Hello! I am going into year 12 and I hope to study biological natural sciences at cambridge. as of now, I am going to do biology, chemistry, maths french. However, I am questioning whether it would be worth for me to drop french and substitute it with further maths. any advice?

I’m an international student for context. I’m doing 3 A levels this October, these A levels are related and required for my course but I’m going to do a 4th and possibly a fifth A level in May 2027, this one is not required for my course but I need it for other uni entry requirements (not the UK).

Is this going to be a problem as I’m doing 4 A levels in 2 sessions even tho this A level isn’t an entry requirement and it’s not spanned out over two plus years but just in like 6 months? Ik Cambridge has a problem with A levels being done over multiple sessions or years, I’m doing this is in under one year and I’d be done with 3 A levels by the time I’m doing the fourth?

My school only offers further maths at year 13, and generally people drop a subject they did at AS level to take it.

My subjects are Maths, Physics and History (AAA at AS -- PUM 90,90,88). If I take FM I would not want to drop any of these. Obviously I'd have to drop History but I don't want to because it's my only non STEM subject and I enjoy it a lot.

I want to apply for physics and philosophy at Oxford and I've heard I need FM to be selective. However, I'm afraid of it affecting my A level grades due to added workload and missing my offer if I'm lucky enough to get one.

I already got an A* in A level Spanish last year which will contribute to my conditional offer hence I will only need an A* in physics or maths and another A. FM might not contribute to my offer but it might also help for my interview. I could also drop it during the year.

What should I do?

EDIT: I don't think my spanish A level will count in my my conditional offer :(

I’m pursuing medicine as a high school student and am looking to apply to the best universities. However, I don’t really have a clear idea of what strong extracurriculars I should pursue. I’m currently doing hospital shadowing and writing research papers, but I’d also like to take part in extracurriculars that are highly sought after by top universities and are available in the Middle East. Thanks!

For example a guy from a private school with 60% 9-7 getting only 4 8/9 in gcse compared to average applicant’s 6+ for econ. Will this put him into a huge disadvantage even admission test can’t compensate? And how often does Cambridge use GCSE as a tier breaker? Thanks.

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I'm specifically planning to apply to the MSt in Music (Musicology) and would like to hear your thoughts and opinions as students already enrolled.

It's also a bonus to have some tips for me in applying. So far, I've done my research and even published some peer-reviewed journal articles during my undergrad years.

Hi! I’m applying to Bocconi and I’m a bit confused about the Grade 11 transcript requirement.
I studied under the Cambridge curriculum and throughout the school year I had very strong internal grades, mostly As. However, my final AS exam results were much lower around Cs and Ds.
I’m not sure yet whether my school can issue an annual transcript showing my overall/internal grades for Grade 11, but if they can, would Bocconi accept that transcript for the application instead of relying only on my official AS exam results?
Has anyone with a similar Cambridge background applied this way?

Hi! I am going into year 13 and am set on applying to Oxford for PPE. However, I am so stuck on what college to pick. I know there are guides and descriptions of colleges but I really don't know where to start. I have watched lots of youtube vids and asked undergrads but almost everything feels contradictory.

I would really appreciate a nudge in the right direction as I have a few questions.

For context, the parts of a college I value most are social life, good accom and active sporting culture. I assume the academics will be pretty good regardless...

I am curious how people picked their college. If anyone has any recommendations based on what I value. Also, if you have connected with tutors during outreach, is it worth prioritising that college?

Thank you so much in advance!

Hi! I’m applying to Bocconi and I’m a bit confused about the Grade 11 transcript requirement.
I studied under the Cambridge curriculum and throughout the school year I had very strong internal grades, mostly As. However, my final AS exam results were much lower around Cs and Ds.
I’m not sure yet whether my school can issue an annual transcript showing my overall/internal grades for Grade 11, but if they can, would Bocconi accept that transcript for the application instead of relying only on my official AS exam results?
Has anyone with a similar Cambridge background applied this way?

Hello, I am going to apply for physics and philosophy but I am unsure as to which college I should choose...

Why I'd choose:

• Balliol: social life, left-leaning, politically active, less pretentious and a bigger college
• Merton: one of the professors for my course seems really nice (he replied to an email I had about book recommendations!) and I'd like to have him as a tutor

Essentially I'm choosing between students vs teachers...

I have seen SO MANY posts by Y12/13s asking whether their GCSEs and A-Levels are good enough for Oxbridge. People are increasingly annoyed as r/oxbridge is becoming flooded by them.

I completely understand why - if I'd been on reddit when I was at that stage I would have been posting threads like that too.

So, I thought it'd be helpful to put together a big thread where students/alumni told everyone their GCSE and A-Level results and answer questions on resits/relevant subjects. I'd appreciate people replying and giving advice!

I did Classics at Oxford and graduated a year ago. I was predicted two A*s and one A (the A was in Greek, so a relevant subject!). I ended up getting three A*s. My GCSEs were 999998888888 - with 8s in Latin and Greek.

Anecdotally I know someone who got in with A*AB (non-contextual), though the B was in a completely irrelevant subject and his offer was AAA. He just rang up on results day and they took him in (really undersubscribed and competitive course).

