u/InformationFun4408

Does anyone have access to the biology OCR A official mark scheme? I have my script but apart from a few obviously missing marks I can’t be certain if the MS was applied consistently if I don’t have the MS.

If anyone does either do they mind sending it to me or even better a teacher who has access going over my questions with the mark scheme if they can’t give it to me?

I will be willing to pay because also review of marking cost money anyway if the grade doesn’t change.

I am 19 years old, I worked my ass off to get into medicine, got top 3% ucat score, attended interviews all to have people who can’t mark out or count ruin it all.

My uni didn’t save a space for me for 2026 entry and I only get a deferral for 2027 entry. Although if I have to resit they would allow me to resit without having to resit the UCAT or interview but I may resit anyway just in case. But omg I am going to be ancient and a mature student in uni at this rate. I already lost a year because I spent a year unwell.

I don’t really understand why unis don’t have to wait for you to get review of marking tbh. I feel for the people who go up like 2 grades. I was robbed off an A in Biology and Psychology first by the grades boundaries in Biology (how do they go up 13 marks in one stupid paper is beyond me) and then the marking. Listen I am all for positivity as I rarely cry now days (except for like seeing sad dog videos when my hormones are being inconvenient) because atleast I am no longer in care or getting sectioned for absolutely nothing but I must have done something in my past life to have such bad luck.

Also we all know people are under marked but what about the people who are over marked. I wonder how many people get A/A*s while someone else with the similar paper gets Bs and Cs (more for essay subjects rather than chemistry or maths). Anyway sorry for the rant but I lowkey have beef with the system because it’s anti students but pro establishment.

am I overconfident? No. Do I just want this to be over with instead of looking at the slow ass countdown contemplating life? 💯

Anyway here are my predictions for results day:
A*/ A OCR biology - very important for
me I actually loved my teacher can’t let her down
Anyway where between A*-C for AQA Psychology* - semi important to me while I loved my teacher too and he was a great teacher his marking used to get on my nerves because he would take marks off for everything.
B - OCR chemistry (may be A if I truly have some guardian angel watching out for me) - My teacher was an absolute ass who was nearing retirement and thought we should know everything because he had a PhD so it’s obviously common sense for us too. But at the same time deep down I have a soft spot for him so I can’t let him down either.

In terms of Uni I need AAA if I want to apply for reconsideration at imperial for medicine. AAB for Hull York medical school. ABB for Edinburgh biomedicine.

Now you probably don’t care much but I will update so people in the future have an idea of whether you can accurately predict grades because I always see people asking. Good luck everyone else.

(I will get A* AA, I will get A* AA, I will get A* AA, I will get A* AA, I will get A* AA*)*

Don’t think anyone is going to be up at midnight just to look at our results though tbh. Although I would be so nosey looking at the results of students I haven’t even met icl.

It actually gets on my nerves when people compare the two and say it’s unfair that she is out and they aren’t.

I mean for one Gypsy took a plea bargain and pleaded guilty to second degree murder which meant she got 10 years in prison while the brothers choose to go to trial. If gypsy got convicted at trial she would probably already be in prison. Then Gypsy became eligible for parole and it was approved while the brothers were denied parole because of their behaviour in prison. They could have been out of their behaviour was better.

Then the actual cases and abuse being compared is what tends to bother me the most. Everyone likes to pretend Gypsy wasn’t abused and her mum wasn’t a risk or whatever but she was drugged, went through unnecessary surgeries and was physically restrained while her mum would with hold food as punishment for attempting to run away. Unlike the brothers she had very little contact outside didn’t get an education and was constantly controlled by her mother who did everything in her power to make sure gypsy couldn’t leave.

Victims of Munchausen syndrome by proxy often die from the abuse so minimising the abuse to me is absurd. On the other hand, the brothers did have evidence of some abuse but there was also evidence suggesting financial motives. They could have believed their dad may have killed them (although their is no evidence that he would have definitely done it or had attempted too in the past which complicates it) but killing the mother just because she knew about the abuse is a weak excuse. Considering they went on an extensive shopping trip using their parents money and inheritance plus the fact that not killing the mother meant they wouldn’t have inherited anything it provided a strong case for the financial theory over the abuse and self defence theory.

