Ask the Admissions Team

Provided that they are in different school years, then yes we would as the older candidate will have much more background knowledge, practice, intellectual maturity etc. The fact that we have different expectations is what allows applicants in Year 13 to compete with applicants on a gap year, mature students and those with a previous degree, all on a level playing field.

So if someone is was almost a year older (or two years older! Some people in my school >.> they would be treated the same as the younger person equally as long as they are in the same academic year?

Hi there (thanks so much for doing this thread by the way!)

I was wondering about a few things:

1. Do you happen to know/have the average UMS for Law candidates and acceptances?
2. How important is the UMS for the 4th subject? And the grade? Because for Humanities am I correct you usually take the best 3 subjects, so how important is the 4th/how much weight is it given?
3. My school does one A2 module this year (depending on my result I may resit anyway) instead of next year for a subject I am doing as one of my 3 A Levels, will it still count as 3 A-Levels for the purposes of getting an offer etc.?

Yes, that will be fine. We simply want candidates to be working hard in Year 13 so that they are well-prepared for university and the workload.

1) Due to changes in the A Level system, in the future, would students who finished secondary school in 2016 and take a gap year and apply in the year 2017 be at an unfair advantage as they (who took AS Levels) would be applying in the same year as people who didn't take AS Levels (meaning valuable information about if the applicant has improved or not since GCSEs is lost) as the government decided to decouple AS levels from the overall qualification.

(It's not at all relevant to me as I'm in Year 11 and not Year 12/13, although a similar question could be asked about people who take a gap year in 2017 and apply instead for 2018, having letter grades (A*-G) instead of number grades (1-9). I was just curious)

2) How much does a good grade (or taking an A Level) in Physics matter for a person who plans to apply for Maths? Apparently Cambridge likes its maths-physics connection, being home to Newton, Dirac, Kelvin etc.

Personal question but hopefully useful to others too:

(Currently doing AS): In the really unfortunate event in which I don't receive an offer from Cambridge (next January-ish i believe) for Computer Science with Maths but then go to hit my own personal A level goals (I hope for 3A*s in Maths, Further Maths, Physics, an A in Add.f.maths (AS so can't get A*) and a 1,1 in STEP II,III - although having no idea whether I'll be able to hit it or not, it's just a nice little personal goal I want to achieve as goals help motivate me) would there be any point in me applying for deferred entry after them results come in? Because, although I'd much rather be doing my degree with people my own age, I'd still much rather study at Cambridge regardless, but I'd only apply for deferred entry (and consequently take a gap year, and just do some more A levels / modules or something, haven't really considered it much before now) if there was a realistic chance of getting a place? So just wondering, is re-applying something I should consider, say at results day if I managed to hit these grades?? Or would I be better off just studying elsewhere then coming back to Cambridge after my degree for further study?

If I got:
A1
A1
A
A
A
A
A
A
at national 5
At higher:
A1
A1
A1
A1
A

and am predicted to get :
A1
A1
A1
A1
at advanced higher do I still have a chance of getting in to do economics even though I didn't get many band 1s at national 5 level?

If I got A* B C C D D D E U for GCSE with a* in math and c in english and b in physics when average for my school is 5A*s can i still apply if i think i do good on math and fuhrer a level even though i mess up my other a level

Which course are you interested in applying for?

zut

alors

math

The most important thing for Maths is to be very good at maths. Our typical offer is A*A*A and 1,1 in STEP II,III. Unless you have extenuating circumstances, unless you are on target to achieve A*A*A I'm afraid it's unlikely we would invite you to interview.

so I -NEED- extenuating circumstances if I have bad GCSEs?
I comletely did not care about my subjects like religion and biology because i thought you guys wouldnt care if I failed them since they were not relevant for math

Not for the GCSEs (there are absolutely no requirements for Mathematics) but you referred to not doing as well in your third A level.

It would depend on which course you're applying for (for a biologist a C wouldn't be great!). You would need some A* grades too (typical offer is A*A*A in sciences and A*AA for arts/humanities). If you're studying 4 A levels, we might offer based on 3 or 4 A levels, possibly specifying/excluding subjects, possibly not.

A complication with your example is combining maths and FM. If you take A level maths in Year 12 (or the equivalent number of modules) we generally like to see you taking 3 A levels in Year 13 to demonstrate that you can cope with the workload. This can mean that you end up taking 4 A levels.

It's difficult to give a specific answer without knowing which subject you're interested in, but I hope this helps!