Mature Applicant Testing Requirements

Hello!

I'm currently in my twenties, and graduated from high school many years back in the United States.

During high school, I faced a number of extenuating circumstances which prevented me from considering university as an option, and I directly joined the workforce. Also, for reference my school didn't have AP classes, so my only scores are from my SAT and ACT.

I am now in a more suitable position to pursue further education in the coming years, and am considering some universities in the UK. However, I've noticed that (for Cambridge, for example) that without 5 AP exams, the ACT and SAT are irrelevant. However, international A levels and AS-levels are accepted, without the need of any other qualifications.

So, would it be possible for me to register as a private candidate and simply take A-level exams and use those for an application? If so, would I have to take the exams, and apply the following year with those grades, or have a referrer (employer, or tutor, etc) report on what their predictions would be?

Additionally, at this point, would my old ACT and SAT be irrelevant?

The reason this seems somewhat questionable in my opinion is that they would have no concrete evidence of my ability, and would simply have to take the word of a referrer for my predicted scores. Perhaps this is the proper process in the UK, but I'm unfamiliar with it, so I'd appreciate some advice.

Thank you in advance for your help!

Reply 1

PS Reviewer

Do you think that you can get the grades for Cambridge? Are there any other universities that you’re interested in?

Cambridge will not just base admissions decisions on predictions - they’ll also have admissions tests/submitted academic work and interviews to use to make decisions.

Any offers are conditional on you getting the required entry grades - so if you don’t get the grades then they don’t have to admit you onto the course. The only person who loses out from overly optimistic/unrealistic predictions is the applicant who has to change their plans at very short notice.

Reply 2

InquiryForALost

Original post by PQ

Do you think that you can get the grades for Cambridge? Are there any other universities that you’re interested in?
Cambridge will not just base admissions decisions on predictions - they’ll also have admissions tests/submitted academic work and interviews to use to make decisions.
Any offers are conditional on you getting the required entry grades - so if you don’t get the grades then they don’t have to admit you onto the course. The only person who loses out from overly optimistic/unrealistic predictions is the applicant who has to change their plans at very short notice.

Thank you for your swift reply.

Perhaps I should have included this information in the post, though I am unsure its importance for admissions. Simultaneous to my work commitments, I took permission, and have been auditing some undergraduate and graduate math and physics courses and have been involved in some research (I am hoping to apply for mathematics).

I went through some prior STEP examinations from Cambridge, and A-level examinations for Mathematics and Further Mathematics, and am confident in my ability to score well enough for these. My primary concern is that I won't be able to get interviews in the first place (being from the US and with only predicted grades and a lack of concrete evidence to indicate aptitude). Also, may I know what you mean by submitted academic work?

There are a number of other universities in the UK that I am interested in, including but not limited to: Warwick, ICL, Edinburgh, Reading, York. If you have any recommendations on schools that would suit my interests or are not as competitive for admission, I would appreciate it.

Thanks!

Reply 3

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by InquiryForALost

It's typical for UK students to apply with predicted grades, so that is not unusual from a UK perspective, although it might be helpful if you also had e.g. SAT scores or some CC classes you took for credit you can include. If unsuccessful but you get good results in the A-levels you are taking independently, you can always reapply the following year. I expect you may need to have a recent SAT sitting, but worth checking with the unis directly. Typically for mature applicants the focus is on recent academic attainment.

For submitted academic work, some courses (typically humanities and social science courses) will ask for some recent academic work to be submitted, typically essays completed in the course of the qualification. If you're applying to maths and/or physics (which seems the case...?) I don't think any submitted work is required.

If you're applying for maths specifically I'd recommend also looking at Bristol. For physics Bristol is also a consideration, as would be Southampton potentially. Manchester and Birmingham are generally well regarded including in STEM fields broadly. Loughborough too.

Also worth bearing in mind Cambridge aims to interview (in principle) any applicant they could potentially make an offer to and so usually interview a larger proportion of applicants - for maths in particular they may even make a higher number of offers, as all maths offers have a STEP requirement attached, and about half of applicants fail to meet the STEP requirement for their offer.

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