The Official Cambridge Offer Holders Thread 2017 Entry

Anyone got mocks this week?? I feel there's something slightly soul destroying about doing a paper and going blank on topics you already knew you were rubbish at less than 2 months before the real thing.


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I've got mocks! Haven't had one yet... first one tomorrow morning... I feel like I haven't revised enough for English lit tomorrow.

Don't have them but I almost wish I did - it would let me see how I'm actually doing rather than what I'm doing at home in non exam conditions, especially in English :/

But then again the real exams are making me stressed enough 😅

Hope it went well. I've had nothing today but I have two each day for the rest of this week and I really dont know if i can face it...




Trust me, you dont want them until you have to do the real thing. I mean, I could have told my chem teacher i wasnt confident on certain topics before i went blank on them in the exam.. In fact I saw her today and I told her and she's going to revise them with me before the other paper that they can come up in. And I'm so stressed I'm not sleeping, which makes the whole experience more traumatic. I mean, in the summer I have 9 exams over 3 weeks, but it's spread over 4 school weeks if that makes sense (my first exam is Weds 7th June and my last is Tues 27th) so I have gaps between them, whereas this week I have 7 in 5 days ( and 6 of those are in 3 days) so it's non-stop. And the first exam on each of the next three days finishes at like 10.45 with the next exam starting at 11.10, so there are very short breaks.




Anyone else feeling like overly teary at the moment... I've just sat and cried in the common room, on my own, because i feel so overwhelmed...

What I'm about to say I mean in the kindest way possible.

Are you absolutely sure that Cambridge will be the most appropriate place for you? Remember that, as a Natural Sciences student, you will be studying a lot more content at a much higher level than you are currently working at. Being worried about your A-levels is totally fine and normal, but it's only going to be harder once you're actually in Cambridge, taking 3-hour exams and competing against people who got 3 or 4 A*s without being so fazed by their sixth form work. Of course different people take things in different ways, but I (or any of the other 3 Phys NatSci offer holders I knew at college) never broke down in tears due to AS or A2 exams.

I'm feeling overly teary and I don't even have exams (my current course is coursework based), so you're definitely not alone. The end of the academic year is a weird time when you have university offers because the excitement of getting the offers has died down and then there are conditions to meet and everything seems to be changing.

I hope you're taking some time for yourself where you don't think about studying/Cambridge at all. I know it's difficult but stressing and getting overwhelmed will help your revision less than taking a couple of hours out to watch a film/Youtube or go shopping.

And because you know that your mocks aren't the real exams - and they're not even scheduled the way your real exams are - try not to take them too seriously. Just class it as a good opportunity to write down what you know for a set number of hours.

I get exactly what you're saying. I think part of it is the fact that I remember having a horrific mocks week this time last year (I got a U and an E in two subjects but then got As at AS level) just because I panicked in the exams. Plus I've been ill a lot of the holidays so in my head I'm massively behind on revision (like no more than 6 hours if i'm being honest though). And I also had to say goodbye to my only good maths teacher today because she goes on maternity leave before the next lesson I'd have with her that I'm not in a mock for. Plus Cambridge applicants (let alone offer holders) from my school are like once every 5 years so there's a lot of pressure from my teachers. And I'm very alone in all of my lessons (my biggest class is 3) so it's not like i know anyone particularly in the same boat.



I'm trying to take breaks but it's so hard because I'm so obsessed with following my Cambridge dreams. But I think the reality of things has suddenly hit me.

That's really good advice about mocks, and I'm trying not to get too worried, but my head of sixth form is adamant that we will get our mock grades for real - even though i went from a U and E to 2 As between now and the exams last year. And its worse when you have had like no sleep because the exams are playing on my mind so much.

@Doonesbury This may sound like a stupid question, but is the protocol for receiving notification of you meeting your offer the same for Cambridge? Do you just get a notification at 7:30 on results day on UCAS like every other University?

So last year you got stressed about doing badly in mocks and then you did well in the actual ASs.

And then this year you are getting stressed about doing badly in mocks and yet the likelihood is you will still do well in the exams...

Try not be so hard on yourself. Have more confidence in yourself and your abilities. Cambridge does.

Literally give yourself a break...

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You don't know how much better that's made me feel 😀😀


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Evening friends (well... night now) if anyone is still around

Literally give yourself a break...

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Just done a pre-mock practise source question and it took me two hours instead of 45 minutes so I'm a bit concerned Timing has always been my weakness! Any tips? I think from now until the exams I'm going to practise and make source questions second nature since its largely following a very rigid structure (that infuriates me).

There isnt really much to it beyond practise when it comes to timing in my experience. Are you sure you needed to write everything you did in those two hours? At GCSE (I dont do anything essay-y at A Level) I found a lot of my time wasting in essay-based exams was me waffling on tangentially related subjects.

It's pretty late, but on the student finance application do I say that my degree is a BA or an MEng?
I'm doing the Chemical Engineering degree, just really confused since the offer letter says the course is 3/4 years.

Does anyone else find that they are useless in mock exams but okay in the real ones? I had what my bio classmate thinks (from what she could tell sitting in front of me in a mock) was an anxiety attack in my bio mock today and then was worse in the chem paper o did, to the point I literally nearly cried on my chem teacher this afternoon. In the real ones I get nervous before but okay in the exams whereas today panic and nerves got the better of me 😭😭 and the same thing happened this time last year in my mocks


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