I got all 9s at GCSE and predicted all A*s at A level ask me anything

How much do you think getting straight 9s at GCSE has/will help you?

heyy this is really impressive! do you have any advice for English lit (I have my paper 1 mock next week) just in like how to revise. I am doing essay plans rn but not sure how efficient this is. also how come you didn't do chem or bio? good luck with your a levels!

I'm applying to Oxford, and I think they care more about GCSEs than Cambridge do. The main thing for me is that because I go to private school, which might prejudice my application a little bit, I decided that if I wanted to have a better chance of getting into Oxford getting perfect grades might be quite important because it shows that even though I have a privileged education, I still make the most of it.
The thing with GCSEs with uni apps is basically 'if you do well- they don't matter THAT much, but if you do badly then they preclude you from Oxbridge' - you have to get 7s or above in anything if you want to stand a chance of Oxbridge.

Ahh, I see what you mean. Do you genuinely think your background will count against you in the application process, or is that more of a worry you've picked up from what others have said? Always wondered how much that actually affects things in practice, because I'm sure there must be strict rules against these types of things if its not for a scholarship.

I'm applying to Oxford, and I think they care more about GCSEs than Cambridge do. The main thing for me is that because I go to private school, which might prejudice my application a little bit, I decided that if I wanted to have a better chance of getting into Oxford getting perfect grades might be quite important because it shows that even though I have a privileged education, I still make the most of it.
The thing with GCSEs with uni apps is basically 'if you do well- they don't matter THAT much, but if you do badly then they preclude you from Oxbridge' - you have to get 7s or above in anything if you want to stand a chance of Oxbridge.

Ahh, I see what you mean. Do you genuinely think your background will count against you in the application process, or is that more of a worry you've picked up from what others have said? Always wondered how much that actually affects things in practice, because I'm sure there must be strict rules against these types of things if its not for a scholarship.

Not really, private school kids are around 10 times more likely to get into top universities - it's really not a valid concern to be worried about going to a private school counting against you

It depends where though- if you applied to Durham or Exeter or the Oxbridge reject unis it is FULL of private school kids, but Oxbridge itself is less so. Every single college (as it should) at Oxford has a state school majority, but there is NO way that you could tell me private school kids are more advantaged applying to Mansfield, Wadham, Worcester or even Brasenose to some extent because they are very state school heavy colleges

No, oxbridge is around 30% private school students - compared to 7% of schools being private. Even the most selectively state school colleges at oxbridge have minimum 10% private school students - still above average.

AQA English Lit and Lang - 100% in Lit paper 1
Edexcel IGCSE maths
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Cambridge IGCSE History
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If you want any help, use my Quizlet notes
Kingsley_Arthanayake
they really helped me and have, if I do say so myself, top level notes and essay plans and notes for physics
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mansfield has 7% Worcester has about 15%.
Also the 7% of kids going to private school is slightly misleading because it is slightly different for sixth forms I'm pretty sure.

Its not misleading - and why is it bad that that the number of private school vs state school in a college is the same as the normal proportion

Why did you only do 9 GCSEs? Was it to focus on the ones you did do and maximise your scores in them? Interesting to have not sat chemistry or biology, most state schools would force you to study those, either as individual subjects or as combined science.

Ahh, I see what you mean. Do you genuinely think your background will count against you in the application process, or is that more of a worry you've picked up from what others have said? Always wondered how much that actually affects things in practice, because I'm sure there must be strict rules against these types of things if its not for a scholarship.