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Re: Congratulations to this year's Grecians and their new Headmaster

Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2018 10:06 am
by postwarblue
Congratters indeed, and if anyone didn't get what they needed, hang in there. Lat year my grandson got very good A levels but they just were not enough for an immediate medical place. However, some aspirants clearly had applications in at more than one med school. At the last minute my grandson was offered a place at Plymouth, binned his gap year plans and is now about to start his second year. So it all came good and so it can even if the results do not meet the stated criteria.

Re: Congratulations to this year's Grecians and their new Headmaster

Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2018 3:53 pm
by yamaha
Christ’s Hospital pupils and their teachers are celebrating another year of excellent A level results. A highly impressive 53% of all Pre-U and A Level grades achieved were equivalent to either an A* or A

I have just seen the list of Independent schools' results. I can't see CH on the list. Perhaps they do not report to the Independent Schools Council, which compiled the list.

However, the pass rate of 53% would place them 98th on the list!

Given that the top achievers such as St. Paul's, Eton, Winchester, Wycombe Abbey and many others are not on the list CH's true position would be somewhere below 120.

Very unimpressive for a very selective school, and especially so considering CH's resources.

Re: Congratulations to this year's Grecians and their new Headmaster

Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2018 4:14 pm
by J.R.
yamaha wrote: Tue Aug 28, 2018 3:53 pm
Christ’s Hospital pupils and their teachers are celebrating another year of excellent A level results. A highly impressive 53% of all Pre-U and A Level grades achieved were equivalent to either an A* or A

I have just seen the list of Independent schools' results. I can't see CH on the list. Perhaps they do not report to the Independent Schools Council, which compiled the list.

However, the pass rate of 53% would place them 98th on the list!

Given that the top achievers such as St. Paul's, Eton, Winchester, Wycombe Abbey and many others are not on the list CH's true position would be somewhere below 120.

Very unimpressive for a very selective school, and especially so considering CH's resources.


So that makes me wonder if these so called 'League Lists' are worth the paper they are written on before posting to the public.

Re: Congratulations to this year's Grecians and their new Headmaster

Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2018 4:46 pm
by Great Plum
I think it’s because the school do the IB as well as a levels so I don’t think it gets picked up by the league tables...

Re: Congratulations to this year's Grecians and their new Headmaster

Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2018 4:56 pm
by Katharine
Surely 53% A and A* does not equate to a pass rate of 53%?

Re: Congratulations to this year's Grecians and their new Headmaster

Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2018 5:02 pm
by wurzel
Sorry wrote a post then realsied about gcse's not alevels so deleted

PS just found my son who is off to Warwick to do Maths has made contact with others going there on social media and that includes this year's Maths button Grecian who was amazed he guessed her school from a couple of clues (miles from a tiny useless town and with it's own station)

Re: Congratulations to this year's Grecians and their new Headmaster

Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2018 5:21 pm
by yamaha
by Great Plum » Tue Aug 28, 2018 4:46 pm
I think it’s because the school do the IB as well as a levels so I don’t think it gets picked up by the league tables...
The ISC list includes IB equivalents.
Results include scores in A-level, IB and Pre-U qualifications.
Higher level 7 and 6 at IB and Distinction 1,2,3, and Merit 1 at Pre-U are equivalent to A* and A at A-level
CH's announcement says "53% of all Pre-U and A Level grades achieved were equivalent to either an A* or A."

Why would CH exclude IB results if they would raise the percentage from an unimpressive 53%? Presumably the IB results were worse.

For comparison, Brighton College is 8th on the list with 82.32%

Re: Congratulations to this year's Grecians and their new Headmaster

Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2018 11:28 pm
by wurzel
Well all i know is that this years cohort is the one my son would have been in but CH didnt think he would fit in, so he boarded elsewhere on a scholarship/bursary better than the indicative CH one we had at the time and is off to Warwick on the back of 3xA*in Maths, Further Maths & Physics + A in Computer Science and a B in French + 2 maths STEPS in which he got a 1 & a 3 - guess he would have dragged them up a bit but it shows they were not looking at just academics 7 years ago

Re: Congratulations to this year's Grecians and their new Headmaster

Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2018 7:50 am
by Katharine
Yamaha, have you a link to the ISC list? You still seem to think that CH achieved a pass rate of 53%, they achieved far higher than that. Please look at https://www.christs-hospital.org.uk/sch ... al-pupils/ where it says the average grades equated to AAB. A Grade E is technically a pass, I cannot find the CH pass rate mentioned in the press release.

