how much do gcses matter for the top unis?

im going into yr13 and am currently planning on applying to cambridge hsps, then soc at lse, ucl, bristol, bath

how much do my gcses matter??
i was predicted 9s-7s and ended up getting one 5 (englit), six 6s, 3 7s...

currently predicted at A level
maths - A*
soc - A*
bio - A

will the unis care a lot abt my gcses since my predicted for a level are higher??

Reply 1

bibachu

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by qiqi11

im going into yr13 and am currently planning on applying to cambridge hsps, then soc at lse, ucl, bristol, bath
how much do my gcses matter??
i was predicted 9s-7s and ended up getting one 5 (englit), six 6s, 3 7s...
currently predicted at A level
maths - A*
soc - A*
bio - A
will the unis care a lot abt my gcses since my predicted for a level are higher??

It depends on the course and each university’s individual policy. LSE tend to place quite a heavy emphasis on GCSEs and your personal statement, but the requirements vary from course to course. For the most competitive courses (e.g. law, economics), they will expect applicants to have achieved several grades 7-9 at GCSE. From what I can tell, UCL don’t seem to care much about GCSEs - even for medicine. So long as you meet the requirements, you should be fine. Cambridge have no GCSE requirements, and while the average applicant will likely have several grades 7-9 at GCSE, this is more so a case of correlation and not causation. Applicants who do well in their GCSEs tend to do well enough in their A levels that their predicted grades match the Cambridge entry requirements. If it’s any consolation, I’ll also be applying to Cambridge this year (for law), with below average GCSEs (876554) and extenuating circumstances. Cambridge will factor in any contextual data, as well as your educational circumstances. I don’t know much about Bath and Bristol seems to be quite similar to UCL, in the sense that they don’t place much emphasis on GCSEs for most courses. If your GCSE grades don’t meet the entry requirements for your course, that’s usually grounds for automatic rejection.

Reply 2

qiqi11

thanks so much!! yes the correlation makes sense. also do u know how far cambridge considers extenuating circumstances? as far as i am aware they dont do contextual offers

Reply 3

bibachu

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by qiqi11

thanks so much!! yes the correlation makes sense. also do u know how far cambridge considers extenuating circumstances? as far as i am aware they dont do contextual offers

Cambridge considers any extenuating circumstances that have impacted your performance and disruption to your studies. You can communicate this a) through your UCAS reference and/or b) through Cambridge’s extenuating circumstances form. I plan on detailing my circumstances in both, as I have a range of extenuating circumstances, all quite severe. They make contextual offers but they do use your contextual data. If you are meet their criteria, a contextual flag will be added to your UCAS application and admissions tutors will take this into account when making decisions about your application. Cambridge also run the August Reconsideration Pool (ARP) for applicants who were rejected in January, but meet certain contextual criteria, to reapply for their course with their achieved grades on A level results day in August. I confirmed my eligibility for the contextual flags and the ARP through information provided on the website :smile: