The Student Room Group

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Reply 20
Yup, as is the entire application process. Some students have a lot of help with their statements, others dont. Some will be prepared for interviews, others wont have a clue whats going on. Some teachers will redraft Oxbridge essays, others will only sign legitimately. The whole system is unfair and a farce, but there's nothing you can do other than to play the system the best you can under your own conscience.
Our UCAS tutor who writes all the references (based on subject teacher reports, form tutor evaluations and a self evaluation filled in by the pupil) has a 100% "reference is for UCAS's eyes only" policy, and says that we will not under any circumstances be permitted to see our reference. (Allegedly because of the trouble they've had in the past where people have moaned and tried to get the teacher to change it). My psychology teacher allowed me to see what she'd written in my subject evaluation, mainly because i was feeling kind of down at the time and she thought it would cheer me up (needless to say it did :smile:)

But yeah, even if your school won;t let you see them, once UCAS has it it's so easy to get a copy.
Reply 22
YES You can see your reference, and have every right to:

When I applied through UCAS two years ago I had problems with the person writing my reference... I did not trust her in the slightest, she hated my guts, and I hated hers. Anyways it came to my reference, I asked her politely if I could see it, the answer being obvious.

I don't want to sound all formal, but according to the Data Protection Act you have every right to access any information stored about you.

UCAS have to follow this, and indeed they do http://www.ucas.ac.uk/getting/how/data.html

Unfortunatly this means that you have to wait until it is submitted to view it AND pay 10 pounds admin fee.

I requested mine and got it promptly in the post... at first glance it sounds as if its a nice reference only to read "between the lines" and her intentions are clear...

Anyways that was two years ago. I hope no one has to go down the same route by having to ask UCAS to supply it.

Actually it was on here that I found out about it. Apparently a guy did not get any offers, so he checked his reference to find that his reference refered to a course he was not applying for and the teacher in question must have made a mistake or simply did not even know the student.

Hope this helps!
I was allowed to read mine and then say if there was anything I wanted taken out, changed or added, but it completely depends on the school and probably the student. I'd ask your teacher politely if you can see it because it's not like you can change it now that it's been sent off anyway. If he refuses for whatever reason, get a copy from UCAS.
I asked for a copy of my reference just for my own information (so I knew what I could be asked about at interviews etc) and my school were fine with it. Actually it's a really good thing I did read it before it was sent off because although it had been passed through my form tutor, 6th form administrator and head of sixth form, I was the only one who spotted that it had no mention of how good I was in the subject I'm applying for! So I didn't actually tell them what to say but just politely asked if they could add something about what my teacher for that subject commented on about me.

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