This discussion is now closed.

Check out other Related discussions

Meeting/Missing IB Offers at Cambridge

Does anyone know what the general margin of missing an IB offer is to still get accepted (i.e. how many points on your score offer and/or how many points off your HL Subjects). Do they mind if you get your HL's and not your points score (or vice versa)? Unrelated subjects? Depends on your interview? all the usual questions...

While I'm on the topic may I just throw in a casual barb regarding the ridiculous comparison in offers between IB and A Levels.. :wink:

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1

Scipio90

G Unit

While I'm on the topic may I just throw in a casual barb regarding the ridiculous comparison in offers between IB and A Levels.. :wink:

Meh. Clearly the universities don't rate the IB as highly as the "5 points = 999999 A levels" conversion tables do. They've been accepting it for long enough to get an idea of what they think is a reasonable offer.

Reply 2

lavalse

Scipio90

no, actually. universities dont understand the IB. having taken both IB and A levels i can say without a shred of doubt that my offer of 40 points plus 7,7,6 at higher level was a damn lot harder than an offer of AAA. They seemed to pay no attention to the fact I was taking a bilingual diploma which required a huge amount of work. (I don't think they even knew what it was, I had to explain in my interview). In fact there was 1 girl in my school who got an offer but she and her referee wrote in asking for them to change it because it was too hard (considering the subjects she took) and then they did! (this was for pembroke)

However lots of universities (Exeter being a prime example) do now recognise the value of the IB and of IB students and as such are giving much lower offers to IB students in recognition of the difficulty of their course.

But back to the OP - don't despair! if you miss your IB offer by a small amount then there's a large chance they'll still take you. With A levels its rather hit and miss and lots of people will be rejected, but in my IB school I don't know anyone who missed their IB offer for Cambridge (or Oxford) and didn't get in. One of my friends who is here doing Natsci had an offer at Trinity Hall, they wanted for 40 points and he only got 38, but they took him anyway. Another Medic I know missed his offer, and got a 6 in both Biology and Maths HL (although the maths is forgivable lol) but they took him anyway (St Catz)!!!!!!! Ok i know those are only 2 examples, but its just to exemplify how even though we get harder offers, they are more leniant with us.

You could still hope for an offer if you're 1 point off (and possily 2 points off). Probably more likely to make it if you get the required grades in your HLs but miss the overall total. These are all variables and really shouldnt be relied on. Just work as hard as possible to make your grades.

Reply 3

lucasarar

Scipio90

Yep. Reality check needed there.

Reply 4

trm90

There's still a decent chance they'll take you under two conditions (including some of the rare cases lavalse posted):

You meet the HL score conditions
You meet the overall score condition

I.e. if they ask for 40 points with 776 and you get 39 with 776 or 40 with 766, they'll definitely reconsider you. However, if you miss both conditions, I don't think they're going to be very nice about it :p:

I might be a bit biased in that respect as my sister who got 38/666 instead of 40/776 wasn't really reconsidered much by Cambridge, so I suppose it's a little different for every candidate :smile:

Reply 5

lavalse

trm90

I might be a bit biased in that respect as my sister who got 38/666 instead of 40/776 wasn't really reconsidered much by Cambridge, so I suppose it's a little different for every candidate :smile:

yes good point!!! the guy i know who got a 6 in Bio HL must have been very impressive at interview for them to still take him. Bio HL is accepted as being easier than Chem or Physics HL and not getting a 7 in it is pretty poor (by Cambridge standards) yet they still took him for Medicine. But i really wouldnt advocate this as something that they would do for many people/something that would happen often.

Reply 6

NilsJohan

I got an offer for 42 777 from Trinity and missed my HL and offer, got 41 776 (was maths HL) and they still took me. Obviously it's gonna depend on how you did on the interview and a lot of other factors.

Reply 7

CocoPop

^ 42 with 777 is a beasty offer. How the heck can that be compared to 3 A's at A level?

Anyway, a girl in my school was offered 38 points with 777 and she got 40 points with 766 and was rejected. Pretty sad...

Reply 8

G Unit

Thanks for your advice, everyone...

the thing is, there are a couple of circumstances which may change my situation (I don't know, you tell me...)

- I have an offer for LAW, 40 776
- My diploma is mainly sciences - and my school forced us to choose those subjects, as literally there are no other subjects on offer :mad:

- relative to cambridge, I suck at science (in my latest exams, I missed a 7 in Physics by 4%, 6 in Chem by 1%, 7 in HL English by 4%) :mad:

- I got an A in my Politics EE (hooray...an chance to study a fun subject!)

Am I being naive if I were to say that HOW CAN YOU EXPECT really high scores in sciences when you're hoping to study law? If I had studied a subject I actually enjoyed (e.g. history) there's no doubt I would have done far better.

hopefully my passion and skill for law specifically would have shown at interview...

p.s. congrats on your billingual diploma, lavalse - that's nuts.

Reply 9

Svefngenglar

G Unit

- relative to cambridge, I suck at science (in my latest exams, I missed a 7 in Physics by 4%, 6 in Chem by 1%, 7 in HL English by 4%) :mad:

You seem to have missed 7s in your mocks only marginally, so don't panic. I got a 5 for Maths HL in my mock and managed to work my way up to a 7 in time for exams, so I'm sure you can do the same with those minor percentage differences.

And as an aside, bilingual diplomas are fairly common in international schools.

