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UCAS chief: 'Schools are exaggerating predicted grades'

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Original post by nulli tertius
Oxbridge gains nothing from UCAS which is why they had to be enticed to join UCCA in the first place. The number of UK offerees who turn down Oxbridge is trivial. Oxford, at least, addresses the only undergraduate market where this is a serious risk, the USA, by making unconditional offers and extracting significant fee deposits.

I suspect the conversion rate (offer to bum on seat) for even the top end of the rest of the RG is too low to make going it alone viable. One has to remember UCCA was set up for one purpose only, to prevent multiple accepted offers. UCAS continues to do that job very well. Anyone who goes it alone will immediately be faced by an enormous number of no-shows. It is very noticeable that the two private law degree providers, University of Law and BPP who initially operated outside UCAS, have now chosen to join.


The russell group have owned the domain name for a russell group applications service for years (or so the grapevine says).

http://www.nominet.uk/whois/?query=rgapplications.co.uk#whois-results :flute:

As I understand it the plan would never be to go it alone entirely but to set out as their own mini-ucas.
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by Chellecharity
Where tf you going to study that they're asking for A*A*A* 😂


Warwick Maths and Cambridge Maths have offers like that

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My predicted grades are A*AA, and got AABB in AS level; I got the A* because I got 95% in AS sociology, an A in history because that's my AS level grade. For English I got a high B in AS, but I had to do loads of extra work to get them to change my predicted grade to an A.
Original post by PQ
The russell group have owned the domain name for a russell group applications service for years (or so the grapevine says).

http://www.nominet.uk/whois/?query=rgapplications.co.uk#whois-results :flute:

As I understand it the plan would never be to go it alone entirely but to set out as their own mini-ucas.


I suspect the RG knows that if it tried to do anything the RG would collapse. The RG is an inertia led organization committed to opposing any change that would harm any of its members. Doing anything proactive would require agreement from its members that is unlikely to be forthcoming.

Cameron's recent comments on Access didn't emanate from evenings spent at Islington Labour Club. There will be university leaders behind the scenes disputing the "nothing to see here, move along" line that the RG publicly pedals.
Original post by PQ
The problem with the timeline is Scottish university start dates...most start either 1 or 2 weeks into September and they weren't prepared to shift.

Likewise the schools refused to bring A level exams all back to May to allow marking and results in June (and the exam boards wouldn't agree to the schedule because although it staggered the marking to significantly before GCSE most of their marking staff are teachers so aren't free to mark until exams finish completely in July).
Add in a disadvantage to any applicants needing to resit a GCSE AND major complaints from Oxbridge and arts courses needing a portfolio assessment as well as exams and it all fell down. Then there was an election and a new government who were more focused on the fees than the fairness of admissions and so the project got cancelled in2012.

UCAS would love it though- they could fire 80% of their staff and just have summer temps and still charge every applicant £28 for applying while selling on their data to advertisers and charging universities extortionate fees.

If M C-C carries on pushing it then what is most likely to happen is that UCAS will lose their monopoly as soon as Oxbridge opt out and the rest of the RG follow to try to keep their myth of prestige.


I can see all the downsides, and I didn't think of it disadvantaging applicants needing to resit GCSEs.

To be honest, in an ideal world, I'd want everyone to take a gap year. I know there are reasons why that's not feasible, and courses where this wouldn't be ideal, but I think it would take the stress out of things for students and if it were the norm to do some work experience before picking a course, then less people might go for courses they end up hating. Plus, it would give people a chance to get real life work experience and save a bit of money.

I just think there's so much pressure and stress in year 13, there has to be a better way for students so that they can focus on exam results and then worry about getting into uni.

However, I still think this "problem" is at least partly due to unis pitching their offers a bit too high- if you're regularly letting in candidates who missed their offer by two or three grades, then the offer is too high imho. I know it's not that simple, but I don't think teachers can be blamed for doing something that's clearly working (short term at least) for their students.

Clearly with the AS changes in, some part of the system does need a re-think.
Original post by SlowlorisIncognito


To be honest, in an ideal world, I'd want everyone to take a gap year. I know there are reasons why that's not feasible, and courses where this wouldn't be ideal, but I think it would take the stress out of things for students and if it were the norm to do some work experience before picking a course, then less people might go for courses they end up hating. Plus, it would give people a chance to get real life work experience and save a bit of money.



That really would dent Access though. There is no doubt that even without the gap yah stereotype, it would be much harder for poorer families to cope with a young person out of education, and without poor employment prospects.
:smile::smile:
(edited 8 years ago)
I got AAAA as AS, and they weren't that high As either but in the mid-80s. I've been predicted A*A*A, which I do think I can get but I was expecting to be predicted AAA. I would definitely say my predictions are optimistic, I was expecting to have to persuade a teacher I could get an A* so they would predict me higher so I could apply to Durham. In the end, I had to ask one of my teachers to predict me and A instead of the A* she offered so universities wouldn't get their hopes up :tongue:
I was predicted B's but I didn't get any B's in AS so mine were definitely inflated. My teacher even said that they didn't think I'd get a B in one of my subjects. Can you still get accepted if you've missed out on your conditions by 2 grades?
Was 3 UMS off a A in AS maths, ended up being predicted an A* from a teacher who knew me for about three weeks. She was stretching it a bit imo, especially considering the grades I'm getting now (hopefully by exam time this will change). My other two predicted grades were fair, they were the grade above what I got at AS.
This thread is really intended as a discussion of the practice of predicting grades in theory, rather than for people to discuss theirs. If that's what you want to do, please can you start a new thread to do so? Thanks.:smile:
Completely agree with this 2 years ago I achieved BBB and got into my first choice uni although the grade requirements were AAB. I was predicted A*AB also and I knew there was no way i'd ever get those results lol.
Original post by nulli tertius
That really would dent Access though. There is no doubt that even without the gap yah stereotype, it would be much harder for poorer families to cope with a young person out of education, and without poor employment prospects.


I did say in an ideal world :P In said ideal world, there would be lots of employment opportunities for 18/19/20 year olds :tongue:

I can see what you're saying, but equally, there can be a lot of financial barriers for poor people going to uni in the current system. Before I went to uni, I was paying out to go to open days, paying out to go to applicant days, had to put a deposit on my accommodation in August before my loan came in (and this was 2009, so I knew several people who's loans didn't kick in until November or so, one of them had a massively unsupportive family and was in real danger of eviction).

I dropped out, and went back to uni after working for about 18 months. I saved loads, and having that financial cushion, rather than living on the edge of my overdraft all the time was really helpful. The chance to earn and save could really help some people. I know this only works if there are employment opportunities out there though.

I was lucky in that my parents could come up with £300 at short notice so I could put a deposit on my preferred accommodation and that they were well off enough that if I needed bailing out then they would do it, but for students who don't have this, the lack of a safety net can be what leads to them dropping out or not doing well because they're working too much alongside their degree.

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