Grades, A*AA.
The standard UCL Law offer is A*AA. GCSEs sit in the file, contextual offers drop one grade. Here's how the policy actually works.
UCL Law
GRADES
UCL Law grades
UCL's standard A-Level offer for LLB Law (M100) and the four-year combined Law degrees (M141/M144) is A*AA. There is no interview and the Faculty of Laws does not publish a separate grade-by-grade admissions table. GCSEs and contextual flags feed the paper read, but the headline offer is the same across both programmes.
Standard offer
A*AA
All three grades at A-Level. Confirmed on the UCL course page.
Contextual offer (Access UCL)
AAB
One-grade reduction for eligible widening-participation applicants.
IB equivalent
39
Points overall with 19 from three Higher Level subjects, including grade 6 in any required HL subjects. [DATA GAP: HL subject specifics for current cycle.]
GCSE expectation
[DATA GAP]
No formal cutoff published; strong GCSE profile is read alongside predicted grades.
The A-Level offer
UCL Law's standard offer is A*AA at A-Level, with the A* in any subject. There is no required A-Level subject for M100. For M141/M144 (Law with French (M141), German, or Hispanic (M144) Law) the relevant modern language is required at A-Level or equivalent.
What A*AA means in practice
One A* in any subject, plus two A grades. Order doesn't matter formally, but a strong A* in an essay-based subject (English, History, Politics) signals well alongside a Law application.
[DATA GAP: Faculty of Laws does not publish offer-holder grade distribution.]
Required / preferred subjects
No required A-Level subject for M100. UCL states explicitly that there are no preferred A-Levels — the Faculty assesses applicants on the LNAT and UCAS form rather than subject combination.
Source: UCL LLB Law course page.
Resits
UCL has no blanket policy against resits, but considers resat A-Levels in the round. Strong recent A-Level results carry more weight than older retakes. [DATA GAP: explicit resit policy for Law specifically.]
Source: UCL admissions general guidance.
Predicted grades
Predicted grades are read alongside GCSEs, the LNAT and the personal statement. Predictions of A*AA or above are the baseline expectation. [DATA GAP: % of offer-holders with predicted grades above offer.]
Source: UCL admissions policy.
How GCSEs feed the paper read
UCL does not publish a formal GCSE cutoff for Law. But because the Faculty of Laws doesn't interview, GCSEs — alongside the LNAT, the personal statement and predicted grades — sit on the page when offers are decided.
What we know: UCL Law's offer-holder cohort tends to have strong GCSE profiles — multiple 8s/9s is common — though the Faculty has not published an offer-holder GCSE distribution. [DATA GAP: offer-holder mean GCSE 7+/8+/9 count.]
Compared with Oxford (which publishes offer-holder GCSE percentages 8/9) and Cambridge (which publishes a similar breakdown), UCL's GCSE picture has to be reconstructed from FOI returns and applicant reporting rather than from first-party publication.
[DATA GAP: cycle-by-cycle GCSE breakdown.]
Contextual offers
Access UCL is UCL's widening-participation contextual-offer scheme. Eligible applicants receive a reduced offer — for Law, AAB rather than A*AA — provided their UCAS form and LNAT performance meet UCL's standards.
Eligibility
UCL determines Access UCL eligibility automatically from UCAS data — school type, postcode, free school meals, care-experienced, refugee status and similar indicators. Applicants don't apply separately.
Source: Access UCL scheme page.
Offer reduction
For Law specifically: AAB in place of A*AA. The LNAT, personal statement and GCSEs are still considered — the contextual flag changes the grade requirement, not the rest of the file.
Source: UCL admissions policy.
Take-up
[DATA GAP: % of UCL Law offer-holders made via Access UCL.]
UCL has published some Access UCL cohort-wide figures, but no Law-specific breakdown.
What it doesn't do
Access UCL doesn't lower the LNAT bar, and doesn't lower the personal-statement bar. The contextual route reduces the grade ask only.
Source: Access UCL FAQ.
Strategy
UCL has no interview, so the grade picture — achieved GCSEs, predicted A-Levels — sits in front of the admissions tutor at the same time as the LNAT and the personal statement.
- Aim above A*AA in predictions. The standard offer is A*AA, but predicted-grade profiles among offer-holders skew higher. A prediction of A*A*A or A*A*A* gives a more comfortable file. [DATA GAP: % of offer-holders with predictions above offer.]
- Bank GCSEs as your only completed academic record. When admissions tutors open your file, GCSEs are the only finished academic data they have. Multiple 8s/9s, especially in essay subjects, are the baseline for Law applicants.
- Treat the LNAT as the differentiator. Because there's no interview at UCL, the LNAT does most of the discriminative work between similarly-qualified applicants. See the LNAT page for the offer-holder MCQ and essay averages.
- Check Access UCL eligibility early. If you're eligible for the AAB contextual offer, knowing that going into the application changes what "safe" looks like, though the LNAT bar doesn't move.
- Be honest about the M141/M144 language bar. The four-year combined-law degrees require the relevant modern language at A-Level. Don't apply to M141/M144 with a weak French / German / Spanish / Italian profile.
Sources cited on this page
- [G1] UCL LLB Law (M100) course page. ucl.ac.uk/laws/study/undergraduate-programmes/llb-law.
- [G2] Access UCL contextual-offer scheme. ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/undergraduate/access-ucl-scheme.
- [G3] UCL Faculty of Laws programme structure pages. ucl.ac.uk/laws.
- [G4] WhatDoTheyKnow FOI archive — UCL Law admissions data. whatdotheyknow.com/body/ucl.