Grades vs Interviews..

Two questions:

1) is there any kind of predicted IB grade (say, 42, 43 or higher?) which can guarantee an interview?

2) is there any kind of predicted IB grade (44, 45?) which will guarantee an offer even if the interview goes moderately well/not so good?

I know the interview is very important for people with 'standard' oxbridge grades (AAA, ~39 IB points) but will tutors take exception to extreme grades?

EDIT: I'm not thinking about official guarantees, more like a very high chance of admission.

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Reply 1

Good bloke

There are no guarantees of any kind in an Oxbridge application. I would expect that any hint of cooked predictions will go down like a lead balloon, if that is what you are hinting at.

Reply 2

Flubi

If your academic record is up to par Cambridge will automatically give you an interview whereas Oxford are much more picky about who they interview.

Reply 3

Azer

Bloke, no, that's not what I was hinting at. I was wondering whether the extra effort needed for a 43-45 is actually worth it if the interview is all that matters anyway :smile:

Flubi, is this your subjective opinion or a fact? How does Oxford choose its interviewees then?

Thanks for your answers.

Reply 4

Flubi

That is a fact. The general statistic of Cambridge interviewees being offered a place is 1:4, whereas with Oxford it is more like 1:2. Oxford looks at your ps and reference initially to a much greater extent than Cambridge.

Reply 5

Rudrax

Azer

Bloke, no, that's not what I was hinting at. I was wondering whether the extra effort needed for a 43-45 is actually worth it if the interview is all that matters anyway :smile:

What you should be avoiding is trying to calculate the best way to get in by cutting corners.
If you're capable of getting 42+ then definitely try to hardest to get that. Also try your hardest to ace your interview. Why can you just not do great in both? :confused:

Surely any extra effort your put in can't damage your chances.

So just try your best, we're not admissions tutors so we can't say which bit they place most emphasis on. Also every applicant has a different situation: different courses, different colleges, different interviewers and different application procedures (i.e. tests/multiple interviews, prepatory work). So the only thing you can be sure about is that trying your hardest/best will put you in the best position to get an offer.

Reply 6

epitome

Azer

1) is there any kind of predicted IB grade (say, 42, 43 or higher?) which can guarantee an interview?

No, but anything above 40 is going to get properly looked at. :smile:

(That's not to say people with slightly lower won't be, of course). No guarantees, though: I know more people than is comfortable who've not got an interview at Oxford even with *almost* straight-As throughout. Cambridge interviews more.

Azer

2) is there any kind of predicted IB grade (44, 45?) which will guarantee an offer even if the interview goes moderately well/not so good?

Hahahaha...no. Not a chance. Sorry. Obviously 44/45 is awesome, but there are sufficient people with the top-top grades that it's really not the be-all and end-all. Obviously it's a point in your favour (!), but certainly not going to guarantee you anything. Too many people applying to Oxbridge have brilliant grades for it to be that much of a swaying-factor. But it is, of course, a *factor*.

Good grades won't harm your application. :wink:

Reply 7

Lizsco3

Yes, Oxford is more selective with interviews and use tests such as the HAT (for history) to determine who to interview as well as ps and reference (as the poster above said), while cambridge claims to interview 95% of all applicants. Both of them place emphasis on interview performance.
I applied to cambridge with predicted grades in the 40s (IB), got an interview, which I screwed up, got pooled, then rejected. So high grades do not guarantee a place, but the extra effort IS needed in order to show your commitment and that you're hard-working. And it is needed for interview, which is important not to screw up.

Reply 8

Greatleysteg

Flubi, I don't think 1:2 is quite on the mark for the number of interviewees made offers for Oxford....of the 12 modern languages people in my group during interviews, only 2 of us got an offer, and most people I know saw the majority of their friends rejected whilst only a couple got offers. 1:3 maybe?

Reply 9

Alexander

Flubi

Oxford looks at your ps and reference initially to a much greater extent than Cambridge.

