Results Week 2021

(When data collected: 157 responses)

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Will students change their firm choice in Clearing?

Our snap poll found that most students plan to stick with their university choice (56%). However, students have not had their results yet, so Clearing may not be front-of-mind at this time.

Despite the majority sticking to their choice, this still leaves 44% who are tempted to change their mind. When we ran a similar poll in 2019 (pre-pandemic) 63% were happy and 37% were tempted to switch their university.

Of those who are considering Clearing, the most common reason is to trade up to a higher ranking university (28%). This shows that Clearing is not just for students who don't make their grades.  Universities should consider who their closest competitors (especially those ranked slightly higher or lower in league tables).

How are students feeling?

It's an anxious time for students and we're seeing lots of posts about exam nerves. We've launched the #YourPathYourFuture campaign to support students.

We're starting to see students asking what they can do if they don't get the grades they want, and Clearing is being mentioned in some key areas of the site like Medicine, Pharmacy and the Applications, Clearing and UCAS forum. Users are asking our Clearing and Applications advisors for support and we expect to see more of this in the coming days.  

These students are sharing pre-results anxiety with peers:

"Im so anxious about results day. I don't think I'll be getting into my dream uni purely because of how my college went about on assessing us. Do you think unis will be more lenient this year? What should I do if I don't get in?"

"Ahhhh! I can't believe it is six days away! If I'm being honest I just wish it was tomorrow because I want to get it over with."

"I'm really, really nervous about results day because I have put an idea in my head of what I am going to get, and now I am worried my results won't be what I expected. "

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Check out the Results Day Countdown thread

Student plans for A-level Results Day

Most students we polled said they intended to go into school or college to get their results (54%). Some were unclear that results would be released at 8.30am (in previous years it was 8am).

At this stage, Year 13s aren't really talking about appeals. There are a few conversations about grade inflation, but again not much. When results are released it will be interesting to see how the media spins it.

Some students who are not collecting in person are worried about whether they will get their results:

"You’re so lucky that you can get your results in person all I’ve been told is they’re sending us an email in the morning so I’m really hoping the email comes through at 8:30 if not i guess i’ll log into track and hope it is updated."

"Only found out how my college was doing results day a few days ago and the system we are meant to be getting our results through is currently not working so... I'm nervous about my actual results but also when and how I'll actually get them!"

Preparing for Results Day

Over the weekend, student sentiment dipped by more than a point, from 5.2 to 4.1. The frequency of these keywords in student posts was quite revealing: fail (205 mentions), worried (200), scared (177) and nervous (104).

We polled students to find out how prepared they were feeling for A-level, BTEC and SQA Results Day and only 39% felt prepared. Fortunately, students were able to access onsite resources to help with this - our most popular article this weekend (by pageviews) was "Nine ways to be totally prepared for A-level and Btec results days". Top 'results' threads included this Medicine thread and the Results Day countdown.

Students have also started sharing their pre-Results Day self-care and relaxation tips, such as not thinking about it too much, cooking, or going out in the evening. Some students will already know their results, so will have less to worry about:

"Found one of my exam results already my teacher emailed it me.Not sure if it’s allowed or not"

Student conversations - Clearing

Questions about appeals, grade boundaries, clearing processes and individual student circumstances are beginning to crop up across the site. This weekend, posting in the Applications, Clearing and UCAS forum was up 86% for Year 13s and up 28% overall (vs the weekend before Results Day 2020). 

"I have an offer of ABB to study. I want to study a different course at the same university, with BBC requirements.Should I use clearing? Do I need to self release? if I get ABB, is it better to just accept it and then ask to change courses in the first week of Uni?"

We’ve also seen more mentions of Clearing in our forums (609 mentions vs 362 last year). Medicine continues to be a key focus area for Clearing discussions - see this UCAT thread and this Medicine - UCAS Extra/Clearing thread. UCAS has already indicated that this could be a record year for Clearing, and some universities have responded by financially incentivising students to defer.

Student conversations - Appeals

Simon Lebus from Ofqual has said that students would need to have "very solid grounds for thinking something's gone wrong" if they want to successfully appeal their Teacher Assessed Grades. So far there have not been many discussions about appeals, but they have risen over the weekend:

"how do appeals work? what if ur grade goes even lower than what it was in the first place?"

Common words in student posts

Frequent words in these forums over the weekend:

Study Help
Uni + Uni Courses
Unis + HE Colleges

Frequent words in education forums.

