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The Official Cambridge Applicants Thread 2016 Entry MK III

Welcome to the Official Cambridge Applicants 2016 Entry MK III thread !!
Even if you're not applying, join in for the world class banter.
:party:

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Get chatting here!

Here are some useful information for the applicants. Thanks to @vincrows for many of the links!

Do you have questions about Cambridge?

Are you good enough for Cambridge? - Why Cambridge selection process is fairer than (most) others
“So Who is Good Enough to Get into Cambridge?”

Got any more questions about Cambridge? See below and you shall find what you're looking for!

ABOUT GRADES

Subject Matters - Choosing Right Subjects to Apply for Your Course

If those are still not enough to convince you - template for asking questions about grades:

[noparse]
Question:
Course applying for:
UMS Average (Most relevant 3/Best 3):
AS Results:
Subject A X-
Subject B X-
Subject C X-
Subject D X -
GCSE:
Extenuating Circumstances/Context:
Others:

Do you have a question about UMS averages?@Colmans has made a guide to understanding UMS averages. Read thoroughly.

Supporting Applicants presentation - graphs showing number of offers for number of A* at GCSE and UMS average

Course specific quintile* boundaries 2015 entry for the whole university

Original post by Admissions
As there have been a lot of questions about quintiles based on UMS, I thought I'd give the boundaries for some subjects which may help people gauge their position relative to last year. I'm not going to give Maths so please don't ask as the SUMS average is much less important for Maths than for other Science subjects. To remind people, there are five quintiles for people with best three or SUMS averages (SUMS is calculated from best three Maths/Science where available or best two if not with all Maths modules counting as one Maths average)
Medicine (SUMS -752 candidates out of 1288 total): A/B boundary: 96.7%. B/C boundary: 94.7%, C/D boundary:92.3% D/E boundary: 88.2%.
Natural Sciences both Phys and Bio and Chem Eng via Nat Sci (SUMS - 1876 out of 3018 total): A/B boundary: 95.5%. B/C boundary: 92.8%. C/D boundary: 89.9%. D/E boundary: 86.1%.
Engineering including Chem Eng via Engineering (SUMS - 1168 out of 2063 total): A/B boundary: 94.7%. B/C boundary: 91.9%. C/D boundary: 89.2%. D/E boundary: 85.7%.
Comp Sci, all routes (SUMS - 301 out of 625 total): A/B boundary: 93.0%. B/C boundary: 90.1%. C/D boundary: 86.7%. D/E boundary: 83.2%.
Original post by Admissions
As promised here are the boundaries for other subjects.

Economics (Best 3. 592 candidates out of 1192 total): A/B boundary: 95.0%. B/C boundary: 92.8%. C/D boundary: 90.3%. D/E boundary: 86.9%.
Law: (Best 3. 440 out of 994 total): A/B boundary: 93.3%. B/C boundary: 90.3%, C/D boundary: 87.3%. D/E boundary:83.3%.
HSPS: (Best 3. 457 out of 969 total): A/B boundary: 93.4%. B/C boundary: 90.6%. C/D boundary: 88.0%. D/E boundary: 85%.
History: (Best 3. 458 of 616 total): A/B boundary: 94.8%. B/C boundary: 92.2%. C/D boundary: 89.5%. D/E boundary: 86.5%.
English (Best 3. 553 out of 703 total): A/B boundary: 93.9%. B/C boundary: 91.0%. C/D boundary: 88.3%. D/E boundary:85.2% .
MML (best 3. 309 out of 387 total) : A/B boundary:95.1% . B/C boundary: 92.2%. C/D boundary: 89.6%. D/E boundary: 86.6%.And for stats obsessed, sad Physical NatSci applicants... :wink:[quote Admissions;59653659="Admissions;59653659" Christ's="Christ's"]Last year there were 1639 Physical Nat Scis (including those applying for Chem Eng via Nat Sci). Of those 1053 had a SUMS average.
At or above 95.0% SUMS there were: 291 candidates.
96.0%+ SUMS: 199 candidates
97.0%+ SUMS: 128 candidates
98.0%+ SUMS: 52 candidates
99.0%+ SUMS: 12 candidates
Put another way: 95-96%: 92 candidates.96-97%: 71 candidates. 97-98%: 76 candidates. 98-99%: 40 candidates. 99%+: 12 candidates. *What are quintiles?
Quintile: this divides UMS averages into five equally sized groups, with A designating the top 20% of ranked applicants and E the bottom 20%. Unranked applicants will be placed in a Z group. Please note that applicants at the bottom of one quintile will have very similar scores to those at the top of the next quintile down.
Z quintile also includes those doing non A level qualification (IB, Highers etc) as well as candidates who do not offer SUMS (science average requiring 3 sciences) for science subject. Z quintile is therefore the largest and many offers come from here. You do not have to be in a specific quintile to obtain an offer, or being in a certain quintile does not guarantee an offer. This is just used as a way to measure the strength of applicants field at each college, and is used to ensure a fair admission. (See below about the Pool for how this is done.)

