Double Science and Triple Science

[marigold]

Anecdotal so will not apply to all situations, but the speed with which a couple of my son's offers came back after pressing the final button ( minutes in the case of Manchester ) made me wonder if the admissions tutors had even read his name let alone mulled over his GCSE grades.

[tiffinboys]

What was the subject? Was the offer for Medicine, Engineering, Law or similar competitive subjects?

[marigold]

Philosophy.

[tiffinboys]

Thanks, marigold.

I think that GCSE grades would be looked more in detail in most competitive courses such as Medicine, Law etc.

[ToadMum]

Thanks, marigold.

I think that GCSE grades would be looked more in detail in most competitive courses such as Medicine, Law etc.

You don't get an offer for Medicine without an interview. Manchester also interviews for Chemistry, I think.

Whatever the entry requirements, they will be stated on the university's website. The system is automated to some extent, so for departments which only use the Personal Statement as a tie-break, presumably 'rules' are set which allow offers to be made automatically where the applicant meets preset conditions?

[Guest55]

Personal statements are important - if grades are missed then they the whole application is reviewed. A good PS will persuade a department that they would rather have someone that applied to them as a UCAS 'choice' rather than someone through clearing.

[KB]

The process of preparing the PS can also be helpful.
Most students will need some guidance but if they are made to think through why they want to do the course, what they bring to it and how they demonstrate their interest in it then it's a check that this is really what they want to do!

[Yamin151]

Going back to why would a student who decides on a scince set of A levels ever opt for dula award in the first place - its perfectly possible, nay common, that your 12 yo (in my son't case) child has not deceided on their career! Even to the extent of knowing if they want to do A levels in science. Its utterly ridiculous that a future career would be stimied by the fact that actually by age 15 the child decided that they ratehr loved science after all. Entering onto an A level course requires enthusiasm for the subject and a high level of competence, neither of which should be depleted by doing dual instead of triple science.

A propos of that, was talking with a friend about it - is triple award science different again from doing the 3 sciences separately?

[KB]

Absolutely Yamin. There is an outside possibility if this was the case and the applicant went to a Uni interview for a science degree that a question might be asked but it would be easily answered in explaining how ( & therefore when) the interest in the subject developed. The level of interest by the time of application is going to be the primary focus for Uni admissions.

However for those who have a strong leaning towards science and a choice at GCSE I would advise the triple option. It's not that one can't continue without but it makes sense to get a bit more input if that is the likely future direction.

[ToadMum]

Going back to why would a student who decides on a scince set of A levels ever opt for dula award in the first place - its perfectly possible, nay common, that your 12 yo (in my son't case) child has not deceided on their career! Even to the extent of knowing if they want to do A levels in science. Its utterly ridiculous that a future career would be stimied by the fact that actually by age 15 the child decided that they ratehr loved science after all. Entering onto an A level course requires enthusiasm for the subject and a high level of competence, neither of which should be depleted by doing dual instead of triple science.

A propos of that, was talking with a friend about it - is triple award science different again from doing the 3 sciences separately?

'Triple science' means - at least under the 'old spec' - having studied and been examined in all three components of each subject. That is, Core / Additional / Further(?) Additional Science. Most schools arrange this so that you get separate GCSEs for each subject, but some schools, particularly where candidates were entered for the 'levels' separately, would see pupils ending up with three GCSEs 'Core Science' (core papers in B, C, P), Additional Science ('additional' papers in each), etc.

If you imagine a three by three grid, two different ways of ending up with three lines, depending on whether you slice it horizontally or vertically, so to speak.