The Student Room Group

Do I reapply Oxford?

Alevel A*A*A*A* predicted
GCSE 99999999888
TSA 78 (know I could do better and thought I flopped)
rejected post interview for E&M, but feel I know where I went wrong
no plans for the whole gap year, but confident I could keep busy with expanding my knowledge of the subject
I love the course but I know its 6% success rate, is it crazy to reapply?

Reply 1

Original post
by Anonymous
Alevel A*A*A*A* predicted
GCSE 99999999888
TSA 78 (know I could do better and thought I flopped)
rejected post interview for E&M, but feel I know where I went wrong
no plans for the whole gap year, but confident I could keep busy with expanding my knowledge of the subject
I love the course but I know its 6% success rate, is it crazy to reapply?

Did you get admissions feedback?

If so, how did you compare to the average offer holder?

If you weren’t far off, perhaps your chances of a successful reapplication may be good enough to consider trying again. If not, forget it - you will surely secure offers from other excellent universities if you haven’t already and not accepting one of these offers would be unwise imo.

Reply 2

Original post
by TypicalNerd
Did you get admissions feedback?
If so, how did you compare to the average offer holder?
If you weren’t far off, perhaps your chances of a successful reapplication may be good enough to consider trying again. If not, forget it - you will surely secure offers from other excellent universities if you haven’t already and not accepting one of these offers would be unwise imo.


No not yet but I should get some within the next 2-3 weeks - I will come back to this thread then, thank you

Reply 3

I'd second the very wise post by Typical Nerd. Where else did you apply and have you had any offers from other unis yet? :smile:

Reply 4

Original post
by The_Lonely_Goatherd
I'd second the very wise post by Typical Nerd. Where else did you apply and have you had any offers from other unis yet? :smile:


Thank you for your response, I applied LSE UCL Impérial Durham, but no offers yet i don’t think they come till March/April

Reply 5

Original post
by Anonymous
Thank you for your response, I applied LSE UCL Impérial Durham, but no offers yet i don’t think they come till March/April

That's a long time to have to wait! :console: All outstanding unis, and I'm sure you'll get a few offers. The grass may always seem greener on the other side but I'd be willing to bet money on you having an absolutely fantastic time and a great career after attending any one of those unis (providing you get a decent degree classification, obviously!).

The world is still very much your oyster! :moon:

Reply 6

Original post
by TypicalNerd
Did you get admissions feedback?
If so, how did you compare to the average offer holder?
If you weren’t far off, perhaps your chances of a successful reapplication may be good enough to consider trying again. If not, forget it - you will surely secure offers from other excellent universities if you haven’t already and not accepting one of these offers would be unwise imo.


So they gave me some non numerical (cryptic and verbal) feedback which means it is very hard to tell how I compare with the average offer holder, I can’t tell whether I was close so what do you recommend?

Reply 7

Original post
by Anonymous
So they gave me some non numerical (cryptic and verbal) feedback which means it is very hard to tell how I compare with the average offer holder, I can’t tell whether I was close so what do you recommend?

Okay, so did they tell you what the scale was for the numerical scores if you got any (e.g it’s 0 - 9 for chemistry, with 9 being the best and 0 being the worst)?

Also if you got numerical scores - relatively speaking, how far from the top were you? If you got a sort of “middle” score or worse, don’t bother reapplying. If it was a higher score, it might be worth a second attempt, but consider any other offers you have first and whether these universities and courses could work for you.

If you have not got any numerical scores, I can’t really suggest anything without knowing what feedback they have given you.
(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 8

Original post
by TypicalNerd
Okay, so did they tell you what the scale was for the numerical scores if you got any (e.g it’s 0 - 9 for chemistry, with 9 being the best and 0 being the worst)?
Also if you got numerical scores - relatively speaking, how far from the top were you? If you got a sort of “middle” score or worse, don’t bother reapplying. If it was a higher score, it might be worth a second attempt, but consider any other offers you have first and whether these universities and courses could work for you.
If you have not got any numerical scores, I can’t really suggest anything without knowing what feedback they have given you.


It’s 0-10 for my subject and I know in previous years you need a 7.5 for a place at my college, but there was only you did this well and improve on that, nothing that tells me where I was relative to the cohort. Do you think it would be worth it to request on FOI the tsa and interview scores for my college, then I could figure out both mine and the average from that (I have seen similar successful requests)

Reply 9

Original post
by Anonymous
It’s 0-10 for my subject and I know in previous years you need a 7.5 for a place at my college, but there was only you did this well and improve on that, nothing that tells me where I was relative to the cohort. Do you think it would be worth it to request on FOI the tsa and interview scores for my college, then I could figure out both mine and the average from that (I have seen similar successful requests)

All an FOI request would allow you to do is work out the average scores for offer holders and for the cohort of applicants as a whole - I would be amazed if they released anything with the names of the people they interviewed in any capacity.

I’m not sure you can actually make any reliable deductions at this point and so it’s not possible to elucidate exactly how good your chances are if you do reapply. I’ll leave it to you to decide if you want to reapply, but if you do, take on board your feedback.

Reply 10

Original post
by TypicalNerd
All an FOI request would allow you to do is work out the average scores for offer holders and for the cohort of applicants as a whole - I would be amazed if they released anything with the names of the people they interviewed in any capacity.
I’m not sure you can actually make any reliable deductions at this point and so it’s not possible to elucidate exactly how good your chances are if you do reapply. I’ll leave it to you to decide if you want to reapply, but if you do, take on board your feedback.

Of the interviewing candidates at my college its unlikely that another would have the exact same TSA as me, so I would be able to see the corresponding interview score (because they put both scores in the same row). Thank you for your advice, I will hopefully use the verbal part to improve my interview technique

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