What grades do i need for university?

I'm not taking sciences, maths or english at A level and i heard if i dont then further education will require those grades at gcse, is this correct?

so what are the minimum grade to apply for uni ?

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 1

AlphaDog0127

Depends on the Uni but most I've seen ask for a C in English/Maths at GCSE. Some don't care at all about GCSE.

Reply 2

NikolaT

Depends what uni, what course...

If you've got 5 A*-C grades at GCSE incl Maths and English then that means you fulfil the criteria for most courses at most places. Though clearly, the more competitive places will have candidates with a lot of high grades. You should probably check each course's entry requirements as stated on their website for all the courses you're interested in.

Reply 3

TSR George

Original post by NikolaT

I've got 6 A* in other subjects and the rest above Cs including language for now ( i may resit if appeal isn't successful)
im thinking of pursuing history, geography and another subject yet to be decided, and i like to do history courses in uni. the english language is stressing me out so much but thanks for commenting

Reply 4

username1862217

Most universities don't care about GCSEs so long as you get a C or above in English and Maths.

Reply 5

TSR George

Original post by AlphaDog0127

Depends on the Uni but most I've seen ask for a C in English/Maths at GCSE. Some don't care at all about GCSE.

thanks for answering, my friend always scare me about how they ask for Bs and above only

Reply 6

TSR George

Original post by Keyhofi

Most universities don't care about GCSEs so long as you get a C or above in English and Maths.

yeah i've known about this for a while now, but obviously i need good gcse maths and english for them to judge right as im not taking it at A level

Reply 7

username1862217

As soon as you get into sixth form/college your GCSEs pretty much become meaningless tbf.

Reply 8

TSR George

Original post by Keyhofi

As soon as you get into sixth form/college your GCSEs pretty much become meaningless tbf.

im gonna take your word for it :smile:

Reply 9

username1862217

It's true

Like when you get into university your A-Levels become meaningless.

Reply 10

troubadour.

I would echo what others have said and say that A-levels are more important as long as you have English and maths at grade C or above. This is important because, unless you've taken those subjects at A-level, they've got no evidence that you are basically literate and numerate.

However, this bit:

she applied for remark and because it's not in WJEC interest to admit that there was something wrong with their system they only moved my grade to a C when other teachers have read my answers and thought it was higher, so she is applying for an appeal.

While examiners can make mistakes in marking, I think you're going over the top thinking that the reason you didn't get a higher grade is because WJEC doesn't want to admit they're wrong. I've done WJEC papers for all my A-levels and a large chunk of my GCSEs and, believe it or not, they're actually one of the better exam boards when it comes to good marking.

Besides, changing the grade of one person isn't going to result in the exam board losing face. It's if they start awarding significant grade improvements that people start to question the competence of a given board's examiners.

Sometimes an exam just hasn't gone as well as you would like to think. To be honest, most remarks result in no change at all and in almost every case where the mark increases, it only increases by a small amount so it's somewhat unrealistic to expect to be awarded more than one grade higher.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 11

TSR George

However, this bit:

While examiners can make mistakes in marking, I think you're going over the top thinking that the reason you didn't get a higher grade is because WJEC doesn't want to admit they're wrong. I've done WJEC papers for all my A-levels and a large chunk of my GCSEs and, believe it or not, they're actually one of the better exam boards when it comes to good marking.

Besides, changing the grade of one person isn't going to result in the exam board losing face. It's if they start awarding significant grade improvements that people start to question the competence of a given board's examiners.

Sometimes an exam just hasn't gone as well as you would like to think. To be honest, most remarks result in no change at all and in almost every case where the mark increases, it only increases by a small amount so it's somewhat unrealistic to expect to be awarded more than one grade higher.

thank you for replying, the bit you highlighted was said by my teacher, she applied half of my class for remarks, she was shattered to find that some didn't move or go up higher. the language exam results came back ''odd'' to my school and neighbouring schools around south wales so there was definitely something wrong with either students or wjec then i guess. it was really ironic though, the Lit exam was EXTREMELY difficult for me, but i got A * i was so shocked, and the language exam was extremely easy in my opinion, i answered all questions with so much points and everything, it really was unexpected these results :/

Reply 12

troubadour.

This happened to me at GCSE with Engineering with the OCR board. I'd been told I was on track for an A or A* and was shocked to find that I had actually received a C for it. And the rest of my class had all received D or below, which was little comfort, if I'm honest. Everybody's stuff was sent for a remark and came back with higher marks for all, but not significant enough to change anybody's grade, which just reinforces my point about how marks don't tend to rise by a large amount if remarks are requested.

What you say about your exams is kind of predictable, though. An easier exam has higher grade boundaries than a hard exam. It might also be because languages are quite subjective so it's easy for two different examiners to return very different marks. Some of my WJEC exams this year were also quite weird but I got the grades I needed and ordered some photocopies and it looked fair so I didn't pursue it further. Exams have been fishy this year...

P.S. Nice quoting. :lol: