Should my GCSEs prevent me applying for Oxbridge?

Hi,

I go to a school that makes it compulsory to do 4 A-levels plus an EPQ. I've chosen biology, chemistry, psychology, maths and an EPQ.

My mental health has been awful in the last 4 years filled with eating disorders, missed school, hospital stays, being temporarily stopped from going to school for seizures and weight etc.

However, I am very determined and work quite hard if I may say so myself. I ended up with 5 Grade 8's, 4 Grade 7's and 2 Grade 6's, despite being off school for a combined total of a year and a half and struggling with mental health, severe OCD, autism and seizures and PTSD.

I would love to study medicine at university and my absolute dream would be to study it at Oxbridge.

First of all, would my GCSEs hold me back or would the university take into consideration that I went through an extremely difficult period? I have made a drastic improvement to my mental health and am just living with the autism and seizures. Would Oxbridge Universities take it all into consideration if they were looking at my GCSEs?

Finally, the school have given me the chance to drop an A-level. Would this affect my application to a Russell Group University?
I also appreciate that A-levels, UCAS, BMAT, UCAT and work experience make up a far bigger proportion than GCSEs when it comes to applying.

Many thanks if someone could help.

They could impact yes as Oxford likes high GCSEs and puts a lot of weighting on them. My concern reading this is that you won’t be able to medicine. With your conditions I’m not sure if you’ll pass the physical to study medicine, and even if you do it’s unlikely you’ll be able to cope with the workload. And if you can’t drive (which I expect you can’t), how can you travel for placements and jobs without lots of public transport, which for medicine and those hours is unrealistic, especially with medical books. You don’t need to be able to drive, but it helps.

Hi,

I go to a school that makes it compulsory to do 4 A-levels plus an EPQ. I've chosen biology, chemistry, psychology, maths and an EPQ.

My mental health has been awful in the last 4 years filled with eating disorders, missed school, hospital stays, being temporarily stopped from going to school for seizures and weight etc.

However, I am very determined and work quite hard if I may say so myself. I ended up with 5 Grade 8's, 4 Grade 7's and 2 Grade 6's, despite being off school for a combined total of a year and a half and struggling with mental health, severe OCD, autism and seizures and PTSD.

I would love to study medicine at university and my absolute dream would be to study it at Oxbridge.

First of all, would my GCSEs hold me back or would the university take into consideration that I went through an extremely difficult period? I have made a drastic improvement to my mental health and am just living with the autism and seizures. Would Oxbridge Universities take it all into consideration if they were looking at my GCSEs?

Finally, the school have given me the chance to drop an A-level. Would this affect my application to a Russell Group University?
I also appreciate that A-levels, UCAS, BMAT, UCAT and work experience make up a far bigger proportion than GCSEs when it comes to applying.

Many thanks if someone could help.

Hi,

I go to a school that makes it compulsory to do 4 A-levels plus an EPQ. I've chosen biology, chemistry, psychology, maths and an EPQ.

My mental health has been awful in the last 4 years filled with eating disorders, missed school, hospital stays, being temporarily stopped from going to school for seizures and weight etc.

However, I am very determined and work quite hard if I may say so myself. I ended up with 5 Grade 8's, 4 Grade 7's and 2 Grade 6's, despite being off school for a combined total of a year and a half and struggling with mental health, severe OCD, autism and seizures and PTSD.

I would love to study medicine at university and my absolute dream would be to study it at Oxbridge.

First of all, would my GCSEs hold me back or would the university take into consideration that I went through an extremely difficult period? I have made a drastic improvement to my mental health and am just living with the autism and seizures. Would Oxbridge Universities take it all into consideration if they were looking at my GCSEs?

Finally, the school have given me the chance to drop an A-level. Would this affect my application to a Russell Group University?
I also appreciate that A-levels, UCAS, BMAT, UCAT and work experience make up a far bigger proportion than GCSEs when it comes to applying.

Many thanks if someone could help.

I went once to an open day at one of oxbridge and we talked to a girl who had got in despite having both 'bad' a-levels and 'bad' gsces due to late ADHD diagnosis and poor mental health. well done on your grades despite the difficult circumstances. you clearly are dedicated and the unis will take that into account. fill in the extenuating circumstances, and consider dropping an a-level as it doesn't help that much, particularly for oxbridge, they only care about your top 3 a-levels since not all schools offer 4. good luck with everything !

