Come results day you may open that big brown envelope, peer inside and find your grades are a little better than expected. If so, well done you. However by being such a smarty pants you may have added an extra shot of stress to what was already a pretty confuddled cocktail.

Here's the thing, from 2009/10 UCAS are introducing the process of adjustment. This means if you've exceeded your predicted grades you can contact another uni (one with higher entry requirements) and try to get yourself in there, all while still keeping hold of your original firm choice.

Now if you go sniffing around other unis you may find they sniff back and want to take things further strictly in an application sense, obviously. Of course they may just turn their nose up. Well not quite, but they have to want you to, they may be dazzled by your shiny new grades but if they've not got space for you unfortunately that's it. Stop the phone calls, stop the e-mails, stop the letters, you're heading for a restraining order.

So is adjustment any good? Well, on the one hand you could say it's a just reward for your hard work the chance to go to a...eurghh... 'better' university. But give it some serious thought. Have you visited this uni? Is the course really that much better than the one you're giving up? Are you assuming that the higher the entry requirements the greater the uni experience?

It's a change that's narked a lot of unis who feel their applicants will now be poached by the big boys. It's also potentially putting more students into the clearing system, a system that already resembles someone cramming elephants into a Mini. And as fun as that would be to watch, it's not so much fun if you're the one stuck in the drivers seat.

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