Results disappointing

[Looking for help]

I simply don't agree....I know a girl who had all As in her modules for maths A Level, and still managed to get a C overall, missing her university place due to one really bad result in C4 last summer. She was predicted an A and needed an A, and was well on the way to getting it. She knew she'd had a bad exam, but she couldn't believe the result. These things do happen, her offer was from a Russell Group university. Yes she should have done more work, but these things happen. There is no guarantee, right up until the results come in in the August before you go, it is also very dangerous to assume your home and dry, becuase you only need x % to get your grade.

[daughter]

In answer to Magwich -"the right calibre for a good uni" ... of course it depends where you draw the line for that. I agree with very high calibre students - but I think there are some "quite" high calibre students that with better advice/support may be able to achieve better courses/unis. At a "good" school for instance students may well receive better advice regarding subject choices hard/soft. I recently met a family who are very proud of their child and thrilled that he is doing law AS as he wants to do law ... I didn't say anything but my heart sunk thinking don't they realise it is a poor choice of subject (having said that I have no idea of the calibre of the son).

Looking for Help - I see where you are coming from but it is possible the girl in the example was less surprised than others. We often talk of A's, B's etc but don't forget she and the school will know her UMS scores and although ultimately (end of A2), it doesn't matter whether you are on a "high A" or "low A" that is something that you are aware of at the end of AS. With a low A (having worked hard) at AS a C at A2 is a possibility. I know a friend of my DD's who had a B in an AS subject but the school would only predict a C for A2 - the parents were furious (limited her uni choice to AAC ones). I suspect she had a "low B" and the teachers knew she was going to struggle with the A2 course. Eventually the school conceded and predicted a B (with extra tutoring).

[tokyonambu]

All of this is why, of course, the world would be a better place if university admission were only done once people had their A Level results in their hands. It might involve delaying the start of the first term by a few weeks, but as a three year degree only has 66 weeks of teaching time out of the 140 week elapsed duration, I'm sure the time could be found. It would avoid the problems of people applying to universities substantially outside their actual A Level results in one direction or the other, it would avoid the problem of departments ending up making too many or too few offers for their acceptance rate, it would generally make matters far, far more efficient (in the economic sense).

And indeed, see here.

Main report, pp 64-5.