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Wrong predicted grades

Hi everyone!

My referee sent off my UCAS application on Wednesday evening. I just asked her what my predicted grades are for English language and literature and biology, and she seemed unsure as to whether she had put down an A or a B for biology, and she also told me that she has put down an A for English. I achieved As in both subjects at AS Level with over 90% in English. My English lecturer has predicted me an A*.

I believe my predicted grades should be A*A, but that isn't what has been written on my application. Is there any way that I can have this changed?

Thanks in advance.

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Reply 1
Avatar for la95
la95
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Anyone? I'm applying to some really competitive universities so I'm extremely concerned about this. :frown:
Reply 2
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laura596
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This happened to a friend of mine, she got her referee to email all her universities with the correct predicted grades as soon as possible and they all accepted the change. Make sure you do it quickly though, before they have made a decision. Good luck!


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Reply 3
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la95
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Original post by laura596
This happened to a friend of mine, she got her referee to email all her universities with the correct predicted grades as soon as possible and they all accepted the change. Make sure you do it quickly though, before they have made a decision. Good luck!


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Thanks for the response! I'll go and see my lecturers later!
Reply 4
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Juno
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It has to come from your referee, so it doesn't matter what you think you should be predicted, it's what they think. Speak to your referee asap to discuss this with them

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If you aren't sure exactly what you've been predicted, you can get your reference from UCAS under the data protection act. There is a small fee payable for this.

If the grades predicted differ from what you've been previously told, you should then take it up with your referee and individual teachers. If your referee has made a mistake, she should contact universities and let them know.
Reply 6
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la95
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Original post by Juno
It has to come from your referee, so it doesn't matter what you think you should be predicted, it's what they think. Speak to your referee asap to discuss this with them

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I haven't made up those predictions - they have come from my subject teachers.
Reply 7
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la95
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Original post by SlowlorisIncognito
If you aren't sure exactly what you've been predicted, you can get your reference from UCAS under the data protection act. There is a small fee payable for this.

If the grades predicted differ from what you've been previously told, you should then take it up with your referee and individual teachers. If your referee has made a mistake, she should contact universities and let them know.

Thanks for your response. I'm going to go and double-check my predicted grades and then email my referee and ask her to email the universities.
Original post by la95
Thanks for your response. I'm going to go and double-check my predicted grades and then email my referee and ask her to email the universities.


That sounds like a good plan :smile: good luck, and hopefully you get the outcome you want.
Reply 9
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la95
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Original post by SlowlorisIncognito
That sounds like a good plan :smile: good luck, and hopefully you get the outcome you want.


I emailed my referee to ask her to email the correct predicted grades to the universities but it was implied in her response that she is unwilling to do so. Where do I go from here?

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Original post by la95
I emailed my referee to ask her to email the correct predicted grades to the universities but it was implied in her response that she is unwilling to do so. Where do I go from here?

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Did she give a reason why she's unwilling? Did she speak to the subject teachers who had indicated you could achieve these grades?
If these are definitely wrong you need an urgent appointment with the head of the school or college. your referee has to show the correct predicted grades whether in your favour or not. to do otherwise is in my eyes professional misconduct
Reply 12
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la95
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Original post by puddingbot
Did she give a reason why she's unwilling? Did she speak to the subject teachers who had indicated you could achieve these grades?


To summarise the situation, I found the application very difficult to complete as a result of a mental health problem (I informed her of this). Consequently, I sent the application to her only a few days before the deadline. She then informed me that she had not written my reference (incorporating, presumably, my predicted grades) and that she might get it done by the deadline but she might not. She did send it off in time, but she wasn't able to access the predicted grade information so she just predicted me AA. I'm not sure why she's unwilling to email the universities, but that was certainly the impression I got from her email.

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Reply 13
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la95
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Original post by swanseajack1
If these are definitely wrong you need an urgent appointment with the head of the school or college. your referee has to show the correct predicted grades whether in your favour or not. to do otherwise is in my eyes professional misconduct


They are wrong - I should be predicted A*A but I've been predicted AA on my application. I'm certainly thinking about arranging an appointment with one of the heads of faculty.

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Original post by la95
They are wrong - I should be predicted A*A but I've been predicted AA on my application. I'm certainly thinking about arranging an appointment with one of the heads of faculty.

