11 Plus Exams Forum

My DS has just expressed a desire to go to cambridge to study engineering, he is just starting year 12 obviously difficult to get into etc but we have a specific question which i wondered if anyone had any information on. He is taking maths, further maths, physics and german to A2 and his school is not doing any AS's this year but when you look on the cambridge website and ask around apparently they have, previously at least, put great score on the AS unit UMS scores when assessing applications. So do we know if this is still the case and therefore and if so will he be disadvantaged by not doing AS's, he is doing A2 maths this year and FM next year so i guess there will be some units from that but i know previously the school has not worried to much about C3 and C4 marks at end of year 12 because thse could be retaken end of year 13 so maybe more important for him to try to get the best he can this year in these.

this whole no AS business is all very confusing.

any opinions greatly recieved

I read somewhere recently that Cambridge is encouraging all schools to ensure prospective applicants continue doing AS exams as in the past they have regarded the results of the high UMS in the AS as being more reliable in assessing applicants as compared to GCSE's.

I have found a link.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-29914310" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

yeah that's what i heard but not what his school is doing so not much we can do about it with the school. I suspect they might not be too bothered about the german and he is doing maths units anywayas part of his A2 , maybe we could enter him for physics AS privatly or something, do you know if this is possible ??

Very difficult to predict Tree.

Our school has done linear A levels for a while and by all accounts Cambridge have not liked it. This year all those who applied and had straight A*s for GCSE got an interview, perhaps because in the absence of AS levels there was no obvious reason to reject them at that stage?

However, I imagine that the majority of candidates will have no (or only the odd one) AS levels from now on so your DS will not be unusual in that regard, so I am unclear how they will decide.

I would think that a stellar mark in his A level maths will do no harm. Assuming of course he aces Further Maths as well the following year!

Good luck

Ummm does look like it might be an issue i will email the school see what they say

Maybe get him to ask the admissions people at a couple of the colleges? I'm sure they will be very helpful and it does noe not harm to seem keen

Cheers mad?

Not quite straight a*s got a's in English and RS will see what the schools response is.

yeah good idea we went to the open day so he's already picked a couple of colleges no harm in emailing them i guess

I love this forum , been away a few months but always get really good quick advice

Tree wrote:yeah that's what i heard but not what his school is doing so not much we can do about it with the school. I suspect they might not be too bothered about the german and he is doing maths units anywayas part of his A2 , maybe we could enter him for physics AS privatly or something, do you know if this is possible ??

It is possible to do an exam somewhere else but not something I would encourage.

I don't know the type of school your son attends but I do know the University has been working hard to increase its numbers from the maintained sector excluding Grammar schools and is only about one and half percent away from the target they have agreed for wider access.I was amazed to see a school in Walsall which I do not regard in a very favourable light in an area with 2 grammar schools having just as much success with their applicants in the last 2 years.

The following link will show how successful all applicants have been from particular schools between 2009 and 2014.It makes for very interesting reading.

http://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.u ... statistics" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I would concur on the advice to speak to the school.