They are not meaningless!!

She got full marks in Politics and Economics at AS,- both units.
She is German, she was only allowed to study and sit 8 iGCSE's.

She speaks German, came to England two years ago not knowing much English. She learnt French last year and is very good at it, and started learning Japanese a few weeks ago.
At 16 she moved to England with her friend and lives on her own. She also moved to Spain at 14 to sit her iGCSE's and such, again not with her parents.

I'm sick of your condescending attitude, realise that you're not the best sometimes and stop looking down on other people.
She has come a long way and is academically performing at the best she can be.

Her GCSE's let her down, and this is my point.

I'm not being condescending. However Oxbridge looks at applications holistically, so there MUST be another factor that contributed into her rejection. Having said that, she got 8Bs, which isn't typical of Oxbridge candidates.

Bear in mind that this one case and it will not change the majority of people's views on GCSEs.

In addition, I'm sure she is perfectly capable academically, however, perhaps not enough for Oxbridge? (After all, it is top).

There are many reasons as to why she could have been rejected, not just on GCSEs surely. Especially as you have outlined that she only learnt English two years ago, this must have given her some leniency - albeit still rejected.

You mentioned that she applied for Politics at Oxford (however it doesn't offer it as a single honours subject), so I'll presume she applied for PPE.

http://www.ppe.ox.ac.uk/index.php/applying-for-ppe
http://www.economics.ox.ac.uk/index.php/criteria_for_admissions_ppe

In fact: "No. We only interview those who have a realistic chance of getting in, when judged by past and predicted exam results, school reports, personal statements and the pre-interview test. Applicants who do not take the pre-interview test will not normally be shortlisted for interview. Candidates from overseas may be considered without interview."

Learning French and Japanese is irrelevant for PPE or Politics as:

"Candidates are not expected to have studied any philosophy, politics or economics at school, but should be interested and be prepared to put their minds to problems of philosophy, politics and economics presented to them. "

All you have told me is that she enjoys language-learning. Not really relevant to PPE, is it? (Having said that, I do not undermine her efforts).

I could refute all your arguments (including quotes to back me up), but I'm just going to reply to this specific one as it is related to the thread.



THAT is the reason why some people don't care about GCSEs. They do not intend to become academics or intend to study at Oxbridge.

I could refute all your arguments (including quotes to back me up), but I'm just going to reply to this specific one as it is related to the thread.



THAT is the reason why some people don't care about GCSEs. They do not intend to become academics or intend to study at Oxbridge.

Have you even done GCSEs yet?

She got full marks in Politics and Economics at AS,- both units.
She is German, she was only allowed to study and sit 8 iGCSE's.

She speaks German, came to England two years ago not knowing much English. She learnt French last year and is very good at it, and started learning Japanese a few weeks ago.
At 16 she moved to England with her friend and lives on her own. She also moved to Spain at 14 to sit her iGCSE's and such, again not with her parents.

I'm sick of your condescending attitude, realise that you're not the best sometimes and stop looking down on other people.
She has come a long way and is academically performing at the best she can be.

Her GCSE's let her down, and this is my point.

Oh and at 16 or even now I didn't want to go to Oxford, I still aspired to do well. Know that Oxford is not the be all and end all.

'Im so academic' hasn't even started his/her GCSEs so there's no point arguing with her.

They do not matter much but getting good grades in it can give you an easier ride to college/uni.

I went to a **** comprehensive school and had to get help for revision and learning from outside. Even with all my hard work, I managed to get 1 A* and the rest were Cs, Bs and practically worthless certificates. That did not mean that I didn't get offers from top unis but I had to get them by working harder and longer to get to a point where uni admissions would take me seriously. Unlike straight As students who got an easier ride and had a wider choice of subjects and routes to take easily.

It don't mean I get an easier ride at all, sorry, but you're wrong there.
Just because I have good GCSE'S does not mean college is any easier.

LOL I didn't mean it like that! I mean you have a greater and wider choices of option of courses at college, plus you have a slightly greater chance of getting to uni providing you do well at college. Worse grades means you have less options plus you have to work harder on your application and sometimes (in my case) work for 3 years instead of 2.