Less emphasis on GCSEs for oxbridge 2022 entry?

Do you think that due to the fact exams were not taken this year, less weight will be placed on gcse grades in oxbridge applications?

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Reply 1

perplexed turtle

Original post by Anonymous

Do you think that due to the fact exams were not taken this year, less weight will be placed on gcse grades in oxbridge applications?

cambridge never cared for gcses in the first place. and for oxford, you just need the majority of your grades between 9 and 7. A Levels will probably weighted even more though

Reply 2

Aryz

Original post by perplexed turtle

cambridge never cared for gcses in the first place. and for oxford, you just need the majority of your grades between 9 and 7. A Levels will probably weighted even more though

thats reassuring

Reply 3

liverninthered

I mean, any answer you get will just be guess work. I expect it's something they'll consider but individual departments decide upon GCSE weightings so it may vary. That you're asking this question suggests you may be concerned by your results. So I'll give the obligatory response: your GCSE grades are the one part of your application you can't change, better to think about the things you can.

Reply 4

Aryz

Original post by liverninthered

exactly and anyway OP can make up "bad" gcse grades by doing other extra curricular activities

Reply 5

Anonymous #2

Original post by Aryz

exactly and anyway OP can make up "bad" gcse grades by doing other extra curricular activities

my gcses werent "bad" - i got 6 9s and 4 8s but a lot of people at my school got straight 9s so im slightly worried in that sense. I think i couldve gotten 9s had i sat the exams but im prepared to work very hard at a level to make up for it.

Reply 6

Anonymous #2

Original post by Anonymous

this is my other account btw thats why the anons are diff

i hope so

Original post by Anonymous

CURRENTLY, 8 and 9s are valued the same by both universities. You couldn't have done better, there's nothing to make up for.

Reply 9

Anonymous #3

Pretty sure most of you people only want to go to Oxbridge for the reputation, have any of you ever visited / know about your preferred college?😭

Reply 10

liverninthered

How would you know what most people want? Maybe they want to go to Oxbridge for:
Small group teaching in tutorials/supervisions
World class facilities and researchers
Consistently high performance in national and international league tables
The cities are very nice
Relatively cheap accomodation often provided for the entire course
Graduate prospects
They want to be challenged academically
I could go on and will do if it would be useful for anyone.

Fyi, I don't know why anyone would think about which college they prefer before they were quite close to applying, ie mid way through year 12, which clearly the op isn't.

Reply 11

Anonymous #3

Original post by liverninthered

Everything you mentioned comes under the reputation bracket, no?

Reply 12

liverninthered

I would say they come under the bracket of fact (and opinion, in the case of them being nice cities which is just my view). They may happen to be part of their reputation as well but if that reputation is based on fact then there's no problem.

If you want to continue this discussion further, pm me as this isn't really the topic of the thread

Reply 13

Anonymous #1

I want to go because I love the course actually byT Nice assumption

Reply 14

Anonymous #2

Original post by liverninthered

CURRENTLY, 8 and 9s are valued the same by both universities. You couldn't have done better, there's nothing to make up for.

the issue is that i think that may change for 2022 entry. Even if cambridge say they are the same, they will still surely value someone with 10 9s over 10 8s

Reply 15

Doones

Original post by Anonymous

8s and 9s are treated equally as A* by Cambridge and Oxford.

Original post by Anonymous

the issue is that i think that may change for 2022 entry. Even if cambridge say they are the same, they will still surely value someone with 10 9s over 10 8s

Of course everything may change, but it's unlikely. They could decide to ignore GCSEs entirely and just use their admissions tests/assessments, but again, it's very unlikely.

Reply 16

Anonymous #2

Original post by Doones

8s and 9s are treated equally as A* by Cambridge and Oxford.

Of course everything may change, but it's unlikely. They could decide to ignore GCSEs entirely and just use their admissions tests/assessments, but again, it's very unlikely.

that is very true. I just felt slightly robbed this year as i worked very hard andi think i wouldve achieved these grades, if not better, at gcse, had i taken the exams but other ppl ik who got 4s and 5s in the mocks got the same as me so i need to stand out in a diff way

Reply 17

Doones

Original post by Anonymous

Neither Cambridge nor Oxford base their admissions decisions on GCSEs alone.
They never have, and never will.

Don't worry about everyone else, just do the best you can for you.

Reply 18

Anonymous #3

Original post by Anonymous

Rookie mistake - you're focusing on other people rather than yourself.

Reply 19

liverninthered

Original post by Anonymous

the issue is that i think that may change for 2022 entry. Even if cambridge say they are the same, they will still surely value someone with 10 9s over 10 8s

Possibly but I doubt that they would change it so soon. II think they would only change it after they'dgot evidence to suggest that students with more 9s did better at the university than people with more 8s. They won't know that yet (all current students did GCSEs when the majority of them were A*-U) and decisions of this kind are usually data driven.

Also remember that GCSE scores are often calculated by a computer so that they can factor data from the school you went to. I believe they use that score to compare applicants and if that score doesn't differentiate between 8s and 9s, then it shouldn't make any difference.