The "Are my grades good enough for Maths..." Thread

If I don't get it this year though, I'll definitely be predicted it next year. Surely that will count?

Also if I could mention, isn't completing A level syllabus for maths harder than AS maths and further maths in one year? I would have thought so, leading them to assume I'll be more ready for Further maths and therefore more likely to get the A*. That's just how I thought of it.

I had a look at the FAQ for Warwick maths and it says they don't mind about resits so I would hope that this means you can resit C3/C4 next year if necessary to get that A*. Thinking it through, I reckon it's quite likely to be the case. However, this is getting into the finer details of the offer so if you do end up in that situation then it may be worth checking their website and/or contacting the admissions people to clarify things.

As for Cambridge, getting the grade the first time is always better than getting it on a resit so it would still look bad.



I'm not sure exactly what the difference in difficulty is, but it's not huge. I don't think that would make a huge impact.

GCSEs: AABBBBBCCCCCD

A-Levels (already got): A*A*E (Maths, Further Maths, Physics)

Universities applied to: Oxford, Warwick, Manchester, Leeds and Bath

What d'you think, guys?

:O But I am good at maths. Surely if I get an A/A* this year for the full A level since I'm doing it like that, it will prove I'm capable and my January flop was just a minor blip?

Okay thanks again Toby, that cleared things up for me.

I'm not trying to shoot you down or anything but I think that I should mention that it's really difficult to make up for poor modules. When I applied, I had high 90s in all maths modules bar one (98% average from C1-C4 and thus an A* in A2 maths) and a good STEP I mark; from year 12 and in my feedback following the rejection I was told that my interview performance was pretty good too (8.5/10 average over the 3 interviews). The problem was that I had a B (73UMS) from M1 and possibly a B in an unrelated AS (Economics) to a lesser extent. I was pooled and then rejected; with the message being that they couldn't justify an offer due to my AS grades.

You're going to have to do some serious convincing to make up for an E.

But I will get 95% this time around. The E was from January. :/ Or were you B's from January which weren't raised in the summer?

To be fair, Farhan makes a very fair point: he's an amazing mathematician but if he didnt get in because of two Bs then an E seems inexcusable unless you manage an amazing excuse like DFranklin mentions.

Your best shot is probably with Warwick and as I'm sure you know it's amazing too, it's nothing to be embarrassed about.

The pertinent questions is really why you didn't get 95% first time around. To be brutally honest, if you're going to apply for maths at somewhere like Cambridge you should be at least getting high B's in modules, even if you haven't done any work for them beyond looking at the textbook on the morning of the exam.

You still have to declare all your retakes in the Cambridge SAQ. That E will be picked up on, so unless there's a very good ameliorating reason it's going to disadvantage you.

I'm not trying to shoot you down or anything but I think that I should mention that it's really difficult to make up for poor modules. When I applied, I had high 90s in all maths modules bar one (98% average from C1-C4 and thus an A* in A2 maths) and a good STEP I mark; from year 12 and in my feedback following the rejection I was told that my interview performance was pretty good too (8.5/10 average over the 3 interviews). The problem was that I had a B (73UMS) from M1 and possibly a B in an unrelated AS (Economics) to a lesser extent. I was pooled and then rejected; with the message being that they couldn't justify an offer due to my AS grades.

You're going to have to do some serious convincing to make up for an E.

The pertinent questions is really why you didn't get 95% first time around. To be brutally honest, if you're going to apply for maths at somewhere like Cambridge you should be at least getting high B's in modules, even if you haven't done any work for them beyond looking at the textbook on the morning of the exam.

You still have to declare all your retakes in the Cambridge SAQ. That E will be picked up on, so unless there's a very good ameliorating reason it's going to disadvantage you.

You can do STEP I in year 12!

You can do any STEP exam at any point in your academia.

I know someone who did STEP I and II in year 11 (albeit, not too well) but it's by no means recommended as a bad result really doesn't look great.

Yeah, I see what you mean. But only 2 people got A's in my class in the Jan exam, and around 10 of us got E's with the majority getting C's and a few B's.

Is speaking to my college about it a possibility, I don't think I'll be applying to Cambridge now anyhow, i'm expecting a B in chemistry, so my chances are effectively minimal now.

Realistically, yes. I think the proportion of maths UGs without at least AAA is around 1%.

Wow, no wonder you have such a sweet offer from Warwick! I wish I'd attempted that now lol. Ah well, I may not have done so well anyways.

As I understand it, Farhan's offer is the Warwick standard offer; he just happens to already have the A* 1 component. Warwick normally make the same offer to everyone.

(For that matter, I got an "unconditional offer" from Cambridge. However, given I applied with AAAA11, I was either going to get an unconditional or get rejected).

Did you finish your A levels a year early?

I took 2 A-levels in year 10, 2 A-levels (+ 2 S-levels) in year 11, and 2 A-levels (+ 1 S-level) in year 12. I applied at the beginning of year 12 (and went up to Cambridge 1 year earlier than normal).