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NOW WITH POLL : Official: A*AA Offers for Cambridge 2010

Poll

For Current Cambridge Students - Would you have still got in ie. did you get A*AA?

These are the criteria for an A* at Alevel:

1. Overall Score of 480 or greater.
2. Overall Score of 270 or greater in the three A2 modules *

You have to have both 1. and 2.

*In Maths, you need a score of 180 or over in C3+C4. These are the only A2 modules that count - you do not need to fullfill condition 2. for Maths.
In Further Maths, FP1/2/3, M3+, S3+ count as A2 modules.

Look:

http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/news/dp/2009031306

The University of Cambridge has decided to revise the standard offer level in most subjects for entry in 2010 from AAA to A*AA.

A document they wrote sometime ago

It is highly unlikely that we would make extensive use of A* in offers in 2010,

I think its a good thing, probably. It means less emphasis on admissions tests. The A Levels are supposed to discriminate between students, this will definitely help.

Reply 1

7589200

OP

18

~~Oh and, I think the first university to do so as well. Well done Cambridge~~

Apparently not?

Reply 2

AnythingButChardonnay

Bugger.

Vazzyb

Oh and, I think the first university to do so as well. Well done Cambridge :biggrin:

UCL beat you to it, sorry.

Reply 4

adilmorrison

12

Vazzyb

Oh and, I think the first university to do so as well. Well done Cambridge :biggrin:

UCL announced the same thing for a number of courses a couple of weeks ago, as did Imperial...

Reply 5

DaveParlour

13

UCL have already started introducing it I think, and all it really means is that people have to work that bit harder in the A2 summer exams, though it will disadvantage people like me who come from bad schools so to get 90%+ would be pretty much off their own back. Hopefully they will negate this by still giving people in this situation the lower AAA offer.

Reply 6

7589200

OP

18

zef99

UCL beat you to it, sorry.

Wow I didn't know that. Thanks for pointing it out!

Reply 7

zef99

15

Vazzyb

Wow I didn't know that. Thanks for pointing it out!

Enjoy TSR's response - http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=836259

Reply 8

7589200

OP

18

Hmm I also think Oxford will follow suite. Mainly because Cambridge wouldn't do anything like this, knowing, that Oxford will have an AAA offer and attract the vast majority of the "minority/lower class" applicants. It would just cripple their widening access statistics!

Reply 9

zef99

15

I wonder what offers Christ's will be giving now.

OP

Eee ?

Here's a strange thing: I got an A*AA offer from Christ's for 2009. But my country's A-levels don't have an A* grade...

I'm contacting them regarding this soon.

Reply 12

NJHL

1

At last, A level students get to feel a smidgeon of an IB student's pain...

Reply 13

smilepea

DaveParlour

UCL have already started introducing it I think, and all it really means is that people have to work that bit harder in the A2 summer exams, though it will disadvantage people like me who come from bad schools so to get 90%+ would be pretty much off their own back. Hopefully they will negate this by still giving people in this situation the lower AAA offer.

They WILL take educational background into consideration:

The University will continue to make non-standard offers where appropriate. For example, students making applications through the Cambridge Special Access Scheme can expect to have their potential, achievement to date, and other relevant contextual data taken into account when offers are made.

Reply 14

Xenomorph v2.1

14

Can't say I'm surprised, it always was a matter of when they'd do it. Besides, most if not all of the oxbridge applicants that I know of get 95-100% regularly anyway so A* shouldn't be much of a problem. I think this will certainly result to less applicants at oxbridge though. Before students with A grades ranging from a scraping 80% to a max 100% used to apply, now it'll only mean those with 90% or above.

Reply 15

zef99

15

Xenomorph v2.1

Can't say I'm surprised, it always was a matter of when they'd do it. Besides, most if not all of the oxbridge applicants that I know of get 95-100% regularly anyway so A* shouldn't be much of a problem. I think this will certainly result to less applicants at oxbridge though. Before students with A grades ranging from a scraping 80% to a max 100% used to apply, now it'll only mean those with 90% or above.

Not necessarily,the only requirement for A* overall, at AS, is that you achieve 80%.

Reply 16

Jon of the North

10

What if you are a reapplicant of the year before the A* grades are given? Ergo, you couldn't physically get an A*?

Reply 17

Good bloke

19

Vazzyb

It means less emphasis on admissions tests.

What makes you think that? The tests are a means of determining who to give an offer to, and attaining the offer conditions is something entirely different.

Vazzyb

I also think Oxford will follow suite.