According to private school heads, if students get less than an A grade at A-level, they could lose their chance to enter universities. In this case the smartest students could be in the worst situation competing for the university places. By 15th of September 474,746 out of 685,070 teenagers applying to universities got places.
Mr Grant, headmaster of St Albans School, Hertfordshire, said: "There is unusual concern over the A-level predictions just at the moment. We're seeing a real concern that anything less than an A is going to mean no chance of a place next year." Top universities are very popular among students who were predicted to achieve top A-level grades and those young people who actually achieved the best grades. However, if students drop a single grade, many of them are likely to miss a chance to take these competitive places.
Mr Grant expressed the idea in his custom essay that application system was harsh this year, especially with high flyers: "I think across the sector there were some surprising paradoxes whereby a high-flying candidate who accepted, because they were the only offers he or she got, 3A offers, or maybe A*AA and end up with AAB, therefore got nowhere, and ended up with an enforced gap year whereas a lower flying candidate who accepted BBB and an insurance of BBC is home and dry at university".
Tim Hands, co-chair of the HMC's university committee, and master of Magdalen College in Oxford, consider that there was "anxiety through lack of knowledge" about criteria that helped universities to make offers.
