Universities 'Dropping Down a Grade'

Hi All,

No doubt this worry is preempted by A2 exams next week, but I'm panicking a lot on getting an A in French required to meet my Nottingham offer of AAB for English Studies and French.

I'm predicted it, and I was one UMS mark off last year, but this year things are slightly edgy.

For some reason, I've latched onto something from my insurance offer (Liverpool ABB), that they said on a UCAS Visit Day. I was told that Liverpool would drop down to BBB/ABC if needed.

For me, that helps, I'm doing 5 A Levels, including General Studies. Is it likely that Nottingham would drop down too? Especially since they have only asked for one of my other subjects Chemistry or Biology to be a B. If i got something like ABBBC, with a B in French for example, would they be likely to take me? Although annoyingly, Notts don't accept General Studies so I've wasted 7 hours of life taking those exams as a 5th A Level.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 1

angelbones

To be honest, most universities (at least, all the ones I've looked at) don't accept General Studies.

Did they definitely give you the offer in grades and not in points?

Reply 2

k1n60fthew0rld

Original post by angelbones

To be honest, most universities (at least, all the ones I've looked at) don't accept General Studies.

Did they definitely give you the offer in grades and not in points?

Yeh all my offers where in grades, AAB when A is English, A is French and B is either Chemistry or Biology.

And yeh, I know, general is a joke, it's compulsory at my sixth form, and we take AS and A2 modules this year.

Reply 3

angelbones

Original post by k1n60fthew0rld

well that's stupid.

Damn. If it had been in points you would've been sorted.

I'd suggest ringing up the admissions office at the university you firmed and having a chat with them about it. They're really helpful :smile:

Reply 4

564767

Original post by k1n60fthew0rld

Compulsary at the sixth form I'm going to aswell.

Reply 5

harrietdaisy

What I've been told at open days (Durham specifically, but I'm sure it's similar at Notts) is that they take all the people that get their grades straight off and then see if there's any room left. If there IS room, they might take you, but if there isn't they almost certainly won't (as they get charged for having too many students.) So it literally depends, they can't guarentee you either way.

Reply 6

jbrown42

It's not compulsory for our sixth form. Not even optional. Hear its useless.

Reply 7

Forever a Gnome

General studies at AS is compulsory in ours, but at A2 they assume you don't want to carry it on unless you fill out a form. Luckily at my universities they accept general studies for my course if you're doing 3 other 'proper' a-levels...
They might drop the grade if they have spaces, it depends on the strength of the rest of your application - at some of the open days I went to they did say that if a grade was missed, they might take into consideration the fact general studies was taken, but obviously priority goes to the people that made their original offer.