How likely will Cambridge allow me in if I miss my subject specific offer?

It depends.
Rule of thumb, they will probably reject you if you don't get the grade. But from personal experience and other people I know, people have missed their grade by one and still managed to secure a place. My offer was A(star)AA with the A(star) specified in maths, even though I was applying for a humanities degree, and they still let me in when I missed this and got an A(star) in my other subjects.
But you also do hear of people missing their offers, so definitely work your hardest to get that grade in English. They have discretion on results day whether they still want to admit you despite missing your offer, so it depends on whether you applied for English as your degree, whether there are strong candidates in the summer pool, whether they're feeling particularly nice on the day etc... You don't want to leave it to luck

If you do meet the standard offer, there’s mandatory dinner pooling, so even if your college won’t take you there’s a guaranteed second chance.

Hey guys, as you can see, I'm just wondering whether this is possible? Has anyone experienced it before? I've heard they might "relax" offers a little (don't know whether it's true or not)... but does this also count for the specified subject?
For example, I need: (from a diff country so the equivalent would be something like)
A* in English and AA
I know I can probably achieve the A*AA equivalent, but not the A* in English.
English is my worst subject atm (~70-80%) when I need >90% . Before you tell me to get help from the teacher...been there done that. My teacher doesn't want to help and frankly is annoyed at me for trying to talk to them about this issue so much. I do feel bad but this is also my future so...anywho they told me just to stop fretting (how can I when I'm 20% off what I require?)
(They also don't really correct extra essays, except for exceptions but apparently I'm not one)
Anyways, back the question. Can anyone offer any reassurance? If I don't achieve that A* in English, will it be over for me?

You "might" still be accepted if you just miss your offer, either by your offering college, or by another college via the summer pool, but I believe Cambridge has become stricter over the last few years as they also now have the August reconsideration pool. These are contenxtual applicants who did not get offers in Jan but have got the required grades in August, so essentially replace those that did not make the grades, or decided not to go to Cambridge for some other reason. They have a pool of people that can quickly replace you, so do your best to hit your requirements and leave nothing to chance.

As the OP says they’ll receive results late so no chance of summer pooling, as that happens day after UCAS results are out for the public.
But their college might still accept them.

Interesting. If a college can't use the summer pool or August reconsideration pool to replace offer holders that have missed their grades, I wonder if that will make them more lenient? Logically you would think so, but I've also seen cases where colleges have chosen not to fill all available slots e.g they normally have say 5 places per year for a course, but one year they might only take 3 or 4, if students don't make the grades.

Yeppp that's what I was thinking. Then again like you've said, they could choose to have less students in one given year.
I'll definitely work hard to try achieve the grades... But only around 3-8% of people get the A* equivalent in English here. It's not looking good for me.
I've come to terms with my insurance, but this is Cambridge 😭 I'll be devastated either way.

Any chance you could get a tutor to help you work on your weak points.There are a lot of good free resources out there on places like YouTube too.It may be exam technique that is letting you down.
Is there a student who is doing well in your Eng Lit class?You could ask them if they would mind going over your essay with you and pointing out what you are doing wrong.Worth a shot anyway.

💔 I've gotten an external teacher... But their methods are completely different. So now I have to make a decision on which teacher's method I will utilise in the exams. There's no proof that one works better than the other but the methods are drastically different.
This is the problem with English, there's no set marking scheme so it's hard to say.
Also haha my classmates are terribly competitive, albeit in silence. Thanks for the tips tho! 😭 I think I'll just have to go with it and hope for the best (probably won't get the A* equivalent tho)

💔 I've gotten an external teacher... But their methods are completely different. So now I have to make a decision on which teacher's method I will utilise in the exams. There's no proof that one works better than the other but the methods are drastically different.
This is the problem with English, there's no set marking scheme so it's hard to say.
Also haha my classmates are terribly competitive, albeit in silence. Thanks for the tips tho! 😭 I think I'll just have to go with it and hope for the best (probably won't get the A* equivalent tho)

I mean there is no law against having a couple of sessions with another tutor to see if they have something that unlocks English for you.There are techniques that pick up marks in English Lit so do look online too.

Do you mean a third teacher? Also I'm not from the UK so it's a bit different to English lit 😭 There are hardly any resources online for us. If there are, I'm not sure how reliable they are.
I'll definitely look around though. I think I need to improve my own writing skills first though.
I've come to terms with the fact that I may not make it! That's okay, obviously life has different plans for me 😆

Have a look at the second link I posted.He covers lots of areas that you could improve on.Better than first one for you.
What I meant was maybe a different tutor would be more useful as you do not seem to have much faith in current one.Best of luck anyway.

Hey guys, as you can see, I'm just wondering whether this is possible? Has anyone experienced it before? I've heard they might "relax" offers a little (don't know whether it's true or not)... but does this also count for the specified subject?
For example, I need: (from a diff country so the equivalent would be something like)
A* in English and AA
I know I can probably achieve the A*AA equivalent, but not the A* in English.
English is my worst subject atm (~70-80%) when I need >90% . Before you tell me to get help from the teacher...been there done that. My teacher doesn't want to help and frankly is annoyed at me for trying to talk to them about this issue so much. I do feel bad but this is also my future so...anywho they told me just to stop fretting (how can I when I'm 20% off what I require?)
(They also don't really correct extra essays, except for exceptions but apparently I'm not one)
Anyways, back the question. Can anyone offer any reassurance? If I don't achieve that A* in English, will it be over for me?

Hello Anonymous, if you are a foreign student and pay overseas fees, it is likely you will be allowed to drop a grade. My daughter went to an offer holder day at Cambridge and they stated clearly that only UK students need to make the grades. Durham is great too anyway. I see you got lots of tips to improve your grade. Good luck!

Hello Anonymous, if you are a foreign student and pay overseas fees, it is likely you will be allowed to drop a grade. My daughter went to an offer holder day at Cambridge and they stated clearly that only UK students need to make the grades. Durham is great too anyway. I see you got lots of tips to improve your grade. Good luck!

This seems very strange and if true definitely won't be true for other colleges and subjects as you cans see from past statistics. Which college was this at if you dont mind me asking?