Question regarding extenuating circumstances

I told my teacher to include in my reference that I had extenuating circumstances for GCSEs. Application has been submitted a few days ago.

Now, after reading through examples of extenuating circumstances I am quite worried.

My circumstances were basically that my grandmother was really ill (she then passed away), a lot of internal family conflict. It sounds quite whiny but it definitely led to a lot of distractions which led me to not get as great GCSE results as I should have (I got 1A* 4As, rest Bs).

However, where I am worried now is that I am reading that uni's have a separate extenuating circumstances form, am I 100% going to have to fill these out? There is not much evidence I can provide, my grandmother died abroad and I will have to retrieve death certificates etc. and that will take time.

Also, there is no way I can provide evidence regarding the internal family conflict. What i'm worried about is, will this slow down my application process and put me at a disadvantage? my predictions, AS results and personal statement are good so I am not worried about that. Just worried that there was not much of a need to write that there were extenuating circumstances, and will I have to definitely fill out the forms?

Reply 1

999tigger

19

Original post by ExtenQ

I told my teacher to include in my reference that I had extenuating circumstances for GCSEs. Application has been submitted a few days ago.

Now, after reading through examples of extenuating circumstances I am quite worried.

My circumstances were basically that my grandmother was really ill (she then passed away), a lot of internal family conflict. It sounds quite whiny but it definitely led to a lot of distractions which led me to not get as great GCSE results as I should have (I got 1A* 4As, rest Bs).

However, where I am worried now is that I am reading that uni's have a separate extenuating circumstances form, am I 100% going to have to fill these out? There is not much evidence I can provide, my grandmother died abroad and I will have to retrieve death certificates etc. and that will take time.

Also, there is no way I can provide evidence regarding the internal family conflict. What i'm worried about is, will this slow down my application process and put me at a disadvantage? my predictions, AS results and personal statement are good so I am not worried about that. Just worried that there was not much of a need to write that there were extenuating circumstances, and will I have to definitely fill out the forms?

Just contact the uni. In your reference should be fine an I expect your teacher just briefly mentioned that you had some family difficulties and a bereavement which may have affected your GCSE performance. There is already a special consideration procedure at GCSE level, so am not sure you can expect too much consideration. Your A level predicteds will be more important and they can see you are consisten with your AS. i wouldnt worry.

Reply 2

Kenneye_j

11

Original post by 999tigger

Just contact the uni. In your reference should be fine an I expect your teacher just briefly mentioned that you had some family difficulties and a bereavement which may have affected your GCSE performance. There is already a special consideration procedure at GCSE level, so am not sure you can expect too much consideration. Your A level predicteds will be more important and they can see you are consisten with your AS. i wouldnt worry.