When you’re applying to a university in the United Kingdom before you pass your high school exams, chances are, they’ll ask you for your predicted grades. Before talking about how important they are, here is what they actually mean:

During the time of admissions, universities look for the best candidates possible. In order to do this, they take a look at the students’ grades. If you’re someone who’s applying before you graduate high school with your results still pending, universities ask for your predicted grades. Your teacher (referee) has to refer you to the university stating your predicted grades for each subject and an overall grade for the subjects combined. These predicted grades are used to gauge a candidate’s potential.

There are various factors taken into consideration while predicting these grades. The referee has to understand that these predictions have to be as realistic as possible and should be predicted taking into consideration a lot of internal and external factors such as unpredictable circumstances affecting study, peer pressure, behavior, and more.

Predicted grades should never be stretched due to any possible reason such as parental, guardian, college pressure and the prediction shouldn’t be suppressed either due to any conflicts of interest. If the university that you’re applying to finds out, the referee will be held responsible and your application might be withdrawn.

If the students’ grades are stretched beyond what they can achieve, they’ll fail to receive the offer from the university on the day of the results. Stretching grades to an attainable level depending on the student can push them to do better but stretching beyond the attainable level will cause more harm than good.

If the students’ grades are compressed to less than what they can achieve, they’ll end up not applying to their desired university thinking that it is unrealistic and they will start settling for less than what they can actually achieve.

Predicted grades play an important role while applying to universities in the United Kingdom. These predicted grades determine where you’ll end up once you graduate high school. Based on your predicted grades, universities will offer you admission based on a condition. They will set a percentage that you have to achieve in your final exams to confirm your spot. If you fail to meet the condition set by your university, your acceptance offer will be revoked. 

However, not all universities consider applications based solely on these predicted grades. They may use it as one of the factors and assess the candidate based on the application that he/she submitted and everything mentioned in it. Universities may also reconsider a candidate whose predicted grades were lower than what he/she achieved but these reconsiderations depend on the number of available seats in the courses. Don’t be disappointed if you haven’t achieved the best grades, there are a lot of universities in the UK offering admissions to students based on various factors as well.

UniRely has a lot of student mentors currently studying in top universities in the United Kingdom. They’ve gone through this admissions process and are taking time out to help students applying to their desired colleges in the UK and various countries in the world. Sign up to move one step closer to studying at your dream university.