Are my GCSE grades good enough for a top university?

The C/B in Music.. no, not really.

Well if you want to do classics at any university, then you need to have done latin to a level and preferably greek. I'll assume you meant classical civilisation. Take into consideration that most oxford students have very good gcse's, as they are more important for oxford than for cambridge (who focus more on a levels). There are obviously exceptions, if you ace your a levels you could definitely get in

Careers advisors a lot of the time don't know what they're talking about; one told me the History department at Imperial College is one of the best in the country 😂😂😂😂. Yes you read that right, I'm not even kidding.

My cousin got an F in his French GCSE and has just graduated from Imperial College, so it's fine.

My Careers Adviser told me most top universities don't even consider candidates with a C at GCSE. I'm not sure if this was just a Grammar School fear-mongering tactic or a statement grounded in actual truth.

I got 5 A*s, 3 As, 2 Bs and a C

I got an A* in:
- Science (Double) Paper 1
- English Literature
- Classical Civilization
- History
- R.S.
As in:
- Science (Double) Paper 2
- English Language
- Business Studies
Bs in:
- Maths
- Italian
A C in:
- Music (I was 1 UMS mark off a B so I'm applying for a remark)

My A Level choices are English Literature, Classical Civilization, Philosophy and Politics.

My question is are these grades good enough for a top ten university? I hope to go onto study either English Literature or Classics (the latter is the one I'm currently favoring). I realize good A Level grades are more important than GCSE results but would getting a B in Maths and a C in Music harm my chances of getting into, say, Oxford or Durham?

To be honest no.
Oxford will expect A's only. Imagine how many thousands of kids want to get on Oxford each year?!
How many will have 5 A's?

Only thing I have to say is look at the universities you want to go to and look at their gcse requirements

Posted from TSR Mobile

Unfortunately many of them don't have specific GCSE requirements.

Most universities have entry requirements of 5 GCSE at grade C or above and some has specific grades for English Language and Maths sometimes requiring a B in those subjects. Other than meeting that requirement very few take a great deal of notice of your GCSE results and tend to look at your predicted grades as a more accurate guide. I believe Oxford do look at GCSE grades but Cambridge take very little notice. A couple of the London Universities tend to look at them but outside of them and maybe Durham not many care. Given your grades it is highly unlikely most top universities including those from the Russell Group will reject you because your GCSE results are fine anyway.

The big issue is that the likes of Oxbridge and Durham have courses that are heavily oversubscribed and getting in those universities is very difficult. They may have entry requirements of say A*AA but these are MINIMUM requirements and people with those grades often get rejected purely because of the quality of other applicants. If your A level grades are good enough you will get offers from many excellent universities but when applying ensure a couple of your options are slightly less competitive in case of rejection from the likes of Durham

Thanks for the detailed reply. Both Durham and Oxford offer Classics for AAA and I hear it's not a particularly competitive degree choice. So I guess it's these factors that are giving me a glimmer of hope.