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Is Cambridge Possible For Me?

Hi everyone! I’m writing as I’m quite anxious.
I want to do Law at Cambridge, however I’m not sure if my grades put me at a disadvantage.
For reference: I got 99997655 in my GCSE’s, 9’s in all of my essay subjects - which is great!

And you may be thinking what does she mean by disadvantaged? I got a 5 in Maths. I know for humanities it’s debated whether a 6 is needed but I don’t know! I see so many Uni’s asking for it these days so I’m becoming more anxious, I’m scared I’ll have to resit and I don’t want to. I got a 6, according to every grade boundary BUT 2025, the year I sat my exams , just my luck eh! So when I look at UCL, LSE etc they all ask for 6’s ..

My maths teacher was never present in Y10, I went to the most disadvantaged state school in my city with a recent Ofsted of “Requires Improvement” (they were being examined whilst we did our GCSE’s), my school had an extremely low pass rate for maths and the teachers openly admitted they didn't teach us Grade 7+ topics as they wanted us all to secure 4’s atleast. This hindered me a lot.

If I do well in my Alevels, Eng lit, Politics and History. Getting A*’s and A’s - is it possible for me to cambridge?

Reply 1

Original post
by Anonymous
Hi everyone! I’m writing as I’m quite anxious.
I want to do Law at Cambridge, however I’m not sure if my grades put me at a disadvantage.
For reference: I got 99997655 in my GCSE’s, 9’s in all of my essay subjects - which is great!
And you may be thinking what does she mean by disadvantaged? I got a 5 in Maths. I know for humanities it’s debated whether a 6 is needed but I don’t know! I see so many Uni’s asking for it these days so I’m becoming more anxious, I’m scared I’ll have to resit and I don’t want to. I got a 6, according to every grade boundary BUT 2025, the year I sat my exams , just my luck eh! So when I look at UCL, LSE etc they all ask for 6’s ..
My maths teacher was never present in Y10, I went to the most disadvantaged state school in my city with a recent Ofsted of “Requires Improvement” (they were being examined whilst we did our GCSE’s), my school had an extremely low pass rate for maths and the teachers openly admitted they didn't teach us Grade 7+ topics as they wanted us all to secure 4’s atleast. This hindered me a lot.
If I do well in my Alevels, Eng lit, Politics and History. Getting A*’s and A’s - is it possible for me to cambridge?

Yes
Original post
by Anonymous
Hi everyone! I’m writing as I’m quite anxious.
I want to do Law at Cambridge, however I’m not sure if my grades put me at a disadvantage.
For reference: I got 99997655 in my GCSE’s, 9’s in all of my essay subjects - which is great!

And you may be thinking what does she mean by disadvantaged? I got a 5 in Maths. I know for humanities it’s debated whether a 6 is needed but I don’t know! I see so many Uni’s asking for it these days so I’m becoming more anxious, I’m scared I’ll have to resit and I don’t want to. I got a 6, according to every grade boundary BUT 2025, the year I sat my exams , just my luck eh! So when I look at UCL, LSE etc they all ask for 6’s ..

My maths teacher was never present in Y10, I went to the most disadvantaged state school in my city with a recent Ofsted of “Requires Improvement” (they were being examined whilst we did our GCSE’s), my school had an extremely low pass rate for maths and the teachers openly admitted they didn't teach us Grade 7+ topics as they wanted us all to secure 4’s atleast. This hindered me a lot.

If I do well in my Alevels, Eng lit, Politics and History. Getting A*’s and A’s - is it possible for me to cambridge?

If the university specifically states a 6 in GCSE Maths is required, this is a hard requirement and if you are not retaking, you would be automatically rejected. If they state a 5 is required, or do not state a specific grade requirement for GCSE Maths though, you're fine. In these cases this is a minimum entry requirement where you just need to tick off whether you meet it or not - exceeding it will not improve your chances and only just meeting it will not weaken your chances. It's an on/off button essentially - if you meet it the button switches to on and your application moves to the next stage.

In terms of Cambridge specifically I don't believe they have a minimum grade requirement for GCSE Maths though?

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