'Personal circumstances' - should I mention on UCAS form?

Hey all,

Although I got As in all my other AS-level subjects, as suspected I got a D in french. This may be because I am crap at french. But there are underlying factors I wondered if it is worth getting my frnehc teacher to mention on my statement - or will it just look desperate?

At GCSE, my french teacher died of cancer, which is dreadful. My school BADLY BADLY messed up the situation, and for ages we didn't have a teacher at all. Then we had a few supplies who didn't speak french (yes, this is our GCSE year we're talking about...) Therefore, I practically taught myself french independantly and got an A. Then I moved schools.

At my new school, they did the AQA instead of OCR syllabus. My new teacher said their syllabus was a bit harder (not sure if this is true or not,. but it felt that way). I had taught myself the bear minimum to get through on an A grade (i.e. 3 tenses) whereas my new class already new 5 billion tenses and wree much better at french. Ergo, because most the class already knew this stuff, we didn't spend long learning it. I fell way behind, worked my butt off, still got a D.

Worth mentioning?

Reply 1

Nutter

Definitely worth mentioning - universities do consider such circumstances when making decisions.

Either write it in your PS or draft up a letter regarding your situation, have it signed by the relevant authorities (your school principal/headmaster for example), and send it to the individual universities where you had applied to. Be sure to address it to the correct person (addresses/names will be on the website, else just use a general term like Admissions Tutor, but personalisation is always the best) and call back a few days later to confirm that the letter has been received and attached to your application.

Good luck.

Reply 2

Reading Room

Absolutely mention it.

Reply 3

*titanium*

Nope, DO NOT mention it. Had you got a bad mark in your GCSE's after this situation then you would have grounds to appeal to them and ask them to be more leaniant about your AS since you have fallen behind (they might not listen since you had no complications during AS so should have been able to catch up) but you did well in your GCSE's you got an A, so they will just think you are making up excusses.

Reply 4

Reading Room

Yes, but as the OP says, you can get by in GCSE year by learning the basics by heart. You can argue whether this is right or wrong, but that's a fault with the exam system and not the individual candidates.

A-Level is much harder and presumes a good level of knowledge already (something which this person was not given at GCSE level), as well as a natural flair. Plus, they have moved schools to a totally different exam board (and presumably a totally different way of teaching) - there has been no continuity. Add to that the stress of loosing a teaching to cancer, and I think this deserves 'special consideration'.

Of course, *always* check with your school and teacher(s) to get their advice.

Moral of the story: don't take French A-Level :biggrin:

Reply 5

WokSz

Of course mention it and what Nutter says is a very good idea.

Reply 6

*titanium*

But the university is still going to think, wait a second if he manged to get an A despite this happening, it couldnt have effected him so much. As for moving schools for 6th form, i did to, they wont give a dam. The universities genraly dont give a dam, i mean they do look at your personale statement, but they dont actualy care about perosnale circumstances since if you could not get the grade, then you dont know the stuff so you are not ready to do their course.

The way they see it is, if you could not catch up in AS then wy should you be able to catch up in university when it gets harder?

Reply 7

john171

DO NOT mention it in your PS. Get your teacher to write about it in your reference. DO NOT under any circumstances be giving admission tutors excuses or negative points about yourself.

Reply 8

*titanium*

john171

DO NOT mention it in your PS. Get your teacher to write about it in your reference. DO NOT under any circumstances be giving admission tutors excuses or negative points about yourself.

Thats not a bad idea, since then it doesnt look like oyu complaining an dmaking excusess for oyur bad mark. At least this way it cant have a negative effect, though i still doubt its going to do anything because you got a D and it shows you dont know the stuff, and thats whats important to them.

Reply 9

kellywood_5

I'm afraid I have to agree with *titanium* here. I'm really sorry about your teacher :frown:

and it's very impressive that you managed to get an A despite having to pretty much teach yourself, but that shouldn't have affected your AS grade. The requirement to take AS French is usually a B at GCSE. You exceeded that and therefore should have been adequately prepared for AS. Even if you weren't, you realised this right at the start of the year and had ample opportunities to catch up. I don't see how switching exam boards made a difference either. All exam boards cover roughly the same material at GCSE, so it shouldn't matter if you then take a different one for A-level. Get it mentioned in your reference if you want, but I'd be surprised if they took it into account, to be honest.

Reply 10

Juno

If you've already taught yourself french (and you admit to that) they may wonder why you didn't continue since it obviously worked last time!

If you do mention it then do not put it in your PS. Either get it mentioned in your reference, or write a separate letter to unis. But you probably would be better to spend the next few weeks of summer working really hard, and then resit in January

Reply 11

Pink Lady

GCSE French is completely different to AS. I have a friend who went from an E in mocks to a B in GCSE in Higher tier.

It can be hard enough to work with material to get a good grade, without having to 'teach' it yourself. That's why teachers are trained in teaching. I think you should write it down because it could have had an effect.

I did well at French GCSE so was 'able' to do it at AS but in reality struggled because despite hardwork, I wasn't up to it as the skills leap was too big. However, like the OP, I had the added problem where the class teaching was not in depth enough for me- save one other person, the other 6 people were literally either French nationals or had lived in France and so were almost fluent. In normal situations, ie with most normal, A*/A people it would have been fine, but with the fluency it made it too dificult and I just couldn't salvage a good grade, which was gutting for my confidence as I'd never done 'badly' before. Teaching reflected the higher group- the others knew everything! and the fluent people were often allowed to 'control' the class by just chatting away in English a lot of the time when we should have been learning from the whiteboard, which was fine for them...

The other girl and I tried so hard, but I got D, she got E. I was 'predicted B' and told I'd got that in my oral, but my marks were, in every module, low D, even though I revised so hard and didn't screw up anything. Despite GCSE top grades I admit we just weren't cut out for the course?, and the poor teaching (no extra help for us, the teachers just decided they'd get 6 out of 8 As, so why bother with people who need it) amplified this. With adaequate teaching we could have done better, but I think I was only told I could achieve a B so I wouldn't lose confidence as the rest of the class was so much better.

My point: On my own I got a D as but with proper teaching could have done better. I didn't have the ability to 'teach myself' to get a better grade like many people can, despite ages spent learning verbs and new tenses. With the OP it's much worse- she should def. mention the circumstances, as she really suffered during GCSE, missing vital teaching.