楼主：Let's get this going, shallwe?

Got rejected from Christ's for Chemical Engineering via Engineering without an interview. Sat the ENGAA, didn't pass itwith flying colours, but I didn't think about it too much since from what I'veread it was meant to be extremely difficult so I thought I was OK.

When I first read the email I was shocked,but I'll be back to normal in a week probably. (*EDIT* looks like it may be acouple of hours lol)

SexyNerd回复楼主：I’m sorry to hear that. Had you sat an entrance exam? What were your predicted grades?

楼主回复：I was predicted A*A*A (Maths/Physics/Chemistry) and I sat the ENGAA.I personally didn't think that I went well in the exam, but as I read hownearly everyone struggled with it, and how if you get above average you are suddenly a good applicant, I didn't think much about it.

Rohan：This is one of the big lies that is almost always spread after a university entrance exam on the student room. 

People always keep telling "Oh! Its just one part of the application process, sodon't stress about too much or Oxbridge look at an applicant holistically blah blahblah". 

While these are all true，the reality is that nowadays almost everyone applying has extremely good predictions and grades, and therefore to really be able to get above the competition you need to be able to shine in places like the interview and the admissions tests. 

And even admissions tutors often cite the reason for a lot ofstudents getting rejected is because they "did not prepare enough forthere admissions tests".

While I appreciate the spirit of optimistic people on this site that give everyone hope, the sad truth is that the competition is too intense to take an admissions test lightly or "not worry about it" hoping your GCSE's or predictions can save you. 

For anyone reading this post, before interviews or before applying, please put effort into preparing yourself as well as you can for the interviews or admissions test bydoing extra reading, trying to practice mock interviews (with friends, teachers anyone really)

P.S For anyone wondering why I suddenly hijacked this thread with this mini-rant, its because I am an Oxford maths reject and have gone through this process twice, and see the same story being repeated every year. My advice would be, don't stress about the application process but at the same time don't take any part of the process lightly.

Compscicat：Yeah I'm really surprised by some of the pre-interview rejections this year... maybe because the admissions assessments aren't that new anymore they are taken more seriously than the last years?

Russianquestion：It could possibly be down to no Further Mathematics at AS/A Level.

Perhaps this, in conjunction with a weaker performance on the maths side of the ENGAA, may have shown that your maths skills aren't strong enough. How do youfeel that side of the test went?

Doonesbury回复楼上：That would be my initial thinking too.

Mathslove回复Russianquestion：Keep practicing your convoluted language, you doing fine

Russianquestion：What do you mean?

Mathslove：Past your message in a grammar checker lol

That’sgreat：Conjunction isn’t “convoluted”.

In fact, you have made a mistake inyour first comment and then made a second comment that doesn’t make any grammatical sense, which is ironic considering you’retalking of a grammar checker.

楼主 回复Russianquestion： I felt fine with the maths stuff, problem is that the paper was heavier on the physics side than the maths side (in comparison to the previous papers at least). 

Really the issue was the time pressure, I'm planning ongiving myself 2-4 hours alone to resit the 2 papers and see what I get, not the 2 hours we were given.

And yeah, I didn't do AS Further Maths,because it wasn't offered at my school

Mellownite：I was just rejected by Churchill before an interview and I'm really sad.I had applied for computer science 75% and there were no exams that needed to be sat or work that needed to be sent off. 

So they based their decision entirely on my predicted grades, personal statement and teacher references. Iwas predicted a Distinction* in IT, A* in maths, A in physics and A in AS further maths. 

So I think that either they didn't like that I was taking further maths as an As only or they didn't like something on my personal statement. 

Either way I'm really disappointed in myself.I had tried my hardest but it wasn't enough. 

Fortunately, I have offers from both Bristol and Bath andI'm waiting on Warwick but Cambridge had been my top choice.

 I'm writing this without having told anyone about the decision and I'm dreading having to tellmy family that I've been rejected. 

In the email they sent they said that theysend out invites to the top 2/3 of applicants or top 3/4 of applicants and that makes me even more upset since obviously I wasn't strong enough to even be in the top 2/3. 

I'm hoping warwick will bring better news but I'm going to be downfor a while and surrounded by people who had high hopes for me. 

