Official: Keele University A100 2023 entry Applicants and Offer Holders thread

Someone please correct me if i’m wrong, surely those who haven’t had invite for an interview are going to be in a much more competitive situation than those who had interviews early because there’s now less spaces available??? so weird that offers are out before all the interviews are over

Is there at least a way to check if our application has been viewed? Mine has been saying the same thing since I submitted my R&R form 😭

These are random figures, used because it makes the maths easier, they do not align to Keele's actual numbers!

Let's say you have 500 interviews to give out. In previous years, the highest ever cut off score needed for an interview was 60/100 and the lowest 45/100 on the R&R. As you are going through, you set a threshold of 80/100 to get an immediate interview. Anyone below, say 30, will get rejected. The rest sit in a big pot.
As you mark more R&R forms, you get a better idea of this year's standards, and can refine/lower the cut off as you go along. So at 50% marked, you have a reasonable idea of where it may be, but still save enough interview places that if all those left scored better than expected - and they won't, the numbers do not vary by much year on year - they could have an interview. You can also raise the level at which you reject, as you already have enough on hold scoring more than say 40/100 to fill all interview slots, so you can reject any below this score. So the cut off for an interview goes down and the score for a rejection goes up until they meet in the middle when all forms are marked.

The same happens for offers. Say the highest ever inteview score needed for an offer was 70/100. You can offer anyone with >90 a place immediately, as you know from your past stats that this will get an offer. As you interview more, you get a better idea of where this year's cohort is performing, and can lower the cut off for an offer, but always maintaining enough places for an unexpectedly high number performing well.
There will be considerable margins in their early interview and offer scores, so there are plenty left for everyone still to be marked to get an interview and still to be interviewed to get an offer, if they perform highly enough. Say they have 250 offers to be made, they might make an early 50, whilst still having 200 left to interview, as they have enough offers left to make all of them an offer, if needed. When 100 left to be interviewed, they may have made 150 offers. When they have the final score needed, thay will just rank all of those left - who may have been interviewed at any time - and make those above the cut off an offer. So you may interview first and only get an offer in the final batch, or as we see now, you may interview now and get an offer a couple of days later, as they know your score would be in, whatever, and they want these people to feel the love!

Med schools have been doing this for years, and there will be somebody doing the confidence intervals and regressions on all the data to make sure they do not overdo things. Med schools want what they consider the best applicants on their course, so it would make no sense to throw offers about willy-nilly and risk missing out on someoone who scored highly - don't worry, if you perform well enoug at interview, you will get an offer

If anyone is interested about our process, reply 1174 is very accurate according to our admissions team!
Regarding an update about how many applications are left, we have send the vast majority for academic marking, some of those that weren't are waiting for an academic reference, so make sure to check your email (and Junk folder) as well as your Evision portal!

Hope this helps,
~Michelle

What is academic marking

The marking of academic course material such as exams, or in the case here, your A level grades.

~Michelle

Is this relevant to applicants who have not yet sat their A-levels yet ?

Hiya,

Yes, this is what this is referring to. Your official A level grades that have not been done yet. Once you've sat you exams and receive your grades, that what this is referring to
~Michelle

If anyone is interested about our process, reply 1174 is very accurate according to our admissions team!
Regarding an update about how many applications are left, we have send the vast majority for academic marking, some of those that weren't are waiting for an academic reference, so make sure to check your email (and Junk folder) as well as your Evision portal!

Hope this helps,
~Michelle

This is a very correct view of things according to our admissions team!
Regarding an update about how many applications are left, we have send the vast majority for academic marking, some of those that weren't are waiting for an academic reference, so make sure to check your email (and Junk folder) as well as your Evision portal

I am sorry, but I don't get what you are saying. You mean to say all the R&R forms have been marked? My daughter has not heard anything since the forms have been submitted and we regularly check email and portal. Can you please give more information on it?

Thanks

Hiya,

Yes, this is what this is referring to. Your official A level grades that have not been done yet. Once you've sat you exams and receive your grades, that what this is referring to
~Michelle

Hi, please could you explain this again, I don't think people (me included) are grasping what you are trying to relay?
How does this apply to access to HE students?
Also, What do you mean by 'Once you've sat you exams and receive your grades' please?

I may be wrong, but I think this was a generic statement/terminology that perhaps applies more to other courses than to medicine. It is likely admin have ticked off those that meet the academic minimum requirements (predicted A levels are not looked at by Keele) and what would be "academic marking" for other courses is R&R form scoring for medicine.
Academics will have been checked - a few they are waiting for an academic reference, and the others have had their R&R form sent for marking. Many will have been scored but sitting in the "grey area" where the outcome is not clear yet, and as more scores come in, they will fall above the interview cut off or unfortunately below the rejection cut off.
I know the waiting is tough, but Keele have always done things like this, and it works for them. They offer options for people who do not perform as well on UCAT, taking what might be considered a more holistic approach. But that takes time - ranking UCAT scores is easy, reading and scoring R&R's is time-consuming.
Everyone will hear and everyone will get the outcome they would have got, regardless of when their form was marked, so sit tight, try and not get too hung up with the waiting and focus on something productive (like A levels !!!).
Good luck to you all

I understand all that has been relayed. Just one question, what about those with achieved A levels how does the academic screening apply?