What is on students' minds?

The day before Results Day the sentiment score rose again to 5.5 (4.1 over the weekend).  Overall the community was quieter than we would normally expect at this time - this may be because students were feeling more confident with a Teacher Assessed Grades (TAGs) system.

That said, we did see plenty of pre-results jitters and students staying up late to keep each other company. The Guardian reported rumours that around 150,000 students were still unplaced (20% higher than in 2020), so it's unsurprising that we would see some nerves:

"I'm hoping really hard that somehow, I did well in all this madness, and my dreams come true. It would mean the world to me to go into my dream course finally after so many struggles."

"Result's day is so close, I can't stop thinking about it. Tbh, it's been like this for two weeks now. I can't stop thinking of scenarios where something bad just happens and I don't get in this year.."

However, at the time of writing on Results Day, we are not seeing the levels of panic predicted by the media. We will keep an eye on this emerging situation.

Results - grade fairness, grade inflation and appeals

Most of the conversation about results was happening in our Results countdown thread, but we also saw activity in other areas of the site. Some students are worrying about the impact of grade inflation and grade fairness:

"How can they standardise results and ensure it’s fair when some schools didn’t take any exams/ some schools used exam board material/ some schools made their own questions?"

"With grade inflation there will be barely any spaces, no idea why one writer (cannot remember where) suggested there would be like 30k positions."

"I m just worried about the moderation part. My school sent out an email saying that we have been subjected to significant moderation."

We expect to see more conversations about appeals soon as a result of inflation on top grades and the increased number of unplaced students. We are already starting to see conversations like this from Scottish students who get their results earlier.

"I will defo be appealing if I get below a B because it is literally an impossible grade to come to by averaging out my achieved grades!"

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Clearing and Year 13 activity

A broader range of Clearing-related conversations are popping up onsite e.g. Going through clearing even though I have offers, How do I change my course through clearing?, What to say to universities in the clearing call?, Are you guaranteed a place in clearing?

The most popular article on 9th August (pageviews) was "University phone numbers and contact details for Ucas Clearing 2021".

The three most popular forums (based on posts and pageviews) were: Medicine, A-levels, Applications, Clearing and UCAS. Year 13 posting in the university forums was also high:

• Uni and Uni Courses - 339 posts
• Uni and HE Colleges  - 101 posts

A-Level outcomes on Results Day

Entries overall are up 5.1% (824,718 A-levels taken).

More students have received the highest grades, which may mean lots of students are miss out by the smallest margin on their university offer.

Top grades have seen the most inflation, whereas there’s been less in the mid-low grades. (D level has actually stayed almost static). Overall, the pass rates actually declined slightly (0.2pp).

A* increased by 4.8pp from 2020

A*- A increased by 6.3pp

Female students performed better than males (A*- A female students increased by 7pp and males by 5.4pp). A-level Maths female students overtook male students for the first time in the number of A* grades achieved.

Very slight regional bias towards candidates in the South and London achieving more of the top grades (A* - A). At this stage, we have no clear evidence regarding whether advantaged students with "pointy-elbowed parents" have been awarded higher grades as a result of the 2021 system, but we will be following this closely.

Students have already been celebrating and sharing their results on threads like this offer holders one.

Results Day key information

Placing students:  Onsite activity is pretty calm and positive this year -  it looks as though plenty of students were placed at their firm choice. We have seen plenty of celebrations. However, we have seen some examples of universities deciding between edge-candidates on fairly tenuous grounds.

Oversubscribed in Medicine: Students holding Medicine offers at schools which are oversubscribed are being given the opportunity to transfer to another university or defer a year. Some are being offered bursaries for this. In the main, students say universities are being understanding, but we have heard complaints that some universities are pushing hard deadlines for students to make a decision.

"My uni offer was confirmed on UCAS this morning but the uni then sent an email an hour ago about been oversubscribed, saying that there is either the option to transfer in a Transfer Scheme to another medical school or to defer and join next year. Both of these options have a £10,000 bursary available. Can I be forced to accept these options"

Appeals: Due to the (as yet unsubstantiated rumour) that 20% more students are unplaced this year, we expected to see plenty of appeals conversations - this is still not the case. The top thread mentioning appeals was our Appeals FAQ thread. Students are discussing results though.

