How strict are unis about GCSE requirements that are 1 grade below?

In short I got a 5 in GCSE maths and I want to do psychology in uni, but most unis are asking for at least a grade 6.

there's context as to why it was a 5, I had moved into this school just before year 10 and my school had an understaffed maths department so originally i had been put in foundation maths but despite getting almost full marks on all of my tests and mocks they wouldn't move me to the higher class no matter what i did because of there not being enough spaces in the classroom (the way sets were organised in my school was either higher or foundation) so i ended up sitting the higher paper but having been learning maths in a foundation class.

Obviously not learning any maths content beyond a grade 5 level meant I ended up with a grade 5 regardless and I struggled with a lot of mental health problems at the time before you tell me I could've learnt the content myself. This also meant I had to take a lot of time out of school because I couldn't face going in most of the time. I'm not sure how feasible it is to ask for extenuating circumstances for my GCSE's specifically but not A levels

I do 3 A levels, sociology, psychology, and physics. To give a rough idea I'm currently sitting at A*'s for sociology and psychology and a B for physics, so I'm coping fine with physics without a level maths but i'm not sure if doing A level physics will give me some leverage but considering psychology is so competitive I don't think I really have a chance unless I resit. So to that I also ask will universities care if I have to resit my GCSE maths qualification?

I'm going to take a gap year and work anyway so I'm not too fussed about paying for a resit.

Sorry this is so long but I appreciate any advice.

Reply 1

Scotland Yard

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

Unis are very strict with GCSE requirements. It will usually not be used in any way, shape or form to score your application, but it is used as a minimum threshold that you need to meet, and if you don't, you're out. So yeah, you should resit. Since it seems like you're doing well in Physics A level, and Physics is basically Maths but infinitely more complicated and applied to the real world, I'm going to go ahead and assume that you'd do swimmingly in a GCSE Maths resit :smile: