Unexpected exam results – what next?

Results day arrives and it’s the moment of truth: Have you achieved what you needed to get in to college or university?

Regardless of your situation, don’t panic, there are always options. It’s a good idea to talk them over with someone who can help you make or adjust your plans, and that’s what the Exam Results Helpline is for. Whether you have questions about gap years, skills and experience, vocational qualifications, retakes and re-marks, moving out of home or finding employment – qualified and experienced careers advisers are at the end of the phone to support you with independent advice about your next steps. You can meet four students who are glad they got in touch with the Exam Results Helpline on results day in our blog post "The Exam Results Helpline - helping you face the unexpected".

John Carberry, a Careers Adviser for the Exam Results Helpline shares valuable advice on the different options to consider if your exams results aren’t what you expected. 

Pursuing university or college
If you only narrowly missed being offered a place at your chosen college or university, you may still be accepted so be sure to check your status in UCAS Track.

John Carberry - Careers Adviser, Exam Results Helpline

If you find yourself in Clearing you’ll need to look for courses you’re interested in that have vacancies and start speaking to universities and colleges to find out if they can offer you a place. Everything you need to know about how to use Clearing is on the UCAS website. 

Better grades than expected? Terrific! 
If you’ve met and exceeded the conditions of your firm choice, you’re eligible for Adjustment, which means it’s possible you could swap your course. You must register through UCAS Track, and again you’ll need to do a bit of telephone work. It’s important to be prompt if you want to use Adjustment – you only have a few days. 

Taking a gap year
Whether you’re planning to reapply for university next year or head straight into the job market, a gap year used as ‘constructive time-out’ can be great for your CV. It could give you the opportunity to ‘test-drive’ a career, develop your confidence and independence and build up your skills and experience – and ultimately make you a more valuable and competitive candidate for college, university or a job at the end of it. You could even earn some money along the way!

You have many options – voluntary or paid work in the UK or abroad, internships, work experience, travelling or a Year in Industry are just a few. 

If you’re unsure what you want to do, a gap year may provide you with the time and experience to help decide. If you want to return to education, remember to be aware of application deadlines!

Getting your exam papers re-marked
If you don’t agree with your exam results and you want to explore getting your papers re-marked, speak to your school or college IMMEDIATELY, especially if your place depends on the overall grade. There are strict deadlines in place and support from your school or college is essential.

Re-taking your qualifications 
If you think that you could have got a better grade in specific subjects or modules then there might be an opportunity for you to resit the exam, and reapply for uni next year. You need to speak to your subject teacher about this as it’s ultimately the school or college’s decision and they will organise next steps. 

Vocational qualifications
If you know what you want to do career-wise and you like the idea of earning while you learn, this could be a great choice for you. 

Vocational qualifications such as apprenticeships, HNDs and NVQs are credible, well-valued work-based training programmes. You’ll get top quality training while developing skills, earning a wage and gaining a qualification on the job. Vocational training is designed to give skills for specific jobs and is great if you want to move straight into employment.

To learn more about any of these options, contact the Exam Results Helpline. The service is available from 5 – 23 August on 0808 100 8000. Calls are free from UK landlines.

10 places to get personal statement pointers

If a bit of personal statement inspiration is what you need, then look no further – here are the 10 best places to pick up more than a pointer or two!

1. The UCAS website
   Start your planning at www.ucas.com/personalstatement. There are tips on how to get started and what to include. It also covers the technical aspects you need to bear in mind, such as the character count.
    
2. Personal statement timeline
   Check out our personal statement timeline. It’s packed with advice on how to spread out the planning and writing stages so you’re not cramming at the last minute.
     
3. Our blog
   A few years ago we asked uni admissions tutors to tell us what they’re looking for in the personal statement and the advice they shared has been so well received that it’s still our most popular blog post to date! Have a read of it here.
    
4. Teachers and tutors
   Speak to your teachers and tutors at school to find out from them what they think your strengths are – they might point out a few areas that you hadn’t even considered, but that are really relevant when it comes to showing that you’d be a dedicated and hard working undergraduate student.
    
5. Open days
   Open days are not only your chance to find out what a uni has to offer, but also to find out what they expect from their students. Take the opportunity to ask as many questions as you can - speak to course tutors to find out what they want to see in your personal statement, and what will make you stand out. Find out when open days are happening in our open days search.
    
6. Students’ top tips
   No one knows more about the task at hand than your peers. We asked our Facebook fans who had already applied to uni for their personal statement top tips - here’s what they said:
   
   
7. Video guide
   This brilliant video with Jane Marshall from Imperial College has everything you need to know about how to write your personal statement.
   
   
    
8. Personal statement mind map
   Although it might look a bit chaotic, this personal statement mind map is a great way to get your thoughts in order.
   
   
9. Search for course details
   Every course you can apply for is listed in our search tool, together with entry requirements and a description of what it covers. Find the courses you’re interested in and try to match up your strengths and experiences to the course requirements.
    
10. Friends and family
    Once you’ve got your personal statement drafted, try reading it aloud to people you trust. They’ll be able to offer fresh insight in to how your statement flows and any areas you might have missed.

Replying to offers: give yourself enough time

You’ve waited anxiously for your university choices to make their decisions. You’ve logged in to Track to check thousands of times and now you’ve finally received all your offers. You’re probably thinking “What a relief, the wait is over!” but don’t relax just yet, as once you get to this stage there’s a big decision to make: which offers will you accept?

Know your reply deadline
Although you might still be weighing up your different offers, there’s one thing that’s certain, and that’s the deadline you need to reply by. If you’re wondering when it is, it all depends on when you received the universities’ decisions. The first deadline is 7 May, which is for those who received all decisions by 31 March, but Track will display the right deadline for you so make sure you check.

