English GCSE in Universities

Hey guys,
I basically passed English Core in Year 10 but I failed the actual GCSE English with a D (1 mark off a C). I know Uni's accept core results, but I was thinking of maybe resitting the English exam in October/November. I want your guy's opinions - should I resit the exam so I can get a C+, stick with my D in the GCSE or stick with my C in core when giving my results to universities? Most Uni's I've seen want a C minimum to get in, so that's why I want some help from you guys.
Another thing that I'm not sure of is that apparently now you HAVE to do an oral English exam if you're a non-native English speaker and you want to get into a university in the UK. Is this true?
Thanks!

Have you considered a remark? If you only a mark off it seems worth it and you can then always cancel the retake if you get that C. If not then I would retake it. You've done most of the hard work already and just need things to be brushed up here and there.

Thanks for the advice! I did actually consider a remark, but I'm not 100% sure if my mark is 1 mark off, but if it's as similar as past grade boundaries, it should be 1-2 marks off a C. I don't believe the grade boundaries have been released, or have they? I want to check the grade boundaries first before seeing if I want them to remark my exam.

GCSE Results Day: Grade Boundaries - 21 August 2014

There you go.

Let me know if you need help with finding it.

I believe I've found it. I'm on the Grade Threshold pdf and I'm not sure if I'm looking at this correctly. I downloaded all the papers there were there to see which two I did back in May/June - I found them (21 and 31) I'm not 100% sure if combination of components mean the 2 papers I did (the ones I stated above).
The first table doesn't relaly suit me considering I don't know what I got in each paper, just the overall so I'm looking at second table now because I believe that's what you're supposed to be looking at (correct me if I'm wrong) and it says that the minimum you need for a C is a 50. According to the paper I received back from CIE, my percentage uniform mark is a 54 yet it says I got a D. I'm not sure if I'm reading this wrong or if CIE made a mistake on my paper.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks for your help man!

I believe I've found it. I'm on the Grade Threshold pdf and I'm not sure if I'm looking at this correctly. I downloaded all the papers there were there to see which two I did back in May/June - I found them (21 and 31) I'm not 100% sure if combination of components mean the 2 papers I did (the ones I stated above).
The first table doesn't relaly suit me considering I don't know what I got in each paper, just the overall so I'm looking at second table now because I believe that's what you're supposed to be looking at (correct me if I'm wrong) and it says that the minimum you need for a C is a 50. According to the paper I received back from CIE, my percentage uniform mark is a 54 yet it says I got a D. I'm not sure if I'm reading this wrong or if CIE made a mistake on my paper.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks for your help man!

If you're saying you did 21 and 31 on the IGCSE : English - First Language then the grade boundary seems to be at 50 for C.

Would it be possible for you to check on your exam results paper exactly what the name/paperid(s)/ect is.

What it says on the `Provisional Results Information´that the school gave back to me is my personal information eg Candiate Name, DoB, Centre Number etc and this:
IGCSE



There was nothing else at all. What do you think I should do? Also, I just want you to know that your help is really appreciated man

So that is this grade boundary pdf for you.

Looking at the second table. The only ones where you would get a grade C is for option C1, C2 and C3. However your results sheet doesn't say exactly which you did. So... if I were you i'd phone up your school and ask which components you took for English. Then take a look at the pdf for those and see what the grade boundary is. If it turns out that from what you can see you are in the wrong one, phone them back and query your results.

I'm not able to go on the pdf you sent me as it's for CIE staff members only but I presume it's the same as this one http://www.gceguide.com/search/label/IGCSE%20%3AEnglish%20-%20First%20Language%20%280500%29 . What exactly are the components that it says in the table? If the numbers corresponds to the number of the paper I did, I'm 100% sure I did 21 and 31 since I recognize the passages from the other pdf files.

I totally didn't copy the wrong link.

If you're sure you got 54 and did those but ended up with a D then phone up your school and query it.

Yeah, once the official CIE results come out, which will hopefully be before the 9th of September when I start school, I'll ask my school about it. I believe remarks end on the 30th of September so I should be fine for now. Thanks a bunch for all your help man, I'll be sure to contact you back once I know my final, correct grade.