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Can someone explain to me the significance of A-level grades? If I understand Wikipedia correctly, students apply to universities using predicted grades anyways

Can someone explain to me the significance of A-level grades? If I understand Wikipedia correctly, students apply to universities using predicted grades anyways, and receive offers that are conditioned on the final grades. How about just make all offers unconditional? And if you are not going to universities, do anyone actually care about your A-level grades?

corin_ 6y ago
At least a couple of places, including one of Oxford Uni's colleges, have agreed to take anyone who was offered a conditional place, and there has been a hashtag trending on Twitter of #HonourTheOffer I expect many more to follow, so it's possible that the universities will clear up an awful lot of that mess - but while some academics are saying yes great bring them all in, others are strongly against the idea of expanding to let more people in this year. As to whether they're significant apart from for UCAS applications (university) - I'm not too sure. Personally I wouldn't care much about them on a CV of someone I was thinking of hiring in the best of years yet alone if I knew their results came from 2020. But with unemployment rising fast, and much worse soon once government gradually removes support offered over the summer to keep people furloughed (companies paid to have their staff not working but kept officially on the payroll until they could get back to work), we've already heard stories in some places or a shop or a pub advertising a job offer and getting 1000+ applications... and in a terrible job market, school exam grades could likely be a decider for who gets called to interview for many working class jobs. (They already are even outside a terrible job market, that just amplifies it.) edit: Oh, and while I don't know what proportion of people doing A Levels don't want to go to university (or want to go, but fail) - we're also a few days away from this same situation happening with the GCSE exams, which pretty much everyone legally has to do around age 16.

corin_ 6y ago

At least a couple of places, including one of Oxford Uni's colleges, have agreed to take anyone who was offered a conditional place, and there has been a hashtag trending on Twitter of #HonourTheOffer I expect many more to follow, so it's possible that the universities will clear up an awful lot of that mess - but while some academics are saying yes great bring them all in, others are strongly against the idea of expanding to let more people in this year. As to whether they're significant apart from for UCAS applications (university) - I'm not too sure. Personally I wouldn't care much about them on a CV of someone I was thinking of hiring in the best of years yet alone if I knew their results came from 2020. But with unemployment rising fast, and much worse soon once government gradually removes support offered over the summer to keep people furloughed (companies paid to have their staff not working but kept officially on the payroll until they could get back to work), we've already heard stories in some places or a shop or a pub advertising a job offer and getting 1000+ applications... and in a terrible job market, school exam grades could likely be a decider for who gets called to interview for many working class jobs. (They already are even outside a terrible job market, that just amplifies it.) edit: Oh, and while I don't know what proportion of people doing A Levels don't want to go to university (or want to go, but fail) - we're also a few days away from this same situation happening with the GCSE exams, which pretty much everyone legally has to do around age 16.