The Student Room Group

Are these Univesities realistic with my atrocious GCSE grades?

Hi, I am an A level Student and am worried about applying to Uni later this year because of my appalling GCSE results. Honestly, all my friends got like all A*/A/B, and itreally puts me down. Here I what I achieved at GCSE:

Maths D (resat in AS year and got a B)
English Language B
English Literature B
Business Studies A
Geography C
ICT C
German B
Biology C
Physics C
Chemistry B

ECDL Pass (Equivalent to a GCSE Grade B)

What I think will get for my AS Levels:

English Lit A
History A
Geography A ( got a C at GCSE)

I also do volunteering once a week and have a part time job. Below are two separate lists of UNI's I want to apply to to study ENGLISH LITERATURE :

UNREALISTIC
KCL
MANCHESTER
LIVERPOOL
YORK
UEA

Would my GCSES le me down ?

REALISTIC - These are where my friends and some teaching staff have said will accept me due to my GCSES:

Manchester Met
Sheffield Hallum
Leeds Met
Salford University
Queen Marys

As you can see, they are all pretty rubbish Universities. Does anyone know whether my GCSES truly will hold me back from my Realistic choices. I know most of them are RG unis, and my GCSES are diabolical, but how much do Uni's look at them. Thanks.
Original post by fungirl16
Hi, I am an A level Student and am worried about applying to Uni later this year because of my appalling GCSE results. Honestly, all my friends got like all A*/A/B, and itreally puts me down. Here I what I achieved at GCSE:

Maths D (resat in AS year and got a B)
English Language B
English Literature B
Business Studies A
Geography C
ICT C
German B
Biology C
Physics C
Chemistry B

ECDL Pass (Equivalent to a GCSE Grade B)

What I think will get for my AS Levels:

English Lit A
History A
Geography A ( got a C at GCSE)

I also do volunteering once a week and have a part time job. Below are two separate lists of UNI's I want to apply to to study ENGLISH LITERATURE :

UNREALISTIC
KCL
MANCHESTER
LIVERPOOL
YORK
UEA

Would my GCSES le me down ?

REALISTIC - These are where my friends and some teaching staff have said will accept me due to my GCSES:

Manchester Met
Sheffield Hallum
Leeds Met
Salford University
Queen Marys

As you can see, they are all pretty rubbish Universities. Does anyone know whether my GCSES truly will hold me back from my Realistic choices. I know most of them are RG unis, and my GCSES are diabolical, but how much do Uni's look at them. Thanks.


Your friends and some teachers are being silly :tongue: my friend has pretty much identical GCSEs to you and he got offers from Manchester, York, Sheffield and Exeter :smile: you don't need amazing GCSEs to get into good universities, they care a lot more about AS grades and predicted A2 grades! If you do achieve those As, you will be in a great position (I got an E at AS and still got offers from good universities!) :smile:

And your GCSE grades aren't even bad :redface:

Posted from TSR Mobile
You can still get into top universities with those grades lol. I also don't think they'll look at all of your GCSE grades, just the ones for the subject you plan on studying. So for English literature, they'll probably require a B in both English language AND literature

-Queen Mary is not a rubbish university


Posted from TSR Mobile
(edited 9 years ago)
You will be fine. I didn't get a single grade above C at GCSE and failed my maths sooooo many times before eventually getting another measly C to add to my collection of C grades but I got offers to study physics from RG unis.
Reply 4
If you get them As results, I'm positive you can get in most of the top uni's; except Cambridge and oxford.
Original post by Mo98
If you get them As results, I'm positive you can get in most of the top uni's; except Cambridge and oxford.


They can still go for oxbridge as long as they get them As results... more so cambridge than oxford though. It shows their true potential and A's are harder to achieve at A Level as i'm sure you know
Your GCSE results are fine. I know people with lower/similar GCSE results who got into those universities. KCL might be slightly risky, especially as you don't have an A in GCSE English, but as long as you get good AS levels and good A level predictions then there is no reason why you cant apply for those universities. Also not sure why Queen Mary is being classed as a 'rubbish university', especially as they want AAB-ABB with an A in Alevel English. Would say it's arguably on the same level as UEA & Liverpool (For English)

I Got AAABBBBCCC and fairly average AS results (BBCC) and managed to get 5 offers from fairly highly ranked universities.

Just work hard in your AS levels, especially for English and don't think about your GCSEs :redface:

Quick Reply