private school kids - GCSE grades?

OP

RxB

I got a D. I'm from a private school. I'm reading PPE at Oxford.

(Admittedly, I got some A*s as well)

That's cool. I reckon it's a lot more stylish to round off a bunch of A*s with a couple of shitty grades, than it is to get top marks in everything. Maybe tutors reckon so too?!

Reply 4

RxB

1

deianra

Meh - that actually involves looking up stuff (= effort = bad). I only know two places in Cambridge...no, wait, 4. Perse, Perse Girls', Long Road and Hills Road.

Yeah, it's the other one.

(well, actually, there's 3 others. But it's not hard to eliminate 2 of them)

Reply 5

Johnny 5

12

To put it another way: is there anyone from a state school with perfect GCSEs, who didn't get in?

Thanks for letting me hijack.

Reply 6

OP

2 5 +

To put it another way: is there anyone from a state school with perfect GCSEs, who didn't get in?

Thanks for letting me hijack.

that's another interesting question, but i'm more concerned with whether there are people from private school who got in without stunning gcse results... (being from private school myself)

Reply 7

tango1

2 5 +

To put it another way: is there anyone from a state school with perfect GCSEs, who didn't get in?

Thanks for letting me hijack.

Laura someone. 10a*s. Rejected from oxford a few years ago. Caused a big fuss because they said it was discrimination.

Reply 8

Johnny 5

12

tango1

Laura someone. Rejected from oxford a few years ago. Caused a big fuss because they said it was discrimination.

Spence? At least we can all rely on Gordon Brown to kick up a fuss, then.

Reply 9

tango1

I wouldn't pin my hopes on it.

Reply 10

dappleddawndrawndauphin

3

That's cool. I reckon it's a lot more stylish to round off a bunch of A*s with a couple of shitty grades, than it is to get top marks in everything. Maybe tutors reckon so too?!

yeah I got some A*s and As then a C in Maths - Maths is totally irrelevant to my chose uni course so I thought it was actually quite cool - it means people can't pin you down into a category as easily :wink:

Ha, my friend's mum got into oxford after failing her maths gcse and said that often being bad at some subjects and not being a good all-rounder indicated that you might be better at what you're good at cos your mind focuses just in that way - may be no truth in that but thought twas a fun explanation all the same :smile:

(though not intending to detract from the achievements of people with straight A*s - takes a lot of commitment etc)

Reply 11

I was just wondering... if you get A*s, does that ALWAYS equal masses of work? Or if you are really gifted, can you do bugger all and still achieve? That's a much better way - do they want to assess intelligence or abiliy to work hard? (god bless Scotland)

Reply 12

Up here it must be every 1 or 2 in 100 that get straight As (1s) - usually without breaing sweat. Is that comparable then?

Reply 13

OP

platinumki

I was just wondering... if you get A*s, does that ALWAYS equal masses of work? Or if you are really gifted, can you do bugger all and still achieve? That's a much better way - do they want to assess intelligence or abiliy to work hard? (god bless Scotland)

I'd say it's more difficult than people think to get amazing grades at gcse without doing any work. it's not becuase they're difficult exams, quite the opposite - in many of the subjects you simply need to learn your stuff. common sense and innate intelligence will do a lot for you (in subjects like maths and english) but when it comes down to things like biology, you can't label a diagram of the heart without having learnt it

Reply 14

WhatFreshHell?

2

In Scotland I think you can do very well while doing a modicum of work at Strandard Grade if you're bright enough. (I got eight 1s (equiv to roughly 8 or 9A*), and did very little). Highers I think work 50:50; you need both to do very well, but if you only have one then you can manage a B at least.
Advanced Highers, now that's a different ball game; seemingly you need to be not only very bright and very hardworking, but also lacking in a social life.
I imagine this is the case in England, yeah?

(For the record I went to a crappy state school, got good grades, and got in. So, really, I prove nothing...

That's quite disappointing, actually)

Reply 15

true - up here we do less - but we ae always told that our exams are harder :tongue:

No - I'm not going to get into that debate now :eek:

But it seems odd that down South more people get straight As at A-level than straight As at GCSE. Seems to says that A-level is easier (in my school it perfectly worked out that the three of us who got straight 1s at Standard Grade got AAAAA at Higher)

Reply 16

WhatFreshHell?

In Scotland I think you can do very well while doing a modicum of work at Strandard Grade if you're bright enough. (I got eight 1s (equiv to roughly 8 or 9A*), and did very little). Highers I think work 50:50; you need both to do very well, but if you only have one then you can manage a B at least.
Advanced Highers, now that's a different ball game; seemingly you need to be not only very bright and very hardworking, but also lacking in a social life.
I imagine this is the case in England, yeah?

(For the record I went to a crappy state school, got good grades, and got in. So, really, I prove nothing...

That's quite disappointing, actually)

*sob*

Reply 17

Font

deianra

...but 9/8A* is likely.

****! thats wicked! wha did you get by chance? :rolleyes:

Reply 18

stratomaster

I was at a pre-oxbridge conference thingy today (at old trafford) and they said they look for the students with good results at GCSE at least 5 As/ A* and AAA/AAb at a-level, but because most of entries are with these results obviously they make a lot of decisions on the interviews and they look at the people who are improving and have the fundamental desire too. So I don't think it has anything to do with whether they're from comprehensive's or what it's more whether they have the potential and they fit the oxbridge criteria really :rolleyes:

Reply 19