Oxford & GCSEs...

How much do GCSEs really matter for getting into Oxbridge? Surely you'd expect someone to have pretty much all A*s, maybe the odd A, but my friend's older brother got an offer from Oxford to do some kind of maths/science with good, but not outstanding GCSE results (A couple of A*s, As and Bs).

Reply 1

edward393

I think it is more of your UCAs and how you do in the interview. Many people get A*s, but you need to show what you can do outside the academic world. I suspect that the interviewers are looking for people with individuality, e.g. if you do medicine don't do all three sciences and maths, do, maybe chemistry, biology, politics and english lit or something arty. There was a news item a few years ago where this girl who got all A*s for GCSEs caused outrage when she was rejected from Oxbridge. I would think that the interviewer thought 'Oh my god this person is the most boring nerdy anorak in the world...'

GCSEs really do matter for whatever uni you will be applying. They don't have anything apart from your AS's which you do no have to declare to base you upon. Your friend's brother probably wrote a fantastic UCAs form and gave the interviewer something to drool about.

Reply 2

Jenni_Kitten

I posted something which relates a lot to this somewhere else..basically, that I got 1 A*, 7 As 2 Bs and didn't get into Cambridge, though I got 4 As at AS and they actually said they were impressed with me at interview...grrr.
I guess it depends on the subject, college, year and other candidates though, as well as the interviewers. Too many variables to be able to say in my opinion lol :P

Reply 3

Johnny 5

There are about seven hundred and eighty-four threads on this in the Oxbridge forum; one or two might be useful...

And http://www.oxbridge-admissions.org.uk/ is always good for seeing what grades real people get in with.