Oxford isn’t the only university that comes under the oxbridge umbrella.
We have no information regarding how well controlled OP’s epilepsy is or how and to what extent autism effects them, so goodness knows how you’ve come to the conclusion that you have.

What portion of students can afford to have a vehicle in the first place? I am finding it very difficult to believe that many medical students have cars. We don’t even know if OP finds public transport a struggle.

I think that person is a troll. at least I hope they are because they seem very mean.

Hmmm I was wondering if they are motivated by bitterness.

It’s neither. In all honestly a doctor with seizures is hard, I personally wouldn’t want to ever be treated by a doctor who could suddenly mess up what they’re doing, even if it is by accident. And the lifestyle of doctors especially at the start of their career is very difficult, so with all of these issues it is likely to worsen seizures and mental health. If it’s poor already then it’s only going to be worse. It’s realistic. And before you call me a troll I have autism and poor mental health did, am very ambitious, did the same a levels, and this is what I realised. And my sister has epilepsy so I know quite a bit about seizures.

I didn’t call you a troll.
Any human being could suddenly have some kind of medical episode that causes them to mess up what they are doing.
Op has given no information regarding the current severity of their epilepsy, so it seems odd for you to be so sure of yourself. As someone who knows quite a lot about it, I would have thought that you would realise that epilepsy isn’t one disease or condition, it impacts people differently.

You’ve put an awful lot of thought in to this.

I am aware that it is different in different people, and it may even be non-epileptic in cause as OP didn’t say but either way whatever the seizure type is can be dangerous depending on what they’re doing, even nocturnal seizures can cause effects into the day that will affect the performance of a doctor and this person is more likely to have a sudden episode than most. And non-epileptic seizures are often triggered or more likely to be triggered by stress, which medicine and top unis are full of, and with the other conditions it just seems like OP will mentally and possibly struggle with this goal, though goals are always good. I think it would benefit them to look up alternative careers and also the experiences of doctors with a combination of conditions like theirs, if they can find much.

you seem to be very bitter and ignorant. please go touch some grass. and from your posting history it seems like it is not the first time you've behaved like this on here...

Hi,

I go to a school that makes it compulsory to do 4 A-levels plus an EPQ. I've chosen biology, chemistry, psychology, maths and an EPQ.

My mental health has been awful in the last 4 years filled with eating disorders, missed school, hospital stays, being temporarily stopped from going to school for seizures and weight etc.

However, I am very determined and work quite hard if I may say so myself. I ended up with 5 Grade 8's, 4 Grade 7's and 2 Grade 6's, despite being off school for a combined total of a year and a half and struggling with mental health, severe OCD, autism and seizures and PTSD.

I would love to study medicine at university and my absolute dream would be to study it at Oxbridge.

First of all, would my GCSEs hold me back or would the university take into consideration that I went through an extremely difficult period? I have made a drastic improvement to my mental health and am just living with the autism and seizures. Would Oxbridge Universities take it all into consideration if they were looking at my GCSEs?

Finally, the school have given me the chance to drop an A-level. Would this affect my application to a Russell Group University?
I also appreciate that A-levels, UCAS, BMAT, UCAT and work experience make up a far bigger proportion than GCSEs when it comes to applying.

Many thanks if someone could help.

I’m not apologising for being realistic on here. It’s very unlikely OP will be able to do medicine in such a place, and they very well may not pass the physical, and if they do unis likely won’t want a doctor with so many conditions

You can do anything if you put your mind to it. Have you considered what kind of medicine? I would be interested to know. Also, you should be proud of how hard you have worked and what you have overcome.

It’s neither. In all honestly a doctor with seizures is hard, I personally wouldn’t want to ever be treated by a doctor who could suddenly mess up what they’re doing, even if it is by accident. And the lifestyle of doctors especially at the start of their career is very difficult, so with all of these issues it is likely to worsen seizures and mental health. If it’s poor already then it’s only going to be worse. It’s realistic. And before you call me a troll I have autism and poor mental health did, am very ambitious, did the same a levels, and this is what I realised. And my sister has epilepsy so I know quite a bit about seizures.

I didn’t call you a troll.
Any human being could suddenly have some kind of medical episode that causes them to mess up what they are doing.
Op has given no information regarding the current severity of their epilepsy, so it seems odd for you to be so sure of yourself. As someone who knows quite a lot about it, I would have thought that you would realise that epilepsy isn’t one disease or condition, it impacts people differently.

You’ve put an awful lot of thought in to this.