Lemon Grades: How to Make Lemonade

What do you do if you don’t get the results you were expecting or hoping for?

When your results don’t live up to your expectations, it can hard to deal with. Let us show you that you can make lemonade when grades give you lemons!

1. Take a New Perspective

Rather than feeling deflated and resigning yourself to failure, see your situation as a new beginning requiring you to modify your choices in order to head off to university. Learn how to make lemonade with those lemon grades. It can be challenging to accept that your plans will not happen as you had envisaged, but this does not mean your university experience needs to be diminished.

You may want to consider trying to negotiate with your university of choice. Just because your grades fell short of your initial offer doesn’t mean that they won’t be willing to talk to you.

Check out our article Negotiation is King! for more information. 

Clearing is the UCAS system for allocating free places to those students who have not achieved the grades they needed for their first choice, for those who did not get any university offers or for those who want to change their course choice. It is all managed via the UCAS website and is open from the 6^th July until the 20^th of October.

2. The Initial Clearing Process

If you need to access the Clearing system, there are a few initial steps that you need to take to ensure the process works well for you. First, use the people around you to consider new courses. Teachers, career advisors, and other educational support staff will gladly help you. They will have supported many students through this process before and will know where to point you for the best advice.

Next, check out the full range of course options on UCAS Clearing to see what is available to you. Don’t just look for the same course at different universities; look more broadly at academic schools and module details to consider what is right for you. Remember that vacancies are continually being updated, so keep checking.

When you find a course you want, then take the time to contact the university and discuss your application, ask questions, and get an informal offer sorted. When this is done, you can add your choice to your UCAS system where the admissions team will then confirm your place. You can only add one course placement at a time so contacting universities should help you speed up the process.

Check out our Guide to Clearing.

3. New Clearing Plus Option

To make Clearing easier, UCAS introduced a new system last year called Clearing Plus. This system is designed to help you find more personalised choices when it comes to searching for new courses. It takes your original information and the grades you achieve and turns them into course options that suit what you are looking for.

With Clearing Plus, you will be able to see the course matches suggested for you in the Track system and scroll through them to get some new ideas of courses that may take your fancy. When you find one that works for you, you can select it to show your interest so that the university knows to contact you. However, we would suggest that you contact the university, as a call-back is never guaranteed.

4. Have a Contingency

The one thing that every student should do when working through the university application process is always to have a contingency plan in the back of your mind. This does not mean that you need to have a university planned out, but more that you should have course ideas in your head should things not go to plan.

With a contingency plan, you will feel more confident about working through the Clearing system and will have a head start on the competition because you will know what you are looking for. Planning for all eventualities will reduce your stress levels and make finding that new beginning much easier.

Once you have completed Clearing and confirmed your new university course, all that is left is to get excited. Achieving a place at university is a huge step forward in life, and you should never let it be diminished because you had to alter your original plans! Find out more about university life and what to expect by visiting our website today!

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