Do you need all A* GCSE for Oxbridge?

[Almostwelsh]

I have a DC who is doing very well at school. We are in Wales, which still has the old grade boundaries, so I believe there is less differentiation between the top grades than in England.

Noone else in the family has ever been Oxbridge material, so I'm unfamiliar with what is required.

DC is doing equally well in all subjects at present and is undecided which A levels to take, but is predicted As in all subjects at GCSE, with A* if he works hard.

He goes to a state comprehensive. Am I deluded to start thinking about Oxbridge as a possibility? Could he be penalised for it not being possible to achieve a grade 9 at GCSE (which I believe is higher than an A*)?

I went to Cambridge with AAACCD at GCSE. And the D was in the subject I applied to study. Was a mature student, though — I think maybe they can be more flexible in some circumstances than others.

Yes, I think that's atypical (well done though!)

DD studied PPE at Oxford with GCSEs of 4 x 9s, 3 x 8s, 2 x 7s, a 6 and a D. She also didn't have a string of perfect A* predicted grades. They makeboffers to 11% for PPE.

Music, sports & D of E are completely irrelevant and get a 1 line mention, if at all. I suggest your DS looks into UNIQ & Seren, which encourage state school pupils to consider applying.

Hey OP – well done to your son on his great PGs. Oxford and Cambridge are different universities with different requirements. My understanding is that a lower grade at GCSE in a subject or so (as long as not relevant to degree) is OK for Cambridge (mentioned this before but DS2’s mate went to Cambs to do maths with a 6 in Eng lang); Oxford tends to prefer a sweep of high grades but as this thread shows, there are exceptions even to that. And even there I believe we are talking 7-9 rather than all 9s – so a mix of A and A-star in Wales should be fine.

Very few students in any given year (excepting weird years like 2020-2022) will gain 9 x grade 9 GCSEs anyway – in ds2’s year (2019) it was something like 2,000, which would far from fill a year at Oxford – and that’s if they all wanted to go there.

I don’t agree with the PP who said they don’t care about GCSEs tho – they do – nor the one who said he needs to do music or DofE – he doesn’t. As other posters have said, it’s about passion for his subject and reading about it, attending talks (online is fine) and other activities to indicate his interest.

Be aware that it is a very specific offer at these unis and it will not suit everyone – a lot of work in a condensed time with a very structured tutorial system. My DD and for different reasons my DS2 would really have struggled there. But if it is right for you then it is amazing, without any doubt.

Have a look at some of the outreach the unis do to get a flavour.

The one thing you really need to be for Oxbridge is a hard worker, The pace is tough and so I would say if he doesn't put that graft in for his GCSE's you'll probably find a Russell Group University would suit him better.

If you look at the statistics, you'll see that don't need all 9's but there are lot of children with top grades applying and they will need to find a reason to reject most of them. Sometimes those people who don't have all 9's have other amazing achievements. For example, one of my son's friends, was on the winning team of the World Robotics Competition or there may be extenuating circumstances (eg close family member dies, illness).

Don't worry about D of E as a key to getting into university. It's really only supra-curricular activities that count these days (ie ones that show love of your subject which could be as simple as reading a book or watching a documentary). D of E is worth doing anyway. Just not as a tool for getting into Uni.

Some of the subject admissions reports for Oxford, show the GCSE grades at 8/9s or A stars and gives an idea but it is taken within the context of the school. Below an 8 isn't scored. The terms are very short around 8 to 9 weeks x 3 at Oxford so long holidays but a lot on within those 8 to 9 weeks both in terms of work and socialising. So it works very well for those with high energy levels.
https://www.merton.ox.ac.uk/undergraduate/admissions-feedback

I wouldn't say they look at extra curricular like DoE, DD didn't do that and it's very time consuming, but having an interest can be a good way to meet people once there, there's everything under the sun so any interest is fine and can be good for mental health. Having gained knowledge around your subject and showing interest is important but winning competitions is not. It obviously will vary on what your child is interested in and what's available but needs to be their interest.

Oh yes @Penguinsa I mean to say before but was posting in haste - I have said this before but an interest or social activity is so so useful at uni, not as part of your application but once you are there. It at once gives you an in and a social life which is really important. DS2 is very sporty and that is his whole world - fitness and activity, matches, socialising, living with his teammates.

DD plays clarinet and carried that one - gave her a social activity and allowed her to meet other people.

Can be music, sport, journalism, volunteering, uni politics, theatre (onstage or backstage), book club, crochet club - anything.

Admissions tutors are interested in whether the candidate can analyse and argue about previously unseen material in his/her subject area or take thinking about familiar material a bit further, perhaps in an usual direction. This reflects the tutorial system of teaching and at Oxbridge is different from the lecture system in use elsewhere.

I wondered if my DC's 5 and 6s in GCSEs might have lowered their chances of success, but yesterday someone in their (non-selective comp) school with far lower GCSE results got a Cambridge offer. What DOES make a difference though and what people don't seem to talk about, is the sample written work many colleges ask for -- I bet a lot of excellent applicants fall foul of this, as the colleges ask for it sort of off-radar and late in the day (certainly caught my two by surprise, and in one case the request had gone into a junk folder). Here is what I wrote last night on another thread:

Reflecting here on the difference between the two applications that went in from my home this year. A key difference was the quality of the submitted written work, even though both DCs often get very similar grades. The successful one submitted two typed-up teacher-annotated essays, c. 1500 words each. One of these had to be prepared and marked as an emergency in time to be included in the dossier, as there weren't many marked essays to choose from. The unsuccessful one, applying for a different subject, submitted two very short (1 and a bit pages each) handwritten essays in that subject. They had been produced for a 30-minute timed class test, and were full of scribbles and signs of hastiness, because apparently there was no other option, i.e. no take-home essays had been marked by a teacher in that subject. It was possible to say on the form that the essay was produced in timed conditions, and even to add a note, so that hopefully helped. However, I haven't read any advice anywhere from Cambridge admissions officers that students should ensure from an early point in Year 13 that they have two solid, well-presented essays, in their subject, marked by a teacher. I imagine this advice could make a big difference, maybe especially to underfunded state-school applicants, if any admissions officers are reading this.

(should say, in the context of this thread, that the successful DC had almost all 9s and a couple of 8s, but I am hearing that it's only really important, for Cambridge anyway, to have high grades in relevant subjects.)