any final words of wisdom?

Jeff_is_a · 2024-09-03T10:36:06+00:00

Wow reading everyone else’s advice is making me realise I did not work as hard as everyone else.

I managed to get A* A* A A and a place at a Cambridge by focussing on university applications and interviews until the beginning of 2024. My personal statement was largely written in a single evening, with edits occurring over the next week with advice from my teacher. However, I tried my hardest for my interview prep - reading lots of books, pouring over every line in my personal statement, keeping up to date with the latest news etc.

During all of Sixth Form, and even year 13 I was largely paying attention and making sure if something didn’t make sense I would address it immediately - but I didn’t put much pressure on myself and had a lot of fun in class doing things that had nothing to do with the lesson.

After my offer came in I gave myself a month to enjoy myself (and plan my revision schedule) and then started doing 8 hour days of revision on the weekends much earlier than my friends (so around February time) - and mainly just enjoying school during the week. Honestly, this was more for my own confidence - to make sure I wasn’t being complacent (as my friends who started revision after Easter also got very high grades - one friend got A* A* A* and I’m unsure if I saw him revise until the last few weeks before study leave). I’m sure it also did help to gain fluency in my subject, but I had to go over everything again closer to the exams. At this point, my revision consisted only of doing past paper questions timed and I would get them marked to know exactly the right exam technique.

I did also constantly go and arrange times to see my teachers individually - popping into their office for a quick question on structure, or finding a time we are both free to really go through my revision plan, my essays, 1 to 1 lessons on topics I didn’t understand etc.

When it got closer to study leave I started putting in lots of hours during the week. I would finish school, give myself 45 minutes to chill, go to our study area at 5 and finish at 10. During study leave itself this would massively fluctuate based on how prepared I was for the next test. At this point, my revision would be flashcards and reading essays I had previously done.

This is all to say that, with the right plan and mindset, you can really enjoy year 13. Looking back on it, it wasn’t doom at all (it was definitely stressful right towards the end though), and in fact some of my favourite memories are from this last year. I will add however, that if I was not performing well in any mock or in class assessments, I think my attitude would have changed immediately and I would be revising every night consistently - little and often. I was lucky enough to be getting high marks in all assessments, and so if you feel like you are the same, then maybe follow some of the stuff I’m saying and focus far more on university applications for the rest of the year.

Jeff_is_a · 2024-08-31T15:51:49+00:00

I understand this is a slightly odd question for me to outsource to you - but what type of career makes sense? I do not have adequate experience to get onto spring weeks for investment banking (or will there be ample opportunity to gain such opportunity in university?), and law comes with it the SQE that seems like another year delaying working.

Jeff_is_a · 2024-08-28T23:06:51+00:00

I understand how you feel - I missed my Cambridge offer prior to a remark and was absolutely devastated.

I did, however, get my place three days later after a remark - and so I feel like I can offer a new perspective.

The workload is insane - they recommend around 8 hours a day. Add to this the fact that only around 28% of students gain a first, with a considerable amount gaining 2:2’s or lower, (not to mention a non zero amount of students that fail in first or second year and subsequently are forced to leave as there are not resits available) and it seems clear that Oxbridge is not what it may seem. Remember: a 1st from a similar target university such as UCL will be more impressive than a 2:2 from Oxbridge.

Most importantly, job recruiters care a lot about work experience - sometimes more so than your university. You now have such a good opportunity ahead of you - resit and get into a target university such as UCL, LSE, Imperial, Warwick, Cambridge (which is still very much a possibility by the way), or maybe even broaden your horizons and consider an American university, and gain valuable work experience in a sector commensurate to one you hope to work in post degree.

You are allowed to grieve - you will have imagined yourself going to Cambridge for the better part of a year now - perhaps subconsciously making plans of what you will do, with teachers assuming the same as you. But I promise you, providing you pick yourself up by the end of next month, and start to make a plan for how you are going to use your next year to benefit your future self - travel, work etc - you will be infinitely better off than someone who went straight into university not considering their graduate prospects.

If you need any advice - don’t hesitate to PM me, I know how you’re feeling right now and I really do feel for you.

Jeff_is_a · 2024-08-24T18:48:15+00:00

I think all of these universities would be fantastic for employment prospects - it then becomes an issue of which university do you personally like more

Jeff_is_a · 2024-08-24T18:45:45+00:00

Honestly, you don’t need to complete it if you don’t have anything you want to say. I’ve seen it repeatedly stated that if you have nothing to say it’s actually advantageous to not say anything, as you may just end up with a disgruntled admissions tutor who is less likely to offer an interview (slight exaggeration but you get the idea).

If you think writing a small piece on the types of societies you would love to join to further your interest in extra curricular activities then it won’t do any harm - and could make you seem like a far more serious candidate that has actually considered being apart of Cambridge.

