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Declining AS grades, but applying to top unis.

This is basically the situation am in. I have strong gcse's (6a*, 3 a's) and will have AAA prediction, but I didnt get the AS grades I wanted (AABB(C)). I want to apply to Oxford, LSE, UCL etc for Economics, but Im not 100% sure what their views are on people who dont declare their as grades. Do you think I would still have a good chance at these unis if I mentioned good module scores in my reference?

Also, Is there anyone here who knows of people getting into good unis without cashing in as grades? What course etc?

thanks

Reply 1

mtbab

do you school cash in their grades, you should check coz i know my school dont cash in AS's so we just carry on and put them as Pending on our form the only grade we declare is the AS we dropped. So would be a good place to start, altho looking round TSr it does seem as if my school ar ein the minority in terms of not cashin in, but its worth a check at least.

Reply 2

Madprof

Yeah, plenty of people don't cash in AS and put results down as 'pending', but be aware that your school will probably put down their policy on cashing in in your reference, so if it's not school policy, it might look a little odd.

You don't have to cash in subjects you're not taking on to A2 - so long as you cash them in in or before the summer of year 13, it's fine. Again, might look a little odd if it's not school policy.

From this ear* (2007 entry), all universities will be able to see module grades of those modules making up cashed in subjects, but if you don't cash in, they won't see anything. One exception is Cambridge, which sends a form asking for your UMS scores from each AS level, cashed in or not, but you've clearly got better taste than to apply there, so it won't matter to you.

*Year, I meant year. Why do I have an inability to type in coherent English? Why??

Reply 3

RogueTrader

Well, my school 'reccommends' that if you are doing any retakes you decline all your as grades. Now, even the people who got straight A's are going to be doing some retakes to boost up ums, but ultimately its upto them if they take up the reccommendation. If I get my tutor to write in my reference about this school reccommendation, would that be ok?

Reply 4

Reading Room

If you expected such high AS grades (AAAA), why did you not reach this level in the first place?

If it's because of personal/social reasons, make sure your school mentions this on your reference... unis appreciate this and will consider giving you a lower offer (even though you have high potential).

However, if you don't have such reasons, what's going to change this year? A2s are a lot harder than AS, and applying to top unis whilst concealing the full picture may store up problems for you (e.g. you may not get any offers, you may get offers but miss them, they may spot that you are hiding AS results).

Reply 5

RogueTrader

I thought I had met them easily- (i thought the C grade was going to be a high A and Im pretty good at predicting what I have got). Obviously I didnt. However, because I did well at gcse , do you think that may cushion the fact that I wont have my as grades on the form? I will make sure I have an ace p.s. also.

Reply 6

Reading Room

The fact that you have 6 A*s will certainly work in your favour somewhat (depending what subjects they cover, of course)... but I would say that admissions tutors still place more emphasis on AS results and/or predicted grades. This is because you have matured since year 11, and been able to specialise in subjects you presumably enjoy.

Rogue Trader - You still haven't said why you got a C instead of your predicted A. If it was a genuine shock, you need to have a word with your teacher(s) to seek their advice. They may advise resits and/or they may be able to point out where you went wrong (to avoid similar mistakes at A2).

Quite frankly, you don't seem to be very good at predicting your own grades. Without meaning to sound rude, you may be kidding yourself that you will get AAA next year. By all means, apply to top unis but don't use *all* your UCAS choices with top unis. For example, I want to read English and am predicted AAA too. But I wouldn't dream of having Cambridge, Durham, York, Bristol, UCL and Edinburgh all as my 6 choices because:

a) all of these give out the same AAA offer (which I might miss)
b) these are at the very top for English, and are therefore very competitive. It is possible (but I pray otherwise!) that I could get rejected from all 6, regardless of GCSEs, A-Levels or personal statements, and so be left with nowhere.

The '2 from the top, 3 from the middle, 1 from the bottom' rule of thumb might be useful to remember. It's fairly obvious what it means :smile:

Finally, you DO have a lot going for you: GCSEs, predicted grades, good PS (get writing now!). And do ensure your teachers mention any good module marks (which could cancel out the Cs). But remember, nothing is considered in isolation, and admissions tutors will look at the complete picture. Your job is to do your best, and make sensible choices of courses and unis. Everything should work itself out :smile:

Reply 7

kellywood_5

The danger is that if it's not school policy to decline AS grades, which most students have mentioned in their reference if it applies to them, unis might assume you did badly and are resitting. How much that would affect your application when you have excellent GCSE results and A-level predictions is something none of us can really answer, but I think unis recognise that not everyone reaches their full potential after the first year of A-levels. What were your module grades like? If they're mostly As but you were let down by one module in each of the B and C subjects, you could just resit those and unis would be able to see that it wouldn't be that hard you to improve your grades. I didn't declare my AS grades and got offers from 5/6 unis, but that's because it was school policy and unis knew that, so they couldn't discriminate against me. However, Cambridge knew my AS grades (AABB) because I had to declare all my UMS marks on a separate form and they still gave me an offer, despite my GCSE grades being much lower than yours as well, so it's not all about grades. At Oxford, your interviews, admissions test and written work you send in will be much more important.

Reply 8

RogueTrader

Look at post #5- that is basically what I can put in my reference. Would that help a little?

Reply 9

Helicopter

AABBC are still good grades, You only need to improve one of the Bs and you've got 3 As. It would be better to put them down. Perhaps you should drop a subject so you can put more work into 3 or 4 subjects.

Reply 10

RogueTrader

I am only carrying on 3 subjects.

Reply 11

loggins

LSE use their notorious 8A* policy for economics, i doubt you'd get an interview, let alone an offer.

Reply 12

RogueTrader

loggins

LSE use their notorious 8A* policy for economics, i doubt you'd get an interview, let alone an offer.

1. They dont interview.
2. I contacted them, and they said 6a* 3 a's are exactly the sort of grades they would be looking for (for someone to study straight econ). They must take into account the ratio of a*/a's as most people who get 8a* + do more than 9 gcse's.

Reply 13

kellywood_5

RogueTrader

Look at post #5- that is basically what I can put in my reference. Would that help a little?

But if the school policy is to decline your AS grades only if you're doing retakes, surely that defeats the purpose of putting anything in your reference because you don't want universities to know you're resitting?

Reply 14

WokSz

Oxford doesn't really have a precise policy on what is the requirement to get in. There are a lot of people who have gotten into Oxford with AABB(C). As long as you got an A in maths and preferably in economics, you're good. Those grades should be able to get you an interview, provided you write a very good PS and have a damn good reference! :smile: