Applying to LSE and teacher has no idea how to write an UCAS reference! HELP??

username2031161

Hello, guys! I am a Romanian student and currently working on my application to university. I am aiming for prestigious universities (getting into LSE is my dream) and even I have put all my effort into writing an exceptional personal statement, I am worried about my reference. My referee has no previous experience in writing UCAS references, so receiving an offer from LSE with an average reference seems doubtly.
Can anyone help me with some advice, especially someone who applied for Economics and got into Oxbridge or LSE ? I am trying to offer her some guidance and what I found on Internet is formulaic and does not stand out at all, so an opinion from actual Economics student would be great.

Reply 1

Muttley79

Original post by #Amber

Is this for the next UCAS cycle?

Students don't usually see their UCAS reference as it's confidential.

Our approach is to get each A level teacher to write a paragraph with a predicted grade and then the referee puts this together.

Get her to look at the section on the UCAS website:

https://www.ucas.com/advisers/references

Reply 2

username2031161

Original post by Muttley79

I cannot see my reference, she just asked me to get some more information for her. She read that section on UCAS website, but I think that if I will talk to some current students at LSE I ll get a sense of what this university really wants to see in a reference and give her new ideas.

Also, we do not have A levels. I have already achieved my grades as follows
Maths 9.2/10
Biology 9.6/10
Romanian Language 8.6/10

Reply 3

Muttley79

Original post by #Amber

Each of your teachers needs to write a section as I said - current students won't know what was written!

I write a lot of the Maths UCAS references in my school so you need an Economics teacher's opinion.

Reply 4

username2031161

Thanks you so much, this is really useful! Also, if one of my subject is not at all related to what I want to study (for example Romanian Language), can my teachers skip this one and focus more on Maths or Economics?

if you don t mind me asking, what are your predicted grades?

Reply 5

username2031161

Original post by Muttley79

I understand, thank you! Do you know someone on TSR who can help me? I see you have a lot of threads posted.

Reply 6

Muttley79

Original post by #Amber

I understand, thank you! Do you know someone on TSR who can help me? I see you have a lot of threads posted.

I don't know of an Economics teacher on here - is there anyone at your school that has written a UCAS reference before? The LSE link looked useful and I'm sure Oxbridge would also have information on their websites.

Which other unis are you looking at?

Reply 7

username2031161

Original post by Muttley79

Unfortunately, no. None of my teachers has ever written a UCAS reference before, that is why I am so worried about that. I am applying to York, Edinburgh, Exeter, Nottingham and LSE, of course.

Reply 8

Muttley79

Original post by #Amber

Unfortunately, no. None of my teachers has ever written a UCAS reference before, that is why I am so worried about that. I am applying to York, Edinburgh, Exeter, Nottingham and LSE, of course.

I found this on the Exeter website:

https://www.exeter.ac.uk/media/universityofexeter/webteam/shared/undergraduate/documents/teachersresourcespresentations/writingaUCASreference-hintsandtips.pdf

Exeter is a good uni with a beautiful campus -

Reply 9

Carnationlilyrose

Original post by #Amber

Unfortunately, no. None of my teachers has ever written a UCAS reference before, that is why I am so worried about that. I am applying to York, Edinburgh, Exeter, Nottingham and LSE, of course.

The teachers who currently teach you for the subjects you are studying now need to write a paragraph each about the strengths you have in that subject, being very specific about how well you handle the different aspects of it. These should then be edited together by someone like a form tutor who will add any additional elements about you as a person which may be relevant.

Your reference is important and should give a positive picture of your abilities, but you won't be judged on how good or bad your teachers are at writing the reference. As long as the information is there, that's what matters.

Reply 10

username2031161

Thank you so much, your opinions are veru useful.
I have noticed that LSE really apreciate students who are good at Maths and since my highschool does not offer Further Maths, I thought sitting SAT as a post highschool qualification will be a good idea. What do you think?