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Worried about Year 12 prediction exams

Hi,

I started Year 12 in September and my A-levels are going alright, I'm enjoying them all and honestly wasn't worried too much about Year 12 until something was mentioned recently and now I'm concerned.

I can't help but feel worried about the UCAS prediction exams at the end of the year. I didn't even know about them until the Year 13s got theirs recently and there were several mixed reactions. I know a girl in Year 13 who got a predicted E in maths and got rejected by most Unis for her chosen course and will most probably end up in clearing. Similarly, some planning to do medicine or dentistry (with Bio, Chem, and Maths A-levels) got Cs and Ds and had to look for other courses / retake the year as Unis rejected them.

My head of sixth form in the assembly also said something like, 'If you get a D in a prediction exam, there's no way we can predict you an A or A*.' This worried me and made me think 'Maybe I need to start revising NOW.' Seems a bit extreme but I don't want to be in a position where I need to retake the year and/or get rejected by Unis because of my poor predicted grades.

Anyway, my main question is, how much do these prediction exams matter? When should I start revising for them? What if you don't meet the grade requirements for your chosen Uni course? Etc.

For context, I take A-level Politics, Geography and Economics and I wanna do either Law or Politics and International Relations. I know that these courses are competitive, so I want to make sure that I do well in my AS and A-levels to do them.

I did pretty well in my GCSEs (majority 7s and 8s, few 6s) but I did have to work hard for them as I was getting 4s and 5s before. I feel like I have to do the same for A-levels and put in much more work as I know how difficult they are.

Thanks!

Reply 1

DataVenia

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

Original post by howdy07

Different schools predict your A level grades in different ways, but they're all evidence-based. Some will exclusively use exams taken at the end of year 12 (which sounds like what your "UCAS prediction exams" are). Some will include the impact of end-of-topic tests throughout the year. Some will provide an opportunity at the beginning of year 13 to take additional exams if those at the end of year 12 didn't go to plan. So, you'd need to ask your own school whether the only information they use is from these "UCAS prediction exams" to assess how important they are for you.

Predicted grades are very important, and it's the basis upon which universities decide to whom they should make offers. If a university has 100 places on a particular course, they will make more than 100 offers (as they know not all candidates will take-up the offer, and that not all will meet the grade conditions detailed within the offer). But if they have 1000 applicants for that course, they can't possibly make an offer to all of them. So they will use your predicted grades when making offer decisions. If your predictions are lower then the grades you would need, then they would be less likely to make you an offer. This will vary according to the competitiveness of the course.

If you don't get an offer, then even if you attain or exceed their required grades, you may be unable to secure a place there via Clearing if they're already full. You will almost certainly be able to obtain a place somewhere via Clearing in these circumstances, but it may not be at one of your target unis.

As to revision, the best approach is to be doing continuous revision throughout years 12 and 13. This might mean writing-up notes, flash cards, mind-maps etc. at the end of each topic, or perhaps whilst you are still studying that topic. Keep going back and looking at previous topics, so you keep that knowledge fresh and don't let it decay. Using this approach, when you're getting towards the end of the year, revision isn't a massive headache, as you will have retained much of the information already, and you have many of the revision materials to hand. So your thought that "Maybe I need to start revising NOW" is actually perfectly sound.