Is UMS average everything? NO. Check out the links @Colmans has posted in the above thread as well as this and

Original post by Admissions
Once more, with feeling, don't obsess over UMS averages! Several merit scores are calculated for each applicant - best 3, best 4, SUMS, maths+physics and maths. For all of these, all maths modules are combined into a subject. Merit scores are primarily for moderation, not for assessment (they make sure nobody deserving is overlooked, rather than dictating which students we take). You point out ways they fall short as an indicator of ability, which is why we dig much deeper than the averages and look at your module-by-module scores in each subject. This allows us to see variation in your scores and see how you got to the overall grade in each subject.


ABOUT COLLEGES

Application Statistics - just to give you some general pictures, if you really want to know….

However, you should always remember that statistics game will NOT work.
Why?

An excerpt from Queens’ Colleges’ Alumni Magazine “The Bridge” (Spring 2015)
(by Dr. A. Thompson, Admissions Tutor, Queens College)

The Pool works very effectively; sharing information electronically gives us access to information about all candidates (to the university) who apply to the University to enable us to monitor the quality of our own field.

Dr. A. Spencer, Admission Tutor at Christ's College

Original post by Admissions
In fact I can see the stats of all applicants in all subjects to all colleges from sometime in early November, so i have a very good idea about the strength of my application field at Christ's in all subjects well before the interviews begin.

Original post by Admissions
Yes, we had a lot of applicants fished from the Pool in Nat Sci because we had such a strong field last year. We also took six to eight more candidates than normal in Nat Sci because of the strength of our applicants. Colleges are always going to show some flexibility if they have really strong applications in a certain subject. It's never a good idea to play the numbers game - you are trying to play game theory against several hundred or thousands of applicants and second guessing their actions is unlikely to work. The best thing to do is pick the college you like and trust your own abilities.

Are you still not convinced? - Excellent insight by the Christ's AT into how the pool really works, and why stats game will not work.

Original post by Admissions

So, the Pool is all about moderation and trying to ensure that college choice plays as small a part as possible in deciding who gets offers. To that end moderation starts well before the Pool stage with the subject moderation spreadsheets that are sent out in early November.

Every subject has one and it includes all sorts of data on it on every candidate to every college. This includes data such as contextual flags (for low performing school, Low participation neighborhood, poor socio-economic areas, poor performing GCSE school, and whether the student has been in care. It produces data on GCSes and the performance of the candidate's school, their predictions and, of course, their AS scores in each subject and the dreaded averages.

The averages are used to place students into one of six quintile, A-E and Z. A has the top 20%, B the next 20% and so on. The Z quintile is for those who do not have a best three or, in the case of sciences, a SUMS average.

Therefore, before we have interviewed anybody, I know exactly how strong my applicant field is in every subject compared to every other college. I also have a spreadsheet with all my applicants in, so I can compare between subjects across Christ's and see if, say, my Physical Nat Scis are much stronger than my Engineers.

Once the interviews are over, subjects all have moderation meetings, these are sometimes done in person and sometimes online where colleges can provide information on candidates being placed in the Pool.

Before Christmas, colleges prepare the files of candidates who are going to be pooled, ensuring that all the interview reports are in there and also that the coversheet, filled in by the Admissions Tutor, is on it. These files are delivered to Newnham College (actually this year they will be in Homerton which will be strange for everyone involved) and prepared by CAO staff members. They are placed in subject boxes and organised alphabetically.

Before the Pool opens I will know roughly how many candidates I am looking for in the subjects where I need to look and may have an idea about people whose files I want to see when I get there.

The Pool is open for three days in early January, the last of which is when the Poolside meetings happen and offers are decided. Scores of people are there looking at files. You are not allowed to take individual files out of the box but rather have to take a whole letter at a time (i.e., all the Ws or all the Ls).

