Advice for DD re dropping French and Oxbridge?

[Polynerd]

DD is coming to the end of Y10. She is working hard and doing well, predicted 7-9 in everything... except French. She has a real block about it and despite trying her best is predicted 3/4.
We are considering asking school to let her drop French as I worry that getting her up to the level where she can do the higher level paper will adversely impact her other studies. If she does foundation level she can get 5 max.
However she wants to apply for Oxbridge and I don't know what their view would be. I don't think they require Ebacc but what would their view be of not having an MFL? Also she would have 9 GCSEs instead of 10. Would that bother them? Would they know that everybody else from the school had 10? TIA!

I think the issue with oxbridge is every top student applies there, it's hugely competItive. I'm not sure of the actual stats but it's something like 80 percent are rejected because so many applicants versus places.

My daughters school recommended her to apply, she elected not to, because she preferred another uni, which was one of the high RG ones. I didnt get involved other than to listen to her but let her make her own decision.

She's just come out with a first in law (stealth boast) so was the right choice. It's important they understand the teaching style and what it's like at a given uni, before deciding where to go. Had she decided to apply there was certainly no guarantee she would have got in, it could overwhelmingly have been a no.

That's why threads like this are always a bit of a concern. When a student is deciding where to go, but they don't even know what they want to study, have never visited or spoken to them, then it indicates something is off. The focus should be on what degeee subject, why, career path, a level choices,and then the actual uni should be based on the degree choice, where they fit in, and what's the right choice for their subject.

The ops daughter seems more focused on where rather than what at this stage, and that's not ideal.

Some really clever DC really are polymaths though, so have their pick pretty much of several course which they could handle at an Oxbridge level, so to some extent it's fair for a really clever DC to say I fancy Oxbridge and all it entails but I'm not quite sure whether to do Classics, History, French or Maths. But you would expect that sort of polymath to be able to handle all the diverse subjects at GCSE at a reasonable level.

Yes I agree on that.

I'm sure rhe ops daughter could handle gcse French. Let's face it most kids do, so potentially this is more she doesn't enjoy it and it's just focusing harder on her other subjects and letting it slip, which isn't typically top uni behaviour.

I think getting a "not fabulous" grade in one subject will not matter at all to Oxbridge! And I know a lot of Fellows there.
Well as long as she isn't applying for a language or Linguistics.

Whether she continues with the French or not won't make much difference overall in applications.
But giving up on something just because you afraid of "failure" says something else...

It's an interesting topic, because all kids have an element of this, the least favourite subject.

I think the concensus is it should not make a difference or a significant difference at application time, but any top uni planned student would be expected to easily handle ten GCSEs as a minimum and walk gcse French at this stage in their academic careers, as every year it gets much harder and harder and the workload heavier and heavier.

As such she's already underperforming versus her peers and for both school and uni that will be a red flag, that both you and her would be wise thinking about.

The line that she just has a mental block won't cut it because this should be one of the easiest things she will need to achieve going forward.

I disagree that getting one "non-fabulous" subject won't matter. A few b's in non-related subjects would generally not rule out an otherwise stellar candidate for an interview, but sifting out candidates before interview who have dropped to a very low grade in one subject happens frequently, at Oxford for sure and I believe (only from what I've heard) at Cambridge too. Not to say there aren't exceptions, but OPs daughter, as a girl from a well-educated family, studying at a grammar, with no additional needs, is unlikely to have any slack cut for her.

Having said that, I agree that it's a shame for a bright child to give up on a language at this point in their education, and I'd be looking around for a better tutor, taking family holidays in France, downloading Duolingo, etc... before giving it up.

She's just come out with a first in law

Fab! Congrats to MiniBluntness! @Bluntness100

Well I have spoken to a MFL tutor at Oxford who said a bad grade in language wouldn't necessarily filter out an applicant for most degrees. But then she knew how bad MFL teaching is in this country.

Sadly many bright children do not apply to Oxbridge. You only have to look at the stats from the North East to see that. Therefore it’s competitive, but it could be even more so!

For History, which is more competitive than MFL, they might look a bit more forensically at GCSEs as they have so many fantastically qualified applicants with high grades predicted for A levels. Why would you shortlist a candidate who had clearly given up on a core subject when most others hadn’t? I would hazard a guess that for Engineering, it would probably not matter. They are a bit chalk and cheese. I am all for not putting yourself at even the tiniest disadvantage.

Thanks @Somerville ..I'm delighted and a bit relieved for her,,😁

My lazy but reasonably bright dd3 did absolutely no work for her GCSEs, partly I think, because she had always been told she’d ace them. She came out with a handful of A*s, As and a couple of Bs the latter being Maths and German. The school told her it was pointless applying for Oxbridge, so she didn’t but having started to work a bit harder for A levels she did get offers from all the universities she applied to, ie Durham, St Andrews, Exeter etc.

In the summer term of her A levels she did work extremely hard and came out with 2 A*s and an A. She decided to have a gap year and apply to Oxford and she has been offered a place, starting this year.

So it is possible with less than stellar GCSEs but you are probably better applying post A levels.

Bloody hell Molecule the more I read these education threads the more I think ‘when in doubt, ignore a school’s advice.’ You get 6 universities to apply to, why not have Oxbridge as one of them, if you are at all inclined that way?

6? I thought it was 5.

Oops, 5 it is! That is a lousy memory I have.

On the dyslexia testing point. I have a DD with an offer for Oxford and she struggled massively with French at school despite getting A*s in all her other subjects. Her MFL teacher suggested she was dyslexic. Her tests indicated that she was not dyslexic. However, the assessor said that in her experience DD had dyslexia but was so intelligent that she was able to disguise it even in the tests. My DD dropped French and continued with German which she found much more logical as a language and therefore easier.

Yes, but she did an MFL and didn’t give up. I think that’s the point.