Mathematics application statistics 2019-20

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Dear Kings College, Cambridge,

I am Stephen Gennel.

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I kindly request you to release the following information for the 2019-2020 UCAS application cycle:
For each Mathematics (G100) applicant:

1. Number of A*s at GCSE
2. A-level subjects and predicted grades (and average maths/further maths grades if applicable)
3. Scores achieved at interview (interview score and pre-interview test score)
4. Whether Kings College made an offer (y/n)
5. If offer not made, whether the candidate was pooled (y/n)
6. If the candidate was pooled, whether they were made an offer by another college (y/n)

Please put the data in a suitable format such that so that all the rows match up.

Yours faithfully,

Stephen Fennel

King's College, Cambridge

1 Attachment

Dear Stephen Fennel,

 

This is in reply to your enquiry received by the College on 19 February
and made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). I can confirm
that the College does hold some information related to your enquiry, but
it is exempt under section 40, personal data. Disclosure would require the
processing of personal data for reasons other than those for which it was
collected, and it is not possible to anonymise all the third party data
subjects’ identities if the information which you requested is disclosed.
Therefore, the information is exempt under section 40 of the FOI Act.

 

We hope the following information will be helpful to you:

 

HOW DO WE ASSESS APPLICATIONS?

 

At King's, we are looking for promise and potential. So although existing
and predicted grades form a central criterion for admission, as do
interview scores, we are careful to interpret grades and interview results
in light of your personal and educational background. We assess each
application individually. We are interested to learn about your existing
knowledge and skills, but we endeavour also to find out how you would deal
with the new materials and ideas you would encounter at Cambridge. All
candidates are considered strictly on the basis of their academic promise.

 

During the application process, we look at:

• your academic record, including GCSE and AS (or equivalent) grades and
marks and A level (or equivalent, e.g. IB) grades or predictions, this
record being considered in the context of the quality (but not type) of
schools/colleges at which it was achieved; • your school/college
reference; • your personal statement; • your admissions assessment (taken
at interview) • your performance at interview(s)

 

With this holistic view you can understand that it is not possible to
predict your chances of success based on predicted grades and/or interview
scores. Our advice is to apply if you look like you can achieve the
standard offer (A*A*A for Maths) at the end of sixth form. There may be
subject-specific requirements as well, see your subject page at
[1]https://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/study/underg... for any such
requirements.

 

UMS scores are being phased out with the A level reforms, so not all A
level applicants this year will have UMS scores for each subject, nor do
we have GCSEs for every applicant in Maths. In recent admissions rounds,
the average Cambridge applicant scored about 90 per cent on this measure,
while the average successful Cambridge applicant scored nearer 95 per
cent. But please note that both these figures are only averages –
applicants don’t need to have achieved a certain score in every module and
aren’t required to achieve 90 per cent or above in all modules. There were
successful Cambridge applicants who had UMS averages in their best/most
relevant three subjects below 90 per cent.

 

We read the whole of each application and take all parts of it into
account before deciding which students to invite for interview. As we only
invite students for interview who could potentially be made an offer, it
would be unusual to invite a student predicted less than our standard
offer for Maths that year. The standard offer has changed over the past
four years. For further information you might find this useful:

 

[2]http://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk.... Please use
the interactive graph generator at the bottom of the page to generate the
reports you are interested in.

 

We have no set quota for the number of applicants we invite for interview
– we invite all candidates who we could potentially make an offer to after
reading the paper application. In an average year, this is 80-90% of
applicants.

 

If you have further questions please ask me in the first instance. I
attach a leaflet outlining the College's FOI Act policies and procedures.
If, after following those procedures you are still not satisfied with the
way in which your request has been dealt with you may apply directly to
the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the Commissioner
will not entertain your complaint unless you have exhausted any relevant
internal review procedures.

 

Yours sincerely

Peter Jones

 

Peter Jones

Freedom of Information Officer

King’s College, Cambridge

Cambridge CB2 1ST

 

Email: [3][King's College, Cambridge request email]

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