As I say, some people will know who they want to look for, others will simply read all the files and see what happens, it depends on time and strategy. Admissions Tutors, Senior Tutors and Directors of Studies will discuss candidates and draw up lists of those whom they would be happy to make offers to and those whom they would be happy to interview before giving an offer to.

On the third day the Poolside meeting happen for each subject. In all the larger subjects picking order is determined on the basis of need (i.e. a college with 4 out of 8 places still to fill picks ahead of a college with 3 out of 7 places to fill). The colleges are all given an order for the first round of picking and so each has one pick one after another until we reach the bottom and then one starts again at the top and colleges drop out until all colleges are finished. We then move on to interviews and the order for this is usually picked randomly.

Colleges will often pool their own candidates only to take them back before the end of the second day. This is done for moderation purposes, to see what else is out there before making a final decision. It used to be that candidates often knew when this happened but not now the posting day has been pushed back.

Candidates who are going to be called for interview get contacted a day or two after the pool has closed, while everyone else will be contacted at the same time as the straight offers/rejects.

Original post by Admissions
After the interviews finish, each subject has a 'subject moderation meeting' - some are done in person and some are done online through information sharing. At these, colleges learn who are being taken and who are being pooled. PDFs of applications forms of pooled candidate are then made available, along with updated spreadsheets in each subject, for DoSes and Admissions Tutors to look at over Christmas and before the Pool opens in early January. This means that you can go to the Pool with a list of files that you want to see.

ABOUT THE INTERVIEWMore useful (and fun) information about CambridgeAgain thanks to @vincrows for many of the links!
More links and stuff incoming soon :tongue:

Enjoy!
:banana::bl::banana2:
(edited 8 years ago)

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first
:king3:
Subbing
Reply 5
Now race for the 10,000th post guys
(While I'm asleep I guess)

Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by C0balt
Now race for the 10,000th post guys
(While I'm asleep I guess)

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Lol nope I'm going to sleep
Reply 7
Original post by Jordan\
Lol nope I'm going to sleep


Good night XD
I don't think this race is gonna be as intense as last one, well, we'll see tomorrow morning :tongue:

Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by C0balt
Welcome to the Official Cambridge Applicants 2016 Entry MK III thread !!........!


The GREATEST opening post, EVER!! Very well done!! :biggrin:
(We should've done it long time ago....:tongue:)

Just wondering if you want to add these links in the post too? (hyper-link them to the titles?)


Official voices from Cambridge (from their website)
- FAQ
http://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/find-out-more/faq

- FACTS about A-level/GCSE Grades
http://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/applying/entrance-requirements/gcse-and-a-level-requirements-facts



Why Statistic Games Won’t Work - Behind-the-scene of Pooling)
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3517571&page=45&p=58873595#post58873595



Are You Good Enough for Cambridge? - Why Cambridge selection process is fairer than others
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/jan/10/how-cambridge-admissions-really-work
(edited 8 years ago)
give me positive rep !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Original post by lai812matthew
give me positive rep !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:sexface:
We'll need a Mark IV before
January at this rate :smile:


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Original post by Messier31
We'll need a Mark IV before
January at this rate :smile:


Posted from TSR Mobile

I'd say the next thread will be a decisions/ offer holders thread. Perhaps not the latter because around interview and then decisions this thread is probably going to go crazy! :gah:
Original post by lai812matthew
give me positive rep !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


:wink:
Original post by lai812matthew
give me positive rep !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Another one with obsession with rep......:tongue:

sorry, but......PRSOM. :wink:
Original post by vincrows
Another one with obsession with rep......:tongue:

sorry, but......PRSOM. :wink:

Perhaps he is near is next gem? Although Ena and I just rep'd him so he mightn't have been that close :tongue:
Original post by Jordan\
Perhaps he is near is next gem? Although Ena and I just rep'd him so he mightn't have been that close :tongue:


everyone likes karma lol
Original post by Jordan\
I'd say the next thread will be a decisions/ offer holders thread. Perhaps not the latter because around interview and then decisions this thread is probably going to go crazy! :gah:


Yeah the wait for the letter will be horrible :frown:


Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by Messier31
Yeah the wait for the letter will be horrible :frown:


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Hopefully it'll go fairly quickly.. :crossedf:
Original post by Jordan\
Hopefully it'll go fairly quickly.. :crossedf:


Yeah we have A levels to distract us :lol:. Its starting to feel real. Back to school next week and then we'll have sent off our applications within just over a month :eek:.


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