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to knowingly use or to refuse to correct the incorrect results is professional misconduct. a senior member of staff needs to deal with this teacher and get the matter rectified immediately. if she continues to refuse then the matter should be reported to the general teaching council. if you were to lose your uni place the school itself would be in serious trouble as they could face legal action for compensation as they are vicariously liable for the actions of their employee. for this reason alone I suspect the school will ensure action is taken to correct the error. my advise is don't think about it.do it. as far as the data protection act is concerned it wont help in the immediate situation as the period ucas have to respond will be past the time the universities have made their decision although it may be useful if you to make a subsequent official complaint.
Reply 15
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la95
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Original post by swanseajack1
to knowingly use or to refuse to correct the incorrect results is professional misconduct. a senior member of staff needs to deal with this teacher and get the matter rectified immediately. if she continues to refuse then the matter should be reported to the general teaching council. if you were to lose your uni place the school itself would be in serious trouble as they could face legal action for compensation as they are vicariously liable for the actions of their employee. for this reason alone I suspect the school will ensure action is taken to correct the error. my advise is don't think about it.do it. as far as the data protection act is concerned it wont help in the immediate situation as the period ucas have to respond will be past the time the universities have made their decision although it may be useful if you to make a subsequent official complaint.


Thanks for your response. I think the issue is that she blames me for the problem as I sent my application off late for the reasons stated above. I'm concerned that if I take the matter up with a senior member of staff, I will meet a similar attitude in terms of being blamed for the problem (which is a valid argument, as I did choose to send the application off a few days before the deadline - however, I don't understand why she hadn't already written my reference/contacted my lecturers about predicted grades), or else she will be informed that I have complained. I get the impression that she strongly dislikes me and I don't want to annoy her further.

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Original post by la95
Thanks for your response. I think the issue is that she blames me for the problem as I sent my application off late for the reasons stated above. I'm concerned that if I take the matter up with a senior member of staff, I will meet a similar attitude in terms of being blamed for the problem (which is a valid argument, as I did choose to send the application off a few days before the deadline - however, I don't understand why she hadn't already written my reference/contacted my lecturers about predicted grades), or else she will be informed that I have complained. I get the impression that she strongly dislikes me and I don't want to annoy her further.

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whether she blames or not does not justify her or they schools actions if she becomes aware that her predicted grades are wrong she has to rectify it. the school will also try to pass the buck to you they usually do but
they also realise they are letting themselves open to legal action and extremely bad publicity if this gets out . the head could also face action from the GTC if he knowingly allows this without taking action he is also answerable to his governers
Original post by swanseajack1
whether she blames or not does not justify her or they schools actions if she becomes aware that her predicted grades are wrong she has to rectify it. the school will also try to pass the buck to you they usually do but
they also realise they are letting themselves open to legal action and extremely bad publicity if this gets out . the head could also face action from the GTC if he knowingly allows this without taking action he is also answerable to his governers


Whoa, slow down! Things are not nearly at that stage.

Original post by la95
They are wrong - I should be predicted A*A but I've been predicted AA on my application. I'm certainly thinking about arranging an appointment with one of the heads of faculty.

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There is an order to be followed - referee, subject teachers who predicted you the grades, head of faculty, head of year (or whoever has the overall responsibility for UCAS in the school), member of SLT, Head Teacher - all those before you get anywhere near governors.

Confirm your actual predicted grades with your subject lecturers then go and see your head of faculty/UCAS coordinator. The subject teachers will want their predictions to be entered correctly, and the person in charge of UCAS will know the procedures for putting it right.

Don't even think of head/governors/GTC/legal action at this stage, that's a complete waste of energy and would be putting you under stress that you don't need. If you are thinking of taking it further, though, your school will have a complaints policy which would be the correct place to start.

Try not to worry, hopefully it can be sorted without too much difficulty.
Original post by la95
I emailed my referee to ask her to email the correct predicted grades to the universities but it was implied in her response that she is unwilling to do so. Where do I go from here?

Original post by la95
To summarise the situation, I found the application very difficult to complete as a result of a mental health problem (I informed her of this). Consequently, I sent the application to her only a few days before the deadline. She then informed me that she had not written my reference (incorporating, presumably, my predicted grades) and that she might get it done by the deadline but she might not. She did send it off in time, but she wasn't able to access the predicted grade information so she just predicted me AA. I'm not sure why she's unwilling to email the universities, but that was certainly the impression I got from her email.
I'm sorry that your being unwell has got in the way of getting your application completed when you wanted it to be. It's a bit surprising that your referee hadn't already done your reference anyway - most schools and colleges with batches of applicants make sure these all get done long before deadlines come close. It may be that in your case your illness (it's not clear how long this had been an issue) meant that the usual process wasn't followed. Likewise with your predicted grades.

Original post by la95
They are wrong - I should be predicted A*A but I've been predicted AA on my application. I'm certainly thinking about arranging an appointment with one of the heads of faculty.
You have the impression, but you don't know for sure that she won't email the unis. I'd suggest, before you escalate it to anyone else (and if you do, I would start with whoever your pastoral tutor is, assuming it's not this person) that you ask her to clarify what she means to do. You can do this in a non-confrontational way by simply talking to her about it. The approach I'd suggest is something along the lines of "I'd understood that Mr/Ms X intended to predict me an A* for subject Y. I am worried that the unis might reject me if that A* prediction isn't on my application." You can then see how she responds, but you should bear in mind the possibility that whatever you understood you were told might have been changed - it happens. Some schools/colleges even refuse to tell anyone what their predictions are (not an approach I support, I hasten to add).