Congratulations to young Wurzel, I hope he will enjoy his time at Warwick and leave with a lifelong love of his subject. Warwick offered me a place for Maths by return of post, when it was just establishing its reputation in the subject. Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like had I accepted it instead of thinking of the prestige of Oxford. I did very little thinking for myself at that age and followed the wishes of CH!

Re: Congratulations to this year's Grecians and their new Headmaster

Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2018 9:10 am
by wurzel
the trouble with Oxbridge now is you can only apply to one of them in a year, so once he put down Cambridge he could not apply to Oxford even though Cambridge would not even interview him. One of my younger brothers contemporaries at CH had the same happen to them, a flat rejection from Cambridge, smashed his Alevels (was the first to do every module of Maths Alevel gaining him maths, further maths and Additional further maths qualifications) went to Warwick and then into the actuarial profession. they seem to be trying very hard to take in people from the "correct" demographics to keep the press/critics happy. So Warwick seems to becoming the first choice for excellent mathematicians from independent schools. He will still be close to Oxford by train so he can meet up with his good mate from school who is another son of an old blue contemporary of mine and is going to New College to read English

Thanks for the link Katherine as I can now see who he was talking to online (top of the results list) they seem to have very similar achievements

Luckily he had offers from all the other good Maths courses so was looking at Warwick or an insurance of Bath with York the other possibility (if he fluffed the exams they would have taken him as he had links through the UKMT)

Re: Congratulations to this year's Grecians and their new Headmaster

Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2018 9:26 am
by Katharine
I've an idea that in my time girls could apply to both Oxford and Cambridge, but boys only one of them, this was before co-ed colleges of course. I certainly applied to both, but didn't get an interview at Cambridge. I was applying after A levels, I would love to know whether I would have got into Imperial, but they were adamant that you couldn't attend if you had already accepted an Oxbridge offer.

I had noticed that the CH Maths high flyer was going to Warwick too.

Re: Congratulations to this year's Grecians and their new Headmaster

Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2018 11:17 am
by J.R.
All this is way over my aged brain.

I seem to dimly remember getting a LOL in my stand up comedy exam.

Re: Congratulations to this year's Grecians and their new Headmaster

Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2018 1:18 pm
by Golfer
postwarblue wrote: Fri Aug 17, 2018 10:06 am Congratters indeed, and if anyone didn't get what they needed, hang in there. Lat year my grandson got very good A levels but they just were not enough for an immediate medical place. However, some aspirants clearly had applications in at more than one med school. At the last minute my grandson was offered a place at Plymouth, binned his gap year plans and is now about to start his second year. So it all came good and so it can even if the results do not meet the stated criteria.
Medical applications are always tough. I have had experience of one "perfect" candidate who got no offers. One problem is that each Uni has different perspectives / requirements so how do you write a personal statement with potentially 5 different requirements / perspectives?

Re: Congratulations to this year's Grecians and their new Headmaster

Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2018 8:34 pm
by rockfreak
You're not alone John. All this stuff addles my brain too. Is there anywhere else in developed Europe where all this entry gymnastics cobblers exists? People seem to deal with secondary and tertiary education and get their uni places in a reasonably straightforward manner. And do they do any worse than us as a country? Perhaps someone with personal knowledge of western Europe will say I'm wrong. I'm just a bystander in an island out there in the North Sea which is about to consign itself to third world status next March.

Re: Congratulations to this year's Grecians and their new Headmaster

Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2018 10:02 pm
by Golfer
OMG, A national system with grades 1-10 which was consistent and which both employers and universities could understand. What a novel idea!