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“I think there’s a lot of pressure on students to do well, especially for you’re
a levels because it feels like you go to university or that’s your only option, and it really
isn’t. So you just need to keep calm and just don’t worry about it.”
“I prepared for results day first of all by telling myself that over and over to keep,
regardless of the results. I also spoke to an adviser as well, before results day and
on results day.
I just told myself to keep calm, and I went with my friends as well, so that helped me
to feel a little bit confident about getting my results and less nervous as well.
“So, it’s that time of year again when across the UK, people are about to head off
to university. But what happens if you don’t get the grades you were expecting or you do
much better than you thought? In fact, nearly 50% of students are either not sure or not
confident at all about the clearing process.
“So Jack and Sarah, let’s start at the very beginning: What is clearing?
“Clearing is a process run by UCAS which allows students to find places available on
higher education courses in the UK and for most people that comes into effect around
A level results day.”
“Brilliant, thank you very much for clearing that up. Let’s takes some questions from
some students.”
“Who is clearing for?” “What should you do if things don’t go
as well as expected?”
“So let’s go for that first question, Sarah, if you don’t mind. Who is clearing
for?”
“Well, contrary to popular belief, clearing is not just for people who haven’t done
as well as they expected with their results. You may enter clearing if you have declined
all your offers; if you didn’t apply at all through UCAS to start university, obviously
if you didn’t get the grades you were expecting; or you just changed your mind about what you
wanted to do. So clearing is a service for everybody to find a higher education course
that’s still got places available.
“Fantastic, and there must be people watching now that perhaps think things aren’t going
to go the way that they thought they were going to go, so what happens next for them?”.
“Yeah, absolutely, for people where things haven’t gone as well as they planned, I
think initially they’ll be panicking but they really shouldn’t panic. There’s nothing
to worry about. There are loads of options ahead of them. So, for instance, they could
wait for next year. Apply in 2014; do re-sits to actually up their grades, ready for that.
Or they could explore other options like vocational qualifications, doing something completely
different, looking at workplaces to explore careers.
“Or, they’ve been in education all their lives, why not take one year off as a gap
year and go travelling, do something completely different, really do make the most of it because
it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
“Do you know what? I love that positive spin on things because you might be feeling
slightly worried or concerned about your grades, etc. But this is a really nice time to pause,
take stock and think about ‘what do I want to do for the next few years?’”
“Absolutely right, I mean, Jack’s spot on. You’ve been doing a lot of study for
a long time and there’s a lot of pressure around that time of year to make the right
choice. But my advice really would be: don’t panic; think about what you want to do. Are
you really happy with the course you were going to do? What options are available? And
it’s not just getting a place through clearing; it could be taking some time out, it could
be going into work. There are lots of opportunities to study part-time and do something a little
bit different.”
“Fantastic, thank you both very much. I think you’ve really ‘cleared up’ clearing
(I’ve got it out of my system now, sorry).”