Ask an Admissions Tutor X: 20 September - 21 October

Yes, it would be fine to do that - it's sometimes necessary to adapt our wording for overseas systems.

1) yes you can use a history essay. 2) check with your college but our general attitude is that we don't want you to write things especially for your application.

Hi again, I was just wondering as I'm currently practising for the upcoming HAA test how section 2 will be marked?

As there is no provided mark scheme in the specimen paper or even some sort of indication of how many marks this section is worth, or how an answer should be attempted.

Also is the actual test going to be harder than the provided specimen, as I've just done the one provided (section 1) and scored a LOT higher than the 50-60% that I was told was a good score for the average applicant. Have I been misinformed or will the actual test be harder? What sort of percentage mark are applicants expected to achieve?

Thanks again for all the help

Thank you for your help :-)
Would it be ok if the history essay is from AS (last year)?

What happens to applications which just miss the deadline? For example, http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4368532.

I'm afraid that they are invalid if UCAS tell us it's late.

On the application does it list when the application is submitted? For example what if UCAS was lenient and just accepted some late ones ? If there is the application shows time submitted , do you just toss out all the ones after 18 uk?

Section 2 will be marked out of 10, with 7 being a good score. There is a description of what markers will be looking for in the specification for the assessment.

It's important that you don't think of it like an exam and how much each section is 'worth' - they aren't 'worth' anything in the sense that the assessments, individual sections of them, the interviews, public exam results etc. will all be of differing importance for different candidates. In the end a holistic judgement is made, partly on objective criteria and partly on subjective criteria which, when you are assessing the future and not just the past (as you are in an exam), is inevitable in admissions.

All the specimen papers are designed to be representative of the difficulty of the actual assessments so it's good that you are doing well in it.

Interaction with UCAS is dealt with by CAO rather than the colleges directly, but I understand that there is a time stamp from UCAS which indicates whether an application is valid. CAO tells us when the last batch of valid applications have been dispatched and after that applications are invalid.

All the specimen papers are designed to be representative of the difficulty of the actual assessments so it's good that you are doing well in it.