It can be true that they were abused and they came from an extremely dysfunctional household but at the same time they were also motivated by money to kill their parents. I just think people often loose nuance when discussing these cases but the two cases aren’t the same at all.

y'all what do we think

Year	Max Mark	A*	A	B	C	D	E
2025	270	243	213	175	137	99	61
2024	270	243	212	173	134	96	58
2023	270	234	198	158	118	79	40
2022*	270	213	168	132	97	62	27
2019	270	230	196	161	126	91	56
2018	270	237	205	169	133	97	62

I am tired of seeing people post about how they think contextual offers are so unfair and that they are jealous of people with the contextual offers.

Anyway one thing I noticed is most of the time it’s about post code. I do not think postcode is the best measurement at all but POLAR uses statistics which measure the progression of young people to higher education. In Q1 for high tariff HE in 2023/24 the progression was 5.6% in comparison to 23.5% of individuals in Q5. That’s not a minor difference and yes universities know that not every student in Q1 will be disadvantaged which is why they often base on contextual offers on multiple factors not just postcode while also recognising its not a perfect system.

(Just warning you the next point might be a bit triggering)

Also I think people should stop trying to judge whether a person they know individually deserves a contextual offer. For me personally I come from immense privilege in terms of my dad earning a lot of money and going to private school. But I get a contextual offer because I am a care leaver who was sexually abused and through out year 11 + 12 I was between placement to placement and as a result I ended up with 6 GCSEs and very unstable education. When I went to my new sixth form I did not go around trauma dumping in school and I very much kept my trauma to myself. I literally didn’t tell anyone not even my close friends or teachers.

So my classmates probably think the same as half as you that I am some rich kid gaming the system but I would much rather have to get A*AA or AAA than go into care, end up with C-PTSD but get AAB as an offer. My advantage in some areas doesn’t remove any of my major disadvantages.

Yes there are flaws to the system and it’s perfectly fine to point them out but blame the system rather than creation judgments of individuals based on what is visible while forgetting you may not know the whole truth.

Every time I look at the clock and think ‘if the time is even number I am going to get the grades I want’ the time is an odd number which isn’t that great. Not to mention I then also failed to beat my block blast high score becuase my phone went onto 10% so my block was placed on the wrong space and so I lost which for me is bad luck.

My dreams are so weird I will go from getting BBB and losing my shit to dying from a hurricane which on the positive i guess life could always be worst.

Also everyone told me you won’t even think about it until results day but like it’s been pretty hard to ignore and I was even contemplating hacking into the exam board but lowkey that’s a crime so it’s probably better to just wait less than 3 weeks rather than get a criminal record.

When I was 16 I took a trip down to Edinburgh for a holiday after my social worker drove me nuts and the first thing I noticed was it felt so clean in comparison to London like it just looked more put together.

But tbh that wasn’t what shocked me but it was the biscuit prices. I was starving and only had 35p and in London if I was lucky would get me a Freddo but in Edinburgh I was able to buy a pack of custard creams (bourbons sadly were 40p but i couldn’t be too picky). I knew London was expensive but I could buy 4 packs of custard creams in Edinburgh and may be scrape 1 pack in London. Plus everyone was genuinely so nice in comparison to certain places in London.

Obviously I know the job opportunities and the access to healthcare in London are a great advantage (not that Edinburgh is much far off in opportunities) but it was a real wake up call.

This might be a real dumb post icl but am I the only one who had this experience?

Something that really pisses me off sometimes is before I was diagnosed as bipolar I was labelled as emerging BPD/EUPD and the treatment I got when I had emerging BPD/EUPD as a label was so different.

I mean they completely neglected my mental health and just viewed everything through a behavioural lens. Hospital was viewed as harmful even when my parents were drowning trying to look after me, I would run away and be on the street for days, doing hard core drugs, risky behaviours, spending money and doing things that landed me in the ICU. Hospital isn’t always helpful for individuals with BPD but you can’t just ignore the risks and hope that in the community they don’t end up seriously injuring themselves or worst.

I mean a psychiatrist who viewed me through an emerging BPD lens literally wrote my risks to self on referrals as erratic behaviour, impulsive behaviour, regular substance misuse (literally one week of using a lot of substances) and aggressive to professionals and then went on to say my risks to others was high because I was verbally aggressive to professionals and I organised a suicide pact? (Still don’t know who with but ok and then they failed to mention suicide as a risk to self plus why did they mention aggressive to professionals twice). This meant most of my inpatient referrals were rejected and in the mean time they were considering putting me in the ICU with IV sedation because they couldn’t handle me.

