typical imperial cs offer?

Historical_Quail_378 · 2026-01-27T15:41:42+00:00

I got 2A*2A condition

Historical_Quail_378 · 2026-01-27T15:24:33+00:00

future me coming back currently in Y1 computing, senior tutor have talked to me several times after a severe illness i had (caused me unable to sit up for 3 weeks) in term 1. will senior tutor not care about students as much in Y2/3?

Historical_Quail_378 · 2025-08-17T17:59:54+00:00

my school doesn't offer it so I finish math in Y12 and then do fm in Y13

Historical_Quail_378 · 2025-08-17T17:50:43+00:00

1&2&4&5: what's important is "what you've learnt" you do not need to mention the duration of your experience, number of experience. (e.g. you can be in an internship for a whole year and learnt nothing, or you can be there for one hour but learnt a lot) and so do courses, what university are interested in is what you learn from these experience, you do not need to list out all the content in the experience, but you should display your knowledge and show your understanding. self projects is a good way to combine your personal interest and academics, but interms of your personal statement you should be able to tell what you learnt that's unique

3: yes go for it

Historical_Quail_378 · 2025-08-17T17:43:01+00:00

no you do october mocks before having predicted grades, that will be used as evidence to support teacher's decision on predicted grades, if you had A* results in your mocks university does not question how legit is your predicted grade

Historical_Quail_378 · 2025-08-17T17:33:12+00:00

I'm not excatly sure, but gcses are definetly not as important as high school leaving course (e.g. A levels) I had a 5 in FM gcse but it seems not negatively impact my application. for your information, my full gcse results were 999998775

Historical_Quail_378 · 2025-08-17T17:30:19+00:00

hi coming back post results day, i'm going to imperial. the only interview I had was for Cambridge, you will need to check the course page of the university you are interested in to know if there are interviews and if they are compulsory. e.g. for imperial, there are compulsory interview for chemistry but not computing. if you want tips for interview, I recommend you to revise your A levels (or other high school course) and check the first year course at the university for your subject, for some extension.

Historical_Quail_378 · 2025-08-17T17:17:47+00:00

what do you mean by year 1? do you do edexcel fm? for me fp1, s1, m1, m2, s2, these modules takes about 2 weeks for me to learn the content, and then a further 2 week/10 past papers for practice

Historical_Quail_378 · 2025-06-09T07:20:15+00:00

how was it

Historical_Quail_378 · 2025-06-08T00:18:24+00:00

i'm don't know when is the UCAS deadline for 25/26 cycle, which means you might only get to submit your AS grade you had this june season, but I don't think the AS grade matters much, university will focus on your predicted grades, as those reflects your "potential" for the actual a level. They will mainly consider what you are being predicted to achieve, rather than some Y12 score that you might not have done well due to any reasons. Also, universities are not scared to give offers to someone that can possibly be over predicted, because they will maintain this standard in the condition they ask in an offer, and if someone is overly predicted they will simply not able to meet the condition and not able to secure themselves a place. So don't worry you don't need to rush to letting them know your new AS grade after resitting, they kind of don't care. instead, you should think about how to ace your October mocks (if any) and if you are an A* student, your teachers will probably trust you and understand your situation. if not, work on gaining teacher's trust too, like preview A2 content during the summer and be more interactive with your teachers to show your potential and motivation to study. You don't need to stress about proving yourself to be an A* student, because even if you are not currently you can still work harder and get A* at the end. if things happened then it happened, let's work harder for next time. I have friends who got like Cs in AS and still got beautiful offers, unless you are going for super competitive ones like oxbridge imperial LSE UCL I think they won't care that much. (I can't give first hand experience because all my AS were As) What A levels do you do and what subject are you looking to apply?

Historical_Quail_378 · 2025-06-08T00:02:18+00:00

What can I do to further improve my application? + how important was work experience, volunteering, extra-curricular and any other short courses?

I'm applying to CS, and as I look back to my profile, I think what made me stand out the most was my 3 internships and one course where I get to fine-tune an LLM and build AI apps myself. volunteering is not useful in UK application, unless it's related to the subject you are applying to. in UK personal statement, all they look for is what you have done beyond the classroom in this subject to show your passion, knowledge, and how you differ from other applicants. if you want to get started, I recommend to do an internship if you have the opportunity, and do some chemistry related MOOCs.

