Do unis care about GCSEs?

[J@ffa]

Hi all,

I'm wondering about whether my GCSE results have much, or any bearing
on University places being offered to me. My plan (at the moment,
anyway) is to do some kind of English course when eventually the time
comes to choose, but I had a bit of a mare with my GCSEs and got an A
for language, but only a B for literature, which in hindsight I really
should have got an A for too. My question is thus; will my getting a B
affect my choices at uni?

Thanks :)

***@ffa

[Dr A. N. Walker]

Post by ***@ffa
I'm wondering about whether my GCSE results have much, or any bearing
on University places being offered to me.

How long is a piece of string? If you apply to a course that
has huge numbers of places and tiny numbers of applicants, all they
will want to know is whether you are breathing in and out; if to one
that is the other way around, they will use any excuse to try to avoid
making you an offer. Most of us are somewhere between these extremes.

If, when you actually apply, you have no certificated AS-level
results, then your GCSEs are the latest *hard* evidence of your skills.
In those circumstances, ATs will take any "puffery" in your reference
with several pinches of salt, meaning that [relatively] poor GCSEs may
carry some weight. If you *do* have certificated AS's, then those
will carry more weight, and your GCSEs are more of a sanity check.

In any case, what [sensible] ATs expect is not so much good
GCSEs and/or AS's as a coherent "story". If your A2 prediction is
out-of-line with your GCSEs and AS's, then we need to know *why*.
A frank "did no work, but has now pulled socks up" is going to be
much more plausible than a pretence that your GCSEs were the best
results since sliced bread.

Post by ***@ffa
My plan (at the moment,
anyway) is to do some kind of English course when eventually the time
comes to choose,

Then you can expect to have stiff competition! Most
English courses are heavily oversubscribed. They are also a
magnet for "mature" students, which adds to the pressure on
school-leaver places.

Post by ***@ffa
but I had a bit of a mare with my GCSEs and got an A
for language, but only a B for literature, which in hindsight I really
should have got an A for too. My question is thus; will my getting a B
affect my choices at uni?

One B, even in a relevant subject, is not a disaster in the
middle of a string of A's [and A*'s?]; if the rest of your results
are B's and C's, then you have much more to think about than just the
literature result. My general advice would be not to *worry* about
it, either way. Your GCSE results are spilt milk, whether they were
good, bad or indifferent. Apply to the universities you [realistically]
want to go to, and let them worry about whether they want to take you.