Both my parents haven't worked since the 1980s and I've got a Cambridge offer AMA

Sorry, I meant lazy then as clearly no intelligence is required in academia.

Not getting all A* grades doesn't mean you're stupid. Thinking that is pretty stupid, though.

No. What it does mean is that instead of spending all your time clinging to a text book or belittling people who can't get top grades, you should spend your time trying to make life as full as it can be while you still have it. Enjoy yourself. Getting all A* grades means nothing when you're dead.

My uncle, for example, died very suddenly at the age of 34. Did his GCSE and A Level grades matter then? No.

You can live a full life without all A* grades.

They do matter: they allow you to get into a good university. A good university means you can get a graduate degree at a well-funded university. This means you can get a career in academia with a team of equally/more high-achieving people and potentially make a groundbreaking discovery.
That would certainly matter once you died, and it would boil down to previous academic achievement.

You have a very narrow view of what intelligence is.

Not getting 14 A* grades doesn't make you unintelligent.

They do matter: they allow you to get into a good university. A good university means you can get a graduate degree at a well-funded university. This means you can get a career in academia with a team of equally/more high-achieving people and potentially make a groundbreaking discovery.
That would certainly matter once you died, and it would boil down to previous academic achievement.

You're engaging in black and white thinking. I didn't say it is the only thing that makes you intelligent, I merely implied that it requires at least some degree of intelligence. Of course you can be highly intelligent and do badly academically, it's just less common in my experience as highly intelligent people don't have to work hard to do well. You could call it "academic intelligence" - just one of many different forms of intelligence.

Yes, because not getting all A* grades really means you're destined to study at a crap uni.

And I'm sat here, as a student with 2 A* grades at GCSE, with an offer to study at Warwick (and others with 14 A* grades have the same offer as me).

You don't need all A* grades to get into an amazing university.

And there are plenty of people who have made "groundbreaking discoveries" who didn't achieve much academically.

Einstein was called "stupid" by his school teachers. I think this quote from him sums it up perfectly:
“Everybody is a genius. But, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it’ll spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

A Levels are a bit different, but GCSE grades are fine. You don't need all A* grades.

You do if you want to get into a top university.

I don't think you need 14A*s to get into the best universities tbh. But i think you do need a good GCSE profile, say 5+ A's.

Furthermore, you need a good AS and A2 profile, which means you need to be academic. Very few people get A's at AS level in subjects they didn't achieve at least an A in at GCSE.

Yes, because not getting all A* grades really means you're destined to study at a crap uni.

And I'm sat here, as a student with 2 A* grades at GCSE, with an offer to study at Warwick (and others with 14 A* grades have the same offer as me).

You don't need all A* grades to get into an amazing university.

And there are plenty of people who have made "groundbreaking discoveries" who didn't achieve much academically.

Einstein was called "stupid" by his school teachers. I think this quote from him sums it up perfectly:
“Everybody is a genius. But, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it’ll spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

You do if you want to get into a top university.

Funnily enough, I got a C and an E at AS Level. The C is in the subject I want to study and the E is in a related subject I need for it...

No you don't. I've got an offer from Warwick and I only have 2 A* grades.

hahaha really?

Thats amazing, your personal statement must of been godlike xD.


What was your AS results? and what course @ Warwick?

I never said you need all A*s.. I only got 4

Einstein had really good grades.

That quote also doesn't apply here: the guy I was responding to said that good grades don't matter once you're dead. My point was that scientific discoveries definitely matter, and good grades are necessary to have good research opportunities.

Of course (e.g.) Dostoevsky isn't worthless because he's an author not a scientist: I never said anything of the sort.

I'm not a guy. Don't assume that.

I'm well aware that scientific discoveries matter, I have plans to become a research scientist.

The A* comment was to Asexual Demigod, I meant to quote but my phone is a bit ****e.

Still, you don't need amazing grades to do that. Experience is important too. Devoting your life to studying could be a wasted endeavour, because then you don't enjoy life fully.

I don't literally mean all A*s. I just mean a good handful usually. I thought you were talking about A Level, sorry, as some do ask for more than 1 A* at A Level. And there are better universities than Warwick... You're right about GCSEs though, they matter a lot less than A Level.

hahaha really?

Thats amazing, your personal statement must of been godlike xD.


What was your AS results? and what course @ Warwick?

There was a lot of bull****ting in it. :,)

My AS results were ABCE.

Biological sciences c: