A level+ 2024 Results Day Countdown - Hub is open! #FindYourFuture

Results day is looming and TSR tradition means we have to have a countdown thread for everyone to get to know each other, talk about their hopes/fears and generally relax (as well as sharing advice and information before the big day).* We'll update this post with pointers to advice and support soon but for now introduce yourselves :biggrin:

You can watch a count down clock here: https://countingdownto.com/?c=5658819

Introduce yourself
1. AS or A level? (Or BTEC or other qualification with a 15 August Results day)
2. What subjects?
For Yr 13:
3. What university is your firm/insurance?
4. Which subject?
5. What grades are required?
6. Going to uni this year or taking a gap year?

For everyone:
7. What grades are you predicted?
8. How are you feeling about results day?
9. Anything else to add?

FAQs
RESULTS
When can I collect my results from school/college?
That depends on the arrangements your school/college make - if you don't know the details then ring them up on Wednesday the 16th (there should be someone in that day) and ask.

How do I collect my results online?
Again, this depends on your exam boards and/or your school/college. If you don't know then ask them directly.

When do unis get our results?
UCAS get the results from the exam boards approximately a week before results day. They spend a day or two matching them to your applications and then send them on to universities either overnight Friday/Saturday. Universities then spend Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday MANUALLY comparing every offer to the results to decide whether applicants have met their offers or not (and if not whether they can be accepted with lower grades).

UPDATE: as of 6pm Friday Universities now have results.

I've change my mind about the course/university I want to go to - what do I do?
See this article https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/university/apply/changing-your-mind-about-your-firm-or-insurance-choice NOTE: the deadline for reply swaps is 21 July and NOT the 30 June as stated in that article!

UCAS Hub on Results Day

When will UCAS update?
UCAS will go live AFTER 8am on results day. UCAS say 8am - it used to go live a little earlier, but the embargo time that UCAS and universities work to has been pushed back from 6am to 8am this year so it WILL NOT be before 8am. The embargo agreement is between UCAS, Universities and A level Exam Boards - no one is going to risk getting in trouble by releasing information early.

It WON'T go live at midnight.

Once it "goes live" EVERYONE will be able to see any decisions that their universities have sent to UCAS.* Just because it's live doesn't mean it will update for everyone. About 100,000 people every year don't get a clear answer from UCAS first thing on Results Day - they have to collect their results and then ring up their firm/insurance uni.

My UCAS didn't change - is it worth hitting refresh until it does?
NO - once UCAS goes live again it then gets re-frozen in that state (because UCAS need to handle everyone and their dog hitting refresh constantly). UCAS WILL NOT CHANGE between 8am and midday. Hitting refresh just slows things down for everyone else. Your university MIGHT have sent you a message through the UCAS Hub saying why your application hasn't been updated. This is new for 2023 and we haven't had any previews about how that will look or where to find it but it's worth clicking into your application to see if there's any more details there. Give yourself some good karma - get off UCAS hub and go and have a look on the UCAS course search, get together your contact numbers for your unis, top your phone up with credit (and charge it) and get your results from school/college.

what will UCAS show?
It depends how quick your universities are. There's a lot of scenarios. The post below gives an idea of what might show, what that means and what you need to do about that. Use the flowchart at the end of this post as a quick reference

UCAS are supposed to be improving the layout and information on the UCAS Hub on results day for 2023 - but they haven't released any screenshots about what that will look like
UCAS Hub scenarios

Original post by PQ

Ok let's break it down Firm is X, insurance is Y
X -CF, Y-CI - neither has decided ring firm
X-CF, Y-UI - insurance has accepted but firm not decided. Ring firm
X-CF, Y-R - insurance has rejected, firm not decided. Ring firm.
X-UF, Y-CI, firm accepted, insurance not decided. Celebrate.
X-UF, Y-UI, both accepted. You're going to your firm. Celebrate.
X-UF, Y-R, firm accepted, insurance rejected. You're going to your firm. Celebrate.
X-R, Y-CF firm rejected, insurance not deciding. Ring insurance.
X-R, Y-UF firm rejected, insurance accepted. Celebrate
X-R, Y-R both rejected. You're in clearing.

This ignores changed course offers which either university can make. Both universities do their own thing. They don't have time to look what the other is doing.

My UCAS didn't change! That means I failed!
NO - Universities have to MANUALLY compare every set of results with the offer conditions - even if it's a simple YES or NO for every one of those that means a lot of data input to put in to their database to send through to UCAS.