Anyway this all changed when I was diagnosed with bipolar instead. Then everything was viewed as me being unwell and distress wasn’t my fault.

I also think the misdiagnosis often occurs in women and this systemic bias against women with BPD making it seem like they are all evil people with behavioural issues. I also think it’s a lazy diagnosis at times (just to be clear I am not claiming it doesn’t exist) but they meet a woman with any emotional dysregulation and are so quick to stick a label on which ends up dictating your care and how any healthcare professional views you. Sometimes they don’t even bother considering conditions like C-PTSD or Autism.

Anyway even though I didn’t have BPD in the end I do think the system needs to change because it’s shocking how they treat patients with BPD and I am sorry for anyone with similar experiences.

Is anyone else suddenly really anxious about results day? Like if I do random things I don’t think too much about it but I cannot for the life of me prepare for uni without feeling overwhelmed about results day. What if something goes seriously wrong? Probably amplified by the fact that I spent half of Alevels trying to get into med school. Would kind of suck if I messed up the final part

I was booking accommodation and I saw that a reasonable adjustment is that you can have an emotional support animal.

I have C-PTSD so technically my cat is my emotional support animal but my cat is scared of his own shadow and I am practically his emotional support human so travelling with him would probably stress him out as well as other humans. Does anyone know anyone who has an emotional support animal at Edinburgh and what are the requirements? It’s my insurance choice but I would genuinely train a cat who is more suitable for travel if it’s actually a good idea. I know dogs are often used as emotional support or at least definitely assistance dogs but dogs require a lot more effort to maintain needs and I wouldn’t want to overwhelm myself by bringing my dog.

So I was looking online to see if I could switch my Edinburgh neuroscience course to biomedicine only to find out that I neuroscience is part of the biomedical courses and I can choose specialities in year 3 which is lowkey peak and the accommodation is so cutsie.

Now I lowkey really want to go to Edinburgh but I have hull York as my firm for AAB so the only way I would get to go to Edinburgh is if I get ABB. But hull York is for medicine and I quite like Hull York so I wouldn’t mind entirely. But if I get AAA I could then apply to reconsideration at Imperial which i lowkey don’t think I will get AAA thanks to OCR chemistry but would I even want to go to imperial? I can’t decide and it’s not like I would have lots of time to decide if they actually had space to give me an offer anyway.

So I basically have three options but if I get anything below ABB I lowkey would be so disappointed i would probably just become depressed and cry. But I have worked hard enough I am not expecting below ABB. The real question is will I be happier to get AAA or above, AAB or ABB? I guess we will have to wait and see. Anyway sorry for my long rant I haven’t slept and I talk a lot when I don’t sleep.

I keep seeing people talk about how they are anti vax because they did their research but then all they talk about is how they read about a few adverse effects from a case study or someone’s own experience and the contents of vaccines but to understand these things you have to understand atleast the basics of immunology.

First of all the central concept of vaccines is to expose the immune system to an antigen which in whatever form will be the main contents of a vaccine. Everything else is just there to help deliver, preserve or enhance the vaccine. To be able to understand this you should atleast understand antigens, antibodies and the secondary immune response.

Then another huge part of vaccines is understanding probability. Probability applies to both to the adverse effects and chances of catching the disease if a person remains unvaccinated. Just because someone doesn’t get vaccinated it doesn’t mean they will catch the disease 100% and so they may remain healthy but it’s not proof that vaccines aren’t essential for preventing disease. Also understand herd immunity because if enough people get vaccinated then unvaccinated people are less likely to get the disease which is especially important for individuals who are more vulnerable such as newborns or individuals receiving chemotherapy. Then just because someone has a seizure 1 hour after getting a vaccine it doesn’t mean that the vaccine is why they had a seizure. As it’s so rare it is well possible this is entirely due to chance and it may have occurred without the vaccine.

And then finally another important concept is the diseases themselves. One key example is when everyone thought giving a child Heb B vaccine is useless because Heb B is sexually transmitted and they aren’t sexually active but Heb B is transmitted through bodily fluids including at birth which is why the Heb B vaccine at birth can be vital for protecting the newborn.

Either way this isn’t an exclusive list and I know I rambled a bit but I hope you understand what I am saying.

