A Levels

  • Thread starter Deleted member 44322
  • Start date
CakeLady said:
I dont know tbh.... but why do Uni's offer them in the first place? Is it to get money? The ones I know of are young A Level students (so 17-18)
Click to expand...
Universities need the dosh so yes it's all about the money. Lot more self funding now due to Students having to pay fees. Universities have to be aware that if they are providing a service it has to be good otherwise they will go elsewhere.
 
Last edited:


Wouldn't advise many to do a levels TBH. Only if they are unsure on what they want to do at uni ( a levels will allow experience of 3 or 4 subjects instead of 1 or 2) Equivalent quals are easier and therefore likely to yield a much higher UCAS point total. Majority of courses and uni accept these now. A levels have become far to difficult and taxing. Majority of exams are 3 hour plus and a couple can be done on the same day.
 
CakeLady said:
I dont know tbh.... but why do Uni's offer them in the first place? Is it to get money? The ones I know of are young A Level students (so 17-18)
Click to expand...

To steal students with predicted decent grades from going to other uni

Birmingham is terrible for it.
Daughter has just this second got her results and she has enough to go to Durham to study English literature
 
Last edited:
Epping said:
To steal students with predicted decent grades from going to other uni

Birmingham is terrible for it.
Daughter has just this second got her results and she has enough to go to Durham to study English literature
Click to expand...
Ah bless her! Thats fantastic! 👏👏👏
 
EDGE said:
Universities need the dosh so yes it's all about the money. Lot more self funding now due to Students having to pay fees. Universities have to be aware that if they are providing a service it has to be good otherwise they will go elsewhere.
Click to expand...
Also, now any university can take as many students as they like, whereas there used to be a limit per university. So the big city unis, which are appealing to an 18 year old, hoover up loads. The smaller, more rural ones struggle for numbers hence do more unconditional offers etc
 
anth said:
What percentage of courses give unconditionals before you’ve done your Alevels? I bet it’s not many. Sure you can get unconditionals if your an older student and already have your results from previous years.

55% doesn’t sound like much but alevels are hard, very hard.
Click to expand...
Universities are offering unconditionals to younger students.

Not out of a spirit of generosity either.

The lesser unis are scared shitless of underrecruiting, and missing out on those £9Ks per year.
 
Unconditional offers is a dangerous game. They tend to be offered on less popular courses at less popular Uni's. The danger of making unconditional offers based on predicted grades, is that if they fall short then the league table position will be affected as UCAS points is a determinant. If you drop down then the grades you can ask for next time around drop also, and so on and so on.
 
Epping said:
To steal students with predicted decent grades from going to other uni

Birmingham is terrible for it.
Daughter has just this second got her results and she has enough to go to Durham to study English literature
Click to expand...

excellent well done to her. What is she going to Durham to study and what career path will that provide her access too?

I always advise kids coming through that the GCSEs only matter to get you into doing your Alevels, your Alevels only matter to get you in for your degree and your degree only matters to get you into your career. If you pick something that doesn't really have that last step then you need to reconsider your path. That's the advice I wish someone had told me rather than being pushed towards a degree regardless.
 
Frijj said:
Unless the mark methodology has changed, and it might have, they’re like the f***ing dark arts.

AQA have a convertor to show how raw marks are converted to UMS.

Some subjects you can get an A with as little as 58% of the raw marks, ie that 58% gets converted to 80%, presumably because the person who did better than 79% of all other candidates got 58% of the marks.

Another subject though you need 77% of the raw marks to get 80%

www.aqa.org.uk

Modular qualifications UMS converter

Use this tool to convert modular qualification raw exam marks into grades.
www.aqa.org.uk www.aqa.org.uk
Click to expand...

This. I remember it as being 'you have to be better than other people to get a better grade'.

Sixth Form/A-Levels was the biggest waste of my time.
 
A favourite topic for Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson, when she isn't so far up Boris Johnson's arse she's licking his fillings.

Hoist by her own petard recently though

www.thepoke.co.uk

Allison Pearson’s column about her son’s A-Level results might be her most on-brand column yet

It’s that time of the year again when people get their A-Level results and we’re grateful to Ross McCafferty for sharing on Twitter what he thinks might be Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson’s most on-brand column yet. And this is why. In possibly her most on-brand column yet, Alison Pearson...
www.thepoke.co.uk www.thepoke.co.uk
 
anth said:
excellent well done to her. What is she going to Durham to study and what career path will that provide her access too?

I always advise kids coming through that the GCSEs only matter to get you into doing your Alevels, your Alevels only matter to get you in for your degree and your degree only matters to get you into your career. If you pick something that doesn't really have that last step then you need to reconsider your path. That's the advice I wish someone had told me rather than being pushed towards a degree regardless.
Click to expand...

She is going to be studying English literature ranked #1 at present in UK for English.


Career path who bloody knows

Good degree from good university helps open doors..

Get some decent internships and then who knows.

Just had a friend's daughter on a 6 week intern at Schroders in London and got paid 6k for it
 
Last edited:

Back
Top