Ask an Admissions Tutor IV, 7 July - 27 July 2014

That was extremely helpful, thank you very much!

Regarding the Mathematics test, if a student does not know how to solve the problem, will he/she receive minor help from the tutor?

If I choose to apply to Christ's College, could I ask the admissions team not to demand that I send school essays, taking into account the fact that I have not studied Economics at high school?

Kind regards,

George

I'm thinking... I didn't revise for my exams bar 2 of them, because I hadn't visited Cambridge before I didn't try at all as I'd not known what I'd be missing out on.

Could a student say they didn't revise and then if they seemed good enough receive an A2 UMS offer as opposed to grades?

Has that ever happened? Giving a UMS A2 offer I mean.

Before the intoduction of the A* at A Level, we used to make quite a lot of UMS-based offers at A2. We don't tend to use them now we have the A* and I doubt it would be used in your scenario.

I'm thinking... I didn't revise for my exams bar 2 of them, because I hadn't visited Cambridge before I didn't try at all as I'd not known what I'd be missing out on.

Could a student say they didn't revise and then if they seemed good enough receive an A2 UMS offer as opposed to grades?

Has that ever happened? Giving a UMS A2 offer I mean.

Regardless of applying to Cambridge or not, it is a relatively foolish strategy, not to revise, since you would obviously make a keen applicant to any top university within the UK given you have been taking various A-levels early?

I assume a Cambridge natural science course is very thorough and demanding in terms of difficulty and workload...perhaps you ought to consider whether studying at Cambridge is something you really want to do and not simply focus on getting into Cambridge. It is definitely something a lot of people seem to forget about and not revising for nearly all your exams, in my mind, questions your enthusiasm/motivation toward your academic studies.

If you have somehow now realised you want to study at Cambridge, after sitting your exams, I implore you to devote yourself to your studies this year and wider reading if it honestly interest you...perhaps it will give you a better taste of the motivation required for studying a demanding course at Cambridge and whether its something you want to do. I think it may prove a better indicator than simply having had a look round on an open day....though this is actually a very good way of shortlisting colleges that you think you may like to live in.

(Just my 2 cents..)

You wouldn't need to submit a letter, your school could submit an extenuating circumstances form to discuss your schooling pattern and also your ADHD, assuming you are diagnosed with this condition. This would help place your performance at IGCSE in context and would help with your application. The problem you face with those IGCSE scores, however, even with the extenuating circumstances is that without UMS we have to rely on the IB predictions for your public examination record, which are often unreliable. I'm sorry not to be more positive and I do not think an offer is out of the question in your case but it is important for me, and you, to be realistic about your likely chances.

In terms of increasing your chances, you need to maximise your performance in other areas of the application, the Personal Statement, the school reference and the interview. Do as much reading about Law as you can, especially the theory of law and about recent and likely developments in the law.

Most people who apply for Medicine (probably 75%) get an interview and on paper successful candidate usually have very strong perforrmances in at least two of those three indicators and probably in all three. It is, as you no doubt know, an extremely competitive subject. This slide gives a good idea of the performance of the gathered field in Medicine in 2012 in terms of GCSEs and UMS.

Do you have any slides on Economics stats, in terms of GCSEs and UMS?

Before the intoduction of the A* at A Level, we used to make quite a lot of UMS-based offers at A2. We don't tend to use them now we have the A* and I doubt it would be used in your scenario.

You are welcome. You would not get help during the test itself but the interviewers may discuss the test during the interview. Whether they would do so would be part of their overall interviewing strategy, i.e. they would ask everyone about their test or no-one.

If you have not studied economics then we might as you to send an essay in a related subject such as History or Politics if you are doing those. If you are not doing a reated subject then we wouldn't ask for an essay.

I would have liked a response as soon as possible after my results so that i can make the best possible decision with enough time so i feel i may as well pose my query now with my potential (likely) situation.