If UCAS hasn't changed then that means that either:
a) You've met your offer and your uni knows that and hasn't got round to telling UCAS.
b) You've met your offer and your uni doesn't know that because your results got muddled up so they're waiting to talk to you to check before telling UCAS.
c) You've missed your offer but your uni wants you anyway but hasn't got round to telling UCAS.
d) You've missed your offer but your uni want to make you an offer for a similar but less full course and haven't got round to telling UCAS.
e) You've missed your offer and your uni haven't decided yet whether they can take you or not - they might need to see how many Insurance people they have to take before they know they've got room first.
f) You've missed your offer and your firm uni doesn't want you but hasn't got round to telling UCAS.
In other words - if UCAS hasn't changed that doesn't give ANY indication as to whether your results are good or bad.
In fact in some ways it's good - of those applicants who got a definite answer on results day last year...?....150,000 of them were rejected by both their firm and insurance and placed in Clearing. Being in limbo for a couple of hours is a GOOD thing compared to that.

My Firm place has confirmed me! That means I passed my A levels!
NO - remember - these things are decided MANUALLY....someone somewhere sits down with a pile of UCAS forms and a list of results and ticks off results against offers. If your firm has confirmed you - well done! You're in! BUT don't go* expecting to see a long line of A grades. Just as a lot of unis can be slow in sending decisions to UCAS, some unis are VERY quick and will not only confirm the people who met their offers but will have confirmed a whole BUNCH of people who missed their grades.

Clearing ARRRRGH!

quick guide to Clearing

See the FAQ for more help.

I did really badly - what do I do now?
There will be a thread with information and advice on remakes/remarks/appeals There will be threads in the Gap years forum for people planning to take a gap year and reapply and help available in the Applications, Clearing and UCAS

Results day stats from previous years

On results day in 2022 :
56% of applicants were unconditional with their FIRM
4% were unconditional with their INSURANCE
1% of applicants were already unconditional with a clearing choice (Scottish/IB/reapplicants who had their results)
14% of applicants were in limbo waiting for a decision from either their firm or insurance.
24% were in clearing (either because they had no offers initially, didn't accept an offer initially or both their firm and insurance had rejected them).*

By the end of Clearing last year:
59% of applicants were unconditional with their FIRM
5% were unconditional with their INSURANCE
9% were unconditional with a CLEARING choice
3% were still in limbo (these are usually international students who don't bother sending through their results or cancelling their applications)
25% were still in clearing (because they decided to take a gap year or are international and had a place in a university in another country).

*So about half the limbo UCAS people end up with their Firm, about half find a place through clearing and a smidge end up with their insurance.*

Results Day Flowchart

pdf version

(edited 7 months ago)

Reply 360

X.243llie

18

Original post by PQ

are you in one of the parts of the country that have had thunder storms the last few days?

I think we had one not last night the night before. Im in london if thats any help. I usually sleep through all thunderstorms but my mum said something about a thunderstorm

Reply 361

Idk5677

17

Original post by PQ

Today schools and colleges will be working through processing results.
This will NOT be all teachers. It’s usually just the exams officer plus a handful of other staff today.
UCAS contacts at each school will be able to see the status on UCAS of their students from 7:30am. That’s also usually when the school might share results with subject teachers - but it depends on the school.
Remember schools are under embargo until 8am tomorrow too so they will usually be quite careful before that time about who has access.

Last year some people at my college got emails instructing them to find a member of staff on results day and these were the people who got their picture taken bc of their grades - is that allowed?? Or have I been misinformed and the students must have received the email the morning of results day bc I haven’t got an email so that means the highest I could have got is AAB and I need AAA for med so im lowkry panicking

OP

Original post by Idk5677

Last year some people at my college got emails instructing them to find a member of staff on results day and these were the people who got their picture taken bc of their grades - is that allowed?? Or have I been misinformed and the students must have received the email the morning of results day bc I haven’t got an email so that means the highest I could have got is AAB and I need AAA for med so im lowkry panicking

that wouldn't be permitted for a university to do so I doubt it's in line with the embargo for schools/colleges either

(also it's a pretty toxic setup for a college to only take photos of people with top grades when people with lower grades have plenty of reasons to celebrate too)

