UCAS conditional offers & Predicted grades

Hi, first post and I actually just got an account to ask this question because I'm pretty worried about it, and it seems you people here always have a load of experience and reassuring answers to help out ahah....

I got ABC AS grades (German,biology,history) and an E in chemistry (I'm getting it remarked anyway so hopefully I can just put pending and it won't matter). I'm applying for Business courses , and one law course too at competitive uni's (Durham & Edinburgh) with the hope that I can get a conditional offer (which is all I care about seeing as I am prepared to do everything I can to get a AAA , or even A*AA next year if they just give me a chance) Thing is I have no idea whether I will, because they say the usual offers for these courses are AAA to BBB minimum for A2 results. As I said I will make sure I get this, but I just need the offer first. Anybody have any experience as to whether you can get conditional offers at good unis and courses like this with ABC? Or just rejections?! Of course I'll try to write a really good personal statement as well, with a load of extra curriculars and subject interest thrown in :wink:

I just need to know whether I might be ok, or if I won't and I need to go retaking the whole year, which wouldn't be much fun.

Thanks alot in advance, it will help me out alot :smile:

Reply 1

Lunch_Box

Original post by Academia Swag

E in chemistry (I'm getting it remarked anyway so hopefully I can just put pending and it won't matter).

What do you mean by this? You must declare your AS chemistry grade as E. It does matter because you're not declaring your cashed grades which is pretty bad.

Reply 2

Incredimazing

Get your teachers to predict you A's (and an A* for Durham). If you have an excellent reference, PS and decent GCSEs you have a chance, though there's no guarantee as Law is very competitive. Retake some AS exams in History, and possibly for Biology too if any were a bit 'meh'. There's no need to retake the whole year, just the odd exam. Hope this helps!

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(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 3

Academia Swag

I am resitting biology to make my A easier next year, but thing is I thought unis made you offers based on your AS grades? So it won't make a difference if my resit is in June? :frown:

And Yeah predictions are what I'm hoping for at the moment, just gotta be nice to my teachers :smile:

Oh and I'm only applying for one Law course, as I know i don't have much chance and business is what i'm hoping for really :wink:

Reply 4

BerlinFilmFan

Original post by Academia Swag

As I said I will make sure I get this, but I just need the offer first. Anybody have any experience as to whether you can get conditional offers at good unis and courses like this with ABC? Or just rejections?! Of course I'll try to write a really good personal statement as well, with a load of extra curriculars and subject interest thrown in :wink:

I just need to know whether I might be ok, or if I won't and I need to go retaking the whole year, which wouldn't be much fun.

Original post by Academia Swag

Oh and I'm only applying for one Law course, as I know i don't have much chance and business is what i'm hoping for really :wink:

There are one or two red flags in your posts that make me think you might be in danger of making some poor decisions. Have a look at the following article, I think you'll find it very helpful:

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/How_to_Avoid_Getting_5_Rejections

Good luck!

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 5

returnmigrant

You do need to decide between Business or Law. No Law school will find you very appealing if it appears that you cant even make up you mind if you want to do it or not.

Unless your referee can make a convincing case why you are being predicted AAA or above from an ABCE start, then many Unis will see it as simple 'over predicting' and not make an offer. In any case, you need to apply to a range of Unis with different grades requirements to make certain you have a realistic Insurance choice.

Finally, where a 'grade range' is quoted for admissions requirement (ie. AAB/BBB) then it usually means the lower grade set is for contextual offers (for those from identified low achieving school or from other disadvantaged backgrounds) or mature students offering relevant work experience. All other offers will usually be the 'standard offer' - the higher range. If this isnt clear from the course entry, then email the Uni/Dept and check what the grade range refers to.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 6

knope

Original post by Academia Swag

I just need to know whether I might be ok, or if I won't and I need to go retaking the whole year, which wouldn't be much fun.

Thanks alot in advance, it will help me out alot :smile:

How are you going to convince both law & business admisions tutors that you really want to do their course? Also, I'm not sure on this because I haven't been considering a business-related degree myself, but as it's related to economics might you be at a disadvantage for not taking maths. You might want to look into whether it's strongly preferred or not.

Also, Edinburgh may have BBB as their minimum but you should expect their offer to be AAA; their offer ranges are sometimes misleading as their entry points are actually similar to those of places typically offering A*AA-AAB.

What's probably most important right now is to find out your predicted grades. Plus it's already been mentioned that you have to declare your chemistry grade.

Reply 7

SlowlorisIncognito

Original post by Incredimazing

The universities will be able to see his AS grades. Being predicted something like A*AA from ABC at AS will be considered an overprediction, because the A is two grades higher than his AS grade.

Original post by Academia Swag

I am resitting biology to make my A easier next year, but thing is I thought unis made you offers based on your AS grades? So it won't make a difference if my resit is in June? :frown:

And Yeah predictions are what I'm hoping for at the moment, just gotta be nice to my teachers :smile:

Oh and I'm only applying for one Law course, as I know i don't have much chance and business is what i'm hoping for really :wink:

Universities make you offers based on lots of things. The main ones are AS grades, predicted grades, reference and your PS (although this can vary a bit depending on the course and your circumstances. They also look at your overall accademic profile (i.e. your GCSEs as well). If your referee mentions you are doing a resit, then the universities will know your grade is a bit more likely to go up.

There is no point applying to just one law course though. Either your PS will be very business based, and you won't get in, or your PS will include too much law, and this will harm your chances of getting business offers.

If law is what you really want to do, and you genuinely believe you can achieve AAA, why not think about taking a gap year and applying once you have your results? Once you have full A-levels, it won't really matter what your AS grades were. You could also do a few retakes in this year if your final grades aren't as good as you hoped.