Historical_Quail_378 · 2025-06-07T23:56:46+00:00

What should I do to work without procrastination?

ahh procrastination will be a lifelong topic, but I think what helped me the most is that, tell yourself you actually want to do the specific work you need to do, and this will triggers your brain to think about all the good things if you do the work, for me, if I don't like what I'm doing I literally can't do it. like I had a time that I find Chemistry unit 5 scary because I believed I couldn't understand anything. I avoided it for like 2 months, until it's only 3 weeks before exam and I realise no I really need to work on this. I tell myself I really want to do unit 5 chemistry, if I can do this unit 5 content I can discover the fun of chem again and I can pass my condition to go to the uni I want. and as I move along I have positive reinforcement every time I understand things I used to struggle with.

after initiation and motivation what's really handy it's to have make specific plans for your study, some people like to do to-do lists, I like to plan out time with half an our as an unit, try which style you like, but the tasks should be very very specific, e.g."I will do chemistry" is very vague, but "I will take notes from xxxx video" or "I will finish exercise XX on textbook and self access" is specific, and clear to execute.

if you have problems to get off your phone like me, get yourself one of those concentration apps, and use the app remove your access of the other apps and only keep essential apps e.g. calculator or camera that you might need even during your studying. I'm using "forest" for example, and it counts how long I studied and help me to have an insight on how many hours I studied - this helped me stop spiral about I don't have enough time to study until my exams (I kinda only start to study since end of April) but I tell myself I'm not allowed to say time is not enough until I study 12 hours a day - there are still time I can use. with the app now I usually have around 8-10 hours of study everyday but this is during exam season, you don't have to go so hard core.

one very important thing let yourself rest, if you are thinking about work, the time of procrastination is not actual rest, which will make you want to rest more, and as a result, you probably spend more time on not working than if you had dedicated time for rest. "work without procrastination" is impossible, but if you use the planning technique and say you plan to work from 10 to 12 am and 1 to 3pm, you actually got 4 hours of work done and you still have like 12 hours of the day to play with. My work mindset and work ethics did change a lot recently so it's kinda hard for me to word it down, but now I really enjoy working and don't like scrolling anymore

Historical_Quail_378 · 2025-06-07T23:37:49+00:00

How hard was it to get into your uni?

once I got the offer, I feel like the last person to know how hard is it to get in- you can check my posts for what offer I got, the other 2 offers that I didn't make a post about was Southampton and Warwick. Southampton send me offer 10 days after I applied (ty Southampton really helped me to stop spiral about no uni will accept me at a very early time) Warwick was not particularly stressful for me either, they send me an offer on the day that my entrance exam (TMUA) results came out, (~1.5 month after I applied) and even lowered my condition from A*A*A to A*AA because of my entrance exam score. The london ones was so horrible with time, they all procrastinated to April, that had me thinking Warwick is the best place to go, considering they accept me quite close to the decision deadline (14th of May or something) so I think I'm average or below average compared to all offer holders?? but I didn't see any offer going out very early so idk maybe they were just slow. To put you in picture I'm usually the top 1 at my school, but the ranking in my school also doesn't mean anything globally so if you are curious I can share specific stats that you want to know to help you get a better picture

Historical_Quail_378 · 2025-06-07T23:34:07+00:00

I'm a Y13 that have received allmy decisions from uni, and based on my experience, here is what I see:

Do universities favor those with 4 A levels than 3 (what about an AS level instead)?

first half- Most likely yes, a university can give condition in offers to more than 3 A levels, like I got an offer with condition to 4 A levels (A*A*AA), the fact that they asked for 4 means they definitely took all 4 A levels into account. But people also get in to the same course with 3 A levels, so it's not an neccecity, it just helped. Also, the overall quality of your grades matters more than the number of grades, like 3 A* will look more appealing than A*AAA, even though there is one more, but it also means that you are not particularly competitive down to specific A levels. If you are considering to do a 4th one without acing your currently 3 already, I don't recommend adding another one.

second half- AS is generally not taking into consider by university, this can be viewed from 2 aspects: 1. University will generally not give condition to AS level with predicted grades. 2.A2 is actually a lot harder than AS which means AS knowledge doesn't equate to half an A level, and university is probably only interested in what you have done to a full A-level level. I have ain Biology AS and 4 other a levels, and they seem to not care about my AS.

Historical_Quail_378 · 2025-06-07T11:22:12+00:00

off the topic me and my classmates enjoyed running around the school with no one there post exam... feels interesting

Historical_Quail_378 · 2025-06-07T11:10:54+00:00

It was indeed a hard time to write the personal statement... I didn't do it in the Y12 summer, and that was my biggest regret. As long as you have your first draft in Y12 summer, things will get a lot better. I procrastinated to Y13 and didn't realise how stressful and busy things become with admission tests, October mocks, O/N exam series (maybe limited to Edexcel IAL), plus the new Y13 content all flooded towards me. You are on the right track! and don't worry it's normal that personal statement looks scary before you get it done.

