Are my GCSEs good enough for Durham?

Specifically, History. I am currently in Year 12 with my A Level predicted grades being adequate enough to apply however I worry that my GCSEs that will hold me back. I just want to be quick and brief about it. I achieved:
Chemistry- 5, Physics- 5, Biology- 6, Maths- 5, Drama-6, History-9, English Lit- 9 and English Lang-8

Reply 1

{Moss}

20

Quick conclusion before I natter: your GCSEs will be considered, but considering how your lower grades where in non-essay subjects, they're not likely to drag you down very much. In the end, you never know what might happen, so it's always best to try. Perfectly good enough :smile:

Take my words with a pinch of salt until a Durham rep comes along hopefully, but from personal experience and knowledge, while GCSEs are considered by Durham, so long as you're good with similar subjects in GCSE, and have good A-levels, you should be fine. Bear in mind you could still be turned away, not due to grades but something else, but in the end it's always worth trying. History is very essay based, so I highly doubt they would consider things like Science, Maths and Drama. On the other hand, your essay based GCSEs or similar like English Lit and Lang are amazing (congrats on that 9 and 8!). I've heard of many with GCSEs that may be considered a bit low being given an offer for Durham. I hope this helps! Best of luck with everything :biggrin:

Reply 2

Anonymous #1

OP

Original post by {Moss}

Quick conclusion before I natter: your GCSEs will be considered, but considering how your lower grades where in non-essay subjects, they're not likely to drag you down very much. In the end, you never know what might happen, so it's always best to try. Perfectly good enough :smile:

Take my words with a pinch of salt until a Durham rep comes along hopefully, but from personal experience and knowledge, while GCSEs are considered by Durham, so long as you're good with similar subjects in GCSE, and have good A-levels, you should be fine. Bear in mind you could still be turned away, not due to grades but something else, but in the end it's always worth trying. History is very essay based, so I highly doubt they would consider things like Science, Maths and Drama. On the other hand, your essay based GCSEs or similar like English Lit and Lang are amazing (congrats on that 9 and 8!). I've heard of many with GCSEs that may be considered a bit low being given an offer for Durham. I hope this helps! Best of luck with everything :biggrin:

Thank you, I'm also hopefully waiting for that special Durham rep to come along. It's not as if my heart would be broken if I don't get accepted, I feel confident-ish about my grades when considering other high ranked unis such as Exeter. But I'm just thinking of the possibility of using one of my five spots to place Durham as an aspirational university I could try and get into. Your response helped a lot however. Thank you, yet again. :smile:

Original post by Anonymous

Specifically, History. I am currently in Year 12 with my A Level predicted grades being adequate enough to apply however I worry that my GCSEs that will hold me back. I just want to be quick and brief about it. I achieved:
Chemistry- 5, Physics- 5, Biology- 6, Maths- 5, Drama-6, History-9, English Lit- 9 and English Lang-8

Hi there

Well for starters, there aren't any formal GCSE requirements so it's unlikely for your GCSEs to be the be-all, end-all of your application. Other factors like A-level predicted grades, PS and references are weighed in first and if there's a huge pool of applicants of similar standing, then GCSEs are used to decide the outcome of the applications. I'm not aware of how exactly the admissions team goes about this but from a student perspective that I can offer, I don't think your GCSEs would be detrimental especially since you're applying for History and you have really good scores in English Lit, Lang and History.

When you select the 5 universities you're applying to, you should have 2 safe choices (highly likely to receive an offer from), 2 aspiring choices (may or may not receive an offer from) and 1 choice that you absolutely will get the grades for. This is a safe way of ensuring you don't go without any offers. I think Durham can be one of your aspiring choices depending on your predicted grades but if your GCSEs are the only thing holding you back, then I'd say just take the leap. It's better than regretting later if you didn't apply at all :smile:

-Himieka

Are my GCSEs good enough for Durham?

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