Studying PPE

Hiiiii
What chances do I have if being accepted into Oxford to do PPE?
I got 5a*s and 7a's at gcse!
Predicted A's at AS

Your A levels are the more important grades and if you meet the entry requirements you should be fine so work hard and make sure you have a good personal statement and refs :smile:

Reply 2

cambio wechsel

Original post by alleycat393

Your A levels are the more important grades and if you meet the entry requirements you should be fine so work hard and make sure you have a good personal statement and refs :smile:

the large majority of people applying for Oxford PPE will be applying pre A-level and (I would suppose) a majority of those rejected at that stage will go on to secure A levels better than the entry requirements. What's being asked then is whether this poster will be invited to meet those entry requirements in the first instance, i.e. will be given an offer.

The answers is that those GCSEs certainly don't disqualify you. Beyond that it's going to be about the personal statement and predicred grades for A level and performance in the TSA and at interview, and as well will call for some small measure of luck.

Reply 3

alleycat393

Original post by cambio wechsel

GCSEs aren't mentioned in the entry requirements. It's all about the A levels and yes applicants won't have A levels when they apply but they will have predicted grades which is what offers are based on. Telling someone that they may or may not have a chance based on their GCSEs is misleading as no one has any way of telling how an application will be viewed based on GCSEs (as GCSEs are not part of the entry requirements).

Reply 4

astro67

Original post by alleycat393

There's a possibility that this could be read to imply that GCSEs are not used to discriminate between applicants at all and selection is made on the basis of A-levels alone. The last bit can't be quite right since the number of people who are predicted to achieve or have achieved the A-level requirements applying each year exceeds the number of places available by a factor of about eight. The selection within this over-abundance of qualified candidates must be made on other grounds than A-levels, achieved or predicted. The formal admissions criteria are given at
http://www.ppe.ox.ac.uk/index.php/admissions-criteria and the web page includes the text:

Existing achievement (as revealed in official examinations, predicted examination results, and school reports), as well as performance in the pre-interview TSA admissions test and interview, is relied upon mainly as evidence of future potential.

'official examinations' definitely includes GCSEs as a potential tool for discrimination between candidates. Oxford is often thought to have a stronger focus on GCSEs than is actually the case. In the case of PPE the Thinking Skills Assessment admissions test is quite important. There is no simple formula or threshold performance for GCSEs so no simple statement of a GCSE requirement is possible. It wouldn't be right, though, to conclude that GCSEs are not considered. Better GCSEs will improve the prospects of an offer for any given candidate but I do agree that nobody can make a firm prediction of success based on GCSEs alone.

Reply 5

alleycat393

Original post by astro67

...

This is all well and good for the sake of a debate but coming back to the OPs question, there is no way of telling if they stand a chance based on their GCSEs. I don't disagree that Oxford may use GCSEs to measure potential of a student but no the future of a student is not going to be purely determined by whether they have an extra A or A* at GCSE level or not as GCSEs are not part of the entry requirements. Generally offers are made based on entry requirements which in this case are A level grades not GCSE grades and as I said before the personal statement and refs (and interview, tests etc) play a role too so just meeting the entry requirements is not going to guarantee you an offer-not at Oxford or anywhere else.Anyway, I think the OP has got the answer they need so I don't think this needs to carry on any more. Good luck OP :smile:

Ps:- I think Oxford release info about their applicant profiles for the previous year and from a brief look it looks like people with a range of GCSE grades got offers.