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Fairytale Oxbridge stories?

house sparrows

is mine a fairytale story? i don't know. i haven't got an offer, but i am surprised to have got to the stage of interview what with getting b's at as level, having pretty average gcses (for oxford at least) and my predicted grades being bbb. maybe it is luck, maybe i wrote the best ELAT they saw, maybe they were blown away by my essay.

although i am a grade 8 bassist, so that must be why i have been invited to interview.

Love your approach and story. Hey I'm just guessing you're not from Eton or Winchester. Go for it!!!

Reply 61

willenium

10

Am/pm

Love your approach and story. Hey I'm just guessing you're not from Eton or Winchester. Go for it!!!

thank you, i am not from eton or winchester. i went to a grammar school and am currently at a sixth form college. perhaps i am just a way of boosting their demographic statistics?

Reply 62

kazi

house sparrows

thank you, i am not from eton or winchester. i went to a grammar school and am currently at a sixth form college. perhaps i am just a way of boosting their demographic statistics?

doubt it

Reply 63

Angelil

19

A grammar is hardly a failing state school so I really doubt you're there to boost their statistics...

Reply 64

willenium

10

i was not being sincere, i am well aware that grammar schools are not the same as failing state schools.

Reply 65

kazi

house sparrows

i was not being sincere, i am well aware that grammar schools are not the same as failing state schools.

i meant they dont interview because you're black/poor/minority you really were good enough on paper to get an interview

Reply 66

Consie

15

I had about 60% attendance at A2 due to a bad shoulder injury and subsequently getting into the habit of staying in bed instead of going to college. Also 'only' got 1 A* at GCSE from a school with a 17% A-C pass rate.

I think the key here is that there isn’t a really strong causal link between things having to go to plan in terms of the general course of life and you being successful with regard to, for example, getting into Oxbridge. School, and life in general, isnt about working hard, its about producing results, there’s only a vague correlation between the two. So as long as you do the right things and peak at the right time, working hard becomes irrelevant. Musicbloke has a point about putting things on a pedestal. You don’t have to have had an ideal education, a life free of difficulty and have everything gone to plan to stand a chance of getting in, all that is only as relevant as you want to make it. All that matters is you deliver in the right time periods, such as on the day of the interview, or the entrance test, or your A2's. Just coz some things **** up, such as 3232's story, doesn’t automatically result in everything else ****ing up after that.

I guess another way of putting it is don’t be limited by the system which gets placed over students. So like all your teachers say that to get into Oxbridge you need to be an immaculate student and be everything the ideal student should be, and if you do things like sag off school you automatically aren’t the Oxford type. There is no type. All I got in college was grief that I was ditching school and was never going to make my offer, when I personally new quite well I could dick all over the exams with a month's sustained hard work. If you play by your own rules instead of the system’s, you can usually achieve a higher level of success since your placing your own limits on yourself, which are usually more accurate than the limits placed on you by others. The ironic thing is that the level of success you achieve by ignoring the system is still recognised by the system - i.e. I’m now a legend in my college for getting into oxford, even if I was hated by it before I did due to not playing by the rules of their system.

Guess who's pissed?

Reply 67

Joel103

Well not really fairytale, got an interview letter yesterday and really surprised I've been asked to interview, considering I only got 3 A's at GCSE and the rest were B's and a C, not one A*. Even more so after looking over the requirements on the subjects oxford website which specifies:

"who have taken GCSEs, to have at least 4 A* grades and at least A grade in GCSE mathematics."

I got a B in maths.

Quite looking forward to the interview, should be fun.

Reply 68

lolaclementine

Joel103

Well not really fairytale, got an interview letter yesterday and really surprised I've been asked to interview, considering I only got 3 A's at GCSE and the rest were B's and a C, not one A*. Even more so after looking over the requirements on the subjects oxford website which specifies:

"who have taken GCSEs, to have at least 4 A* grades and at least A grade in GCSE mathematics."

I got a B in maths.

Quite looking forward to the interview, should be fun.

well done, and good luck with your interview
but where does it say you need 4a*grades??

Reply 69

Mayfly

I missed my offer for history at *edit in case my tutors see the below sentence: a left wing college that is really popular for history*and got in anyway.

And I didn't actually want them to take me in.

Not sure whether that's a fairy tale or not, frankly...

Reply 70

K.T.

12

Woah, you sound scarily like some-one I knew at school...

Either I have converted said person to the ways of TSR, or the occurence is more frequent than I thought.

EDIT: I did convert said person, ne'er mind :/

Reply 71

Mayfly

katrin_tara

Woah, you sound scarily like some-one I knew at school...

Either I have converted said person to the ways of TSR, or the occurence is more frequent than I thought.

EDIT: I did convert said person, ne'er mind :/

My good woman, I cannot think what you are talking about but from your little flying cloud thingy, you look like someone who enjoys the Mighty Boosh, Arnold Schwartzenegger movies and Hip-Hopera.

Reply 72

history_geek

Before this year, I had never taken an exam before in my life, no GCSEs, nada, zilch; this is because I was Steiner educated from years 5 to 11, which entails no examinations in the name of a more well-rounded and less stressful education (a better approach IMO but that's another discussion). By the end of the year, I had recieved an offer from Oxford. It's been a good year :biggrin:

Reply 73

no1mohsin

13

Not exactly fairytale but I was generally a bit of a dosser during school, managed to scrape out 2A* and 7 As at GCSE. I then buckled down as of year 12 and my talent for languages developed further. Got some solid AS grades and applied to Oxford as initially one of the less serious candidates on paper but now have an offer :biggrin:

.

Reply 74

StateSchooler

2

I've just received an open offer for Biology at Oxford of AAA, having got AABC at A-Level, including a B in Biology. Don't consider it fairytale, but I think its rare and there are certainly alot out there who got alot better than me at AS and didn't get a place.

Reply 75

Rosey2

I got AABC at AS as well, and I have an offer of AAA for English :smile:

Reply 76

Bumblebee3

8

First year of new A level, hated school and disillusioned with the system etc, ABBB at As level, got in with AAB at A level. They asked me if I'd consider retaking and I just explained (honestly) that I thought the new system was appalling and there were much more stimulating things I could do with my Gap year than retake - they bought it, which to me was quite a fairytale :biggrin:

Reply 77

brighthw

it would be a proper fairytale story: getting rejected after interview, then negotiated his/her way through reconsideration and then get a place
or getting rejected then on the results day s/he rings up the college and then get accepted :smile:

very much doubt if this ever happened though

Reply 78

--

3

brighthw

it would be a proper fairytale story: getting rejected after interview, then negotiated his/her way through reconsideration and then get a place
or getting rejected then on the results day s/he rings up the college and then get accepted :smile:

very much doubt if this ever happened though

How is that a fairy tale? It sounds pretty unfair to me, and would cause a torrent of phonecalls on results day if the story ever got out.

Reply 79

fargo89

13

my history teacher at school was offered a place for history at cambridge with an AAA offer. On results day, he got AAB with a B in history and was told there wouldnt be a place for him (his was a deferred application).

mid way through september, a different college rang him and offered him a place to study history starting at the end of the month.

a fairytale i think!

Fairytale Oxbridge stories?

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