GCSE's, the myth exposed

Many people claim GCSE's are not important or less important than many prospective students fear. GCSE's in fact seems to be used as the first benchmark to which candidates are judged before any further consideration of their application. Here is an extract from an email LSE sent me regarding my rejection:

Feedback we have received from the Admissions Tutor indicates that your application was unsuccessful due to your GCSE grades.

Past examination performance is one of the criteria used by our Admissions Tutors when considering UCAS applications and typically we would expect applicants to the LLB course to offer at least 4 A* and A in the rest in the nine subjects you took at GCSE. (See the Admissions Criteria on our website at www.lse.ac.uk/collections/undergraduateAdmissions/AdmissionsCriteria).

I am sorry we have had to disappoint you in your application to the School and wish you every success in your future studies elsewhere.

I dont suggest all universites take this into such great consideration, but everyone should be aware that many universities will be taking it just as seriously, i.e. Manchester, and that others could be looking at them closely as well...

Hope this helps... :redface:

Reply 1

ellewoods

10

Um, I don't mean to be rude, but I didn't think there ever was a myth that GCSE's weren't important... uni's want to see consistancy and flexibility and maturity - a couple of A-Levels started at 16 years old don't necessarily show this. ALL uni's look at your GCSE's - I even had to send my GCSE certificates to the firm that gave me a training contract.

I was lucky, my school drummed this into me from the age of 11 - unfortunately it sounds like you didn't have the luxury of this :frown:

Reply 2

Phonicsdude

19

Paging Xanthe to this thread, who tried to tell me that I was lying when I said I received a similar response to the above.

Reply 3

Lush Law

15

GCSE's are looked at considerably by universities, arguably because you take GCSEs in a wide range of subjects, so they can assess how academically well-rounded you are.

GCSE's are more important that AS level grades when applying to university (but not for all courses, e.g. Medicine/Vet Med not declaring your AS grades would probably be very detrimental, same goes for courses like Law, English literature, History, Economics).

A level predictions are also vitally important.

Reply 4

randomname

I think GCSEs are becoming increasingly used as a means to distinguish candidates with otherwise near-perfect UCAS applications. If you've got two candidates, both with all A's at AS, both with really good personal statements and references, and both with 3/4A predictions at A2, the only thing left to look at is GCSE performance.

I suppose it was one of the reasons for the introduction of the LNAT (although I'm very dubious about how useful it actually is). I have heard, however, by word of mouth, through admissions tutors and fellow applicants, that some unis (the ones currently doing the rounds are LSE, Manchester, Warwick in particular) have a nominal 'benchmark' that most of their successful applicants have to achieve at GCSE. As evidence to back this up, I've seen the record of applications for September 2005 at my college. Around 11 people applied for Warwick for law, and only 2 got in. Fair enough, you might say, but when you see that both of those applicants got at least 6A*s at GCSE and all those below them were rejected, it does look a tad suspicious...

Reply 5

Happy1

14

bloody hell i am SOOOO glad i worked hard in my gcses!

The problem is, loads of teachers, other pupils, older pupils and even parents, tell their kids that its teh A levels that matter, and that GCSEs aren't the be all and end all... but it seems that they now are.

I think that with law being so competetive, its only natural that unis with too many applicants should look at GCSE scores... unfortunately, everyone who applies is a strong applicant (majority anyway)... all have great AS scores, great predicted grades, a great personal statement, a great reference etc. So what other way of differentiation do they have?

Year 11 students need to know about this ASAP because they'll need to start working their backsides off.

Reply 6

Purple

15

Great news, now I have no chance :rolleyes:

Dizzyarab

Many people claim GCSE's are not important or less important than many prospective students fear. GCSE's in fact seems to be used as the first benchmark to which candidates are judged before any further consideration of their application. Here is an extract from an email LSE sent me regarding my rejection:

Feedback we have received from the Admissions Tutor indicates that your application was unsuccessful due to your GCSE grades.

Past examination performance is one of the criteria used by our Admissions Tutors when considering UCAS applications and typically we would expect applicants to the LLB course to offer at least 4 A* and A in the rest in the nine subjects you took at GCSE. (See the Admissions Criteria on our website at www.lse.ac.uk/collections/undergraduateAdmissions/AdmissionsCriteria).

I am sorry we have had to disappoint you in your application to the School and wish you every success in your future studies elsewhere.

I dont suggest all universites take this into such great consideration, but everyone should be aware that many universities will be taking it just as seriously, i.e. Manchester, and that others could be looking at them closely as well...

Hope this helps... :redface:

I also got rejected from LSE last week. Did you email them and ask them why they rejected you?

