Are these GCSE grades good enough for Uni

Agree with pp that a 7 in maths will necessitate some hard work to achieve a good a level grade. Assume the physics grade is an 8? Otherwise that will be very tough too.

What does he want to study at uni? It is helpful if you actually name the subject as you have only said they got a grade 6 in it. As noble (well respected maths teacher) has said getting a 7 in maths at GCSE means he will have a bit of a slog now for the jump to A level. He needs to start putting in effort. Ask his sixth form what grades students coming in on a 7 usually get. A while ago noble posted a table of actual students from GCSE to A level progression grades for maths which was eye opening in terms of a 7 most likely to come out with a D or C grade.

GCSE grades can determine A level grades. If your son wants to study computer science at uni then he would be better also taking further maths but his laziness may make this impossible. In terms of GCSE grades they form part of a picture for uni applications, from A level predicted grades, teacher references and personal statement.

Maybe to bring this home to him look at the best universities for his chosen subject, look at their entry grades. Using my DC's sixth form method of predicting A levels grades from the start of year 12 (mean of GCSE grades) your son would come out with A/B. Which uni accepts those grades? Bare in mind entry grades are the lowest level they accept so a lot of successful applicants will have higher grades.

Also the attitude that his chosen A level subjects are difficult is not great. It would help to excuse any lack of effort on his behalf, ie he doesn't get good grades because these are hard. But if he actually worked at them he could get high grades. Lots of students do.

(Which is not something the OP’s DS should rely on, it was an extreme outlier).

I’d forgotten about that!

He actually turned out to be really, really good at maths.

@noblegiraffe is a Maths legend round these parts. even marked a MNer’s Child’s paper as far as I remember on year? He thought he could do pretty well without a lot of study?

Are you taking the mick? Your poor child.

If your child is as 'lazy' as you say and still managed to get those marks for GCSE then seems perfectly capable of getting good A levels for uni. People get in to uni with Cs and Ds, but it's likely your child will do better.

Of course I know the difference 🙄

So you use them wrongly intentionally?!

Your child may well be fine, but they will need to put in a lot of work to begin with-especially with the maths. My DS got a 9 in maths and further maths at GCSE and still found the workload overwhelming at A level. The kids continuing with further maths at A level seemed to find it much easier. He said he had to do twice as much work for maths at lower sixth than any other subject (computer science, physics and business).

There is hope OP, my DS was very lazy at GCSEs and though he passed them all, got worse grades than yours. I still feel frustrated at this, though I also adore him, it’s just the wasted potential that gets to me. He’s at uni now and doing absolutely fine. He worked much better for his A levels and seems even more committed to his degree, he was probably just immature at 16. He knows I wasn’t delighted with his GCSEs, they were a solid set of results but really, he could have achieved more. I can’t be really proud of my DS for not doing his best, so I fully sympathise.

My younger DC got GCSE results last week and although they are not as good as your DC’s, I am proud and delighted as this DC has more than achieved their potential and has got great results and is going on to do A levels too.

Yes of course they’re good enough for uni. However, getting a 6 in the subject they want to do at degree level is more of an issue. If it wasn’t just a bad day Either they’ll have to put some more work in or re-think the choice of degree.

Why on earth do you think those are terrible grades? No wonder kids are feeling the pressure if they’re expected to only gets 8s and 9s

Yes for sure !

Listen to what @noblegiraffe says, she always gives really good advice esp around maths.

My experience is that the academic kids who are good at maths take maths. It's harder therefore for a child who isn't a natural to get a high grade ie A star or an A.

He thing is his grades are what they are unless he's going to resit.

Does he understand that doing no revision meant he didn't achieve what he could have done and may struggle with 'A' level?

There is a huge difference between gcse and 'A' level, if he doesn't change his attitude he will struggle. Would a more vocational qualification be better?

Sounds like he should be ok if he decides to start working.

With maths, he needs to realise that he needs to start working now. A 7 in maths means that he won't be fully fluent in the GCSE techniques needed to succeed at A-level. I really hope he completed any bridging work that the school set over the summer.

It is really common for pupils like your DS to not realise how much independent work they need to be putting into their A-levels, outside of lessons and on top of homework. When the school say he should be doing an hour of work outside of lessons for each hour he is in a lesson, they mean it.

I got a couple of D's at GCSE, and nothing higher than a C at A-level. Still got a 2:1 and distinctions in my MA at uni though (Reading). The stuff you do after school is just much more interesting IMO.
His results are very good anyway. Did he get 7's and 8's in the things he wants to do at A-level? If so I really can't see what your issue is at all. Unless he got the 5 in maths, which probably would be an issue.

If he hasn't got a 9 in maths or physics- he will struggle as you said he can be prone to being lazy.
And even getting a 9 doesn't mean he'll get through without putting effort in it. They are notoriously difficult.
But you can't force him and the year 12 mocks will (are always) a wake up call.

Yes they are. Depending on what they want to study all they need is a 4 in maths and English. If they want to study something like medicine they may need higher grades, but most unis just ask for a 4 in English and Maths. Emphasis is on a levels more than GCSE's. Those grades are absolutely brilliant, especially with little revision. You should be proud of them and I hope they know how well they've done.

This.
DS1 got a good 7 at GCSE maths and really struggled at A level although did come out with a B.

Their results are fine for most courses at most unis.

The important question is can they go on to do the A levels they want to do with the results they achieved.

Was the 5 in Maths or English language? SOME unis require a 6 in these for some courses.

DD was slightly limited by her 5 in English language, a couple of her preferred unis required a 6.

If your child really wants to study these subjects then THEY have to put in the work to get to where they want be.

I know it's hard but you can't make them put in the work if they can't be bothered unfortunately.

Can you answer my question about what he got in maths? That's going to be quite important.

And yet you wrote “Husband didn't go to Uni and laughs at there antics. Expects me to manage the education side of things. 😕😕”

and “Really? But 'there antics' is an accurate description.”

and “and seems to just expect things to fall into there lap”.

Your poor child. Their results are fine but you clearly want them to feel like a total failure.