Little to add to the good answers already given. I personally got 12 A*s at GCSE and 4 As at A-level. Unfortunately the competition for many subjects, especially law, is sky high. You do need top grades and extra curricular interests are not a substitute to this, but an absolute requirement in themselves. Some people do have lower GCSEs, but as much as I hate to say it, that often means As, rather than Bs or Cs. There are some people with the odd B who have exceptional reasons as mitigation, however I personally am yet to meet anyone with below a B at GCSE. As noted, a C in maths is an absolute requirement too.

Sorry that this isn’t the news you’d like, but there are many other top universities out there. I am now in the legal profession at a top London firm and have collegues from a variety of universities.

I think you should go for it – you sound like a good student, and you will prove that at interview, you’ve just got to hope they think your gcses are good enough for an interview, which really depends on how much lower and how many below a B they go. anyway its worth a try isnt it, i mean few people have 6 unis that they want to apply to anyway.

i got 10 A* and an A, and 3 As at A level, but I went into my interview and said, ‘i honestly don’t know anything about music’ – but I still got a place because i could answer their questions just by thinking, not previously knowing the answer. my tutor said later that she admired my honesty! anyway give it a go, write a fantastic personal statement, then make sure your oxford statement says that you didnt do as well as you wanted at gcse but emphasise all the great things youve done since, and how commited to study you are – i’m sure they’ll be interested, and if not, there are LOADS of other fab unis, honestly. Good luck with everything.

Ok I’m not going to lie very few Oxbridge students have any GCSEs below an A so it is going to be tough to get in. Unless you have some mitigating circumstances tutors may just think that your teachers are being optimistic or as you say not as capable as a student with the same A level grades, but better GCSE grades. You don’t really give a lot of detail about your grades. Obviously, if they are littered with Cs and Ds as well as Bs it is really going to hurt your application. If your Maths GCSE is below a C then you’ll fail the minimum numeracy requirement for Oxford. Having a C or less in Enligh Language is severely going to restrict your chances. A B is a minimum requirement for English at Oxbridge and although you would qualify by virtue of having English as your teaching medium a poor English grade is going create doubts about your ability to write clearly and persuasively in the weekly essays that are the core of teaching at Oxbridge .

Selection is purely academic so doing extra curricular activities will not help you compensate. Instead you’re going to have to score very well in the LNAT and get very high marks in your AS levels. They can now check your marks so in your situation it will not be enough to just scrape an A. Cambridge tends to interview a higher proportion of applicants than Oxford does so it may be a good idea to apply to them as otherwise you run a higher risk of being rejected without an interview. Also if you checkout the test and sample works requirements at http://www.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/courses/law/tests.html

you’ll see that some colleges at Cambridge ask for some school essays. I suggest you apply to one of them as it’ll dilute the contribution of your GCSE grades to the decision and if your essays are good it may allow you to overcome them. That said you’re going to have to work hard at school to produce good work and it has to be good in absolute terms not just in relation to the rest of your school year. They’ll have to be in an academically rigorous subject so A-level English and History essays are a good choice and it goes without saying grammatically perfect. I know this is just Yahoo Answers but making a seemingly small mistake such as “proof some people wrong” instead of “prove some people wrong” may be enough to halt the progress of your application.

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If you want to know my grades they were:

GCSE: 8 A*, 3 A

AS level: 3 A

A-level: 4 A

Advanced Extension Award: 1 Distinction, 1 Merit.

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To clarify it bit more, work experience is in itself a good thing and it certainly won’t hurt your application and some tutors may appreciate as a sign that you are interested in law, but I don’t think it is the big factor as it is in other universities that look for a more rounded applicant. In that sense if you want to do something then do it, but don’t focus your whole life around getting into Oxford. Don’t worry about extra-curriculars, do it for its own sake. Using work experience to work out whether you want a career in law is far more important than getting into Oxford.