CAMBRIDGE University have told a top Preston student who scooped SIX As at A level that he hasn't made the grade.

Mark Fryer, Hutton Grammar School's top A level student, was this week shocked by the snub, after celebrating his astonishing results.

The historic university told the Fulwood teenager: 'Sorry, you're not good enough'.

But high-achiever Mark, one of just a handful of students across the country to complete a double hat-trick of A grades, has been snapped up by Durham University, which was almost as shocked as he was to hear he couldn't study for a maths degree at Cambridge.

The 18-year-old had even taken extra papers in maths to prove he could cope with the demanding course.

But the university said NO - on the strength of their own Steps papers, Cambridge's in-house exams.

Mark, of Lightfoot Lane, said: "I was very disappointed when they turned me down because I thought I had done so well.

"I knew I had done well in the A-levels but the Steps papers were harder and obviously they didn't want me."

He added: "It seems a shame that I didn't get to my first choice university but I was told competition was tough.

"I can't do much more than get six As though."

He added: "On the other hand, Durham is very good university. I just think to myself that in the end it will be their loss, not mine!

"I am sure I will enjoy myself, I am disappointed about the rejection but what can I do?"

A spokesman for Cambridge University said: "Maths is one of the hardest courses to get onto in the world.

"We don't look at the exam result, we look at the potential for the student to succeed and that is what the Steps papers are about.

"Unfortunately Mark didn't do so well in those but we did agonise over whether to offer him a place. I am sure he will do well at Durham."

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