Reply sooner rather than later
Whether you’re one of the people whose deadline is 7 May or not, once you’ve had decisions from all of your choices then it’s a good idea to reply to your offers sooner rather than later. That’s not to say you should rush your replies though – it’s really important to think carefully until you know which you’d like to make your firm and insurance choices. But once you’ve made your decision it’s best not to wait until the last minute.

You might think you’ve got plenty of time but don’t let the reply deadline creep up on you. The unavoidable truth is that if you leave it until deadline day to reply to your offers in Track, you’ll be feeling the pressure – even panicking. When you’re rushing it’s more likely that you’ll make a mistake, which could mean selecting the wrong replies. Just imagine – you’ve spent months perfecting your application and working towards meeting the conditions of your dream offer and you accidently select ‘decline’ instead of ‘firm’!

Now that’s not to say this doesn’t happen to even the most prepared applicants. You may be able to change your replies within seven days of making them – if you call us then we'll be able to let you know if this is possible.

Avoid unnecessary stress
If you miss the reply deadline altogether you’ll end up lumbered with unnecessary stress, as the offers you received will be automatically declined. We call it ‘declined by default’ and if you find yourself in this situation you should contact our customer service advisers straight away – they’ll be able to accept your chosen offers, but only if you get in touch within seven days.

So the most important piece of advice is to give yourself enough time to reply before the deadline. Here are just some of the benefits of replying in good time:

1. You’ll get peace of mind –  your replies will be done and dusted and out of the way, so you can begin enjoying your summer
2. You’ll avoid last minute problems – you’ll have the chance to ask for help from your teachers and UCAS, should you need it. 
3. You’ll be able to make plans – universities and colleges will often wait until you’ve replied before they let you apply for accommodation. 

For help replying to your offers, take a look at our post Replying to university offers: the big questions or watch our video guide.

Open days: how to plan valuable visits

A survey published this weekend suggests that a quarter of students don’t attend open days before applying to university. We found this quite surprising, as open days are so helpful when it comes to painting a picture of university life and choosing courses. Yet our own research also suggests that a similar percentage of students still choose not to make these important visits before applying.

Keith Carter, Professional Development Officer at UCAS, explains more about the value of open days, where to find key information and how to make the most of visits.

Keith Carter, Professional Development Officer, UCAS.

I think it’s essential to visit a university or college before committing to at least three years of study. It’s another way of making sure your choice is right for you. Open days are an important part of researching courses and can make all the difference when it comes to making informed course choices.

By just setting foot on a campus you'll immediately get a feel for the place; perhaps you'll be able to picture yourself going there almost every day for the next few years, or the opposite - 10 minutes might be all you need to know that a particular university definitely isn’t for you!

Open days are often on weekends as well as weekdays and take place throughout the year. To help you plan your visits, we’ve made finding out about open days as easy as possible with our new open days search tool. All you have to do is choose the university or college you’re interested in visiting from the list, hit ‘Select’ and away you go! You’ll see upcoming open day dates, contact details and links through to the unis' own websites for more info.

Going on a visit will help you understand what university life is like, as you’ll be shown around lecture theatres, labs, catering facilities, bars and halls of residence. You’ll get some idea of the geography of the area and how close you’ll be to key services like train stations and supermarkets.

Open days are also prime opportunities to ask questions - not just to the staff, but perhaps more importantly, the students already studying there. You can ask almost anything and it can be far more revealing than reading a prospectus.

By making an effort to include open days in your research, you can avoid the disappointment of starting a course and finding it isn’t what you expected.

The new open days search tool is a great place to start this chapter of your journey to university. Once you've got the dates in your diary, have a read of our open days hints and tips to help you make the most of your visits.

Three things to do while you wait for uni decisions

Katie Collins, Social
Media Exec at UCAS

So you’ve sent your application – great! Now it’s just a case of waiting for decisions, right? One after the other they’ll pop up on Track and you’ll get those notification emails. Right... BUT don’t expect it to happen straight away. You could find that it’s several months before you hear from a university, or for the lucky few it could happen straight away. The truth is every university and college will take a different amount of time to get back to you. It’s undoubtedly an anxious time and it can seem to last forever, but I assure you it won’t. Although you don’t know exactly when you’ll get all those heart-stopping Track notification emails, you can be certain that it will either be by 7 May (if you applied before 15 January) or by 16 July (if you applied after 15 January and before 30 June).

To pass the time as you wait for decisions, you – like many others – might find yourself compelled to log in to Track day and night to check for updates. Other than causing a repetitive strain-type injury, this isn’t likely to have any impact on how you feel. So if you want to use your time more wisely, here’s what I recommend you do between now and your last uni decision:

1. Figure out the next steps. When you’ve had all your uni decisions it’ll be time to reply to your offers. You’ll want to get this right, so have a read of our advice and watch our how-to guide to find out what you’ll need to do. It’s also a good idea to prepare for the unexpected: no offers. If you end up in this situation you could use Extra to apply for another choice, so make time to find out about this option.
    
2. Get to know the universities a bit better. Most of them are eager to meet you on social media, so what are you waiting for? Make the most of the opportunity to ask them your questions and stay up-to-date with what’s going on around their campuses. It could help you when it comes to choosing which offers to accept, plus you’ll get a feel for what it’s like to be part of their student community.
    
3. Suss out student blogs. Who else can tell you what it’s really like to go to uni other than real life students? A frank and honest account of student life is the closest you can get before embarking on it for yourself. Many unis feature student bloggers on their websites and there are lots of other students out there who blog independently.