An A-level student faced a “horrible wait” to find out about her university place when the Ucas website crashed.

It took 20 minutes for Wallingford School student Phoebe Hope, 18, to discover if her grades were good enough to study history at York University.

The Ucas website, which processes applications for university courses, crashed as hundreds of thousands of students logged in on Thursday morning (August 17) to check whether they had secured a place.  

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Phoebe initially thought she wouldn’t make the cut when she received an A grade in politics and B grades in history and drama.

She said: “When I opened it, I was disappointed because I thought I wasn’t going to get in. I needed to get ABB with an A in history.

“So, I thought I hadn’t done it. No one was emailing me, and my Ucas wasn’t loading. It was a horrible wait.”

When the website finally loaded, Phoebe saw she had been offered a place.

“I just felt so happy, and I could put it all behind me,” she said.

Wallingford School saw its results fall from 2022 as grades returned to pre-pandemic levels and students struggled with a lack of exam practice.

Phoebe, who didn't sit GCSEs in 2021, said: “For the actual exams, it made it a lot more nerve wracking, but we have done lots of mock exams so I felt prepared.”