"Are these GCSEs good enough for x" - the guide

Maths - 7
English lit - 8
English lang - 6 (remark)
French - 8
Spanish - 8
Italian - 9
Combined science - 88
RE - 8
Computer science - 6
Geography - 8
History - 8

I was 2 marks off from getting a 9 in all the subjects I got 8 😭😭. Is it a good idea to ask for a remark or not? I want to study earth science at uni not medicine btw

Remarks cost money. I guess it depends how much that money means to you!

A lot of schools will organise and pay for them though, as they want to see grade increases too.

I've heard of that at private schools but not state! Definitely worth an ask though right!

I've been looking at the A Level data of a school that's considered to be one of the best in the country and from 2016 to 2019 the percentage of all A Level grades that were A* has dropped from over 40% to under 30% which is quite a dramatic decrease. I bet there's a good chance that this is due to the exams becoming linear and the school still forcing all their students to take 4 A Levels. With the modular system is was much easier to manage 4 A Levels. I can only guess that the school cares more about the number of A*/As that their students receive than the grade percentages.

Do you know that this particular school does force 4 subjects?

Also I'm not getting notified about these quotes from you and it's making me sad.

hi so i want to do medicine and because of my gcse grades i know oxbridge is definitely not a choice and at this stage i just want to go to any medical school that accepts me.
i had high gcse predictions but unfortunately i didn't meet them so i know to work even harder for a levels
the a levels i'm doing are - biology chemistry and psychology
so is there any chance QMUL or KCl will accept me??
bio-6
chem-6
physics-5
religious studies-6
English literature-6
child development-6
maths-5 remarking as i was 2 marks off a 6
English language-4 ( really don't know how i got a 4 when i was getting 7's the whole year)

READ CAREFULLY BEFORE COMMENTING!
Generally, the answer is yes.
But there are inevitable asterisks. Read more for specific examples.

Are these results good enough for...

Cambridge:
Well, let's see what they say on their website about GCSE results as an entry requirement:


Things to take away from this:

From personal experience: GCSEs do not act as a safety net if you badly mess up part of your application.

So chances are, your results are good enough.

Oxford:
The number of times I've heard "Oxford doesn't look at your application unless you have 8 A*s" (or something along those lines) is too damn high, because it is too damn wrong.

To read their full statement on how they view GCSE results, go here and scroll down. The most important takeaways from this are:

Exception: Medicine at Oxford. When it comes to medicine, Oxford shortlist for interview based on your GCSEs and BMAT scores and they interview a fixed number of applicants every year. The standard of GCSE results for Oxford med is exceptionally high, and no set of results will ever guarantee you a place.
See here for statistics on GCSE and BMAT scores.

Possible exception: PPE. According to their admissions statistics which you can read here, when it comes to shortlisting applicants to interview, GCSE results are given a "high" importance, along with predicted grades and your TSA score.
GCSEs are regarded within the context of the school you were at - whether your results were below average or above average for your school.
But you can also see, the GCSE standards for shortlisting are nowhere near as high as for medicine. People can get in without any A*s at GCSE.

Russell Group:
Yes. Your results are good enough, because the Russell Group isn't that special.

They may (and may not) ask for a specific grade in maths and/or English (usually between 4 and 6), but other than that they do not care. For most universities in the Russell Group, the vast majority of applicants get offers.

Medicine:
Delicate one this. Medicine is pretty consistent across the country with how hard it is to get in. You could get into Cambridge but be rejected by Anglia Ruskin. Depending on the medical school you apply to, GCSEs may be used (alongside your BMAT/UKCAT score) to shortlist people for interview, due to the generally high standard of A-level predicted grades among applicants. But it's a thorough process and you can expect all parts of your application to be looked at.

Furthermore there's a bit of variation among what med schools want from GCSEs. Some require five 7s/As minimum (e.g. Sheffield, St. Andrews), some only require passes, some don't have any fixed requirements (e.g. Imperial, Newcastle)

There are some pretty excellent resources on TSR about this already so I'll link them in this section:

GCSE requirements of medical schools: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/results/gcse/medical-school-gcse-requirements
FAQs of the medicine forum: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/university/courses/medicine/medicine-forum-guide-and-faqs
"Are my grades good enough for medicine" megathread: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5678544
Other medicine threads for any other queries: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5523988

One aspect in which specific GCSE results are useful is when a 6th form places GCSE requirements on taking certain subjects at A-level, but that's up to the school.

In summary:

Exception: Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health courses. GCSE requirements are set by the professional body, not the university, as the course involves a professional registration at the end of it. Therefore, the GCSE requirements are non-negotiable and must be attained.

Any other specified course:
In general: yes.
Unless, as mentioned already, there is a specific requirement for a particular grade in a GCSE subject. But if your query is "are these GCSEs good enough for STEM courses" or something along those lines, the answer is yes.
If in doubt, check the university website and check their course page. I get the feeling not enough people do that.

---

Hope this helped. Also do link this thread to people who have these questions.
If there's wrong info in here (particularly in the medicine section) then please say so.

Wow 2 marks off for all of them? That's seriously unlucky. I think there's a good chance (>50%) that at least one of them would change to a 9 if they were all remarked. Before making any decisions about remarks I recommend spending some time looking at the data here:

DATA

For example, table 11 shows the average mark changes last year for all GCSE remarks and table 7 shows the percentage of remarks that resulted in grade changes. Unfortunately there's no way of knowing if this year's data will correlate.

Also if any of them are Edexcel make sure you request to see your exam scripts and your teachers may be able to check them to see if any are worth a remark.

A lot of schools will organise and pay for them though, as they want to see grade increases too.

@sqrt of 5, I can't offer any better advice than the above two posts other than to add that you should email/chat to your teachers about this.

English language-4 ( really don't know how i got a 4 when i was getting 7's the whole year)

looking at the data you sent i decide to get only english lang remarked and history. do you think i should get maths remarked as well? i was 5 marks off an 8.

also, i dont know how to access my script (edexcel) because i dont have an account so i dont know how to log in.

i asked my school but they are not paying LOOOL ill use my own money cuz my mum thinks it's a waste of money.

IKR i was fuming when i saw my grade in english lang after i invested so much time and effort into it!

is it worth me applying to oxford law with one 9, three 8s, three 7s and two 6s or not

I would enter a section on lse since they like a strong GCSE performance too. I’d almost say that they look at them more than oxbridge since they don’t interview

how would I get an A* A* A* prediction from my teachers? Would a high predicted grade and BMAT score compensate for low gcse grades ?

Good point, I'll see what I can add

Good point, I'll see what I can add

@LeapingLucy may be able to help with LSE info

LSE is quite inconsistent on GCSEs in my experience. In every rejection email, they give a one line reason for that candidate being unsuccessful. Often, that reason is a candidate's GCSEs being too low, but other applicants with lower GCSEs will get offers for the same course.

I think part of the reason is to do with contextual admissions. An applicant with mostly Bs or Cs at GCSE realistically wouldn't stand a chance if they had gone to private school. If they went to a struggling state school though, and especially if their grades were some of the best in their year, LSE would definitely consider them. I have several friends at LSE who got a mix of Bs and Cs at inner-city comprehensives.

TL;DR - my impression is that LSE judge GCSEs based on the context in which they were achieved, and thus aren't able to publish a minimum GCSE requirement, even though GCSEs do play a significant role in the admission decision process.