More than anything,I think I'm most affected by the fact that a lot of people strongly believed inme and that I've let them all down before I even got an interview...

letterBee: Be proud of yourself. You should never regret about your application. 

If Cambridge doesn't take you in, it just means you belong to somewhere else.

Janeiswho回复楼上：As a parent, I should tell you that don't worry.

Parents do have high expectation to their kids, from ourside, this hope is somehow likes an encourage. 

If kids did not meet theexpectation, the only thing we want to tell them is: Keep going! Life is a long journey, keep going and grit are more important than run fast. 

Sorry, Englishis my second language, I hope you can understand me.

Remember, you are alwaysthe best kid of your parents, whatever you are accepted by Cambridge or not.

Jaguargirl：Can't comment on the selection criteria for CS, but can tell youthis as a parent...

any young person putting themselves forward for this type ofselection process is an absolute star, with the potential for world-beating greatness. 

This time, for whatever reason, it didn't work out. It doesn'tmatter. You will progress to your chosen goal by another route. 

Furthermore,those you love you will celebrate your academic ability, tenacity and perseverance. You have let no-one down, no way. Please let us know how Warwick goes 

Doonesbury: Absolutely loving all the parental support in this thread

Computeryboi: Got rejected from Churchill for Computer Science without interview today - 

I decided Cambridge wasn't for me about a week earlier so I'm feeling relieved I don't have to go through the whole process considering I don'treally want to go. Rejection isn't always bad guys!

Imayooshi: Got rejected yesterday by King's for ASNC. Ichecked Track today and it still shows that Cam is still considering my application but there's no mention of pooling in the email sent from King's :

In any case I have offers from UCL and KCL already so there's nothing much for me to worry about

Dooonesbury回复楼上：It will take a while for Track to update - and unfortunately pooling isn't an option atthis stage. You can only be pooled after having an interview.

Cat: I'm pretty sure I'm gonna get rejected from Cambridge Selwyn as Icompletely messed up on my Bmat exam , got 4.9 , 4.9 and 2A .

Tbf I regretted applying there even before getting my BMAT results back , I wish I had applied to Cardiff instead !!

Lostintwilight：Has anyone got reject from Homerton?

Roylight：Still waiting for good news

楼主：They said that they would post their rejection on UCAS by the end of the week, yet here we are Sunday night and nothing yet

Flowershoob：Selwyn NatSci reject here...it hurts really bad. With 45 predicted(IB) and a PS i've been working on for months,i just don't get it. 

Yes my NSAA wasn't the best but I thought i could make it up with a good interview since I'm better at talking. Now they don't even give me the chance to prove myself.

I just wanted to get to the interview stage, and from then feel free to reject me. 

But like this, it's just so embarrassing, and i can't even feel sorry for myself because all i feel is shame.

Anonymous回复楼上：Someone predicted grades thathigh with a probably amazing personal statement shouldn't feel shame, it just means Cambridge was never meant for you because you were meant for a different top uni. 

Seems like their loss 

Sasha同回复楼上：I completely relate to howyou're feeling (I'm also nat sci) - I also feel embarrassed because everyone around me at school is getting interviews and having interview preparation and I feel useless. 

I also was desperate for the chance to prove myself after my awful test. 

Do you have any idea what sort of pass mark the NSAA might have had? Also do you think you will reapply next year?

Flowershoop回复sasha的评论：I don't think there is a pass rate, 50% is usually the average. 

They might have gotten more confident in using the admission test than the years before because I guess now they start to see the correlation between performance at the NSAA and performance at Cambridge. 

But that's just speculation.No way I'm reapplying, I've repeated a year in high school already, so I feel old (will be starting uni at 19). 

Plus, Idon't think I could take another year of self-doubt, insecurity and mental break downs. I might try for masters. For now, my goal is St Andrews.

Sasha：I just joined this website just for this thread because I'm desperate to talk to people who can relate to the pain lol  I study maths, further maths, physics and chem.

 Anyway, I was rejected last week from Jesus to read physical nat sci. Thereason is obvious - my utter failure in the entrance test. 

