applying to top universities with weaker GCSEs?

Original post by aubergine7

I know there are hundreds of posts like this, but I really need some specific advice! I'm looking to study law at Uni and my top 6 uni choices (which I have to narrow down to 5) is:
Oxford
Nottingham
LSE
UCL
Bristol
Cardiff (which would be a back up if on the list, as didn't like the uni that much :frown:

)

At GCSE I got 7A*s and 3As and have done AS level English Literature, History, English and German and am carrying 3 (not german) to A2. I'm also doing an EPQ. Would applying to Oxford be worthwhile? Assuming I got As in all my subject, or even AAAB at AS. My school does not 'cash in' AS grades though :frown:

any advice/ thoughts as to whether I have a chance for Oxbridge or other unis on my list?

You may have better chance with Cambridge than Oxford if you're applying to one of these as Cambridge cares less about GCSE than Oxford. Cambridge do look at your GCSE grades but only on a contextual basis. (= comparing your grades against the performance of your school) So if your grades are not as good as other applicants because you went to a weaker-performing school and you're better than the cohort of your year, that's not a problem.

They also interview more than 80% of applicants while Oxford invites much smaller proportion of applicants to interview and GCSE plays a bigger role in deciding which ones to invite than Cambridge.
However, Cambridge looks at your UMS, not just grades, quite carefully as they consider A-level is very reliable measure to gauge how well the applicants do in their tripos.
So if you think you can perform better in a-level than you did in GCSE, I think Cambridge is better option.

Btw, your GCSE is fine. May not be the most competitive among all the applicants, but there've been many who've got offer with similar or even weaker GCSE. :smile:

Reply 2

callum_law

6

7A*s and 3 As = weaker GCSEs? Righto.

Reply 3

Original post by callum_law

7A*s and 3 As = weaker GCSEs? Righto.

Just a figure of speech. :wink:

Reply 4

OP

Original post by vincrows

You may have better chance with Cambridge than Oxford if you're applying to one of these as Cambridge cares less about GCSE than Oxford. Cambridge do look at your GCSE grades but only on a contextual basis. (= comparing your grades against the performance of your school) So if your grades are not as good as other applicants because you went to a weaker-performing school and you're better than the cohort of your year, that's not a problem.

They also interview more than 80% of applicants while Oxford invites much smaller proportion of applicants to interview and GCSE plays a bigger role in deciding which ones to invite than Cambridge.
However, Cambridge looks at your UMS, not just grades, quite carefully as they consider A-level is very reliable measure to gauge how well the applicants do in their tripos.
So if you think you can perform better in a-level than you did in GCSE, I think Cambridge is better option.

Btw, your GCSE is fine. May not be the most competitive among all the applicants, but there've been many who've got offer with similar or even weaker GCSE. :smile:

So do you think those GCSEs would be enough for oxford? Would I be at a disadvantage or no?

Reply 5

ForgottenApple

Original post by vincrows

You may have better chance with Cambridge than Oxford if you're applying to one of these as Cambridge cares less about GCSE than Oxford. Cambridge do look at your GCSE grades but only on a contextual basis. (= comparing your grades against the performance of your school) So if your grades are not as good as other applicants because you went to a weaker-performing school and you're better than the cohort of your year, that's not a problem.

They also interview more than 80% of applicants while Oxford invites much smaller proportion of applicants to interview and GCSE plays a bigger role in deciding which ones to invite than Cambridge.
However, Cambridge looks at your UMS, not just grades, quite carefully as they consider A-level is very reliable measure to gauge how well the applicants do in their tripos.
So if you think you can perform better in a-level than you did in GCSE, I think Cambridge is better option.

Btw, your GCSE is fine. May not be the most competitive among all the applicants, but there've been many who've got offer with similar or even weaker GCSE. :smile:

Not arguing with anything you've said, but are you certain this is up to date? Aren't new AS's doing the new a levels now with no AS? How will cambridge be able to judge now with only GCSE's as information available shouldn't they have to put more emphasis on it?

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 6

ForgottenApple

Original post by aubergine7

So do you think those GCSEs would be enough for oxford? Would I be at a disadvantage or no?

Think 6 is the average, 9 for medicine. Basically they're either average or slightly below. shouldn't be an issue as long as the rest of the package is stellar.

Reply 7

Lucilou101

18

Original post by aubergine7

I know there are hundreds of posts like this, but I really need some specific advice! I'm looking to study law at Uni and my top 6 uni choices (which I have to narrow down to 5) is:
Oxford
Nottingham
LSE
UCL
Bristol
Cardiff (which would be a back up if on the list, as didn't like the uni that much :frown:

)

At GCSE I got 7A*s and 3As and have done AS level English Literature, History, English and German and am carrying 3 (not german) to A2. I'm also doing an EPQ. Would applying to Oxford be worthwhile? Assuming I got As in all my subject, or even AAAB at AS. My school does not 'cash in' AS grades though :frown:

any advice/ thoughts as to whether I have a chance for Oxbridge or other unis on my list?

