Old A level grades
Discussion
Dr Jekyll said:
Obscure question I know.
But does anyone remember what grades you needed to get into university in the early 80s? Obviously it varied but I'm just after examples for comparison with todays offers.
Bare minimum was 2 passes, so I think 2 Es would do it, but to be honest that would not have got you into a University, maybe a poly. Generally minimum to get into Uni was 2 Cs, though better Uni's were after a combination of 3 passes at A or B grades.But does anyone remember what grades you needed to get into university in the early 80s? Obviously it varied but I'm just after examples for comparison with todays offers.
82 three Cs for chemistry did it for me (offer, not what I got).
School mate bombed his As, can’t remember what he got, might have only been a couple of Cs and/or Ds. He got into Brunel through clearing and then did a PhD at Cambridge.
My wife had an offer of three Es (was predicated to get much better and did). That was for pharmacy.
School mate bombed his As, can’t remember what he got, might have only been a couple of Cs and/or Ds. He got into Brunel through clearing and then did a PhD at Cambridge.
My wife had an offer of three Es (was predicated to get much better and did). That was for pharmacy.
Dr Jekyll said:
Obscure question I know.
But does anyone remember what grades you needed to get into university in the early 80s? Obviously it varied but I'm just after examples for comparison with todays offers.
It all depended on the course and the Uni. The minimum requirement to be allowed to enter tertiary education was two Es though. Oxford & Cambridge has their own entrance exam which was set in the first term of the upper sixth. If you got through that and the interview, your offer would be two Es. My wife was in this happy position. And so was a mate, who promptly bunked off school from December on his final year, and then returned on the exam days to cruise through them. But does anyone remember what grades you needed to get into university in the early 80s? Obviously it varied but I'm just after examples for comparison with todays offers.
Well I got BBC to go to Leeds against a BCC offer in the late 70s. My kids seemed to be asked for AAB/ABB to get to the same sort of place but all got in with less and interestingly my youngest has got into Edinburgh with BBB Maths Chem and Theology. Most Universities are now short of candidates.
BBC for Engineering at top ten UK (exc Cambridge, Imperial and Oxford) 1980s
But BBC in those days, especially maths would be a top grade or higher now for the equivalent content, e.g. were we're doing second order partial differential equations in A-level, but the early 1990s this had dropped to only those doing double math, and by mid 1990s not at all, ordinary differential equations being the peak of calculus content.
Also at the time I think a lot of A-Levels pass marks were set to give a distribution of 10% A, 20% B, 30% C etc etc., but of course only about 20% of the population were taking them?
But BBC in those days, especially maths would be a top grade or higher now for the equivalent content, e.g. were we're doing second order partial differential equations in A-level, but the early 1990s this had dropped to only those doing double math, and by mid 1990s not at all, ordinary differential equations being the peak of calculus content.
Also at the time I think a lot of A-Levels pass marks were set to give a distribution of 10% A, 20% B, 30% C etc etc., but of course only about 20% of the population were taking them?
As noted above, when comparing today, keep in mind that whole offers are much higher now, if you don’t get them then there’s a good chance they’ll take you anyway as there are way more degrees than applicants and the universities want those fees.
When I went (early 90s) I remember it
Being more on lines that if you missed the offer grades then you went to clearing for a degree at a lesser establishment.
When I went (early 90s) I remember it
Being more on lines that if you missed the offer grades then you went to clearing for a degree at a lesser establishment.
In the mid 80's I was offered AAA for Physics, Maths, Economics to go to Cambridge, however, following an interview about motivation and desire (I know that now but not at the time) at the college with a couple of the lecturers this was revised to ACC.
Course was Astophysics and Computing which I don't think was very popular at the time.
S
Course was Astophysics and Computing which I don't think was very popular at the time.
S
Mid 80s, after the entrance exam I was offered 2 Es to study Physics at Oxford.
Ended up with 3 x A, 1xB, and S level grade 1.
Had a mate who also was offered 2 Es after the exam to study English at Cambridge. He tried his hardest to get as close to that as possible - think he got 1 E and 1 D.
Ended up with 3 x A, 1xB, and S level grade 1.
Had a mate who also was offered 2 Es after the exam to study English at Cambridge. He tried his hardest to get as close to that as possible - think he got 1 E and 1 D.
Dr Jekyll said:
Obscure question I know.
But does anyone remember what grades you needed to get into university in the early 80s? Obviously it varied but I'm just after examples for comparison with todays offers.
I got into Coventry Polytechnic to do a HND in production Engineering with But does anyone remember what grades you needed to get into university in the early 80s? Obviously it varied but I'm just after examples for comparison with todays offers.
Physics E which I got an A at o level
Design D got an A in tech drawing and a B in metalwork at o level
Maths O as in o level pass got a B at o level.
4 years later I had a 2:2 BEng (hons) with an industrial.year. 7 years later I was a Chartered Engineer.
Failing to get into Aston who wanted 3 Bs to do Mechanical Enginnering was the best thing for my motivation.
Late 80s AAA for vet, missed spectacularly; got DDE. Took a 'gap' year before it was a 'thing'.
Unconditional offer from Hatfield poly for Applied Biology (4th best ranked in country, only Aberdeen, Edinburgh & Oxford Unis Higher)
Went in with first lot who'd come through new fangled GCSEs, spent about half of first year doing what I'd done at A level as they hadn't done them for their A levels.
Unconditional offer from Hatfield poly for Applied Biology (4th best ranked in country, only Aberdeen, Edinburgh & Oxford Unis Higher)
Went in with first lot who'd come through new fangled GCSEs, spent about half of first year doing what I'd done at A level as they hadn't done them for their A levels.
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