/college, and seeing what sort of action you can take to prevent any sort of disadvantage against you due to your teacher's incompetence.

Reply 12

Kittykatkat

11

Definitely complain to your school/college.
How much this will affect your application depends on the individual universities. Some take it into account more than others.

Reply 13

x-pixie-lottie-x

14

totally agree with kittykatkat on this some do take it into account more than others
i got offered places at all the ones i applied to, but didnt have a single interview... they must of looked at something...
x

Reply 14

hypocriticaljap

2

Clarity Incognito

I cannot say for definite, of course, because it really depends on the strength of the rest of your application. Unfortunately, unless you are well above the criteria (grades etc.) that they ask for then the reference will perhaps be taken into more consideration. Apparently, references aren't taken into account as much any more because universities know that students eventually get to see them and so can be distorted, really subjective in favour of candidate when they shouldn't be. Of course, you will be up against many able students who have a good reference. On the other hand, the clear negligence of the teacher might be obvious through her spelling/grammar errors. In other words, it really is hard to gauge and no one on here will be able to give you an exact answer on what will happen but I wish you luck nonetheless!

Apparently, references aren't taken into account as much any more because universities know that students eventually get to see them

How's that then?
You have no legal right to a reference through the school. You do have a legal right to a copy via UCAS but how many could be bothered?

Anyway with wrong gender, wrong subject, non existent learning difficulty - are you sure it is your reference she sent you?

Reply 15

thesisomer

8

My reference was bad but not that bad.

I busted my ass for the teacher that wrote my reference. It took him over a month to write me the most copy/paste canned piece of crap ever. It wasn't even three sentences long. Screw that.

Reply 16

analk

10

TeamPrincess

Our teacher wrote our references VERY late and she emailed everyone the day before yesterday to say if we wanted a copy emailed we should let her know. Well i did and received an email from her last night at about 11pm with my reference. Now parts of it are good but there are 3 issues in it that i'm worried about. 1st she says she thinks my best subject is politics even though i'm applying for psychology, 2nd she says that she thinks i have a learning disablilty (which is slightly insulting and more importantly not true) and thirdly she has made spelling and grammatical errors for instance referring to me as "he" instead of "She". Worst part is the minute i was sent the email i checked on ucas and it says my application is being processed by ucas etc. The uni's i applied 2 are between 30 and 50 on the league tables so average i assume. Will this reference hurt my chances of getting an offer?

your teacher is not allowed to write a bad reference thats unfair, if you can ask her personally to change it, otherwise go to your principal/vice principal ask them if they could resolve it.

Reply 17

hypocriticaljap

2

analk

your teacher is not allowed to write a bad reference thats unfair, if you can ask her personally to change it, otherwise go to your principal/vice principal ask them if they could resolve it.