Are Gcses Important?

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x.beth.x

If you want to do medicine or a similar very competitive course then the A/A*s are very important in my opinion.

Similarly if you want the best chance at Oxbridge you also need the A/A*s. I know I am going to get people telling me you only need Cs but in reality, you only have a small chance with those grades when the uni has people with excellent GCSEs and good A levels to choose from.

Reply 61

Dave0405

If you are looking at Oxford, you definitely should have tried your very hardest. The average person given an offer has about 8A*s. Most unis dont care about GCSEs but Oxford and Cambridge take them into consideration.

Reply 62

tahmiina.

Vesta

Okay, but for Law at Cambridge it's 5 A* minimum for an interview. Granted it's a very competitive course.

5a*s to do law in cambridge. is that true? omg!! :frown:

Reply 63

Vesta

Original post by & i'&#1084

5a*s to do law in cambridge. is that true? omg!! :frown:

And apparently according to the website, "most people who go there achieve 9 A*s at GCSE"

Reply 64

LadyJaneGrey

Well, no *single* thing matters really, does it? Just because you get all As at A Level doesn't mean you are garunteed a place, similarly getting all A* at GCSE doesn't garuntee you a place. They'd look at the whole package, and since you list your GCSEs in UCAS, your GCSE results would be part of the whole package. Sure, getting an A in, say English at A Level if you want to do English would mean more and show more about you than your science GCSE marks, but at the end of the day, it simply looks good to have an impressive set of results (although getting all A* and all A now doesn't impress an oxbridge interviewer now as much as it would have). I suppose you could think of it like that whole 'dress to impress' thing. Getting top marks at A level and at GCSE makes a good impression because it shows that you are consistent. If you went from getting C and Ds at GCSE to getting all A at A Level, it shows that you made a big improvement and put in lots of effort etc. but it doesn't garuntee that you'll continue to put the same kind of effort in. If you got top marks at GCSE AND A Level, it'd show that you are consistent and you'll carry on working hard at university too. So, to the OP, I say that don't worry but work hard on your A Levels if you do want to take Law at Oxford and like, I dunno do debating or something. The A Levels would show that, basically, you can do it and your smart enough to handle the course, but I guess the debating would show that you have an actual interest in the subject and stuff, which is what the universities want (and you can look at *any* university website in the world and somewhere they will say that they are 'passionate' about the stuff they teach).