Question: What Grades do you need at gcse and a level?

Evan Keane answered on 22 Sep 2016:

So I didn’t do GCSEs or A Levels as I went to school in Ireland, but sufficed to say that you need pretty good grades and in the subjects you want to do in Uni (an A in French doesn’t help you get a place on a Chemistry degree). Every university usually publishes the grades you need to get to get into their courses, so you can find it for any university with a bit of googling. That goes for universities elsewhere in Europe too, who will also say what A Levels they would accept for admission.

Of course some universities can be very competitive and you might need all As to get in, but you should check out how good the universities actually are, and in your subject. For example an ‘average’ university could be world class in the subject you want to do. A ‘world class’ university could be rubbish at the particular thing you want to do there.

Sadly also, in the UK, a big obstacle to going to university is money. I think this is terrible – the criteria to go to university should be ability, enthusiasm and work ethic, not money! So if you want to go to university in the UK be prepared to go into debt. I didn’t do that as university was free (in Ireland) when I went and when I went for more university in the UK I was doing a masters and PhD and you usually actually get paid (a small amount) to do these. Remember that universities in other European countries are often free and always cheaper than the UK, which is the most expensive in the entire EU by a lot. So consider doing that – you also learn a lot by living somewhere different and those are very valuable life skills which you can’t learn in a lecture or in a book.