So, I think you should have another go at trying to find out what your referee is or is not willing to do about notifying the unis of a revised prediction for one of your subjects. If she won't budge, and insists that your tutor for this subject has not predicted an A*, I'm afraid there's nothing you can about it. If she does acknowledge that the correct prediction is an A* then she should be willing to email the unis concerned. If she seems reluctant, offer to collate all the uni contacts details for her. She's no doubt very busy, and it's understandable that she would not be altogether keen on the idea of checking your application to find out which five unis you've applied to, and then looking up the contact details for all of them. I do think she might have cut you a bit of slack because of your illness, but in the end you are more likely to get what you want if you are reasonable and do what you can to help. I would only start looking for help from others if she still won't agree to email the unis even though she acknowledges that the prediction is wrong. Even then I would keep it low profile. Avoid backing her into a corner, as this never ends well.

Obviously I don't know which course you've applied for or which unis, but I really would suggest that you try not to worry overmuch about this. If you get an otherwise completely unexpected rejection (remember, it could still happen even with an A* in the mix) you can ask for feedback (some will give this), and whether they'll reconsider if your predictions are updated. Unis can take as many students as they can hold with grades of ABB or better, so unis have more room for maneouvre anyway, and if they particularly like other aspects of your application they can still make you an offer even your predictions do not exactly match their expectations. I also hope that if your illness is or has been affecting your studies that this is covered in your reference, as that is important information for the admissions tutor.

Original post by swanseajack1
to knowingly use or to refuse to correct the incorrect results is professional misconduct. a senior member of staff needs to deal with this teacher and get the matter rectified immediately. if she continues to refuse then the matter should be reported to the general teaching council. if you were to lose your uni place the school itself would be in serious trouble as they could face legal action for compensation as they are vicariously liable for the actions of their employee. for this reason alone I suspect the school will ensure action is taken to correct the error. my advise is don't think about it.do it. as far as the data protection act is concerned it wont help in the immediate situation as the period ucas have to respond will be past the time the universities have made their decision although it may be useful if you to make a subsequent official complaint.
These are not results, they are predictions - quite different, and in any case generally known to be inaccurate a lot of the time. We are not talking about la95 'losing a place', since this is not about whether s/he meets the terms of an offer s/he holds. It would be tough to prove that a university had rejected an applicant entirely on the basis of a predicted grade, and pointless to try. Starting to talk about professional misconduct and formal complaints is escalating the situation out of all proportion.

Original post by swanseajack1
whether she blames or not does not justify her or they schools actions if she becomes aware that her predicted grades are wrong she has to rectify it. the school will also try to pass the buck to you they usually do but they also realise they are letting themselves open to legal action and extremely bad publicity if this gets out . the head could also face action from the GTC if he knowingly allows this without taking action he is also answerable to his governers
No sensible lawyer would advise pursuing any kind of case on these grounds, and a story like this would have a news value, even at local level, of approximately zero.

Universities decide for or against individual applicants for all sorts of reasons, of which predicted grades will be a part. They certainly won't be the only reason for success or lack of it in getting an offer. The lifting of student number controls for applicants with ABB or better has made quite a difference, so the impact of being predicted AA rather than A*A is probably marginal, all other things being equal. It's also important to remember that offers =/= places, and even Oxford and Cambridge make more of the former than they have of the latter.
(edited 9 years ago)
Reply 19
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la95
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Original post by Jantaculum
Whoa, slow down! Things are not nearly at that stage.



There is an order to be followed - referee, subject teachers who predicted you the grades, head of faculty, head of year (or whoever has the overall responsibility for UCAS in the school), member of SLT, Head Teacher - all those before you get anywhere near governors.

Confirm your actual predicted grades with your subject lecturers then go and see your head of faculty/UCAS coordinator. The subject teachers will want their predictions to be entered correctly, and the person in charge of UCAS will know the procedures for putting it right.

Don't even think of head/governors/GTC/legal action at this stage, that's a complete waste of energy and would be putting you under stress that you don't need. If you are thinking of taking it further, though, your school will have a complaints policy which would be the correct place to start.

Try not to worry, hopefully it can be sorted without too much difficulty.


Thanks for the advice. I have confirmed one of my predictions, and my referee informed me that she put down the correct prediction for that subject, so there are no issues there. In my other subject, however, my lecturer has predicted me an A* - she told me this a little while ago so I will go to double check the prediction on Monday. I'm definitely leaning towards visiting the head of faculty at this stage.

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