[HexBugMaster]

Hello guys,

So I moved to England 2 years ago. In the first year I took an intense GCSE course in Maths, Double Award Science and English (A, AA*, A). The year after that( this year) I did AS, which did not go well at all.

However, by the end of the year I've realised that I'm more than able to succeed just I need more time due to my circumstances.

My GCSEs, though not all A*s are still not too bad. English isn't my native tongue, so I had to study intensely to get an A; for Maths I was no more than 2-3 points away from A* and I was late for the first paper for an hour; and for my Sciences I got all A*s for my exams but, as I did those in a Community
College where the teaching isn't all that great and not being a fan of practicals myself, all my IAAs were Bs/Cs so the first one got brought down to an A.

And as lousy as my "need more time" excuse sounds, I still believe it is something that shouldn't be dismissed right away. I don't really have a particularly strong academic background( in the sense that I didn't go to a top school back at home) and moving to a new place is never easy, as some of you might now. So my best bet was to hope that Oxbridge would consider my circumstances and take notice of the achievements I would make( if I would make them, of course).

I'm very confident that if I would start A-levels from scratch I would ace them, as even now, after I have sorted my problems out, I am able to catch up on things considerably; however, it's about 1 month left until the exams and I hardly believe that I will be able to soak up enough to at least scrape an A.

And just for people to note, I do know how extremely competitive Oxbridge are. Nevertheless, after going there on college trips( as sentimental as this may sound) I have felt very certain that that was the place where I wanted to go. And it wasn't the prestige or the buildings or anything like that at all, it was simply because of the people that were studying there, and I could easily see that I would fit in there( and I don't mean that they were fun people to chat with, I mean that I am as capable of rigorous study and excellence as they are).

So my question is whether there is any chance that Oxbridge would consider me as a potential applicant at all?

And I'm sure there will be plenty of people that would love to ridicule me( especially because of what I wrote in the paragraph above), but in all honesty, I don't think you should be wasting your time on that, if that's the only thing you want to say. If you have any constructive-criticism to say, please do so, but be mindful of the constructiveness of your criticism.

Thank you in advance

P.S. And I did only 4 GCSEs because that's the maximum the college has allowed me. I have GCSE equivalents from home which is about 20 A-A* GCSEs.

[The_Lonely_Goatherd]

Hi

What did you get for your AS grades? (Apologies if this is in your post - I can't find them if they are!) And what subject would you hope to read at Oxford?

[HexBugMaster]

I didn't do my ASs yet, but I think the most reasonable guess is to say that I will get Bs. And I'm hoping to read Law and I know how this worsens my situation even more, but hope dies last

[The_Lonely_Goatherd]

I think it would be best to email the Law faculty to ask whether you could realistically be a competitive applicant. They would be able to give you a better answer than we would

[HexBugMaster]

Oh, how come I didn't think of that from the very beginning I'll certainly try that

[ilickbatteries]

(Original post by HexBugMaster)
Hello guys,

So I moved to England 2 years ago. In the first year I took an intense GCSE course in Maths, Double Award Science and English (A, AA*, A). The year after that( this year) I did AS, which did not go well at all.

However, by the end of the year I've realised that I'm more than able to succeed just I need more time due to my circumstances.

My GCSEs, though not all A*s are still not too bad. English isn't my native tongue, so I had to study intensely to get an A; for Maths I was no more than 2-3 points away from A* and I was late for the first paper for an hour; and for my Sciences I got all A*s for my exams but, as I did those in a Community
College where the teaching isn't all that great and not being a fan of practicals myself, all my IAAs were Bs/Cs so the first one got brought down to an A.

And as lousy as my "need more time" excuse sounds, I still believe it is something that shouldn't be dismissed right away. I don't really have a particularly strong academic background( in the sense that I didn't go to a top school back at home) and moving to a new place is never easy, as some of you might now. So my best bet was to hope that Oxbridge would consider my circumstances and take notice of the achievements I would make( if I would make them, of course).

I'm very confident that if I would start A-levels from scratch I would ace them, as even now, after I have sorted my problems out, I am able to catch up on things considerably; however, it's about 1 month left until the exams and I hardly believe that I will be able to soak up enough to at least scrape an A.

And just for people to note, I do know how extremely competitive Oxbridge are. Nevertheless, after going there on college trips( as sentimental as this may sound) I have felt very certain that that was the place where I wanted to go. And it wasn't the prestige or the buildings or anything like that at all, it was simply because of the people that were studying there, and I could easily see that I would fit in there( and I don't mean that they were fun people to chat with, I mean that I am as capable of rigorous study and excellence as they are).

So my question is whether there is any chance that Oxbridge would consider me as a potential applicant at all?

And I'm sure there will be plenty of people that would love to ridicule me( especially because of what I wrote in the paragraph above), but in all honesty, I don't think you should be wasting your time on that, if that's the only thing you want to say. If you have any constructive-criticism to say, please do so, but be mindful of the constructiveness of your criticism.

Thank you in advance

P.S. And I did only 4 GCSEs because that's the maximum the college has allowed me. I have GCSE equivalents from home which is about 20 A-A* GCSEs.

Just one thing: make sure you don't waste too much time pining over Oxbridge. I know that's easy for me to say, being someone who would never ever get into Oxford or Cambridge, but if you pre-occupy yourself with thoughts of getting into Oxbridge, it may be to the detriment of your academic life in general.

Oxford and Cambridge are fantastic, but don't get too hung up. Not everyone can go there, even some fantastically clever people don't get in, even if they would excel there.

If it's the academic atmosphere you crave, I'm sure there are other universities that breed a similar atmosphere. Try LSE.

[HexBugMaster]

(Original post by ilickbatteries)
Just one thing: make sure you don't waste too much time pining over Oxbridge. I know that's easy for me to say, being someone who would never ever get into Oxford or Cambridge, but if you pre-occupy yourself with thoughts of getting into Oxbridge, it may be to the detriment of your academic life in general.

Oxford and Cambridge are fantastic, but don't get too hung up. Not everyone can go there, even some fantastically clever people don't get in, even if they would excel there.

If it's the academic atmosphere you crave, I'm sure there are other universities that breed a similar atmosphere. Try LSE.

Hey, thanks for the advice

[insomniacramblings]

(Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd)
I think it would be best to email the Law faculty to ask whether you could realistically be a competitive applicant. They would be able to give you a better answer than we would

This, but please work your absolute hardest in the upcoming summer finals, then decide what next based on the results. Settling on restarting your A-levels (if that's what you choose) might demotivate you, and you're already 3/4s into the year! At least, that's what I plan to do (I'm in the exact same position as you).

My fingers are crossed for us both.