I applied to several universities this year, however did not apply to Cambridge even though i had aspired to study maths at cambridge for a few years as i was worried about missing any offer i may have been made due to STEP. Instead I decided I would sit STEP this year and apply with the necessary grades in hand, if I did well enough to warrant a gap year.

I envision that I will achieve A*A*A*A*aa with the A2s in Maths, Further Maths, Additional Further Maths and Physics (with high ums in physics and most maths modules). Also, my GCSEs are fine mostly A*s and a few As.

I also sat STEP as previously mentioned and expect to have achieved a relatively strong S grade in paper II. However, my dilemma now is that I didn't do anywhere near as well as Id have liked to, or rather had been performing in mock papers, in STEP III... and from my own estimations am probably sitting on the 1/2 borderline (~70 marks or a little less realistically). Say I achieved S,2 is it unlikely that I will be successful in receiving an offer given that I have failed to meet the typical 1,1 offer that is normally set. Also if I achieved S,1 (bearing in mind that whatever grade i get in paper III it will be close to the boundary) am I in a strong position of receiving an offer and would it be unconditional or if i was lucky enough to receive an offer would I be required to repeat STEP? (And by extension if I somehow gained an offer with S,2 would i have to repeat paper III or both even)

Finally, if I applied to Christs (or indeed any other college) would the interviewers have access to my STEP scripts?

Thank you so much for your help and for the honest answers.

When faced with a situation like this one, (of having to rely on IB predicted) are colleges more likely to opt not to risk being misguided by inaccurate predicted grades, or are they most likely to give a conditional offer to the student to test their true abilities? Especially given my IGCSE grades, are colleges likely to give me a chance if I end up not having ADHD?

Lastly, as it pertains to my IGCSE's, I've heard colleges consider the performances of other students in the school, and I don't think my school gets very high average scores, and we are very limited in terms of the number of subjects we can take....

Do you have any slides on Economics and HSPS stats, in terms of GCSEs and UMS?

We certainly look at students' performance in the context of their school environment and we would still look at you seriously even if you were not diagnosed with ADHD. One strong thing you have in your favour is a good upward trajectory from GCSE to IB and you are clearly doing very well in Year 12 to be predicted 42 points. Colleges might look favourably on that as we like students who are getting better but, were you to receive an offer, I would not be surprised if it was set at 42 points with little liklihood of repireve if you dipped under.

This would be greatly appreciated too

I believe the average is 9 a stars for gcse?



Hi Sir, how do you regard a student taking AP exams in say Chemistry and then doing an A Level in Chemistry, just assuming that said student achieves a 5 in the AP class, and an A* in Chemistry?

Is it pointless doing both as a UK applicant and better to do an A Level instead?

Hi, I’m an italian girl and I want to apply to HSPS. I graduated from high school this June so I already know my grades. I have passed the Diploma di Esame di Stato with an overall score of 100/100. Do I need specific grades in some subjects? If yes, I got 10/10 in Philosophy, 9/10 in Pedagogy and 9/10 in Math, are they good enough?
I am particularly worried about the written works. I know I have time till July/August 2014 to take the IELTS, but I have to send my written works in November when my English level won’t be very good yet I think. So maybe I will use simple words, simple structures of the sentences etc. Will it influence my chance to be invited to attend an interview?
One more question, do they have to be school essays?
Thank you very much in advance!

If you want to do both there is nothing wrong with that but if you were going to choose just one then in terms of a Cambridge application then A Level Chemistry would be better as our courses are designed to follow on from the UK curriculum.

I understand. Thank you very much for your useful information!

I have one last question regarding my grades. On the university's website, it is written that for Economics they would usually ask for an overall grade in the Romanian 'Diploma de Bacalaureat' of 9.5, with "9.8 in specific subjects".
I have just received my results and my overall mark is 9.75 with 10 in Mathematics, 9.7 in Physics and 9.55 in Romanian Language and Literature. Are these marks high enough? I am worried about Physics where I missed the maximum mark of 10 because of two horrible 2-digits approximations.

Thank you for your help!


Kind regards,

George