Oxford weight on GCSEs

They say the average Oxford candidate has 10 A*s at GCSE (so 10 8/9s). What if you didn’t do 10 gcses and only did 9 gcses. And let’s say out of the 9 you did you got 8A*s. And especially if you got one of the highest in your year in your school (which has a low higher education rate)? I’m curious…

Average for what course? I'm aware that was the average (actually I think it was like 10.6) for medicine previously, but I doubt that's the average for all courses at Oxford. Also worth bearing in mind medicine at Oxford doesn't score GCSEs anymore.

Additionally they consider GCSEs in context so if you went to an underperforming school and did very well this would generally be seen favourably.

Thank you for your response- very appreciated! I’m curious about Oxford med in particular. It was average for an Oxford med applicant in 2022. I don’t think it’s the average for all courses at Oxford however. Where does it say they don’t score gcses - the only info I found said they use “contextualized gcse performance”. In previous years like 2020 they didn’t use gcses , but my year were the first year to do gases after Covid so they’ll likely use them alongside bmat to shortlist. Do you think I have a good chance considering I do well on bmat

The website currently indicates they are continuing to just use contextualised BMAT scores. If they do bring GCSEs back then assuming it would be similar as before you would probably not be competitive though.

So keep an eye on their requirements I guess. Fortunately in the UK which medical school You study at will not directly affect recruitment for medical training as the GMC and NHS consider all medical schools equal and so blind recruiters from your medical school yo ensure no bias.

Thank you for your response- very appreciated! I’m curious about Oxford med in particular. It was average for an Oxford med applicant in 2022. I don’t think it’s the average for all courses at Oxford however. Where does it say they don’t score gcses - the only info I found said they use “contextualized gcse performance”. In previous years like 2020 they didn’t use gcses , but my year were the first year to do gases after Covid so they’ll likely use them alongside bmat to shortlist. Do you think I have a good chance considering I do well on bmat

Thank you sm!!!

Thank you for your response- very appreciated! I’m curious about Oxford med in particular. It was average for an Oxford med applicant in 2022. I don’t think it’s the average for all courses at Oxford however. Where does it say they don’t score gcses - the only info I found said they use “contextualized gcse performance”. In previous years like 2020 they didn’t use gcses , but my year were the first year to do gases after Covid so they’ll likely use them alongside bmat to shortlist. Do you think I have a good chance considering I do well on bmat

Note I was incorrect it turns out - see here: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7384612

Oxford do appear to be scoring GCSEs again from this year: https://www.medsci.ox.ac.uk/study/medicine/pre-clinical/faqs/how-do-you-short-list-for-interview

Sorry about that, hadn't seen they had updated it. In any case as noted with 9 GCSEs with 8 A*s your number and proportion of A*s are both below average for pre-COVID levels so I would anticipate you would probably not be competitive. I would suggest aiming for other medical schools.

"Contextualised GCSE performance" typically means they'll compare your GCSEs to others in your cohort at school, usually by working out how many 8/9/A*s you achieved compared to the average. If you went to an underperforming school and did far better than your peers, you will score well despite having lower grades than some other applicants to Oxford. They're aware of how significant educational opportunity can be for GCSE performance, and they don't want to just accept private school candidates.