Cambridge extenuating circumstances

I’m currently in year 12 looking to apply to cambridge for psychology and behavioral sciences to girton college in october. I plan to do deferred entry to start in 2026.

I achieved 8777777666 in my gcses however I had extraneous circumstances of having camhs treatment. I am currently predicted A*AB so will need to get these grades up a bit before applying but considering that i plan to apply to a slightly less competitive college and take a gap year, are these gcses with extenuating circumstances good enough to apply ? do i have any chance of getting in ?

thanks !

I’m currently in year 12 looking to apply to cambridge for psychology and behavioral sciences to girton college in october. I plan to do deferred entry to start in 2026.

I achieved 8777777666 in my gcses however I had extraneous circumstances of having camhs treatment. I am currently predicted A*AB so will need to get these grades up a bit before applying but considering that i plan to apply to a slightly less competitive college and take a gap year, are these gcses with extenuating circumstances good enough to apply ? do i have any chance of getting in ?

thanks !

Have you thought of considering this? Foundation Year | University of Cambridge

It seems to be geared towards people who've experienced extenuating circumstances and significant disruption to their studies. They will likely take lower grades at A Levels into account if you are still affected by any issues 🙂 I hope things are going well for you now ❤️

Just as a note, the competitiveness of a college shouldn't affect your overall chances of getting into the university. They are well aware of people trying to game the system. It's true that Girton takes a disproportionately higher number of people from the pool but that doesn't mean that they have lower standards for direct applicants.

Have you thought of considering this? Foundation Year | University of Cambridge

It seems to be geared towards people who've experienced extenuating circumstances and significant disruption to their studies. They will likely take lower grades at A Levels into account if you are still affected by any issues 🙂 I hope things are going well for you now ❤️

surely there would be less people applying for the places ? so even if the standard is the same then there are less people applying who meet that standard ? or have i got this totally backwards ?

and i did gcse psychology and got a 6, will this hold me back too ? considering i’d want to do a psychology degree. (in fairness we had 6 teachers over the course of the two years and i missed a few lessons due to my treatment)

Your GCSE grade profile is not a showstoppers as many people with similar grades have got in, but of course you need to do brilliantly at A-levels, ideally 3x A* have a great PS, and do well at interview. Your 6 in Psychology might be an issue though, plus applying to Girton will make little/no difference to your chances of getting in. There have been cases where colleges have taken no candidates at all from those that have applied to them directly, and just taken them from the pool. They take the best applicants they can find from across the uni.

Probably still worth applying if you are on track to get the required A-level grades.

thank you 🙂 do you reckon i should consider retaking psychology this year ?