AGONY OF TEENS IN LEFT IN LIMBO
LUCY Lipfriend has been left in limbo for a second year after missing out on her Cambridge University place.
The 19-year-old needed to achieve A*AA in her A-level resits this summer to study theology, religion and philosophy of religion at Clare College.
But the teenager, from Northwood, north-west London, was downgraded to three Bs by the computer algorithm after exams were cancelled.
She believes this was due to her poor performance in last year’s A-level exams – which she took when her mother Tina had been diagnosed with breast cancer – being taken into account.
Her grades slipped to a C in philosophy, a B in English literature and an E in maths last summer, despite high teacher predictions. Lucy took a year out, planned to resit the exams as a private candidate, and won a Cambridge offer. After exams were axed, her former teachers at St Helen’s, a private day school in Northwood, submitted grades of A*AA.
Three private tutors, who helped her over the last year, predicted three A*s.
But her grades were pulled down and her university place hangs in the balance – depending on her appeal.
Lucy said: ‘I’ve worked really hard for a year and through no fault of my own I haven’t been able to get a place at the university I’ve always dreamt of going to. Grades shouldn’t be determined by a computer.
‘I don’t think you can necessarily base one student’s grades on what they may have achieved in the past or what other students that happened to go to their school achieved in the past.’
Lucy says Cambridge has encouraged her to appeal, but she must get her grades overturned by August 31.