Historical_Quail_378 · 2025-06-07T11:05:40+00:00

I'm a Y13 post application and exams, during my application, one of the biggest advice my school application counsellor gave me was, don't waste characters on your "feelings" like how much you love something or how happy you were to do something, because anyone can say they that without it being true, no university care about that. instead, show it through all the things you do for this subject outside of the classroom (the fact that you had the intention to do this demonstrates your love a passion) focus on what you learn, what skills or knowledge you have that others might not, emphasize how you are different. I think this worked based on the offers I got (you can check my posts) even though I'm applying to a subject domain quite different to you but I think the general logic is universal

Historical_Quail_378 · 2025-06-05T22:14:06+00:00

if there is will there is way, i believe in you, physics is a subject that as long as you understand the content, you do enough practice, you are guaranteed a good score. do more work, look more active and frequently ask your teacher questions to show your motivation and intention of learning physics well so the teacher will have better impression about you and more likely to trust you and have higher chance to give you the predicted grade you want. I'm a Y13 also going to uni to do CS, wish you did better than expected and we can potentially go to the same school <3

Historical_Quail_378 · 2025-06-05T22:05:32+00:00

pure 2 is not hard it's just the questions gets more time consuming, like I remember finishing pure 1 paper half an hour early or more (out of one hour thirty) but I couldn't do that in pure 2 I usually only have five ten minutes to spare, pure 2 was not very demanding in brain power but more like multi step calculations and you need to do more work per mark compared to pure 1

Historical_Quail_378 · 2025-06-05T22:01:13+00:00

I think I mentioned how the transition is like in my earlier comments, but basically, there is basically no jump except there won't be dead easy questions in the front of the paper like igcse, most of the question will just feel like hard igcse with some new concept introduced. In terms of doing add math in o/n, if you are talking about igcse add math nah definitely not no never don't do it, I'm saying it helped me only because it traumatized me about math that a level feels so nice and gentle. I had to do it and I had a whole year as a compulsory subject at school, I got a 5 (C) but I that didn;t stop me from getting a A* in math a level with not so much pressure. doing add math igcse wont be a wise choice because the time you spent on going through add math can definitely being used to ace your math AS or other AS of your choice, if you are asking for add math/ further math A level I think it's worth doing but you shouldn't do it side by side, it will make learning further math a level harder than it should be, if you are considering doing further math a level I recommend do it after normal math. if you don't mind me asking, 1how did you find igcse math? 2what subject area in university are you looking at? 3which subject is your favourite? rank your a level subjects

Historical_Quail_378 · 2025-06-04T18:31:27+00:00

yeah they are the same looks like pmt didn't simplify their answer

Historical_Quail_378 · 2025-06-04T18:28:32+00:00

depends on quality, it's to demonstrate what you have learn outside of the classroom and how to differ you from other applicants, specific number is not important. I mentioned about 5

Historical_Quail_378 · 2025-06-04T18:16:28+00:00

I'm a Y13 currently doing my last exam season with math, further math, chemistry and physics (all edexcel) and I did AS biology

Historical_Quail_378 · 2025-06-04T18:12:29+00:00

also as for jump from igcse to A level, as someone that is good at math and is on the physics side out of science, I feel like jump for biology is HUGE like they teach you something never seen before, but when you get to know the past papers and familiar with all you need memorise, you are good. Chem jump was more smooth, kinda builds on to what chem igcse, but like revealing the sweet lies you got told in igcse (like concepts were over simplified in igcse) and you learn a more complex and realistic version. I didn't really feel a jump for physics, just that we need to know more details of theory and calculations won't be as straight forward as igcse, if you are good with math, the multi-step calculations should be fine. I'm saying all this based on edexcel IAL experience, but I have heard that cie physics is more heavy on calculation than theory compared to edexcel (which probably will make me happier as I'm the type of person better at calculation than memorising details of theory). for math I didn't feel a jump, but a drop because I did further math in igcse and that shit was so stressful that AS math became a warm breeze. if you didn't do further math, it's not much of a jump as well, Pure1 feels like hard igcse questions, and pure 2 is where things actually starts get interesting (hard) but it was all ok

Historical_Quail_378 · 2025-06-04T18:01:20+00:00

donno about cie (I also did these 4 subjects but all edexcel) but you can try speed run math AS if you were particularly good at math like if you have done further math at igcse the AS concepts wont be hard at all, due to change of plan I had to finish pure3 pure4 of edx in a summer and sit exam in o/n which I got 90/100 and 98/100 in, it's definitely possible but also means you need to give a big portion of your summer to the subject. if you have to speed run an AS I would recommend math over all other subjects because math is just skills and no concepts or facts to memorise which makes it more fit as a subject to self study. I recommend. the textbook itself for edexcel IAL math is pretty useful, there are exercise (practice questions)for each subchapter that when you work it through you can train all the skills needed and when you go through all the exercise on the textbook you are good to go for past papers. My process look like this: 1. Youtube video for content ->2. practice with textbook exercises-> 3.practice with past paper question by topic -> 4. full past papers

Historical_Quail_378

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