Just how important are your GCSE scores?

Christopher Burlinson is an Admissions Tutor and Senior College Lecturer at Jesus College, where each year he helps to consider student applications for many subjects, including Law. Below, Christopher discusses the importance of GCSE scores and how they fit in to the bigger picture of your Cambridge University application.

If you apply to study Law at Cambridge, the Admissions Tutors and Law academics at the college you apply to will look at you as a complete person; they’ll take into consideration all the relevant information that comes with your application.

So they’ll look at your results at GCSE level, but also at any available evidence about your performance in year 12 (and beyond), any schoolwork that you might be asked to submit (depending on your chosen course and College), your LNAT, and also — if you’re invited — your performance in your interview.

Your GCSEs can tell us about your aptitude to study your chosen course, but we don’t generally have any set requirements at GCSE level (with the exception of students who want to study Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, who need a grade C or above in GCSE Double Award Science and Mathematics). On the whole, we want to see that you’ve done well in subjects relevant to Law, because that shows us that you have the skills to do well here, but we’ll always look at your profile as a whole. Most students who apply have at least four or five As or A*s at GCSE (7, 8 or 9 in the new system), but there are always exceptions, and we consider everyone very carefully.

So yes, your GCSE scores do matter, but by themselves they’re not make-or-break — they’re only one part of a big picture. And we’re always looking out for evidence that you’ve carried on developing as you’ve gone into year 12 and beyond.

That means that even if your GCSE scores weren’t absolutely perfect, you can still be a viable applicant: we will still look for evidence that you’ve made progress after year 11. Of course, we want to know that you have the necessary skills to study your chosen subject, but we also know that it’s sometimes only when you start your A Levels (or equivalent) that you discover the things that you really like, and the things that you’re really good at. We know that students can sometimes have a bad day, where a particular exam doesn’t go as well as expected. And we understand that your circumstances change at different times in your life — if there is a good reason why you didn’t do quite as well in your GCSEs as you might have liked, we’ll take that into account.

It also means that if your GCSE results were brilliant, we’ll certainly bear them in mind when we’re considering your application. But we still want to see that you’ve carried on working hard and developing afterwards — that’s just as important, if not more important, to us.

For more information on the University’s entrance requirements, including GCSEs, A-Levels and other equivalent qualifications, see the University’s website.

Do you feel there were important circumstances impacting your academic performance that you would like to tell us about? Consider including this information in your Supplementary Application Questionnaire (SAQ), or talking to your teacher or adviser about including it in their School/College Reference.

Still have questions? For specific questions about your application, try contacting the admissions tutor at the college that you are interested in applying to.

The information in this article is considered correct at the time of publication.