Are my grades good enough for Oxford?

I did my GCSEs at a state comprehensive where I was one of the highest scoring students, achieving 2A* 4A 6B.

After joining a grammar school's sixth form my AS results were AAAA, with 100% in English Literature and History..

Are my GCSEs still a problem? I've applied for Oxford but I fear that my GCSE scores will be the reason for my rejection... ugh.

edit: I'm not sure if this is contributory but i'm the first member of my entire extended family doing A Levels and i'm certainly the first considering university.

Hello, I am in hope of securing a place to study Politics, Philosophy, and Economics at Oxford's fine establishmrnt. I am currently studying AS Levels at a comprehensive college. The subjects are Politics, History (20th century), Economics, and English Literature.

I want to know how much emphasis is put on my secondary school qualifications (I didn't do GCSEs I completed the general certificate of Accelerated Christian Education, which is comparable to Cambridge International O-Levels, it wasn't my choice it was my parents', but I've left there and I'm doing normal AS now). If I achieve four A's this year in my AS levels, which I'm on track for doing, will there be any sense in me applying, if at school I only achieved A*AABBBBB. Oh, my qualifications also had very narrow grade boundaries, for example all my subjects are above 90%, to get an A* I had to achieve 98% and above. Would this have any influence or not? I realise that this is not the typical offer that an Oxford candidate receives, however, I do feel I could have done better if it hadn't been due to the fact that my parents got divorced while my dad almost died of cancer. Would this have any influence on their consideration of my application?

Another question that has me boggled is their policy on gap years? I am not aware on their opinion of them - besides not liking it for maths applicants - but would they disapprove if I deferred my application for one year to study an AS level in maths and go to Iraq for about three or four months to do charity work? I hope this would be seen as a productive gap year as opposed to a useless one.

I appreciate the time you've taken to read this.
Yours Sincerely, Reaver Daniels

Hello, I am in hope of securing a place to study Politics, Philosophy, and Economics at Oxford's fine establishmrnt. I am currently studying AS Levels at a comprehensive college. The subjects are Politics, History (20th century), Economics, and English Literature.

I want to know how much emphasis is put on my secondary school qualifications (I didn't do GCSEs I completed the general certificate of Accelerated Christian Education, which is comparable to Cambridge International O-Levels, it wasn't my choice it was my parents', but I've left there and I'm doing normal AS now). If I achieve four A's this year in my AS levels, which I'm on track for doing, will there be any sense in me applying, if at school I only achieved A*AABBBBB. Oh, my qualifications also had very narrow grade boundaries, for example all my subjects are above 90%, to get an A* I had to achieve 98% and above. Would this have any influence or not? I realise that this is not the typical offer that an Oxford candidate receives, however, I do feel I could have done better if it hadn't been due to the fact that my parents got divorced while my dad almost died of cancer. Would this have any influence on their consideration of my application?

Another question that has me boggled is their policy on gap years? I am not aware on their opinion of them - besides not liking it for maths applicants - but would they disapprove if I deferred my application for one year to study an AS level in maths and go to Iraq for about three or four months to do charity work? I hope this would be seen as a productive gap year as opposed to a useless one.

I appreciate the time you've taken to read this.
Yours Sincerely, Reaver Daniels

You have a fairly unique GCSE-equivalent qualification, so I would get in touch with any university that you're thinking of applying to (including Oxford) and clarifying how you'd be treated as an applicant

Re extenuating circumstances, I believe you can have your tutor mention it in the reference so the universities are made aware of what happened. Apart from Maths, I don't think Oxford has a strong policy of discouraging gap years. I don't see why you shouldn't take one, insofar as you have some good plans, and yours sound fine. The only thing to be mindful of is that if you do apply for a deferred position, they will normally hold you to a higher standard since they're effectively giving you a place without even looking at the majority of applicants for your cohort. Obviously, there's nothing stopping you from applying during your gap year as well.

I don't see why you wouldn't be able to make a competitive applications if you have solid AS/ A level grades and a good TSA score. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, so as long as you have a good selection of universities, give Oxford a go.

That sounds really useful, thank you would it also be worth mentioning that for an A in my secondary school system I need 96% and above as opposed to 80% in normal schools? Also, should I do maths AS in my gap year before going to Iraq for charity work?

Is Oxford likely to accept someone with these grades:
GCSEs- 2A*'s 13 A's 1B
Predicted AS levels - AAAA
EPQ - yet to do
UKCAT- yet to do

A level choices are biology, chemistry, physics and maths.

