The thousands of school-leavers whose places at Cambridge will be confirmed today could be the brightest the university has ever admitted.
For the first time ever, hopeful tabs have been required to score an A* A-level grade – awarded to those achieve at least 90% at A2 and got an A at AS level. In some cases, offers have included more than one A*.
The new standard offer aims to filter out the very brightest students, combatting the ‘grade inflation’ which has left thousands of students with the same straight A results.
A number of A-level tab hopefuls, however, have criticised the amount of pressure that the new top grade has placed on students aiming to be wheat rather than chaff.
Kate, who successfully fulfilled the terms of her offer to join the fresher class of 2013 at Sidney Sussex in October, says the A* really “piled the pressure on”. Whilst the new top score is supposed to inspire students to push themselves, Kate felt that “in reality, all it did was make me panic during my exam, as I kept thinking of the pressure to get 90% in that paper. The pressure comes from it being the A2 modules that you have to perform in.”
Krishma, another (now confirmed) Sidney Sussex fresher, agreed: “I definitely think the A star changed the nature of the A level course by adding a disproportionate amount of pressure to my final year and, to an extent, made my achievements at AS less relevant…Upon receiving my offer, I had no sense of security that I had a place at Cambridge – even if I worked my hardest I didn’t know whether I could get over 90% in my A2’s. Cambridge should have waited for at least another year before making A* offers because, particularly in essay subjects, students had little idea what examiners were looking for to push them over the A/A* boundary.”
15,966 applications were received to fill the 3,400 undergraduate places in 2010, an increase of 1.67% on last year.
Welcome
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See you all soon…
love the tab already!!
have people SEEN the people showing off their grades on that fbook group, cringe.
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Erm an A* is for over 90% at A2 with over 80% overall. Get it right Tab.
The Tab
sam, you are wrong. spaz.
I still didn't find meeting the A*AA offer extremely challenging.
Doing well in my Science subjects at AS-Level and the first module of A-Level in January, I walked into my June exams needing just a U-Grade (or 37% UMS) to get an A-Grade overall.
As for the A* Grade… It's not that bad if you're good at Maths; as they ask the same bloody 9-11 questions every single year, but with different numbers or a slight twist. Again, I achieved 98% UMS in the first of my Pure exams in January, meaning I could chill out in the second Pure exam in June, needing only 82%… As they don't take the Mechanics/Statistics module score into account for the A*.
That's not to say it's as easy for everyone, but it is the case for some people. Two A* grades in my offer would have made me revise a lot harder and properly applied the pressure.
Or maybe I deserved to be rewarded after working my balls off in AS-Level? Who knows.
Oh, and I'm from a lower socioeconomic background, no family history of University education and my (state) school is one of the most underperforming in the county before anyone has a go at my for that.
Just my opinion!
Maybe Cambridge should scrap the A* offers and replace it with some sort of 'no arrogant tools' criterion so that people like you feel slightly more challenged.
less opinion, more brag. You're not gonna be too popular come freshers week with an arrogance like that.
If he wasn't from a 'lower socioeconomic background', I'd guess he's a johns fresher.
You're not going to impress readers of The Tab with the fact that you got into Cambridge; we all did. Deflate your head a bit before you turn up.
you don't want to know my opinion on your opinion, except that my opinion would tear the ears off your opinion and shove'em up it's butt just so that your opinion could hear my opinion woopin' it's ass
humility is an important trait. act like you have it.
i don't see the A* making too much of a difference… i'm about to start my second year and i had to get 90% in maths and physics for my offer. so college's could already ask you to achieve A*s without them actually being known as such.
When does Freshers week 2010 at Cambridge start please?
most fresher's arrive on the 2nd, i think x
Oh please. Will they stop whining. I got over 90% in all 4 of my A-levels. A levels are a joke. Getting less than an A* means you definitely shouldn't be at Cambridge and besides, Cambridge has been looking at the grade breakdown of AS levels for a few years now and had already made the 90% boundary an important one.
I agree. My school worked out that I would have got 4 A*s and one A. Having said that I'm not going to say it was easy because I did work bloody hard. And, if anyone is interested (which they shouldn't be, because it shouldn't be relevant), I went to a state school.
Yes, we shud nt dizcrminate agnst state school ppl
Anonymouse –
B*tch nah get unconditional. B*tch shud hush.
haaaaahahahahahahhaaaa this pleases me
[...] A Welcome To The A* Freshers Congratulations from The Tab to all those who made their grades today. Sports News [...]
The A* just stops people completely pissing away their A-level year, which is what tended to happen under the old system with people to got very high AS marks (why work if you only need Bs/Cs?). I know several people who basically took a year off in upper sixth and still ended up with straight As. Lucky for them, but surely no one can seriously argue in favour of this! Weren't the difficulty of the questions kept the same anyway? So all that's really required to get the A* is to work at the same standard as you previously did at AS. It's not that hard.
The sense of entitlement in the above quotations is really irritating. "How dare they actually put pressure on me to work! I want my dos year back…. Blah blah blah" as if they can't believe that offers are actually conditional and not a guarantee of a place.
Sam was right; I've no idea why people negatively rated their comment.
To get an A*, you have to get at least 90% at A2, with at least 80% in the A Level. You do not need an A at AS.
because it belittled The Tab?