Ask An(other) Admissions Tutor 25/07/2017-08/08/2017

Thank you! Economics!

Many thanks for answering. That's a really encouraging response but I was surprised as most colleges I'd phoned said that with A*A*B, the B would mean they were very unlikely to consider me. Was wondering if you knew if Christ's is the only college that is more understanding?

Hello!

I was wondering (after reading that it is recognised that non-GCSE qualifications like the IB Middle Year program are internally assessed) whether it is recognised that in the German equivalent of Sixth Form all the grades achieved apart from the final Abitur exam are also internally assessed? I am asking because I feel that in one subject that is relevant to the course I want to apply to, my grade for class participation has been unfair and pulled my grade from this semester down to 13 points (instead of at least the required 14 points I was hoping to achieve)

I imagine there would be others, yes, and I'm a little surprised that you got that response if you are effectively two Maths module re-takes short of A*A*A. Could you PM me your UMS/module scores and I'll try to give you a more informed opinion?

We do put some emphasis on predicted grades, but would weigh them against other evidence in determining who to invite to interview (and bear in mind that we interview around 80% of our applicants, so your chances of showing us what you can do, in person, are quite high!) So there might be an issue if your school was predicting you BBB, say, but if they are predicting that you will achieve within one or two grades of our standard offer, and you do reasonably in any pre-interview assessment, then you would almost certainly be shortlisted. Past the interview stage, predictions are less relevant, as we tend to formulate our own judgement.

We certainly know that at Christ's, yes. (I've actually written an FAQ for German applicants, which I'll try to get up on our website some time!)

Hi, I've heard about 'flags' in your application - I was wondering what these are and how they are taken into account. Thank you!

Thank you for replying! A FAQ for German applicants would be certainly very useful.
Do you think that most colleges are aware of that or does it make sense to specifically ask the all the other ones I am interested in?

Hi, I was just wondering if reapplying to the same college, which you get rejected from in the previous year, be wise? Thanks in advance for your reply!

How many interviews is it typical to have for physical natural sciences and will all the interviews be for the same subject?

Hi there,

I am currently studying Biology, Chemistry, Maths and Further Maths and I am planning on applying to biological Natural Science. Some colleges advise to keep further maths but what is Christ's college's opinion on dropping AS further maths?

Thank you for doing this!

Most but not all colleges use two interviews for physical natural sciences (a small number use one, and a small number use three). The two interviews would typically focus on different disciplines (so you might have one with a Maths focus, and one with a Physics and/or Chemistry focus, say).

Would my GCSEs be sufficient for a competitive application A*AAAAAAAAC?
Would History, Literature, Politics, and Sociology be a weaker set of AS levels in comparison to History, Literature, RE, and Politics?

My course of choice would be either History or Law.