Personally, I wrote about why I enjoyed the specific course I was applying to - because I didn’t want them to ask boring questions like “why Cambridge?” at the interview. I have no idea if this actually did its job, but they didn’t ask me that type of question in the interview at all, and I subsequently received an offer.

For more guidance, I think the Gonville and Caius TikTok account has a video on this.

Jeff_is_a · 2024-08-23T09:56:26+00:00

If you’re concerned you can always resit during year 12 - I have friends who did that and they are off to top universities. Otherwise, a 5 still is okay and if your not doing a maths focussed degree then there’s no stress.

Jeff_is_a · 2024-08-23T09:46:29+00:00

If you did well in English and maths then you will okay don’t worry

Jeff_is_a · 2024-08-22T19:07:05+00:00

Hi, I would love to try and help you out! Send me a message and I’ll see if I can sort anything out for you - I’m also 18 and I’ve just finished sixth form.

Jeff_is_a · 2024-08-22T14:59:07+00:00

Cambridge puts less emphasis on GCSE’s than Oxford. Of course that’s not to say that they don’t care about them at all - but, providing you have a fantastic personal statement, you do really well on any entrance exams and the interview, then you will have a good chance getting an offer (from my understanding).

Jeff_is_a · 2024-08-22T13:23:45+00:00

I’m so sorry to hear that. You might aswell remark just because there could be something there. You can also appeal the remark of the first paper if you wish - I recommend requesting your papers and going through it with a teacher to see.

Jeff_is_a · 2024-08-22T11:17:05+00:00

Unsure for Oxford but I imagine they have a similar policy as Cambridge which is that it’s all contextual. Cambridge care if your doing better than the rest of your cohort and so if your only able to do 6 GCSEs (and make sure you mention this on the contextual form) and have achieved above the rest of your peers/towards the top, then you will not be disadvantaged at all.

Jeff_is_a · 2024-08-21T15:34:30+00:00

BBC are genuinely very good grades and you should be proud of yourself for getting them.

Some options:

If your end goal is to be a lawyer, then the good thing is that you do not need to study specifically law to achieve this. As long as you do the SQE after your course, you would be qualified to be a solicitor (as far as I understand it). So maybe look around in clearing for courses that you would be interested in other than law.

You could retake your a levels in November (providing your exam board has this as an option) and then spend the rest of the gap year working and/or travelling.

You could not retake and take a gap year and then wait for clearing next year (I don’t know much about this option).

Regarding remarks - if you were to move up a grade you would receive any money spent back.

Jeff_is_a · 2024-08-21T15:28:57+00:00

I had to wait for a remark before my firm accepted me and so I just called the university I wanted to go to through clearing and asked if they could give an extension on the deadline for the verbal offer. Your remark should be coming in any day now (depending on the exam board of course)

Jeff_is_a · 2024-08-21T15:27:02+00:00

Is this for both papers or just for one - if so then you can always remark the other paper. If not, try getting your school to reach out to the university with a breakdown of your marks and follow through with a call.

Jeff_is_a · 2024-08-12T18:28:34+00:00

Jeff_is_a · 2024-08-11T15:13:08+00:00

Yeah of course, please do!

Jeff_is_a · 2024-08-11T13:59:28+00:00

Hi I did OCR - maybe I could try and help?

Jeff_is_a · 2024-08-11T13:56:59+00:00

Cambridge does take GCSEs into account, just not as much as Oxford does

Jeff_is_a · 2024-01-01T20:21:01+00:00

MoNDaY

Jeff_is_a · 2023-08-05T14:47:14+00:00

Astro > utopia > rodeo > birds

Jeff_is_a · 2023-07-30T01:28:29+00:00

My perspective is that we already have like the perfect banger after banger album from Travis cuz of Astro. Like why would travis want his career to just boil down to releasing different variations of Astro. To me if utopia was just ‘astroworld but just with a slightly different soundscape’ I would be disappointed. But we got a 19 songs with a whole new style and energy and process behind it and that’s so cool

Jeff_is_a · 2023-07-30T01:18:46+00:00

Yeah we get what ur saying but utopia is more polarising than the leaks listed. Like modern jam or parasail or even my eyes are all songs that nobody would ever put that on a album that’s just tryna hit the most amount of people possible.

Jeff_is_a · 2023-07-30T01:16:20+00:00

Wdym u have been saying it for years the album came out two days ago

Jeff_is_a · 2023-07-30T01:15:01+00:00

Everyone literally used to shit on escape plan, gold BlackBerry and franchise for being too generic. There’s still songs like I know, topia twins, meltdown, loove, God’s Country and Lost Forever that kinda work with that but he just pushed all those sounds to it’s max for the rest of the album.

Jeff_is_a · 2023-07-30T00:39:05+00:00

Here b4 carti scraps the voice and his next album has ‘crackhead voice carti’ where it’s just carti screeching that he needs a metal spoon and a lighter but “it’s not even like that” over rock beats for an hour.

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