Reply 363

Idk5677

17

Original post by PQ

that wouldn't be permitted for a university to do so I doubt it's in line with the embargo for schools/colleges either
(also it's a pretty toxic setup for a college to only take photos of people with top grades when people with lower grades have plenty of reasons to celebrate too)

Exactly but i’ve stalked the college’s insta page lol and spoken to a few people in the year above and only the ones that achieved at least 3 As or grades equivalent to that e.g A*AB or got into oxford with AAB got an email whereas others who achieved AAB and even though they got into manchester med and Liverpool dentistry didn’t receive an email!! And obviously those who achieved below AAB didn’t get the email either

Reply 364

Idk5677

17

Also I’m looking through clearing and some of the courses that were on it yesterday have gone?

OP

Original post by Idk5677

Exactly but i’ve stalked the college’s insta page lol and spoken to a few people in the year above and only the ones that achieved at least 3 As or grades equivalent to that e.g A*AB or got into oxford with AAB got an email whereas others who achieved AAB and even though they got into manchester med and Liverpool dentistry didn’t receive an email!! And obviously those who achieved below AAB didn’t get the email either

schools/colleges won't know UCAS details until 7:30am tomorrow so the emails may have been based on something completely different

OP

Original post by Idk5677

Also I’m looking through clearing and some of the courses that were on it yesterday have gone?

that's normal - universities add and remove courses throughout the summer and some of the courses that they thought had space might now be full

Reply 367

McGinger

20

Original post by Idk5677

Also I’m looking through clearing and some of the courses that were on it yesterday have gone?

Uni now know exactly what vacancies they have and will start updating websites - check after 6pm tonight for safety.

Reply 368

Idk5677

17

Original post by PQ

schools/colleges won't know UCAS details until 7:30am tomorrow so the emails may have been based on something completely different

I hope you’re correct cause I’m freaking out thinking the highest I could have got is AAB

Reply 369

hr27

11

For ocr A maths do you still get marks if you integrated correctly but used the wrong limits

(edited 7 months ago)

Reply 370

HermioneGrangers

8

Results day is tomorrow. Anyone else feel like they want to throw up?

Reply 371

chinnu30306

10

Original post by HermioneGrangers

Results day is tomorrow. Anyone else feel like they want to throw up?

I 100% feel like I’m gonna puke every time I minutely even THINK about results day. Help meeee

OP

Original post by HermioneGrangers

Results day is tomorrow. Anyone else feel like they want to throw up?

Original post by chinnu30306

I 100% feel like I’m gonna puke every time I minutely even THINK about results day. Help meeee

ginger biscuits can help with nausea

or alternatively you could try explaining what you're worried about on here. Typing it out sometimes helps you get your thoughts in order (and puts things into perspective) :smile:

Reply 373

gleeclubmediator

10

if a course goes into clearing does it mean people didn't make the grades for it (i'm talking med / dent / vet med here)

Reply 374

chinnu30306

10

Original post by PQ

ginger biscuits can help with nausea
or alternatively you could try explaining what you're worried about on here. Typing it out sometimes helps you get your thoughts in order (and puts things into perspective) :smile:

Thank you! I’m most worried about my physics grade because I need an A* to get into my firm but the tests have been pretty hard this year and yet I don’t think grade boundaries are going to drop much more than last year’s… and also, I don’t think most London unis accept near misses, especially for any of their popular courses

OP

Original post by gleeclubmediator

if a course goes into clearing does it mean people didn't make the grades for it (i'm talking med / dent / vet med here)

It could be for a huge range of reasons:
- fewer people applied than expected
- fewer people who got offers than expected made the course their firm choice
- more people than expected missed their offer grades (by enough that they wouldn't succeed on the course)
- the course has extra capacity (new staff, new buildings or in medicine's case an increase in contract numbers)
- fewer people failed year 1 so there aren't as many resit students as expected

OP

Original post by chinnu30306

Thank you! I’m most worried about my physics grade because I need an A* to get into my firm but the tests have been pretty hard this year and yet I don’t think grade boundaries are going to drop much more than last year’s… and also, I don’t think most London unis accept near misses, especially for any of their popular courses

there's a decent chance that one of these will be true:
- you got the grade
- your firm would take you with a lower grade
- your insurance turns out to be a better choice
- you find the most amazing university in clearing that you hadn't considered before which turns out to be a perfect fit for you and you spend 3-4 really happy years there and can't believe you were so stressed about your physics grade