The Big "Are My Grades Good Enough for Cambridge?" Thread (Mk1)

the average successful applicant has over 80% A*s on average.

To Oxford? At GCSE? Source?

What we were told at school, they also advised us not to apply with less! (but I think that could be because by school is very academic, so they expect more)

My school is one of the top in the country for exam results, they say that no matter what your GCSE results if you can improve significantly at AS and have a real passion and drive for your subject then you may as well try seeing as Oxford also do tests for many subjects and you can prove yourself as better than your academic record on those.

How nice for you

I want to go to Cambridge to do a course on Natural Sciences, but for GCSE I only got 4A*s 6 A's and a B. I got almost full marks in additional and core science. I'm doing three sciences for A Level but I'm not doing maths which I don't think they'd like. I'm really determined to get the highest grades possible at AS and A2 Level. If I got A* A* A or A* A A would I still have a chance despite my average GCSE results? I really wish I'd worked a lot harder last year!

If I don't stand a chance then I won't bother applying!

Is that sarcasm?

No, my school does its best for its pupils, as i'm sure does yours. You presented how things are at your school, which seems to have a nice policy, so I said that it was nice...

I'm not really sure about how the whole UCAS points thing works, how do you get points? And how many points is A* A A at A Level?

And how many extracurricular things do they like you to do?

90% plus is realistic for me if I put in lots of work. Most definitely for Biology. Maybe not in Maths. But then I never revised for GCSE Maths and still did well so maybe if I put as much work in to it as I did with science...

UCAS tariff points are gained on completion of level 3 (A level or equivalent) qualifications. http://www.ucas.com/students/ucas_tariff/tarifftables/

I actually recommend that you do not touch maths with a barge pole. Simply because you don't seem overly confident in it. In my GCSE's I didn't really revise for any of them and my only 2 As were in maths and statistics.

I took maths at AS thinking it would be doable and it really wasn't. The leap between maths at GCSE and at AS is enormous because at AS it's almost like maths has a new definition and requires a whole new way of thinking. I didn't find that it even involved any form of logical thought processes so it was impossible for me to apply it to things in my head and work things out as I had at GCSE maths.

My school was a 'centre of excellence' for maths and half the class dropped maths by christmas (including myself) and I'd say well over half of the people that continued with it got less than a C.

I'm not saying you'd fail but you don't seem overly confident about it and you seem to be using the same argument that I did with myself 'I didn't revise for GCSE and I did well so I must be good at it'.

If you were to get a U in maths or even a B or C then (as far as I know) you wouldn't be considered oxbridge material because it would be like a massive, recently acquired black mark on your record.

Pretty poor advice for the OP who wants to do NatSci at Cambridge. If they're so poor at maths that they can't get at least an A at A Level, I would strongly suggest that they simply wouldn't be able to cope with the Cambridge NatSci course.

Just to even out your rather offputting post (), I think around 70% of people who did maths at my school got As. And I'm sure if the OP is considering applying to Cambridge, they're pretty good at maths.

I gave my honest opinion. I think different people are good at different things and there are different forms of intelligence. I would still consider myself to be good at maths in that I'm good at mental arithmetic, algebra, statistics etc. I could do mechanics and I did an AS in pure statistics (s1b, s2, s3). I just couldn't get my head around the core 1 stuff because none of it seemed to have any point. And the OP said that they didn't necessarily require maths, they just needed to be doing either all 3 sciences or 2 sciences and maths. The OP didn't seem particularly confident about choosing maths. It's better to do another subject than take a subject that they aren't sure about and risk getting a less than brilliant grade in something. Surely something like geography or even english could be a useful addition?

I'm not sure on the exact requirements with respect to A Level Maths and NatSci. All I mean is, just because you found it hard doesn't mean the OP will.

And indeed, if the OP was going to get below an A in Maths, he likely won't be good enough to get into Cambridge anyway.

But yeah, I don't think they would have to do maths to get in.

No, you're quite right. The OP may well fly through it with no problems and get an A* but all I'm saying is that the way the OP spoke about taking AS maths reminded me of what I was saying to myself when I chose to do it and she doesn't seem particularly confident.

If maths isn't required then why do it? It's normally considered one of the hardest A-levels (after further maths and perhaps chemistry). So why take a big risk?

Maybe if they can't get an A in maths then they aren't good enough for cambridge but why put it to the test? Why not just play safe and choose a softer subject? It is as an addition to all three sciences after all.

Well, if OP was choosing his subjects for the first time, I'd strongly advise maths (again, I reiterate, if you are hoping to get into NatSci at Cambridge, A Level maths should not be a challenge), but since he's already starting doing A Levels, and hasn't done maths, it's more awkward.

It would obv be more convenient not to do maths since OP has already started, but I don't know how much that limits what NatSci options you can do. I think it should be OK for Bio natsci though.

Surely 3 A-levels isn't enough for cambridge anyway? Average entry requirements (according to the league tables) is well in the 500's.

3 A Levels and one AS is OK, but tbh, for NatSci, if you can do 4 relevant ones, that's probably better.

Even though there are people who would do all 3 sciences, maths and further maths and get 5 A*s?