What level are my GCSEs?

Right umm... well, first of all, your exams are over 2 years away, so don't stress too much about your academics just yet. Now, nobody will be able to get you out of this rut other than yourself, so make subtle changes in your life. Perhaps set a timer for netflix so you can't binge like we all want to, or take up running (highly recommended). Also, try to be proactive and not procrastinate too much - do your homework and all that. You don't need to be performing especially well but this will allow you to identify your weak points and, paradoxically, give you a big confidence boost in most cases. You'll see where you struggle, and there might be quite a few places where you do, but you'll know that you can target those things and improve them.

Secondly, take a step back and think about what you want to achieve, i.e., do you want a 5 in maths? A 6? Same for computer science. Just setting your goals down gives you a surprising feeling of security and determination to work towards them. If you can't drop Spanish you might just have to live with it, but I expect you should be able to drop it as a second language isn't compulsory.

As far as the friend situation goes... idk. Don't confront them as this will probably hurt them and just cause unneeded friction, maybe just don't go out of your way to see them? Hmm... I usually just drift away from people.

Hope this helped at least a little

It definitely will play in your favour, you need to be passionate about your subject. I know what you mean with being interested in many different things which is why it is important to take your time in choosing what you want to study but there’s nothing wrong with being interested in many different subjects.

I’m starting my GCSE’s and you have some amazing results and I would appreciate it if you could share some tips with me as my grades are thanks man

Oxbridge don’t consider GCSEs as a good measure of intellectual and academic ability, they see A-Levels as a much better view of someone’s performance and ability.

resat my gcse exams due to extenuating circumstances as I wasn’t happy with them. Came out with majority of A’s and a stars do you think I should apply to oxbridge

It really did thank you very much also I know my comment is in shambles so sorry but I was in a really bad state didn't help that I was sick.
Thanks again it did help

That's reassuring - I'm committed to the idea of really excelling at A-Levels to prove myself as able. Thanks

No prob! I’m aiming for Oxbridge too and so I’ve read it in lots of books and guides for it haha! What a-levels have you taken?

I'll see you at the interviews

And I'm taking philosophy, history (modern), and German - I'm also gonna do an epq. How about you?

Rn- Maths, Biology, Physics and Further Maths! What degree are you thinking of? Btw you took two of the hardest a-levels, (German and History) good luck with that haha!!

Oxford and Cambridge don't distinguish between 8s and 9s at GCSE; both are considered equivalent to an A* in the old format. Cambridge do not put much weight on GCSEs however, so any course there should be a reasonable prospect if you get appropriate predicted grades and do well in any pre-interview assessment.

Oxford does put more weight on GCSEs, so I would not recommend applying to the more competitive courses there (e.g. PPE, although since you don't have A-level Maths it's very unlikely you would be succesful applying to PPE anyway). For less competitive courses you may be able to ameliorate slightly below average GCSEs (by Oxford standards) by doing well in the pre-interview assessment (e.g. HAT, ELAT, TSA etc).

Thanks for the advice - I was actually under the impression that Cambridge cared more about GCSEs but I checked and you're dead right, and I can't stand maths so PPE wasn't going to happen anyway lol.
Assuming that my english language does move past the grade boundary when I get it remarked, resulting in me having 6 A*s, 2 As, and a B, would I have what would be considered a decent set of GCSEs for Oxford?
Could you fill me in a little bit on those pre-interview assessments? And is there any way I can *check* which courses are more competitive? Thanks again

I believe Oxford mainly look at number and proportion of A* grades at GCSE. Some courses will have a pre-interview assessment; they will have plenty of information on the specific assessments (with exemplar papers) on their admissions pages. Both universities publish admissions statistics on their websites, which are fairly easy to find and quite comprehensive. There are also innumerable freedom of information act requests for almost every course offered by either institution on whatdotheyknow.com to provide even more statistics and data to pore over if you so wish.

The more competitive courses are generally the more popular courses, and are fairly predicable; law, economics and related subjects, STEM subjects. There are some others which are more competitive on average than other courses at the universities though; the creative courses offered at each (fine art for Oxford and architecture for Cambridge) are considerably more competitive than most others, and philosophy at Cambridge is more competitive than most "arts" subjects there, as well as having a lower success rate than the overall average for the university.

That said, you should choose a course you are interested in the subject matter, not one you think you are more likely to get into. Generally I think you'd have a better chance at Cambridge, although bear in mind the minimum criteria at Cambridge are generally higher (A*AA for arts subjects except economics, A*A*A for STEM subjects except psychology) than at Oxford (AAA for arts subjects, A*AA for STEM subjects). These are however just minimum entry criteria, and the colleges can set higher offers than those. However if you're only predicted AAA for example, that rather limits you to the arts courses at Oxford.

If I was to be predicted A*A*A (and go for Oxford) would those grades be good enough to compensate for the GCSEs? Although obviously this is a total hypothetical - I haven't even had my first day of college yet - I'm really determined to work very hard for these grades. Thanks once more

It might depend on the course, however I don't think they really consider predictions other than checking if they meet their standard entry criteria - since after all, your school could overpredict you in order to make you more competitive for Oxbridge. Certainly medicine at Oxford only uses GCSEs and BMAT score to determine whether to invite to interview (assumming the predictions met their requirements and the applicant was taking the right subjects). I suspect most other courses will use a similar combination of GCSE results and pre-interview assessment score to determine whether they invite.