AABB in AS, possible for Oxbridge?

[star2013]

Dd got AABB in her AS result today. School's predicted grade are A*AA for the best three subjects. Dd desires to go for Oxbridge. Is it possible?

I'm obviously ignorant star2013 because I don't understand what 'not in the stream of GCSE' means? Did she take all vocational subjects other than those two?

If she obtained three As and two Bs then I'm also not sure I understand your op, unless she's taking four subjects to A2 but dropping one in which she achieved an A? . Nevertheless she still seems to have achieved three As, which is extremely good on any definition - but exceptional if she's been to a low achieving school, as I'm assuming you're suggesting.

Which subject does she intend to read, and is she wanting to go to Oxford or does she prefer Cambridge?

Alice I agree completely with what you've said but as a general point it's not really fair to write as though A levels a few decades ago are the equivalents of today's. If you took yours back in the days of S levels then your grades would now equate to two A*s and an A, plus (at least four or five years ago when the qualification was still available) a Distinction in the AEA.

Molio, I've no idea whether that's right or not (surely grade inflation isn't that extreme?), but the point I really wanted to make was that all the endless ruminating and analysing and theorising on sites like this runs the risk of deterring able but unconfident candidates from applying. That would be a shame. ( BTW, when I told my French teacher I wanted to go to Oxford she laughed at me...."people from this school don't go to Oxford".... See what I mean?)

Molio, the third A is native language. Some universities don't count this as a subject. Dd received her secondary school education in another country. They have different examination system.

It is that extreme Alice yes, except that actually a single grade increase isn't extreme over a couple of decades or more. Perhaps you'd now get full ums in two subjects and a lowish A* in the other :)

I completely agree that able but unconfident students shouldn't be deterred from applying to Oxbridge or any top uni for that matter but actually there are always quite a lot of people here saying my DC got an offer with less than perfect grades or tutors saying the same so it isn't universally silly or swamped with people deluded by the idea that everyone who goes to Oxford or Cambridge is a diligent goody goody two shoes genius, that's just the MN caricature.

Oh I see star. Honestly, it sounds fine, provided she did ok in the foreign system equivalent of GCSE. From the sound of it Cambridge may be more of a challenge than Oxford, because of their thing about AS ums.