Advice About Early UCAS Deadlines and Entrance Tests

Early Entrance for UCAS (Deadline 15th October) and Extra Entrance Exams

For a number of courses, there are earlier deadlines set out for UCAS entry and it is up to you to make sure you have thoroughly researched whether the universities / courses you are interested in have such requirements.

Many of these courses also have extra examination requirements alongside your A Levels. Again it is essential that you have done your research and know what the requirements of the courses are. We will be able to offer support and advice for these, but most of the preparation work will be down to you to complete. Make sure you know what the requirements are before the summer holiday, as this will be the best time to spend preparing.

Please look at this page for a list of courses and universities that require tests.

It is your responsibility to register for your test, either via the Exams Office at school or online, depending on the test requirements. Most tests have a registration fee.

Ideally, you should identify if your prospective course(s) require you to sit a test, register asap and researching relevant tests and how to tackle them over the summer. This will give you plenty of opportunities to refine your approach and see us for further help.

Oxbridge:

Most Oxford / Cambridge University courses will require you sit an extra entrance exam. These will normally take place in the first term of the academic year.

We can administer these tests, but it will be up to you to tell us that you need to be registered for them and to pay for them. Registration opens on 1st September and the final deadline for registration is 15th October (but, you should let us know if you require registration well before this deadline or you will run the risk of not being registered in time). Make sure you have done your research, as some colleges have different entry requirements.

Oxford: Here is a list to see which courses require a test. These are quite varied depending on which course you are thinking of applying for. Please check this page carefully for more detailed information. Note that some courses require more than one test and there are a number of specimen papers available.

Cambridge: Here is a list of Cambridge courses that require tests. Again, there is a lot of information contained within these pages, and you should look through it all carefully making sure you are very clear about what is required.

Medical Courses:

In many cases (especially for medicine, veterinary medicine, dentistry courses) you will be expected to complete a supplementary test alongside your A Level courses. These will vary depending on which institution(s) / courses to which you are planning to make an application..

It is crucial that you have completed this research before the summer holiday so you can plan and prepare for these tests. They normally take place between the end of August and early November, so the summer holiday is a perfect chunk of time to prepare.

Make sure you are know:

  • Which extra examination(s) you will be required to prepare for
  • How much will it cost (we may be able to help with this)
  • How to register for them
  • Dates of when they are available to sit
  • Where they will be (some can be sat here at Bosworth, others will require you to travel to a nearby test centre)
  • What you should do to best prepare (e.g. are the online practice tests, are there books which are relevant to preparation.

The Science department has experience of helping people prepare for these tests, and we will always offer advice and support to those of you who are applying. However, don’t leave it until the last minute to ask for support.

Maths / Engineering:

If applying for maths courses you will need to check carefully what the institution / course requirements are with regard to entry. The courses which we know require extra tests:

For Cambridge and Warwick Universities the Sixth Term Exam Paper (STEP) Mathematics tests are required for various courses (see list here). They are tough! You can find plenty of specimen papers online for this, and Mr Robinson can guide you to some very helpful twilight sessions held at the University of Leicester if you are interested.

For Oxford there is a pre-admissions test: Maths Aptitude Test (MAT)… Again this is very tough, and there are specimen papers available online to help you prepare.