Hey!

Your GCSEs are absolutely fine for either Oxford or Cambridge - so don't let that worry you.

If you applied to Oxford, they would look at your personal statement, GCSEs, A2 predictions and your admissions test result to decide whether to invite you to interview. This means you'd need to do well in the LNAT. It would probably be worth taking a look at this, there's plenty of practice papers available which means you can have a go before the test in November.

For Cambridge, you would need to send off your AS grades and UMS, along with your GCSEs, A2 predictions and personal statement. I believe you would then be invited to interview, and may have to sit the Cambridge Law Test at interview.

Take a look at both courses and decide which your prefer, but also if you can visit then just see which university you like the feel of :smile:

Reply 8

Original post by ForgottenApple

Not arguing with anything you've said, but are you certain this is up to date? Aren't new AS's doing the new a levels now with no AS? How will cambridge be able to judge now with only GCSE's as information available shouldn't they have to put more emphasis on it?

Yeah you're right .
The problem is Cambridge haven't decided (or haven't announced yet if they have) what they're going to do if AS goes completely. The thing is, they've never considered GCSE as a reliable measure to assess the candidates's ability/potential as A-levels. So my wild guess is that they'll put more emphasis on the interviews and tests. And how much a role of GCSE grades changes (or not) in their selection process is nobody's guess atm, with absence of any implication from their side.

Reply 9

ForgottenApple

Original post by vincrows

Yeah you're right .
The problem is Cambridge haven't decided (or haven't announced yet if they have) what they're going to do if AS goes completely. The thing is, they've never considered GCSE as a reliable measure to assess the candidates's ability/potential as A-levels. So my wild guess is that they'll put more emphasis on the interviews and tests. And how much a role of GCSE grades changes (or not) in their selection process is nobody's guess atm, with absence of any implication from their side.

Well, again GCSE's are changing too? Are they still unreliable? I looked at some of the maths and it looked pretty similar to AS Core 1.

Reckon there may be more emphasis on GCSEs and your statement if there are no AS

Reply 10

Original post by ForgottenApple

Well, again GCSE's are changing too? Are they still unreliable? I looked at some of the maths and it looked pretty similar to AS Core 1.

Reckon there may be more emphasis on GCSEs and your statement if there are no AS

I don't think Cambridge will come to either conclusion on whether a revised GCSE is a reliable measure or not until they gather enough statistical data to analyse, as they've been doing for years for existing data on all aspects of application.
We'll just have to wait until they announce any change in their admission process/system. They may well be discussing about it as we speak as the admission tutors on tsr Cambridge forum said they'd discuss on the issue and make decision after the general election.
I think at this stage it's anybody's guess...

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 11

OP

I've done the old system and was the last year to do so, so this doesn't apply to me!! So Oxford will look at my gcses above AS levels? Because my school doesn't cash them in :frown:

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 12

Lucilou101

18

Original post by aubergine7

I've done the old system and was the last year to do so, so this doesn't apply to me!! So Oxford will look at my gcses above AS levels? Because my school doesn't cash them in :frown:

Posted from TSR Mobile

Oxford do not consider AS grades holistically in determining whether to invite a candidate to interview or not. So it will not matter at all that your school doesnt cash them in :smile:

Reply 13

username818763

3

You don't have weak GCSE grades. Your common sense is weak.

Reply 14

OP

Original post by arnoob

You don't have weak GCSE grades. Your common sense is weak.

woah roast :charm:

but I'm not saying I'm not happy with my GCSEs, but I'm basically asking if they're up to the Oxford standard. I don't want to be told to just go for it, I wanted to know whether I realistically could get in

Reply 15

emmaeatough

Original post by aubergine7

I know there are hundreds of posts like this, but I really need some specific advice! I'm looking to study law at Uni and my top 6 uni choices (which I have to narrow down to 5) is:
Oxford
Nottingham
LSE
UCL
Bristol
Cardiff (which would be a back up if on the list, as didn't like the uni that much :frown:

)

At GCSE I got 7A*s and 3As and have done AS level English Literature, History, English and German and am carrying 3 (not german) to A2. I'm also doing an EPQ. Would applying to Oxford be worthwhile? Assuming I got As in all my subject, or even AAAB at AS. My school does not 'cash in' AS grades though :frown:

any advice/ thoughts as to whether I have a chance for Oxbridge or other unis on my list?

This year I applied to study biology at Oxford and was successful, I'm now just waiting on my A level results so fingers crossed! At GCSE I only achieved 5 A*s, 4 As, 2 Bs and a C, and my AS level results were AAAB, also not cashed in (one at 98% UMS and one at 100% UMS) I also only took three subjects to A2. So I would say apply for it! Why not, you're not going to lose anything in doing so, as long as you accept that getting a place is unlikely - only 19% of those who applied for my course this year got offered a place. Oxford is very much based on the interview and your personal statement, there is no set GCSEs you need and so these should not affect your entry.

Reply 16

OP