Official University of Manchester Applicant Thread for 2024

Do you do AQA? Because I’m pretty sure it’s the same, it’s the NEA

I am indeed AQA. I was unsure about this because I'm not too familiar with the OCR spec (for obvious reasons) so I was just curious to see whether you had it as bad as us with the NEA. What is your general project idea and how far along are you with it? Also, some A level courses require their students to submit coursework (and when I say coursework, I mean the work they do in lessons so I'm sure you understand as to why I was confused. It was my interpretation of the word "coursework").

Oh ok
Well our teacher allows us to work on it outside of lessons so
I’ve done my analysis
We are working in iterations so I’ve done my first iteration and am currently working on my second
What about you?

We are allowed to work on it outside lessons too (in fact our teacher recommended we finish about 80% + of our project in the summer so that Year 13 is a breeze). I finished my analysis in March (before mock exams) but then progress slowed down for EPQ stuff and mocks.

For us, we fetch all of our requirements from our end client first for this project and analyse the problem in the Analysis section. Mine was about 9k words. We then discuss design ideas as to what is possible, what they are after etc after we have finished the analysis section. We talk about this in the documentation but we haven't gone about doing that yet but I have transcribed the conversations with my end user so should be a breeze.

Then end of June/start of summer to the end of summer, they want us to implement/build our projects in code. My teacher wants our set to finish by Friday this week with the building so that we can start writing the documentation as soon as we can. I'm almost finished. I'm basically two algorithms away from finishing my entire thing. Then we do the Implementation section documentation, walking through our code, its structure and design and why we went about taking this approach. We use the list of skills and the group they belong to (which is a document provided by AQA) to identify techniques we have used in our implementation. We had to pre-meditate what we were going to use to make our projects work. Following this, we have the testing section where, essentially, we aim to break the code (if at all possible) and find any features that don't currently exist (this is actually my favourite bit - testing because it is fun watching your code blow up and then solving the issue. Up until I have clue how to solve the errors). Then after testing, we get our end client to do an evaluation report and submit it to us. We then print out the entire document (which is usually 120+ pages). Someone in the year above (obviously left now) had 351 pages in Word for their documentation.

You have appendices where you write down any references to any sources you have used during research and implementation.

If you get full marks in this, your minimum grade is an E.

Well done! What were your predicted grades?

Obviously haven’t seen yours but from what you’ve described, it sounds as if you’re confident in what you’re doing
Yh it’s important to do well in this, if you don’t it’ll be difficult to get an A* I think
Do you think you know what you will get/expect

You are right. I don't know about last year's batch (partly because I haven't looked at grade boundaries). When I saw the 2022 grade boundaries, it was 283 out 375 for an A* and 75 marks come from the NEA so it is possible to do without it but a good NEA score makes it far easier. How are you doing with yours? How many more iterations? Our teacher said we could do either way but recommended the way I am doing now because the iterative method often takes longer and if your end client asks for more requirements that will require a change in design, you will have to change more of your code. You are following the agile methodology which is used in industry nowadays but I am using waterfall methodology which was used before agile.
I think because its short term waterfall is slightly easier but there is no real difference.
I hope to get anything above 60 for having slaved away at it for so long. My code may be relatively simple but it has included lots of skills and I (humbly might I add) think I am quite good at explaining things so 🤞.
The final deadline for the entire thing is Feb 2024 so I still have time but there are so many other things on my plate at the moment so I need to find the time.

Bro to be honest the most important thing is the documentation, so don't worry if your code is simple. As long as you've included a complex algorithm of some sort and databases you should be good. Yhh the waterfall model is good tbf but we dont really get a choice, we were told to work in iterations. Currently im on iteration 2 so after this one I have 5 left. Exactly thats why im trying to secure a good mark on this, it will relieve my stress for paper 1 and 2. Feel like its very important to get an A* in this otherwise you risk missing your manchester offer

True. 🤞🤞 Good luck with your remaining iterations. When is it due in for you??

Thank you bro, good luck with yours also, hopefully ill see you at manchester
around easter time im sure, what about yours?

Thank you bro, good luck with yours also, hopefully ill see you at manchester
around easter time im sure, what about yours?

We never know. I hope we do meet, if indeed I end up going there. I don't mind going to Manchester but I applied to better universities (not that I am saying Manchester is bad, it fact it is very good for Computer Science) like Imperial where I REALLY REALLY want to go to.

they confirmed mine on the 19th. not seen anyone get offers for foundation year yet so you should be good
where else did you apply

what time in the day are responses typically given?

i got an offer today!!!

I have gotten 2 offers for different courses and both came at 19:06

I have gotten 2 offers for different courses and both came at 19:06

Hello there, do you mean 2 different courses at Manchester?