Although that might be true to some extent, I think rejections without interview tend to occur only when either a candidate is predicted less than AAA (or perhaps AAB), or when a candidate has performed relatively poorly on the BMAT/ELAT/LNAT etc.

Reply 10

Azer

Thank you for your replies :smile:

just one point mentioned by Epitome - 'there are sufficient people with the top-top grades' - is not entirely accurate for IB in my opinion, as only 0.18% of test takers this year (65 out of ~35000) received a 45, and approximately twice that received a 44. Since many of these students will apply to universities other than Oxbridge, I thought that such a high grade might balance out a mediocre interview.

Reply 11

epitome

Azer

Thank you for your replies just one point mentioned by Epitome - 'there are sufficient people with the top-top grades' - is not entirely accurate for IB in my opinion, as only 0.18% of test takers this year (65 out of ~35000) received a 45, and approximately twice that received a 44. Since many of these students will apply to universities other than Oxbridge, I thought that such a high grade might balance out a mediocre interview.

I'm afraid that the IB is not given full recognition for how difficult it is, by many admissions tutors/interviewers. A few of the enlightened would see a 44 and say "wow!", but not the majority (yet). I know of some who, last year, were still saying that the IB does not offer sufficient intellectual preparation for degree-level courses. (Yes, I know, clueless).
You will find, too, great varience in the offers given by the different colleges (though the websites will likely all say the same) -- anything from 38 to 43.

This is why you cannot rely on the grades to make you stand out: a less-than-perfect IB score, unless people understand the system, is simply less-than-perfect; just as AAA at A Level is pretty boring (*sobs*) because so many people get it (including c.5,000 people rejected from Cambridge every year...). Lots of things influence admissions dicisions, though, and you can be sure than good marks will never do you harm! :smile:

(NB: Not *all* people in admissions are clueless about the IB. There's no need to panic. I'm just saying, really, that many people would equate 44/45 to AAA...rubbish, I know).

Reply 12

Azer

Thanks for the clarification ! :smile:

Reply 13

Turdburger

By the way, Oxford doesnt offer higher than 40, or so is the party line.

Reply 14

epitome

Turdburger

By the way, Oxford doesnt offer higher than 40, or so is the party line.

THAT is useful to know -- hadn't realised there was such a difference.

I do think an attitude change is happening here, though...it's just happeneing slowly. And, as I say, it's not everyone.

As far as I'm concerned, *everyone* should do the IB. But that's a rant I'll spare you for now. :wink:

Reply 15

Glutamic Acid

epitome

As far as I'm concerned, *everyone* should do the IB. But that's a rant I'll spare you for now. :wink:

*******s!

Reply 16

epitome

Glutamic Acid

*******s!

Wanna take it outside? :p:

Reply 17

Glutamic Acid

epitome

Wanna take it outside? :p:

Yes. *Rolls up sleeves* :p:

. (By the way, I'd support the idea if the IB subjects were unrestricted.)

Reply 18

epitome

Glutamic Acid

Yes. *Rolls up sleeves* . (By the way, I'd support the idea if the IB subjects were unrestricted.)

*looks for a suitable dark allyway for fighting this out*

(By "unrestricted", do you mean without the compulsory subjects/options, or do you mean the range of subjects? Because I like the fact that there are compulsory things, though I understand why it narks people off. And, if we carry this on in parentheses, do you think it counts as taking the thread off topic? :wink:

)

Reply 19

Glutamic Acid

epitome

)

On-topic: Interviews are important.

(Yeah, without the compulsory options. The idea of having to do a language meant it was automatically a nonstarter, as I'm hopeless at them. If I'd have been able to pick 6 unrestricted subjects, then I'd have given it more thought. After revising for physics using an IB revision sheet, I do prefer the style more than A Levels; the questions really make you think. And the range of subjects isn't great, but I'd imagine they'd improve as the IB became more popular. And parentheses solve everything.)