Are my grades good enough for university?

  Hey, so I read you went to LSE to do finance and that’s really great – what subjects did you take at a level and did you have loads of As and A*s at GCSE? – If you don’t mind me asking that is – I got mostly Bs and a few As and wanted to know if I have a chance. Great blog btw 🙂

 

First off, thank you for the kind comment about my blog! I really do put so much effort into my blog so it’s always really great to hear some good feedback.

I remember when doing my GCSEs I thought they were the absolute biggest deal in the world. Of course, that’s what teachers want to make you believe, as for some reason, even now in university, teachers seem to love scaring their students. They even tried to scare us with regards to Stats exams in year 8, which were so irrelevant they actually got removed from the school curriculum in England that year.

GCSEs are definitely not as big of a deal as I thought they were at the time – they do not determine your life. However, they are still pretty important for a few reasons. For the most part, GCSEs are important for helping you get into a good Sixth Form/College, which better sets you up for university. Mostly Bs and a few As definitely isn’t bad, and unless you have genuinely bad grades, getting into a ‘top’ university will not be heavily affected by your GCSE grades, what really matters is how you do at AS Level and what you’re predicted.

Of course, having great GCSE grades helps to paint a good picture for universities and I assume can create a cushion should AS Levels not go as well as expected; but if you can knock your AS Level grades out of the park, then As and A*s across the board at GCSEs is no longer absolutely necessary. I definitely have met people at my university who study very competitive courses such as Econ, without straight As in their GCSEs (but with very high A Level grades). I think the most important thing to remember is that your life is absolutely in your hands, and in a country where there are endless amounts of opportunities, if something doesn’t quite work out the way you planned for it to, there is always going to be another option! Never be discouraged, and always keep pushing.

As for me, at AS Level I took Chemistry, Maths, Economics and English Literature. I dropped English Literature at A Level as, despite my GCSE English teacher telling my parents I was ‘gifted’ in it a year before, my grades and coursework said otherwise. I was happy with my choice as I’ve realised I’m so much more of a quantitative numbers kind of girl anyways. For my GCSEs I got 9A*s and 2As, which were an absolute blessing. Oh, I also got one C in Drama… but we don’t talk about that (those were back in the days where my dream was to be a Hollywood actress).

Have a question? Relationships, careers, school – anything – I’m here to help. E-mail your questions to admin@skylish.co.uk, or fill out the form below to be [anonymously] featured on Skylish. You can also leave your questions in the comment section below!