Results day can be both a potentially stressful and potentially joyous experience. If you got the grades you need, or even exceeded them, then you still need to know what to do next. If you didn’t get the grades you need you may have to make some tough, quick decisions.
Here are a few hints and tips to help you be prepared:
Know Your Track Login Details: Make sure that you know your login details for the UCAS Track system, as this is the easiest and quickest way to find out if you have been accepted onto the course of your choice. It is also a good idea to make sure that your contact details are correct on the Track system, as this is where universities will find out how to contact you.
Be Ready
It may sound simple, but making sure that you are around and ready to respond to anything that might happen is the key to getting through results day. You may need to make some tough decisions so make sure you have people with you who can help out.
For a little more information on preparing for those all important results, why not check out this video?
Getting Your Results to Your Universities
UCAS automatically receives and sends on most common exam results to your chosen institutions but there are some rare exceptions for which this is not the case. There is a comprehensive list on their site (http://www.ucas.com/students/results/examresults) so check to see if you’re results are on there or if you will need to send them to your university or colleges yourself.
Once the universities have received your results they will decide whether or not to confirm your place. As soon as this decision has been made it will be displayed on Track, so keep checking back to see if anything has changed.
You must meet the conditions of your offer by 31st August, unless otherwise stated by the university or college.
Whether you have or haven’t gained the grades that you wanted, you’ll need to know what to do next:
What To Do Once You Have Received Your Results
If you have gained the results you need you should receive an offer from your choice of university or college. Even if you have missed out on the grades needed by a slim margin, your chosen course may have decided to award you a place anyway.
In either case you will now be in one of the following positions:
Accepted by your firm choice: If you are accepted you will receive a confirmation letter in the post with all the details you need about starting to study at your chosen university.
Accepted by your firm choice and exceeded the conditions of your offer: If you have exceeded the conditions of your offer you will still be awarded your place at university and will receive your letter of confirmation as above. You may also wish to go through the Adjustment process, however. Details of this can be found in the next step.
Received a ‘changed course’ offer: A ‘changed course’ offer is when you university has been unable to confirm your offer as you did not match the original criteria. They are prepared to offer you an alternative offer, however, usually based around a change of course, start date or point of entry. You can reply to a ‘changed course’ offer in Track and you have five days to do so before the offer will be automatically declined.
What you need to do depends on the status of your application: if you applied to a single choice, or are only holding a single offer, you can either accept it, or decline and enter Clearing.
If you applied for more than one course: and have a firm and insurance offer you will need to accept or decline the changed offer from your first choice before you will able to accept your insurance offer, whether this has been changed or not. If you decline both changed offers you will automatically be entered into Clearing.
Accepted by your insurance choice but not by your firm choice: If you have not gained entry to your firm choice, but have met the conditions of your insurance choice your place at this university will then be confirmed and you will receive a letter detailing how to proceed, just as you would from your first choice.
Not Met The Conditions of Any of Your Offers: If you have not met the conditions of any of your offers you will automatically be entered into Clearing and be allocated a Clearing number by UCAS. You can find out more about Clearing in the then nest step.
Not Holding Any Offers
You may have no offers for a number of reasons. Maybe you were declined earlier in the year, maybe you declined all offers you received or maybe you applied after the 30th of June. In each circumstance you will be automatically entered into Clearing.