Is it true that Oxford look at your GCSE's more than Cambridge?

Peterhouse is a Cambridge College not Oxford.

@BrasenoseAdm is Oxford - and @gavinlowe is an Oxford CompSci tutor. They can help you with Oxford questions.

@BrasenoseAdm @gavinlowe
I read this on the Oxford Admissions website...:

As guidance, the Admissions Coordinator advises college tutors of two thresholds, based on a validated weighted combination of the MAT score and GCSE A* scores (where applicable). By default, all candidates above the higher threshold are short-listed, and all candidates below the lower threshold are rejected, unless there are strong reasons to do otherwise. College tutorscarefully consider candidates between the two thresholds, and about half are short-listed.

Could you possibly explain the quote further? I don't quite understand why the threshold exists for GCSE's... what would be a "strong reason" to do otherwise?

Also would 6A*s and 5A's fail to meet that threshold... I went to a school with poor GCSE performance

There is no threshold for GCSEs. There is a threshold on the weighted combination of the MAT score and GCSE A* scores.

In more detail, we take the MAT score x, and the number of A*s at GCSE y, and put them into a formula

PSI = w1 x + w2 y + C

to give the provisional shortlisting indicator (PSI). Here w1, w2 and C are constants (they vary from year to year, based on the mean and standard deviation of the MAT scores that year). The weights w1 and w2 are fairly similar, so in practice an extra A* at GCSE is worth about the same as an extra mark on the MAT.

The thresholds are on the PSI. So somebody with no A*s, but a very good MAT score, would be shortlisted.



Those GCSE results are excellent, and typical of successful candidates.

Gavin

Thanks for that

What were W1 W2 and C for 2016 entry?

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Sorry, I don't have the figures to hand. It's an arbitrary scale, anyway, so the only relevant question is the ratio between W1 and W2. Actually, eyeballing the data, it looks like that ratio is about 0.5, so an A* at GCSE was worth the same as about 2 marks on the MAT. (My advice to candidates would be not to worry about these details!)

Gavin