International student - help with application!

Hello!
I have this problem with my application: I am from the Czech Republic, therefore I don't have A-levels or GCSEs. Anyway, we have something called "maturita", which is basically the same as A-levels. BUT we don't have anything like GCSEs. We finish our "first school" (not sure how to call that) when we are 15 and then we go to high school which ends with "maturita". We have a report card every year and I've read somewhere that you can put your grades from the last year at the "first school" (I'd call it primary school?) instead of GCSEs. But where do I put it in UCAS? Do I put it in the section "qualification"? Because I'm not sure it is a qualification... it's nothing special, really. So what do I do? And where do I put it?

+ Where do I write about my language certificate? I'm doing CAE (Cambridge English: Advanced) in January. Is it okay if my teacher writes it in the reference and it's not anywhere else? Or should I put it in qualification as well? Please help, I'm lost.

Hello, I am also an international applicant

Most universities have an international section, in particular, an international qualification list. You should look them up, and see what they say about the education in your country. If they don't list it you might be required to take some aditional exams.

In the UCAS education section in your application you should at least make reference to your grades achieved in the last 2-3 years. Most unis will want to know how has your academic performance been since you were 15-16. If you are not sure you could also send some emails to the universities you are applying to.

About the CAE, I think that you should not put it in your education section, as you have not taken it yet. As you said, it would be nice if your reference teacher mentioned it (Also, he could say what grade does he expect that you will achieve). I did put it, but because I took it last june and I have alredy received my results.

Good luck with everything If you have any other doubts I can try to help you!

Thank you! I put the CAE in the education section and chose "pending". I think this should be correct as UCAS people told me to put it there even though I haven't taken it yet.
Where are you applying to? And how hard was the CAE exam? I'm pretty nervous about it. Especially about the speaking and writing part.

Ahh ok, if they told you to put it as pending do so

I'm applying to Oxford, Edinburgh, Glasgow(Alredy got an offer ), St Andrews and Imperial for Biochemistry, and you?

Well, it all depends on how prepared you are. For me it was not that horrible, I did good on the listening and use of english part (210 in both) and my worst part was the reading (192), I found it a bit tricky. I was also really worried about the writting part, and I struggled a bit to finish both compositions in time, but it turned out well!

My advice is that you have to take the exam without any stress, you need to have confidence in yourself, this way you will do it so much better!
The speaking part is also a bit frightening I know, but this is where you really need to be calmed!!

I'm applying to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Napier (and maybe Dundee, I still haven't decided on that) for German.
I find the reading pretty easy, definitely easier than use of english. But thank you, I'll try not to be stressed too much. Hope I'll make it.

You are welcome, you can do it! Scotland universities are the best, basically because tuition fees are so much cheaper!!

Yea you should definitely reflect your grades for the past 3-4 years at least. It helps the tutors in making an admission choice.

Not sure how helpful this is though because I'm not from the Czech republic and don't have this problem

You might be able to find people who can guide you from Czech republic who studied in the UK on gurume (it's an application help website with a lot of free resources). I had a friend who used them and said it was pretty good

Wow, thank you, I've never heard of that. Definitely gonna chceck it out.