Grades and moderation: there is less negativity about A-A* grade inflation than expected, but some students who received lower grades seem disappointed. We polled students to find out if they were happy with their results and there was a very even split between those who were happy (33%), those who got what they expected (37%), and those who had grades that were lower than they expected (30%). Only 15% of schools were asked to take another look at grades (moderation).

"I was pretty happy till I saw on the news that loads of people were getting A*'s and then I somehow felt a little disappointed"

"hello deferrals, hello reapplicants. just let me cry because my chances of a med application this year are looking very much slimmer by the day. If we put subject requirements aside, half of the country's y13s are now qualified to apply to almost all medical schools. Not that it is the fault of any applicants at all, everyone is just trying to do their best. Rip"

Official Reps and our team of volunteers played a key role in supporting students on the day

This is a lovely example of repping from the University of Portsmouth

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Demand for keywords in Google UK

Search trends and student activity on Results Day

Demand for Clearing keywords in Google UK peaked at 09:00 on Results Day, with some smaller spikes at midnight on the 10^th and 9^th. Demand remained fairly stable overnight on 10th August (albeit at fairly low levels) but now looks to be picking up slightly. Key clearing subjects searched across the day were for Medicine, Midwifery and Nursing places.

The top thread on TSR throughout the day was ‘Medicine UCAS Extra / Clearing for 2021 entry"

#alevelresults2021 dominated Twitter all day, with #NoWrongPath trending briefly in the morning (Scottish Government Youth Employment strategy campaign).

The pre-results ‘breakout’ terms were similar to previous years (but with over 5000% increase in demand) and were focussed around: what time results were released, when does UCAS Track update, various freebies/food deals (Nandos, Frankie & Bennie’s).

Post-results breakout searches included students looking for clarification on unconditional offers, appeals and resits.

There was a noticeable increase in questions around BTECs asked (more significant than previous years) including questions concerning specific grades and also whether BTECs are being ‘phased out’.

Key apprenticeship companies searched were Siemens, Gov.uk, RAF, Kaplan, Audi and Aldi, alongside more general career searches for aerospace engineering, law, game design, and travel and tourism.

Results Day onsite activity

Student sentiment rose again to 6.0 from 5.5 on Monday. Students posted nearly 1,000 happy smilies on their posts on Results Day. 72% of sessions were on mobile.

Posting is up YoY in our Uni + Uni Courses Uni and HE colleges and Study Help forums, but it should be remembered that last year Results Day was on the 13th.

Top threads in edu forums

• Medicine UCAS Clearing for 2021 entry 
• 2021 A/AS Results Day Countdown: today is the day - well done everyone!
• Official Cambridge Adjustment 2021 thread
• Medicine 2022 entry for resit / retake / gap year applicants
• Can’t get into university
• What does ds mean in BTEC?
• List of freebies on A-level results day
• Is distinction star the equivalent of an A star?

Top articles

• Exam results and teacher assessed grades
• A-level
• University phone numbers and contact details for UCAS Clearing 2021
• Clearing and Results Day
• University
• Your guide to A-level retakes, results, and optional Autumn exams
• A star grades at A-level

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Top for 'Results' mentions

• Results Day Countdown
• Medicine UCAS Clearing 2021
• A-level results are a national disaster
• SQA Results Day 2021
• How are you feeling about your results?
• Medicine 2022 entry for resit/retake/gap year
• Official GCSE Results Day 2021 - 2 days to go
• Post your BTEC results

Top for 'Clearing' mentions

• Medicine UCAS Clearing 2021
• Results Day Countdown
• University of Manchester Clearing and Adjustment
• is it worth going into clearing?
• Go through clearing or resit exams autumn/summer?

For student reactions, check out:

GCSE Results Countdown thread

GCSE Results analysis

5.75M GCSE entries this year (up 0.9% compared with 2020). Of these, 4.81M are 16-year-olds based in England. On average, students achieved 7.85 qualifications (compared with 7.84 in 2020). Entries for 17 year-olds declined (but fewer retakes for Maths and English were needed in 2021).

79.1% of entries were graded 9-4 (equivalent to A-C) and 30% were graded 7 or higher. The percentage of top grades increased compared with last year, but the overall pass rate was down:

Females outperformed males (At this time only binary data available)

3,606 students achieved straight 9s - 64% were achieved by females (16 year-olds in England). There has been some speculation that mental health issues arising from the pandemic are having a greater impact on males.

Search analysis - GCSE Results Day

The top thread on T he Student Room was ‘List of GCSE results day freebies (A-levels too) Nando's, Las Iguanas, Chiquito', continuing a trend that we saw on A-level results day.

GCSE trended on Twitter throughout the day, although it slipped to third place by mid-afternoon. Year 11 also appeared around lunchtime.

There were increased searches throughout the day concerning clarification over specific grades and their equivalents, endorsements and around what time results were released (although this is likely to be non-students).

A-Level and Clearing demand dropped off significantly after their peak on Tuesday but remained fairly stable. There was still a significant amount of demand for information about the Clearing deadline, and searches for Pharmacy places spiked in the afternoon.

Government apprenticeships searches continued to increase, alongside those for RSPCA, software engineering and aerospace engineering apprenticeships.

GCSE Results - subject focus

Subjects with the greatest increase in entries in 2021:

1. Spanish +4.7%
2. Geography +4.2%
3. Physics +4%
4. Chemistry +3.9%
5. Business Studies +3.8%
6. Biology +3.3%
7. English Literature +2.6%
8. Art and Design +2.6%
9. Science (Double award) +2%
10. History +0.9%

On the current trend, the number of entries for Geography may overtake History soon. The growth in uptake may relate to increased awareness about environmental issues.

Update on A-levels

We are now seeing a drop-off in conversations about A-level results or demands for support. Students are focused on their next steps - whether that's appeals and resits or preparing for university.

We continue to see reports of universities offering incentives for students to defer and stories about edge-cases where students are struggling.

UCAS clarified the situation regarding the 150,000 unplaced students rumour. There were 149,400 unplaced students overall: 

• 97,000 are UK-domiciled
• 51,000 are international  (11,000 EU, 40,000 non-EU)

The 51,000 international students can apply in their own and other countries, so are not necessarily unplaced overall.

Clearing and analysis on unplaced applicants

The number of applicants has increased by 21,490 YoY. By 11th August, 8,700 applicants had already been placed through Clearing and we expect this to rise quickly. At this point, there are 19,710 more applicants free to be placed in Clearing than in 2020, but this is more reminiscent of the numbers we were seeing in 2014,2015 and 2016.

Universities seem to be making decisions more quickly, as at the time of writing there were 10,000 fewer students waiting to hear about conditional offers.

Top Ten unplaced (in Clearing applicants) by subject:

1. Subjects allied to Medicine ~ 29,000
2. Medicine ~10,000
3. Creative arts & Design ~10,000
4. Business & Admin ~7,000
5. Social studies (including Economics and Politics) ~6,000
6. Biological Sciences (includes Psychology) ~6,000
7. Education ~5,000
8. Engineering ~3,000
9. Computer Science ~3,000
10. Law ~3,000

Health-related fields have a very high proportion of unplaced applicants – this could be down to university place and/or placement shortages, combined with higher applicant numbers. 

A-Level subjects onsite analysis

Onsite Medicine continues to be our most popular subject forum in the month leading up to A-level Results Day. We are also seeing consistently high levels of activity for related fields like nursing, dentistry and pharmacy.

STEM subjects are also popular, which may be linked to the fact that this cohort are more concerned about employability outcomes than previous years.

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A-Level subjects - 2021 entries

Increase in subject entries 2021:

Geography +16.8%

Law +15.4%

Computer Science +11.3%

Decrease in subject entries 2021:

English Literature

Mathematics

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Student sentiment - Year 13s

The student sentiment score dipped back down to 4.8 the day after A-level Results Day. This thread: Summer 2021 Exams Appeals Guide and FAQ gained 105 posts. Many students are celebrating, but some are disappointed with their results:

"I got a grade back for one of my subjects to be given a C which is far from what I anticipated. ...my school keeps telling me I need to do an appeals process straight to the exam board... Does anyone know what I can do about this because due to this I have missed out on my firm and have no university"

"I was predicted AAC and i ended up some how getting BDE...I got rejected by my firm and insurance. I spent yesterday crying my eyes out and had no clue what to do....All my mates are partying with their high grades and im just depressed.I applied for stage 1 appeal but my request was denied and now im going over stage 2...Im mentally drained to retake my a levels again , these past two years have been the worst years of my life "

"I didn't get the grades for medicine this year- I got Bs. My school said I should apply as a private candidate So shall I apply through the school or as a private candidate, I am quite confused."