From next year, Oxford University will begin to ask A* grades from students who have completed their A-levels, but only from candidates who wish to study Science & Maths degrees at their university. This new grade (A*) has been awarded to top students, and will also work as a distinguishing factor between average and top students.
Despite this change in selection criteria, Oxford continues to maintain the fact that this grade is not the only factor that they take into account when they select a prospective Oxford student for the aforementioned prestigious degrees.
Some of these factors include their A-level grades, the personal statement, academic references, predicted scores, aptitude tests and written work for some students for particular courses of education. Last but not the least, the all-important performance at the interview is perhaps one of the most important factors as well.
Other universities such as Cambridge University, the University College of London and Imperial have already began requesting for these grades in particular, but Oxford considers waiting for another year before they ask for at least A* grade in order to be eligible for any of the 13 engineering, science and Mathematics courses that are offered by Oxford.
And perhaps the reason for this hold is due to the fact that by 2012, teachers would have run the syllabus for at least two years, thus giving them enough experience with the content taught as well as the ability to understand how this affects student performance as well.