Booked holiday during Results day. Am I ****ed?

My family have booked a holiday abroad over the A-Levels results day. We will have access to internet and a phone, but can I still sort out offers on UCAS or in the worst case scenario, clearing?

Reply 1

tengentoppa

18

Don't worry, my family have as well, it's no big deal. You only really need a computer to sort it out. Maybe email whoever is in charge of exams at your school and ask them to email you your results? It's what I did.

Reply 2

zephyrdragon

If you have internet and phone then you'll probably be fine. I was camping when I got my results - the internet was slow and there were loads of people wanting to get their results too. Luckily I didn't have to go through clearing, I got my insurance choice - they took a day to decide though so I was back home before I actually knew if I'd got a place!

If you have to go through clearing, I don't know how that works - so someone else will have to answer that :smile:

Reply 3

Slowbro93

20

Is there a person you trust (aunt?) who you could ask to pick up your results? If the worst comes to the worst, you want to be able to not have to rely on admin things such as emailing of results (and some schools may not feel comfortable doing it)

Reply 4

Jkizer

16

Ask a friend to pick up your results and have them text / facebook you all the details of your results.

From then, a phone and internet will do fine.

Reply 5

fnatic NateDestiel

18

Original post by Jkizer

Ask a friend to pick up your results and have them text / facebook you all the details of your results.

From then, a phone and internet will do fine.

What if hypothetically you have no friends :cry:

Reply 6

Jkizer

16

Original post by fnatic NateDestiel

What if hypothetically you have no friends :cry:

Theres one month and a bit before results day.

Thats more than enough to facebook stalk a recognisable name/face from the school and awkwardly stir up conversation before asking the big question :cute:

Reply 7

fnatic NateDestiel

18

Original post by Jkizer

Theres one month and a bit before results day.

Thats more than enough to facebook stalk a recognisable name/face from the school and awkwardly stir up conversation before asking the big question :cute:

lmao win

Reply 8

Carnationlilyrose

18

Original post by tanju123

My family have booked a holiday abroad over the A-Levels results day. We will have access to internet and a phone, but can I still sort out offers on UCAS or in the worst case scenario, clearing?

If you are in clearing, you will be hanging on the phone for a very long time. If you can have a couple of phones, fully charged and with a very large amount of credit, things should be doable, but it isn't ideal and a land line is best.

Reply 9

Carnationlilyrose

18

Original post by Jkizer

Ask a friend to pick up your results and have them text / facebook you all the details of your results.

From then, a phone and internet will do fine.

Schools will not hand out results to friends. If a family member is to be designated to collect the results, this needs to be flagged up to the school well in advance and they will want to see some form of ID/proof the person is who they say they are if they are unknown to the school.

Reply 10

iloveteddy14

15

Yeah just log in and check online, you will get mostly email confirmations anyway and they post up letters UCAS anyway.

Nightworld1066

Reply 11

SlowlorisIncognito

16

You can check UCAS online, and although you won't have your actual results, you'll be able to know the status of your offers fairly easily. If everything goes to plan, and you get your firm or your insurance, there's nothing to sort.

Issues will only arise if you need to enter clearing for any reason. For this, you'll need to know your results, and ideally have a copy of your UCAS information easily to hand. Clearing will involve spending a lot of time on the phone, and potentially a lot of time online. When you say "access to the internet" do you know how reliable this will be and if there will be a cost for it? If you're in clearing you'll often need to accept offers online within 24 hours- so a dodgy internet connection could become a real problem at this stage. Also, it's going to be very expensive spending several hours on the phone to UK universities from abroad. If the connection is unreliable, that could cause you to miss out on a place.

I think, if you think you're likely to end up in clearing, it would be better to stay home, or join your family later. If, on the other hand, you're 99% sure you'll get your firm or insurance, and/or happy to miss out on university this year if things do go wrong, then it's ok to go on holiday.

Reply 12

Jkizer

16

Original post by carnationlilyrose

Schools will not hand out results to friends. If a family member is to be designated to collect the results, this needs to be flagged up to the school well in advance and they will want to see some form of ID/proof the person is who they say they are if they are unknown to the school.

Get a friend in the same year & school then.

I did it last year for somebody, worked out fine. I also know someone whos asked a yearmate to collect his results too since hes off on his gap year during results day. As long as you tell the head before you do this.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 13

SlowlorisIncognito

16

Original post by Jkizer

Get a friend in the same year & school then.

I did it last year for somebody, worked out fine. I also know someone whos asked a yearmate to collect his results too since hes off on his gap year during results day. As long as you tell the head before you do this.

Technically, though, schools can refuse to give out results to someone who's not a relative. I do think if it's all organised in advance, they should go with it, as not everyone has relatives who live close to their school.

Reply 14

Schadenfreude65

14

Is the list of courses in Clearing available online?

Reply 15

Carnationlilyrose

18

Original post by Jkizer

Get a friend in the same year & school then.

I did it last year for somebody, worked out fine. I also know someone whos asked a yearmate to collect his results too since hes off on his gap year during results day. As long as you tell the head before you do this.

Clearly every school has its own stance on this but you can see why they should not give results out to anyone else. It does not happen at the school where I work, nor any others I know of.