Do unis in the UK look at your pre-IB grades?

[Gem Fo]

Hey , 

so I am starting the IB this September and I want to get into a university in the UK.

And I wonder, whether they look at the grades you had before IB?

Last school year I had quite serious health issues which resulted into more than 70% absence at school and very bad grades - including Cs and Ds. 

This school year my grades are quite average, depending on the effort I put in now they can result into either As and a few Bs (even straight As if I rewrite a few exams) or a mixture of As, Bs and Cs. 

I can prove the health issues from last year, but I have no excuse for this years grades. Do you think its worth the effort or should I just let it slip as its the last month of the school year? 

This depends very much on whether the unis consider these grades as well.

Do they consider them? Are bad grades before IB an disadvantage if they choose between your and another applicant with the same IB score?

Thank you all.

PS: We don't do GCSE or anything like that in the country I live in (which is currently not Israel). We only get normal school report cards.

 

[IB`NOT`ez]

Based purely on what my university guidance counsellor said, "No. Forget about that."

I'd say if you perform strongly in the IB, anything in the past can easily be overlooked. 

[ChocolateDrop]

Generally, they do look at pre-IB grades especially English and possibly maths, sometimes they look at grades of subjects relating to your course of study... Like if you don't take a certain subject at IB they might look at your pre-IB performance. However, this depends on the university and the course. 

You could have the option of informing the university that you had extenuating/ mitigating circumstances. These are circumstances beyond your control that may have negatively impacted your pre-IB exam performance. Health issues can be classified as mitigating circumstances. On competitive courses U.K. Universities which accept these circumstances tend to only accept mitigating circumstances with evidence provided by a trustworthy reference, like your school or doctor and not yourself. I would advise that you get the evidence and present it with your application so your application is not disadvantaged by something beyond your control. Also if you take the IB and your IB grades are excellent it will look favorably on you that you have proof that your bad pre-IB grades aren't from slacking and your IB grades are great.

Good luck! 

PS: Sometimes UK university's  GCSE requirements are the same as the GCSE equivalent requirements (pre-IB) programmes. So if you see a UK university's GCSE requirements you can kinda assume it's the same for pre-IB qualifications. 

Edited May 29, 2016 by ChocolateDrop
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[mac117]

You shouldn't worry very much, especially since you have a reason for your underachieving. Universities take health and other issues into account whilst you apply to university, so you should be fine. In fact, even Cambridge believes that post-16 qualifications are a better reflection of the applicant's possible success at their uni. 

 

Source: http://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/applying/entrance-requirements/gcse-and-a-level-requirements-facts

 

[Sandwich]

On the other hand I know some Universities use GCSEs as part of their entrance requirements e.g. at Birmingham they don't interview applicants to Medicine who don't have at least 8 A grades at GCSE was I think the rule some years ago. It's probably worth investigating entrance requirements and so on, depends on what course you want to apply to.

[Gem Fo]

Ok, thank you very much .