 In August, when the exam results were published, students who achieved their required grades (or who fell short of them, if the university had enough places available) would receive confirmation of their offer.Those who failed to receive a confirmed offer could apply for "clearing", a process that matched the remaining unplaced candidates to the remaining unfilled places.An early objective of the central admissions process was to allow candidates to make objective comparisons between offers from different universities, and to this end conditional offers were expressed in terms of required grades in particular subjects in the A-level examinations; an offer might require, for example, that a candidate obtained an A grade in mathematics, and at least a C in physics and chemistry.