Reply 9

Traum

YOU ARE A GOD! This ought to shut some people up!

Reply 10

President_Ben

15

To be honest, cutting out people who got less than 4 A* and at least 5 more A grades doesn't really reduce the competition a great deal...

Necessary grades are far from sufficient :wink:

Reply 11

ba_ba1

10

LawHopeful

bloody hell i am SOOOO glad i worked hard in my gcses!

The problem is, loads of teachers, other pupils, older pupils and even parents, tell their kids that its teh A levels that matter, and that GCSEs aren't the be all and end all... but it seems that they now are.

I think that with law being so competetive, its only natural that unis with too many applicants should look at GCSE scores... unfortunately, everyone who applies is a strong applicant (majority anyway)... all have great AS scores, great predicted grades, a great personal statement, a great reference etc. So what other way of differentiation do they have?

Year 11 students need to know about this ASAP because they'll need to start working their backsides off.

well i wouldnt be so sure that everyone has a great PS.

Reply 12

President_Ben

15

ba_ba1

well i wouldnt be so sure that everyone has a great PS.

Neither would I if economics is anything to go by!

Most PSs are unremarkable. Some are bad. Some are little more than '[unconnected] facts vomitted onto a page'.

A small handful are great and some are good. I haven't actually read one yet that made me think 'this person absolutely deserves a place because that PS is just stellar'.

Reply 13

Objet trouvé

1

Dizzyarab

Many people claim GCSE's are not important or less important than many prospective students fear. GCSE's in fact seems to be used as the first benchmark to which candidates are judged before any further consideration of their application. Here is an extract from an email LSE sent me regarding my rejection:

Feedback we have received from the Admissions Tutor indicates that your application was unsuccessful due to your GCSE grades.

Past examination performance is one of the criteria used by our Admissions Tutors when considering UCAS applications and typically we would expect applicants to the LLB course to offer at least 4 A* and A in the rest in the nine subjects you took at GCSE. (See the Admissions Criteria on our website at www.lse.ac.uk/collections/undergraduateAdmissions/AdmissionsCriteria).

I am sorry we have had to disappoint you in your application to the School and wish you every success in your future studies elsewhere.

I dont suggest all universites take this into such great consideration, but everyone should be aware that many universities will be taking it just as seriously, i.e. Manchester, and that others could be looking at them closely as well...

Hope this helps... :redface:

I got into LSE last year for Law with only 3 A*s at GCSE so I don't think they immediately cut people with less than 4. They must take other factors like your personal statement into account, too.

Reply 14

Feefifofum

16

At the top universities, GCSE results are often the ony thinkg distinguishing many people's applications. Everything matters.

Reply 15

gianthead

12

It's sad cos someone who managed to get better Alevel results after not so good GCSEs is obviously quite hard working.

I'm glad I didn't get As at Alevel (I'm told I could've done if I tried from the start) cos I'd have been pressured to go for top unis. My 3 GCSEs and the fact I never went to school (sort of) wouldn't have looked good to a competitive uni.

...

I got A*AAAAAABBCD in my GCSE's, hardly stellar compared to most law applicants, I got rejected from Manchester on this basis but I'm now at Durham, so they might be important to a certain degree, but don't assume that you need a handful of A*s to get to a great University for law.

Reply 18

helki

1

Dizzyarab

Many people claim GCSE's are not important or less important than many prospective students fear. GCSE's in fact seems to be used as the first benchmark to which candidates are judged before any further consideration of their application. Here is an extract from an email LSE sent me regarding my rejection:

Feedback we have received from the Admissions Tutor indicates that your application was unsuccessful due to your GCSE grades.

Past examination performance is one of the criteria used by our Admissions Tutors when considering UCAS applications and typically we would expect applicants to the LLB course to offer at least 4 A* and A in the rest in the nine subjects you took at GCSE. (See the Admissions Criteria on our website at www.lse.ac.uk/collections/undergraduateAdmissions/AdmissionsCriteria).

I am sorry we have had to disappoint you in your application to the School and wish you every success in your future studies elsewhere.

I dont suggest all universites take this into such great consideration, but everyone should be aware that many universities will be taking it just as seriously, i.e. Manchester, and that others could be looking at them closely as well...

Hope this helps... :redface:

I got 5A* and 5A's. I've heard nothing from LSE yet. only i'm a little worried. I got AABB at AS. My B's were in chem and bio (from this i deduced i am not a scientist!) However, i had big problems at home, my mother was very sick (MS) and my gran died of cancer, so i felt i did the best i could.
I am resitting Chem as i was 8UMS off an A, but wonder if this will really hurt my chances at LSE??
I've been predicted AAA, but i just wondered what anyone else thought??? :confused: