Why Exams Aren’t The Whole Story

Where to next?  What do exams matter if they aren’t for getting accepted into the student’s choice of university? Each of our featured schools offer students and their parents positive acceptance rates. Mark Ford at Dubai British School estimates around 80 percent of students receive their first choice, while at Greenfield Community School, principal Andrew Wood says, “we don’t have exact statistics, but the majority.” However, as Dubai College’s Mike Lambert points out, there are the ‘dream’ first choices and the reality. He says, “first choice in a ‘dream scenario’ or first choice of those from which they received offers?” “We encourage our students to aim for the most competitive courses and universities in the world which is a stretch for even the brightest. Oxbridge may be the long shot choice for many students but realistically not all them expect to receive an offer. We did tally this one year and it was impossible to collate. Many students said of course my first choice would be Harvard in an ideal world but in reality I am very happy with where I am actually going,” he says. At Dubai College 100% of students received offers and 94 percent of those accepted them. Twenty five percent of these are currently attending Oxbridge, veterinary, medicine, dentistry and Top 30 US Colleges, while 75 percent are UK bound heading to the Russell Group universities. Julian Williams at Raffles World Academy notes, “the number of RWA students at age 18 who achieve placements in their first choice at some of the best universities and higher education colleges in the world speak for themselves.” But in the words of principal Mike Lambert, “most importantly everyone is doing something they want, somewhere they want and that for us is success.”