Gcses for university

How many gcses do you need for university? I would like to go to oxford or cambridge and I have got 8 and a btec. Help please. Is that enough?

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 1

rachelfhu

8

I’m sure that’s enough, the mode number of GCSES for applications to Oxbridge would be about 10 GCSES

Reply 2

Sinnoh

22

It's probably fine. Friend of mine got in with 9. What course(s) do you have in mind?

(unintentional rhyme woo)

Reply 3

Mustafa0605

21

Original post by Rolo1234

How many gcses do you need for university? I would like to go to oxford or cambridge and I have got 8 and a btec. Help please. Is that enough?

Depends which course but I think 8 is the bare minimum and they don’t care about Btecs

Reply 4

Rolo1234

OP

14

Engineering or possibly medicine

Reply 5

mnot

Universities Forum Helper

20

Original post by Rolo1234

Engineering or possibly medicine

Oxford are well known to look at gcse performance but you have 9 (including the btec) this should be sufficient, what is more important is the grades not the quantity (a few A*/A's will definitely help your application).

Other than Oxford GCSE's are a fairly unimportant tick box exercise to meet uni/courses minimum requirements (normally something like 5 A*-C including B's in English or Math). A level performance is really what Unis use to judge your applications. some courses such as medicine might have slightly higher minimum requirements you'll most likely surpass these

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 6

Yr_11_MATHS

15

Original post by Rolo1234

How many gcses do you need for university? I would like to go to oxford or cambridge and I have got 8 and a btec. Help please. Is that enough?

For maths, I talked to some of the Oxford tutors and they will give conditional offers to those with good predicted grades and those who do well in the MAT. They said that those who got around 80-100 percent were accepted but under that and only a few were accepted but they also consider your educational background as well.

Reply 7

Rolo1234

OP

14

So gcses are not important for universities other than oxbridge then?

Reply 8

Yr_11_MATHS

15

Original post by Rolo1234

So gcses are not important for universities other than oxbridge then?

Well it's a grey area when it comes to Oxford because they don't specify a "MINIMUM" number of grades... I guess you should get decent grades and hopefully do well in their entrance exams

Reply 9

mnot

Universities Forum Helper

20

Original post by Yr_11_MATHS

For maths, I talked to some of the Oxford tutors and they will give conditional offers to those with good predicted grades and those who do well in the MAT. They said that those who got around 80-100 percent were accepted but under that and only a few were accepted but they also consider your educational background as well.

All the data is openly available online, its not quite that clear cut, basically everyone who getss over approx 86% gets an offer but approximately 1/3 to 1/4 of those between 65 to 85 still get offers (on MAT, not sure about PAT but you can easily look it up)