Old buddy from school does 5 A levels? WHAT?

So today I was walking along the street after school to go to some shops, I met one of my old buddies from my old school and we were both very happy to see eachother, we talked about life, gossiped..., you know the drill, then I asked him what A levels he is doing, his reply was shocking to me, he said that he does A level Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Economics and English Lit and Lang at that point I said to him "Isn't that 5 A levels?", he said "yes" in a very happy way and that point in my head I was like "WTF is this guy thinking?" I said to him "Why one earth would you do 5 A levels?" He said that he wants to go to Oxford or Cambridge so doing 5 A levels will offer him a huge advantage when applying to these unis, I thought Oxbridge only cares about 3 A levels? He did get better GCSEs than me tho, he didn't get a full house of A*s however, Cambridge themselves say that 4 A levels do not offer you an advantage so will doing 5 A levels actually give him an advantage? I didn't think so. I said to him "Look, Oxbridge doesn't give a **** about you doing more than 3 A levels, 5 A levels you are just gonna burn yourself out", he said "Nah, that's not gonna happen, I am hoping to get As and A* in these A levels" And that point in my head I was like "This guy has to be joking, he can't be serious, can he?", I did ask him if he was actually serious and he said "yeah", and then I said to him "Well that's amazing" but I still didn't agree with him taking 5 A levels, we exchanged a last few words before going our separate ways.
He goes to the library everyday, from morning and will sometimes even bunk school just to get a few more minutes at the library, after school he goes to the library to study 24/7 so I can clearly how serious he is about going to Oxbridge, I really don't think this is going to end well for him but it's his life so I didn't bother arguing, does he actually stand a chance of getting As and A*s in his 5 A levels? Is it even possible for him to do 5 A levels?

Reply 1

username2694731

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Original post by The RAR

So today I was walking along the street after school to go to some shops, I met one of my old buddies from my old school and we were both very happy to see eachother, we talked about life, gossiped..., you know the drill, then I asked him what A levels he is doing, his reply was shocking to me, he said that he does A level Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Economics and English Lit and Lang at that point I said to him "Isn't that 5 A levels?", he said "yes" in a very happy way and that point in my head I was like "WTF is this guy thinking?" I said to him "Why one earth would you do 5 A levels?" He said that he wants to go to Oxford or Cambridge so doing 5 A levels will offer him a huge advantage when applying to these unis, I thought Oxbridge only cares about 3 A levels? He did get better GCSEs than me tho, he didn't get a full house of A*s however, Cambridge themselves say that 4 A levels do not offer you an advantage so will doing 5 A levels actually give him an advantage? I didn't think so. I said to him "Look, Oxbridge doesn't give a **** about you doing more than 3 A levels, 5 A levels you are just gonna burn yourself out", he said "Nah, that's not gonna happen, I am hoping to get As and A* in these A levels" And that point in my head I was like "This guy has to be joking, he can't be serious, can he?", I did ask him if he was actually serious and he said "yeah", and then I said to him "Well that's amazing" but I still didn't agree with him taking 5 A levels, we exchanged a last few words before going our separate ways.
He goes to the library everyday, from morning and will sometimes even bunk school just to get a few more minutes at the library, after school he goes to the library to study 24/7 so I can clearly how serious he is about going to Oxbridge, I really don't think this is going to end well for him but it's his life so I didn't bother arguing, does he actually stand a chance of getting As and A*s in his 5 A levels? Is it even possible for him to do 5 A levels?