Thanks!



Posted from TSR Mobile

No, it's not medicine...

As someone who was just accepted for an interview at Merton College, I feel in a position enough to say that you need to take what people say here with a pinch of salt.

I didn't achieve shining AS grades. I was very disappointed, actually. But I got an interview with an A in English, a B in History, a C in Geography and a D in Maths to study Classical Archaeology and Ancient History.
I was very pleased with my GCSE's - 2A*'s, 6A's, 4B's and a C. Looks like some of the people here would be massively disappointed with those grades though.

No, it's not medicine. But it is an interview. And guess who didn't get in? The genius in my year with A's at AS, and equally high GCSE grades.

I was allowed late entry, and I'm only on track for 3A's if I work my little socks off, but I still got an interview and I'm proud of that.

The admissions officers are human, not computers, and therefore able to consider many factors when judging an application. Sure, the higher grades you get, the better your chances. But don't give up hope because you got a B for goodness' sake!

I went to Cambridge Summer School, and they told me this:
Don't worry about GCSE's - if you show enough promise in your A-Levels, you have a good personal statement, and your teachers write a good reference predicting you the grades you need, they'll take into account that you have shown more academic potential as you mature.
Don't worry about bad AS Grades - Their main priority is your highest 3 grades, or, the ones you'll take to A2. They don't worry so much about your fourth grade as long as you show potential in the subject you're applying to, and if the fourth grade is a bad one in a related subject, you can mark it as pending on UCAS and retake.
Oh Yeah, Retakes - Cambridge for sure allow you to retake your AS year if you aren't happy with your grades. They understand that sometimes you just have bad days and you don't do so well in your exams. It's fine.

If you have any real concerns, ask an admissions officer - ring them up. They're very nice people, and not as strict as I'm sure you'd imagine. Don't let the advice of people who don't necessarily know what they're talking about keep you from applying. I nearly did, and I would've regretted it. Just like anyone else here, take what I'm saying with a pinch of salt. It's not true for all cases, and by no means am I an expert in admissions, but then neither are 80% of the people giving out advice here.

Think about this: Are you from a deprived area? Does your school send many candidates to Oxford each year? What is the average set of grades people from your school/area achieve? Do you have any extenuating circumstances -death of a close family member, long-term illness of yourself or a family member, financial difficulties, any other extreme situation?

Do your best, revise, and ask the right people whether or not you can apply, because if I can with my less-than average grades, I'm sure you can too.

Keep smiling

If you're addressing Sade 101, the whole point is that s/he IS applying for medicine, where GCSEs are a HUGE factor in pre-interview culling. So there's very little point getting his/her hopes up unnecessarily

I didn't see in their post that they were applying for medicine, perhaps there was an earlier one I missed.
And this wasn't directed specifically at Sade 101, it was just a general message to people that read these posts and feel discouraged from even applying.
You have to take everything in context, I guess. STEM subjects naturally require higher qualifications because they are so competitive and have higher overall grade requirements.

I don't mean to get anyone's hopes up unnecessarily, I just mean that you should talk to your teachers and admissions officers before giving up on information you got on TSR.

I completely agree with the overriding meaning of your post - but there are a few things I would like to clarify

What subject is your interview for?

The Cambridge Summer School is correct - for Cambridge. Oxford do care about GCSE's slightly more than Cambridge. But at the same time they can be outweighed by admissions tests, personal statements and interviews.

Re-sitting your entire AS year is also not looked on that well.. Unless it was because you decided to change your subjects completely.

But the end of your post is completely correct - extenuating circumstances, school area etc are all taken into consideration and one B shouldn't stop you applying. Your standing in relation to your year at school/college is normally a good indicator of academic ability.

My interview is for Classical Archaeology and Ancient History - as I understand not the most academic of subjects according to most STEM students. But not everyone applies for STEM subjects, so I thought what I wanted to say was still valid.

Unfortunately I didn't go to Oxford's summer school programme (I think it was Uniq), so the things I said may have been more true for Cambridge - but then it's also true that most people considering Oxford also consider Cambridge.

I do know someone resitting her AS year, and she's been given the go ahead to apply for Cambridge, but I also agree that they prefer you not to have. It's just what I said though - they look at your application as a whole, and usually if you decide to resit an AS year after getting B's and C's, it's because you were expected to do better, and special circumstances prevented you from doing so. While not always the case, admissions officers do look into it.