Year 12: preparing for your university application

Why Year 12 matters

• Predicted grades are usually based largely on Year 12 performance, including end-of-year exams.
• Your personal statement is written from what you have already done, and most of that happens in Year 12.
• Deadlines come early. Applicants for Oxford, Cambridge, medicine, dentistry and veterinary courses submit in mid-October of Year 13, and several admissions tests are booked over the summer before.

If you are following a different school system, read "Year 12" as the year before your final year of school.

Autumn term: explore

• Think about which of your subjects you most enjoy studying for its own sake, and which you would happily do more of.
• Browse courses in those subjects, including ones you haven't met at school, and read their module lists. See how to choose a university course.
• Check the subject requirements for courses you're interested in against the subjects you're taking. This is the cheapest point to spot a mismatch.

Spring term: narrow down

• Draw up a longer list of courses and universities. See how to choose universities and your five choices.
• Find out whether any of them requires an admissions test, and which one. See UK university admissions tests.
• Book open days for the summer.
• Look into summer schools and access programmes, some of which close for applications in the winter or spring of Year 12. Oxford's UNIQ (opens in a new tab) programme, for example, is for UK state school students in Year 12.
• If your course expects work experience, as medicine and some other vocational courses do, arrange it now.

Summer term: prepare

• Do well in your end-of-year exams. They often feed directly into your predicted grades.
• Ask your school how and when predicted grades are set, and what its internal deadlines are. See the UCAS reference and predicted grades.
• Register in the UCAS Hub once applications for your year open, usually in May, and look around the form.
• Start noting down what you've read, done and learned that relates to your subject. It becomes the raw material for your personal statement.

The summer before Year 13

• Book any admissions test you need. For the ESAT, TMUA and TARA, booking has opened in July and closed in late September, weeks before the tests themselves.
• Write a full first draft of your personal statement. See the personal statement explained.
• Visit your shortlisted universities, in person or online.
• Settle on your five choices by early September if you are applying by 15 October.

From September onwards, work through the university application checklist.

Going beyond the syllabus

Universities, especially the most selective, look for evidence that your interest in your subject extends beyond what you are taught. This is sometimes called super-curricular activity, to distinguish it from extracurricular activities such as sport or music. Typical examples include reading about your subject, following free online lectures and courses, entering competitions and olympiads, and small projects of your own.

None of it needs money or special access, but it does need time, which is why Year 12 is the moment to start. Doing a few things properly, and being able to discuss them, counts for much more than a long list.

Thinking about Oxford or Cambridge?

The Year 12 steps are the same, with two additions: check early which admissions test your course needs, and plan for the 15 October deadline. The Oxford and Cambridge section explains how each university's process works, what each asks for, and how they differ.