Reply 10

lavalse

G Unit

- relative to cambridge, I suck at science (in my latest exams, I missed a 7 in Physics by 4%, 6 in Chem by 1%, 7 in HL English by 4%) :mad:

well im sure that seeing as you got into cambridge you must have a brain upt here. i know its tedious but just sit down and study those sciences like crazy. i think it'll be easier to guarantee 7s in those subjects rather than a 7 in English. you're obviously nearly there, and i know it'll be boring but give it your all - obviously make sure your practicals are top notch. oh and another good way to boost up your grade: know the options modules like the back of your hand, comparatively there is a lot less to know for these sections and its worth 20% (i believe) so you should try to get nearly full marks on this section.

Law seems although about logic and understanding concepts - so really it's not too dissimilar from the sciences.

and yeah bilingual diplomas are normal in international schools, about 50% of my year group got one. the only reason it was a big deal for me was because i didnt come to my school already bilingual and had to learn my second language myself in order to take it at A2 HL (everyone else in my A2 HL class was a native...) so it required a lot more work.

Reply 11

NilsJohan

Yeah I think most people at my school got a bilingual diploma, but then it was in Norway, so most of us knew Norwegian and obviously everyone knew English so it wasnt too hard, although English wasnt a native language for most of us.

Re my offer, was predicted for a 43 777 but yeah :tongue:

It was a pretty tough offer I guess, was quite annoyed I missed my maths to be honest, but I dont really care anymore now. Though it's definitely not worth gambling on missing your offer as you will spend half your summer holiday brooding over whether you'll get in or not...

Reply 12

G Unit

lavalse

I will definitely be studying like mad...but considering the worst case scenario, lets say I get the same marks as my last exams (6 6 5, missing the 776 by average of 3%) is there still a case for me to confirm my place (they're sciences, I didn't choose the subjects, missed out by small amount, A in politics EE).

(I presuming this as I think our practicals and IA's may get marked down, as our school is completely new to teaching IB. all our teachers have never taught IB before :s-smilie:

)

Reply 13

NilsJohan

I think in general IAs always get marked down :tongue:

At least at my school, and they were far from generous about the reports, one year our chem teacher decided he would be really harsh and hope for an upgrade, that year they let all his marks stand... Btw this was pretty much so harsh that noone got over 80%. I doubt Cambridge will listen too much to the 'I didnt choose my subjects' etc and if you miss all your HLs it isnt exactly promising. On the other hand - if you actually did past papers on your mocks, you now have 4 months to improve so that you can do better on the real thing. That should be more than enough to improve those grades enough. Also, on the real thing you wont know how far off you were, unless things have changed since I did the IB.

Additionally, if you do happen to miss your offer, they cant confirm your place until theyve gotten the A-level results in August. This happened to me and I was ready to go to another university until 17th August when they decided they would take me anyway.

Reply 14

fdh19

I was given a conditional offer (deferred for 2010) for Classics (at Clare, Cambridge). The offer was for 39 points with 776 at HL - with one of the 7's being in Latin (the other 7 in either English or History). Having got my results, I have 40 points with 766 at higher - and the 7 is in latin.
I appealed History (it didnt change) and I haven't seen the new breakdown. But before the appeal, I was only 2% off a 7 in history, and I am 4% off a 7 in English.
Can anyone please tell me what they reckon my chances are of still being accepted?
Will the fact that my offer is deferred for 2010 make a difference?
I welcome all opinions as I am obviously very curious....

Reply 15

fdh19

Thanks so much for your reply!
You say the fact that my offer is deferred will make no difference... but does it not mean that I will not be against as many other candidates, because most of the Classics places for 2010 have not been chosen yet, as most will be applying this coming year...?

Reply 16

SunderX

I reckon that what you get in your higher level subjects is probably much more important than your overall score - after all, compared to A Levels your SL's are like extraneous subjects and most likely unrelated to your degree.

My offer was 7/7/6 without an overall score specification, which is just as well, since I got a freak mark in a English A1 (4?!?) paper that pulled it down to a 6.

Reply 17

Scade

I don't think there is any general rule. I applied for deferred entry in 2010 for History at Christ's. My offer was 42 with 777 at HL and I received 43 with 776 at HL, yet they ended up accepting me. This was also way before the A-levels were published as they let me know already on 20th July.

My higher levels were pretty much the most related degrees to my subject as I have History, English A2 and Finnish A1 at HL. So all of them show my essay writing skills. Although the 6 was in Finnish, so perhaps it was the least related of my HLs.

Really, it depends on the person, the college, the results and on many other things so it is very hard to set a general rule (if it were easy, why wouldn't they just have a programme to do it for them :P).

In the end its better to just wait and hope that everything turns okay. Maybe have someone from your school write them if you missed your offer.

Reply 18

fdh19

Do Cambridge take into significant account, if somebody misses their offer for by 1 or 2 marks? I am 1 mark away from a 7 in history, which is all i need to make my offer. It is a mark that I actually lost in my appeal - and if the IB hadnt changed their policy this year to mark down as well as up, then i would have a 7! Will Cambridge take this into serious consideration - cos i am sooo close. ???

Reply 19

TheFriendlySocialist

fdh19

They will, but it'll come down to

a. Whether they have space for you
b. Whether they liked you enough at interview.
c. How closely related the subject was to your subject @ Cambridge, I presume I'm talking to a fellow historian? In that case, it's not brilliant, but they'll take it into consideration.

They tend to be fairly OK about it, but don't expect anything.