Oxbridge

Hi, things did not go my way unfortunately in year 11. I did a total of 9 GCSE’s of which i passed 5.

Passed:
Biology: 4
Maths: 5
History: 5
English Literature: 5
English Language: 6

Failed:
Business: 2
Chemistry: 3
Physics: 3
Geography: 3

Luckily, Connell co-op college were very kind and gave me a place. I am currently studying Law, Business and Statistics A-levels.

Would i still be able to make a successful application to Oxford/Cambridge?

Reply 1

TypicalNerd

18

Original post by Abdullah924

Hi, things did not go my way unfortunately in year 11. I did a total of 9 GCSE’s of which i passed 5.

Passed:
Biology: 4
Maths: 5
History: 5
English Literature: 5
English Language: 6

Failed:
Business: 2
Chemistry: 3
Physics: 3
Geography: 3

Luckily, Connell co-op college were very kind and gave me a place. I am currently studying Law, Business and Statistics A-levels.

Would i still be able to make a successful application to Oxford/Cambridge?

It strikes me as very unlikely - unless of course you can give evidence that you were in some way heavily disadvantaged in your exams (i.e by a family breavement/illness etc).

However, GCSE’s are presumably weighted with less importance than your A levels, entrance exams and interviews (if you get that far) and strong performances in these areas could compensate for your GCSE profile (but even then, I wouldn’t be too optimistic). This being said, you will need to see how your predicted grades compare to the entry requirements for the course you are interested in before deciding whether your chances of applying successfully are in fact zero.

Reply 2

Abdullah924

OP

7

Hi, thank you for replying. In fact, i was homeschooled in years 10/11 and that affected me mentally as I did not have any friends and was a victim of severe bullying of what my school did not care about, which led to my parents removing me from that school. As i was in year 10, schools did not accept me as it’s too late and the exam boards would be different, which makes no sense. So we looked at homeschooling, which was not for me. We had a severe discontinuity of teachers and were not able to finish the specification and prepare for the exams. I had other universities in mind such as;
Kings College London
University of Manchester
London School of Economics
University College London
Queens Mary London
University of Exeter
University of Edinburgh
University of Glasgow

Any idea if i would be successful? (Considering i have load of work experience, meet the entry requirements etc)

(edited 3 months ago)

Reply 3

04MR17

Volunteer Section Leader

22

Original post by Abdullah924

Hi, thank you for replying. In fact, i was homeschooled in years 10/11 and that affected me mentally as I did not have any friends and was a victim of severe bullying of what my school did not care about, which led to my parents removing me from that school. As i was in year 10, schools did not accept me as it’s too late and the exam boards would be different, which makes no sense. So we looked at homeschooling, which was not for me. We had a severe discontinuity of teachers and were not able to finish the specification and prepare for the exams.

All of that backstory should go in the UCAS reference when you apply. But right now you need to move on from it, it's January now - forget about last year.

How are your A Levels going?
Oxford will need AAA
Cambridge will need A*AA

Traditionally Oxford pay a bit more attention to GCSE grades than Cambridge do

Reply 4

TypicalNerd

18

Original post by Abdullah924

Hi, thank you for replying. In fact, i was homeschooled in years 10/11 and that affected me mentally as I did not have any friends and was a victim of severe bullying of what my school did not care about, which led to my parents removing me from that school. As i was in year 10, schools did not accept me as it’s too late and the exam boards would be different, which makes no sense. So we looked at homeschooling, which was not for me. We had a severe discontinuity of teachers and were not able to finish the specification and prepare for the exams. I had other universities in mind such as;
Kings College London
[start]University of Manchester [/start]
[start]London School of Economics [/start]
[start]University College London[/start]
[start]Queens Mary London -[/start]
[start]University of Exeter [/start]
[start]University of Edinburgh[/start]
[start]University of Glasgow [/start]

Any idea if i would be successful? (Considering i have load of work experience, meet the entry requirements etc)

04MR17 has correctly pointed out that your reference ought to cover the reasons for your GCSE results. It’s best to move on from them now and focus on your A levels.

LSE is just as difficult to get into as Oxford and Cambridge for some courses, so I’d be cautious about applying there and also to either Oxford or Cambridge.

I guess it depends on exactly what you are applying to study, what the admissions criteria is and how competitive the course is.

Reply 5

Anonymous #1

Original post by Abdullah924

Hi, things did not go my way unfortunately in year 11. I did a total of 9 GCSE’s of which i passed 5.

Passed:
Biology: 4
Maths: 5
History: 5
English Literature: 5
English Language: 6

Failed:
Business: 2
Chemistry: 3
Physics: 3
Geography: 3

Luckily, Connell co-op college were very kind and gave me a place. I am currently studying Law, Business and Statistics A-levels.

Would i still be able to make a successful application to Oxford/Cambridge?

Absolutely no chance

Oxbridge

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