I experienced (health related and domestic abuse) in my GCSEs an mainly got 7s,6s and 5s. For my alevels this continued and I went on a gap year to retake 2 and got A\*A. The issues at home were quite bad and I’ve wasted years trying to cope with the disappointment of feeling inadequate through sh.

This year has been really difficult for me as the domestic abuse I have been suffering all through my education intensified right before my exams. It got to a point where I had to try an move into a domestic abuse refuge and ended up having a panic attack in my first Alevel exam. I’m in a better place and was able to move out after my exams. I have written a really good personal statement and began some intense revision for the Tara. My dream course is human sciences at Oxford and I would be interested in knowing if anyone has been in a similar position. It makes my heart ache to consider what my academic trajectory would have looked like if I sought help sooner and didn’t have to deal with all this alongside balancing revision and university applications.

I am planning to apply to Cambridge for Law. I am going to start IBDP 1 soon (HL Maths AA, History and Global politics, SL English lit, French B and Biology). I was wondering if the super curriculums I done so far can be considered super curriculums and whether I should dicuss them in personal statement:

- Open university free courses : Myths in Law and company law in context

-Read Rough Justice by Wendy Joseph KC

-Completed a Forage Leo cusen virtual work experience

-Started a Niche crime podcast 'Systemic Sins where I research niche crimes and talk about them. From this, i discovered the duress defense used in the Harpe women trial. It isn't allowed in the UK for murder but for everything else it is.

So yeh. Should I talk about them in personal statement or try to do something better. I generally enjoyed doing these and I learnt something new.

Need some advice for supercurriculars to do, hope its not too late:
Want to apply for mech eng and this is what ive done so far
Warwick maths program, robotics club helper, work experience at a laser cutting company, head of engineering society and thats basically it. Im definitely lacking alot, anyone have any advice on what projects/books/podcasts i could get into for mech eng?

Need some advice for supercurriculars to do, hope its not too late:
Want to apply for mech eng and this is what ive done so far
Warwick maths program, robotics club helper, work experience at a laser cutting company, head of engineering society and thats basically it. Im definitely lacking alot, anyone have any advice on what projects/books/podcasts i could get into for mech eng?

hiii I'm an international applicant aiming for cambridge medicine and i have 3A* predicted in chem, bio and maths with a ucat score of 2420 b2. may i ask if it would be a safer bet to apply for colleges with lower average ucat scores or should i go for more competitive colleges such as trinity or caius? thanks so much

Hi there!

If anyone has applied and successfully gotten into MSc by Research - Medical Sciences at Oxford I would love to connect and ask a few questions about the process, especially about the meeting with the PI's and how I can prepare for it

im on my gap year

i got 87776664 (4 in lang 6 in math) my schools average grade was 3.8

for my a levels i got A* A* A in math chem physics my schools average grade was a C

im on my gap year ill prob get esat of 6+ which is average

im retaking eng lang

im thinking to apply for matsci-oxford , imperial - matsci or chemE and cambridge - natsci

ik my gcses r pretty trash i cba revising ibsr but do i have a chance at any of the courses i named?

i got 999998887776 in gcses and want to do something STEM related at oxbridge.

9 - triple science + comp sci + history
8 - music + maths (2 marks off) + further maths
7 - english lang + german + rs
6 - english lit

am i at at a disadvantage when applying to oxbridge?

Best extracurriculars for maths w philosophy? I’m going into year 11 and want to bank some. So far I have UKMT challenges (not AMAZING scores but def not bad), I’m on the school newspaper, I’ve been in the choir in the past, self defence in the past, volunteering for a year now and I’ve done bronze and silver dofe. I’ve heard that dofe doesn’t really mean anything in the uk, especially if I don’t do gold.

I know a lot of people say extracurriculars aren’t important if you get good scores and and do well in the interview, and I read a lot around my subjects, but I’d still like to have some for my application.

I've always wanted to go to Cambridge Econ and use its vast alumni and network to be an investment banker, yet my GCSE grades aren't good enough with number of A* lower than the typical 7. Therefore I've decided to pivot to this Medieval Language course which has 60% acceptance rate. As deadline is in 1 month does anyone know what I can do to expand my knowledge quickly? Besides is it possible to submit a pure econ PS on UCAS and submit a Medieval language one on My Cambridge Application?

Does somebody know the thing that differentiates students (apart from test scores) that makes Oxbridge want to interview them?

For law or any subject really.

Thank you!

Hi! I’m am in Yr 11 and my school is giving me the option to either drop or keep further maths. I am unsure what to do as I’m hoping to apply for Medicine at Oxford in the future.

I know GCSE grades are important for Oxford Medicine, so I’m wondering whether taking Further Maths would actually provide any significant advantage, or whether it would be better to focus on getting the highest possible grades in my existing 10 GCSEs.

Would having 11 GCSEs including Further Maths make my application stronger, or does Oxford care much more about achieving top grades in the GCSEs you already take?

I’d especially appreciate advice from current/past Oxbridge Medicine applicants or medical students. Thanks!