'A' level good results: good teaching or academically able pupils?

Westward_bound

Conradmum makes an excellent point. My daughter's experience was that some universities had higher expectations of pupils from historically higher performing schools, and these were taken into consideration either quantitatively or qualitatively at some stage during the application process. Most if not all universities were open about this, and gave details of their chosen "weighting factors" at Open Days. The Student Room forum was a good source of information too, particularly university responses to structured FOI requests on the subject.

As an example, in one of her interviews my daughter was asked what assistance her school had given her in preparing for the BMAT. When she answered "none" she was asked if she was sure. When she said "well, the head teachers secretary allowed me to use her PC to register for the exam" they laughed, saying that wasn't quite what they had in mind.

daisiegg

Brighton_belle wrote: »

It's 5, but many med students opt for an extra year between year 3-4 when they study an extra subject. At the end of that year they return to year 4.


http://www.medicalcareers.nhs.uk/medical_students/intercalated_degrees.aspx

No, my sister's was definitely six, no option of it being five. Clearly it all depends on where you go

http://www.study.cam.ac.uk/undergraduate/courses/medicine/

MrsAtobe

mumps wrote: »

My daughter went to a state grammar school and did 5 A levels and 1 AS she got As in all of them, this was the year before A* came in. She wasn't the only one as a handful of them did 5 but quite a few did 4.

I started off doing five A-levels as well in a state school, when I dropped down to four, I was expected to take up another subject. Thankfully I choose typing, as I now work in IT, and being able to touch type whilst still holding a conversation with some has stood me in very good stead over the years, better than double maths, physics, chemistry and general studies has. It also has the bonus of driving my OH nuts

FBaby

If you do consider the state boarding option, the info is here,

http://www.sbsa.org.uk/

Thank you for this link. As said, I hadn't consider this at all, but looking at it, I have found one who is not too far and looks promising so definitely another one to consider. I know she wouldn't mind being a weekly boarder, it's just that I am separated from her dad, so we would share week-end visits and so not see her much, but it is about what she wants to do and I can see how this would suits her.

That is what we did, or rather we supported their choices, but that kind of college is not for everyone. Some of them are too "aggressive" for some students and are not that good at pastoral care

And that is my concern. I know it is easy to stereotype privately educated children, and different pupils will go to different private schools, but I don't see her happy in a 'rich' girls only school. Saying that, it would do her good to be in a more academically competitive environment. She is naturally competitive, but so far, she has always been top of her year at Primary and Secondary without much competition. She knows that there are other very academic children, but it's one thing to always be the 'one' and suddenly being not so special that way. That's something she will need to face if she was to end up in medical school.

lostinrates

I went to a private girls only school from eleven to sixteen. Was it perfect? No, but it was excellent pastoral care, excellent at drawing out students strengths and made considerable allowances for some with particular talents to develop those and fitting in with other off school training or competitions etc for, say, children balancing an interest in higher level competitive sports with school.

Fwiw, at sixth form a lot of boys schools take girls. And there are independent mixed schools and sixth forms!


My niece recently left school and I am confident with out her private school she would not have achieved as she did land I feel the younger one's schools ( she's changed a few times) are probably working hard to draw the best from a girl who is is not a natural academic, yet has predicted grades that should give her lots of choices.

I do not think private is necessarily better than state and I think there are so e awful ones. I do think the very good ones very rarely have situations where brightest children are unchallenged, for example, because the have the facility to find ways to challenge them and to support their independent study. For example, I had a particular talent that outstripped the teachers facility to teach me and it was arranged for me to part time attend a specialist school (my parents did not want me to go to a specialist school full time) one day a week, then one a half days for a few years. They worked arou d my schedule. In my age group class were people who were doing early gcses/a levels and then taking new related subjects to keep the skills developing and alive, girls who wanted an athletic future but who also wanted to have strong academic skills and university options and young actresses who had time off for work sometimes. There were a few teachers kids at the school, some forces kids, and each year had some scholarships (academic, music and arts, sports). there were of course rich girls who liked reading magazines and shopping . But we were a diverse group.

If I had children I would be looked at both sectors depending on the child and my ability to provide financially versus stimulate to their skills and abilities outside the school environment. . Fwiw, somewhere I used to live there were a few schools in or near the same town,including two larger independents and a state boarding and the state boarding had far and a away the best reputation.

Spendless

I've used on a few occassions private tutors for my eldest, and I really believe that Indpendants get better results not just 'because they are better' but because the class sizes are smaller. On the two occassions I've used private tutoring, the tutors have turned my son's issues around within 2-4 hours of 1-1 coaching. Condensed that would be around half a day.

I know someone (I'm a client of hers) whose son is a current medical student. He gained A/A*s in his GCSEs and A levels but wasn't successful in getting on a medical degree twice. He didn't get in from A levels, so went and did a diff degree (biomedical maybe??- can't remember) but even when he graduated from that (I think with a first) he still couldn't get on the medical degree for the September he graduated. Instead he returned home and worked for a year and then re-applied. This time he was accepted, much to his mums relief as he was the last year before the tuition fees rose.

mumps

MrsAtobe wrote: »

I started off doing five A-levels as well in a state school, when I dropped down to four, I was expected to take up another subject. Thankfully I choose typing, as I now work in IT, and being able to touch type whilst still holding a conversation with some has stood me in very good stead over the years, better than double maths, physics, chemistry and general studies has. It also has the bonus of driving my OH nuts

Touch typing is a fantastic skill, I got a computer programme for my two youngest and they learned to touch type before senior school which stopped them developing bad habits. I know some two finger typists can be quite fast but as you say only a touch typist can be knocking out work and having a chat at the same time.:T

Buzzybee90

claire16c wrote: »

Well thats ridiculous if he got that in the mocks! And Im not sure how a BTEC is broadening his horizons compared to doing 3 different subjects, very strange.

I guess you'll have to keep fighting!

I feel the pain, I was predicted Cs in all English type subjects as I messed up my English SAT and got level 6. They were a bit shocked when we sat our mocks and I exceeded my target by 3 grades....

pollypenny

Buzzybee90 wrote: »

I feel the pain, I was predicted Cs in all English type subjects as I messed up my English SAT and got level 6. They were a bit shocked when we sat our mocks and I exceeded my target by 3 grades....

Unlikely.

Didn't you do any work, essays, coursework, reading analysis etc during your GCSE years so that your good progress was seen?

Your coursework would have contributed to your grades, so they'd hardly have been a shock.

SATs marking is notoriously bad.

Brighton_belle

daisiegg wrote: »

No, my sister's was definitely six, no option of it being five. Clearly it all depends on where you go

http://www.study.cam.ac.uk/undergraduate/courses/medicine/

Oh that's interesting: I reckon Cambridge, as it's Cambridge build in the 'extra year' as non optional then.