GCSE Importance

They are not irrelevant. If you have crap GCSEs an employer will look on you negatively. If you have a string of A*s and As at A-levels an employer will be impressed, you will stand out! An employer will look at you CV for just a short time, first impressions count for a lot!
 
they are massively important. top unis will bin you if you dont have certain amount of a*. even at my job applications (for prestigious ibanks) they ask for them (though basically never talked about in iviews)....
 
this debate has been done time after time on here

everytime we get the forums geeky kids with 12 A* saying they are REALLY REALLY important.

and then the older members saying theyve never been asked for them and they dont matter

people are kids when theyre doing GCSEs. its everything after those that counts.

maybe they matter if you where jobless playing CSS and WOW all through college but for anyone with some sort of life experience/job the unis will look at that first.
 
Tend to just put 11 GCSE's (pointless doing 11 i know, but that was what we were forced to do) A-B now. Don't bother listing them anymore.
 
Cool, charisma can get you a long way too. A drama teacher at my school now gets normal teacher pay, but his grades were crap (ie E in maths) he just talked his way into every job he got and moved around to get jobs.

He was even a stipper in Ibiza at one point, but now after resitting his GCSE in maths at the age of over 30, to get a C or higher he can finally get pay rise to normal teacher pay. His assembly was really inspirational and shows what you can do if you just push yourself out there. grades or no grades.
 
Makunouchi said:
Universities will consider them when you apply so.... they are pretty important.
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My tutor said they give them very little consideration. Only when you're applying to decent med schools, Oxford and so on will it become a factor. I find a lot of the kids who done well at GCSE do pretty poor at AS/A2 as they can't handle this new freedom they've been given so I can see why it's given very little consideration.

Just make sure you get at least C in Maths and English as universities will often specify this. A C in Science would be beneficial too :) Good luck mate.
 
sniffy said:
My tutor said they give them very little consideration. Only when you're applying to decent med schools, Oxford and so on will it become a factor.
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The only med school that takes GCSEs into account is Cardiff.
 
Excellent and so they should. Except for my Maths and English, I got very poor grades for my GCSEs. I treated school as a social event so it wasn't surprising. I've really pulled my socks up at college though so to think I'd be denied entry to a good university (not excellent) because of poor choices I made as a kid would be annoying to say the least.

Good luck with Bristol dude :)
 
lozzick said:
Hey guys im just interested into how much detial you put on your CV about your GCSE's. I know many of you have degree or atleast A-levels and im quite likley to go on to do uni, or atleast i hope i will.
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List them if they looks nice, put 10 GCSEs or what-have-you if they don't.

Right now im sitting my final GCSE exams and im not too bothered by them as ive been told that at the end of the day as long as they launch you into the next level of education (i.e get 5c's to go to college) then its fine.

I am still trying to get good results but not busting a gut to revise like crazy. Im on A's and A*s after coursework but i have bad exam technique and expect a few of those A's to turn to B's.

So yeah, just how important are these exams?
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Not particularly important if you're going to go on and do A-levels and then a degree, but nice results always look good, as well as showing consistency etc.
 
I've got to that point in my career when my educational qualifications are completely unimportant. Relegated to the back page of my CV. Experience and Professional qualifications are all that employers are really interested in for me these days.
 
i've put down my GCSE's with subject then grades, but when i finish college they wil just be mentioned and this course will take over, + i can appempt to hide the low results
 
reply to 53 & 54

53 : the OPs a youngun though so your scenario is in no way related at this time :)

54 : yea if you have decent college grades its best to try and shun the GCSE ones, as college is more important anyway due to it being A) harder B) more commitment C) more recent.
I know people that just lie about GCSE grades because nobody really asks for certificates. I know some that lie about a-levels and get away with it too.
I should probably do the same since my gcses and a-levels are quite poor.
 
I still mention mine on the Curriculum Vitae, although I did change it in order to remove the actual grades when I graduated from Uni. Now it just states I have 8 GCSE passes at grades A-C.
 
peetee said:
I know people that just lie about GCSE grades because nobody really asks for certificates. I know some that lie about a-levels and get away with it too.
I should probably do the same since my gcses and a-levels are quite poor.
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Except that most employers have a clause in their contracts to the effect that lying on the job application can be cause for instant dismissal. If you think the risk worth it then that is up to you since it is probably quite small but it does seem like a pretty stupid way to potentially lose your job.
 
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