The rest of myapplication is strong - I got 12 A*s at GCSE and I was predicted A*A*AA (Ididn't do any AS exams). I have had offers from Edinburgh for physics and UCLfor nat sci, which shows that my application and personal statement are good enough.

And after the test I could feel I had done crap, but I didn't think it could bethis bad so I'm really distraught right now that I didn't even get a chance toprove myself. 

I know for sure I could've done infinitely better as my schoolgave us a mock entrance exam and I scored about 10% above the average without much work, and since then I had done a lot more work for it, so I expected toat least do the same. 

But yeah, it was a total blowout - section 1 was harder than all the other past papers (that's how I felt anyway) which threw me forthe rest of the paper and I completely fell apart and panicked.

Cambridge is my dream for many reasons which I won't bother going into but trust me when I say I have considered alternatives but Cambridge is really where I want to be and I know I can be happy there, pressure and all, so I definitely want to reapply next year. 

I guess this rejection doesn't prove I'm not right for the university like it would suggest had I been rejected post-interview, it's literally me being dumband messing up my biggest test since GCSEs because I panicked  and I don't know which rejection would hurt more tbh.

Does anyone have any advice or anything? IfI got 3 or 4 A*s do you think it would be worth my time to reapply?

Charles回复楼上：Wow it's like someone else is reading out what happened to me, I too was rejected prior to interview forphysical Natsci, at Fitzwilliam, we take the exact same subjects and havealmost the exact same predicted grades (A*A*A*A)! 

I know myself that it was the admissions test that let me down, the timing were so tight and although I knowI can do the questions, under the pressure I fell apart

Although going to Cambridge has been mylife long goal and my main source of motivation to push myself in my studies,unlike you I won't be waiting a year to re-apply.

I don't think it's personally worth grinding through another year of studies just to have that specific nameon my certificate, when the course is standardized across all reputable unis Ican't justify it, I think I'm going to accept an undergrad degree at UCL forNatsci 

and then look into doing my postgrad somewhere else like Imperial,Oxford or Cambridge.

But best of luck to you if you do decide to reapply. I hope the best for you and remember, you're not alone

Cgugar：Rejected on 22/11 for history and Pembroke. I’m a so sad but I’m trying to just prove Cambridge wrong

Xiaochen：Save a spot for me T_TDoesn't feel any better if I'm rejected asecond time

Jackfu：Rejected by Corups Christi for economics. Predicted A*A*AA with an additional A in EPQ (achieved after application).

Anonymous：Wait how did you already find out

Jackfu： I am a retard who has been rejected pre-interview.

Anonymous：Oh, did they say why?

Jackfu：Not yet, I requested feedback a while ago but they told me to wait until mid Jan. I suppose it is the fact that I self learned AS FM and not doing the qualification.

 But maybe the admission test; I hope this is an experience that I can learn from and improve on. Good luck to your application.

Heneng：Will reserve my place here as well. Gutted as hell though

Tfisher：Since I haven’t seen any Queens’ rejects here, got rejected a coupleof weeks ago pre-interview for Engineering.

Definetely if anything screwed meover it was the entrance exam, my predictions are A*A*A*A for Maths, Physics,Further Maths and Compsci and I feel my personal statement was really good, but I wanted to answer every question on the ENGAA，so I rushed it and really botched it… 

I’m not too upset though,after some time to get over it. Looking towards Leeds now.

Xiaochen回复楼上：Aw no I hate ENGAA... I'm a queen's engineering reapplicant... Waiting to be rejected on Monday 

Tfisher：The ENGAA feels ridiculously hard lol. Then again it’s supposed to be

Xiaochen：Yeah I got rejected pre interview last year because of ENGAA 

Sufferinstudent：the ENGAA was too hard this year, I thought I was the only one that completely fell apart under that time pressure!! 

Bloody ridiculous, they gaveus some long ass questions that take a minute to read and completing a question took like 5 mins. 

I crumbled like a mf in that exam especially for section 1but section 2 was a lot better imo as the questions were spaced over a longer period, I didn't expect section 2 to change so much

Esrever回复楼上：I've heard most people say that section 2 went better for them. Section 2 went horriblly for me . 

I only attempted 6 problems and probably got like 3 correct. By looking at the rejections here, I am surprised that I even got an interview.