I am a 19year old female and I am always a bit worried I am being a dramatic but almost a year ago I started eating a lot of food (counted one day about like 3000kcal to my brother who is a growing teenager) and I don’t do much exercise as I am constantly studying so I am basically sedentary. Anyway a few weeks ago after I finished exams I decided I should probably start eating healthier but still eating a good and normal amount for my height and weight (61kg and 168cm) with no intention of losing weight and then I dropped to 56kg now and I am not sure if I am overthinking this.

Also I don’t know if this is relevant but I am also extremely tired suddenly. Like I just can’t do anything like showering and doing my hair my arms just felt so weak and all I want to do is sleep. And then I am very constipated and bloated. But I don’t feel a particular need to pass stool I just realised it’s been over a week.

I know this is kind of random but every time I look at the news or on social media it’s always really negative and it makes the UK seem really depressing.

So does anyone have any like positive news or things that went well like literally anything from work related, health, relationships or whatever.

If you are a perfectionist to the point that it causes distress I would really consider either considering alternative options or ensuring if medicine or dentistry is something you really want to pursue ensuring you receive appropriate support early.

Just to be clear I am not talking about perfectionists who is just hardworking and can handle set backs and learn from them but for individuals who sees anything less than perfection as a failure or cannot cope with uncertainty. This is not to say medicine isn’t for you or you won’t succeed but from what I have heard this doesn’t go away in med school either and no one is perfect at the UCAT which can feel discouraging at first.

I had a friend who has OCPD and this process absolutely destroyed her mental health and I know this isn’t talked about much so I just thought I would give this warning. Anyway support can range from GP if you think that’s appropriate or maintaining contact with school and any support they offer as well as ensuring you keep connect with friends or family.

I lowkey finished alevels almost a week ago now and I honestly feel lost. Like the urge to study has not gone away. And this sounds sad so don’t judge too much but I don’t mind studying that much I just don’t like the stress of A-levels but I also don’t want to study for nothing.

I am trying to do some coding to make my life easier and code like some apps that may make my life easier at university like some sort of hub with access to a timetable, organisation to do list, academic resources like word but with access to academic papers which helps with automatic references and all those features and a way to write notes or separate topics but there is only
So many features I can code. And then crochet but I have run out of ideas of what to crochet. Plus gym but I am limited to going to the gym to max two times a week for an hour. Probably should learn how to cook a wide range of meals for university. Then shopping for university but I don’t exactly have millions of pounds in my bank account but may be one day but being realistic that’s not happening this summer holiday.

I obviously have friends which I can see but my social battery after alevels has been wiped out and I am going on holiday for two weeks which is exciting but that’s only two weeks. So anyone have any ideas so I don’t spend too much time bedrotting and getting lazy again before university?

after this whole process I realised that the worst thing about applying to medicine isn’t the UCAT or interviews or A-levels it’s the amount of effort that can all just fall apart from one small mistake or whatever. You sat the UCAT for 2670, get 4/4 offers, get an offer from Cambridge and then on the day of your chemistry or biology alevel you start to feel sick, super stressed and make a few extra silly mistakes and there goes every bit of work you did because you end up a few marks below the grade boundary. Wasted year 12 summer sweating your ass off trying to skim read dense boring passages for a word in 30 seconds, dragged yourself to an interview where you start overthinking everything and got really happy to see your offer all for nothing.

So when someone says to me you will be fine your predicted an A* it’s not the end of the world if you get a B I would like to see them to do the whole medicine application process instead of just writing a personal statement the day before and getting all 5 offers that same week.

Recently I have seen a lot of male politicians and activist say things like ‘we need to protect women from immigrants’

For example, Restore Britain (new right winged UK party) has one policy about legalising pepper spray with the reasoning:

‘British women face an increasing threat of physical and sexual violence, primarily due to mass legal and illegal immigration.’

For one legalising pepper spray would increase risk for women considering a perpetrator would also gain easy access to pepper spray. Imagine trying to run or call the police if you can’t see. I get people have different opinions in the US but its a lot harder to access these things in the UK currently so its better to keep it that way.

Then my second main issue is that violence against British Women has always been an issue. It hasn’t suddenly increased because of immigrants British men aren’t perfect. I mean DV increases during big football matches but I don’t see any of them mention that. The conviction rate from report to court is around 3-4% in the uk but who cares unless it’s an immigrant being convicted or accused.

Anyway my point is women’s violence is a real and an ongoing issue since forever with every ethnicity and if you are only going to advocate for women’s safety when it’s about immigrants then your main concern isn’t actually women.