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How much of a problem will this be for me?

tahseen1995

Right, so I want to apply for Physics, with Oxford and Imperial being my top 2 choices.

I am currently studying Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Chemistry and French at AS and hope to drop Chemistry next year. I am aiming for As and A*s in all.

My GCSE results are 10A*s and 2As. Funnily enough, my 2 As are in Chemistry and Physics..

This is explainable although it does sound very much like I am just making excuses. My GCSE sciences were split into 4 sections, 75% on 3 modular exams and 25% on internally assessed practical exams. I got A* for each exam with either full or a couple of marks off full marks (for Physics), but for the Internally Assessed Practicals for which my teacher gives me a grade, I was given an E and a D (2 practicals make up the 25%). Now that dragged my grade down to an A. My entire class was given almost identical grades when it came to the practical, tells you a bit more about who's fault it may have been (we were all given good grades for the Bio and Chem practical exams which were taught by different teachers).

Sorry for waffling on but I thought the above info is relavent.

My question is how much will this affect my chances of getting into Oxford/Imperial for Physics seeing as I got an A at GCSE since they do look at my track record very closely? I am confident that I will get a strong A* for A Level physics.

Thanks..

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 1

gruffyddd

I do not think that matters very much. University academics do not put so much weight on GCSE results - getting an A/A* in your AS exams for maths and physics is what will get you an interview. After that it will be much clearer to them who the best candidates are, as the questions are difficult. You'll need to be on top of all the maths/physics you've learned so far - maybe google for some past interview questions to get an idea.