Has anybody got a dc who fluffed AS then went on to do well at A?

So pleased to see this thread! My DS is so down after getting CCDD - he knows he ballsed up a couple if papers, but thought the rest had gone really well! Predicted grades were all As and Bs. We are getting papers back where he is close to grade boundaries to see whether a remark would be of benefit. He has set his heart on a RG Uni, and at present isn't prepared to consider anything else. I am thinking that he may need to do some retakes next year ( Ditto to the bloody Gove comment earlier; not being able to get retakes out if the way in January puts a huge burden on them for June), and maybe he would be better taking a year out and applying when he knows his grades? He needs a serious chat with his tutor for some sound advice. Although he appeared to work hard, I think others on here have hit the nail on the head - maybe it wasn't effective hard work, and maybe some study skills advice and guidance is needed. Anyway, onwards and upwards ( hopefully!)

My DD got BBCE. (maths, physics, chemistry and Biology) The E in biology was a huge shock and she was really upset about it as she had planned to take it to A2. I think with AS BBC in her revised A2 subjects she should be ok. Hopefully she will get predictions of at least ABB (the magic combination) or possibly AAB.

She is really deflated because she worked really hard and had always done well in her biology tests before.

I'm in two minds about not having January resits. Even with my DDs 'E' I think the current system is probably better for her. She finds exams stressful and I suspect she might find it hard to keep up her momentum if she had four batches of exams over the two years.
She is not going to do any resits so will be able to concerntrate on her three A2's. I would be wary of adding too many resits to next years June exams.

It's one thing to resit January exams in June but to have a whole year gap would be much more difficult.

It's comforting to find this thread sometimes you forget what normal is when you are forever reading about the straight A* students.

Another one here :) DD was predicted AAAC at AS and achieved BBCD. Not the end of the world, however she decided in February that she'd made a mistake with her A level choices and wants to do something completely different. Now school are saying that she could resit and do more appropriate subjects. Part of me is thinking this is a good idea, but another part is thinking just go on with A2, work your socks off and do well (of which she's more than capable). However DD reckons that she won't get uni offers in her chosen subject with a predominantly science based set of A levels (although she is doing the subject she wants to do at uni).

Any admissions tutors around who could give me some advice? At the moment she has three OK AS levels, one her chosen subject, two in sciences. Would she get offers on an Arts course?

And, if they predict As and he doesn't achieve that, then he'll obviously not get his offer and will end up at a different uni to where he wants to go. It's upto him to put the work in and prove himself.

I doubt they'd do it if he wasn't capable queen. Thing is, he IS capable, he is clever but lazy.

Hopefully he's learned an important lesson this week and will get his head down and work hard this year.

.I think his school would be pretty irresponsible to forecast him 3 As

It's the helplessness that gets to me too Half. Considering some of these kids are so clever, they are incredibly dim!

No matter how often we tried to talk to DS, he was adamant it would all be ok. His arrogance is breathtaking, but I think he's had the biggest shock of his life so far...

I didn't mean to cross out half that post but perhaps better that I did.

Just wanted to come and join you in the parents of under-achievers club. DS has had a bit of a shock with his AS results (very over- confidently expected As, achieved Bs and a C). He needs much better than this to do what he wants. But his head is completely in the sand and his body is at an all summer party-- . His explanation for the grades is that everyone did badly this year and it will all be OK. He wont talk about it. He wont talk to teachers. He wont discuss retakes or remarks. We've ordered copies of the scripts but I'm feeling bloody helpless. I feel like DS is fucking up in slow motion.

My understanding is that it's impossible to improve on AS grades by more than one grade at A2 unless you resit some of the AS exams. Advice at my sons' school is that resits are often at the expense of exams being sat at the right time - ie, you may improve on an AS grade but the extra work needed may impact on the A2 exams so it often doesn't make much difference. And, of course, as others have said, not being able to do January resits doesn't help.

Having said that, the son of a friend of ours got something like DDEU at AS last year, but, presumably with some resits and a lot of hard work, has managed to get BBC at A2 this year.

Oh, and the Head of 6th form also said to carry on and apply for the unis that wanted As. So he'll do that and apply to a couple of ABB unis too to (hopefully) cover all bases.

School have said he can't re-do the whole year again, as his grades aren't bad enough! We've ordered his scripts back for Chemistry and will see if school think re-mark is worth it. He was only 2 marks off a B, so that might be upgraded (fingers crossed).

He can re-sit the two Chem modules if a re-mark yields nothing.

Head of 6th form is confident if he works really hard and impresses his subject teachers, then they will predict As. He's a clever boy but lazy and got complacent after stellar GCSEs.

Head of 6th form says he CAN turn this around but it is going to be full on. So; it's upto DS now.

DH said 'he's just had a gap year, so it's nose to the grindstone from now on.'

I've got a splitting headache from the stress of it all...

When I did my AS levels (6 years ago but it definitely doesn't feel that long) I got an E in Business Studies.

For A-level I re-sat 2 out of the 3 modules, got B in both of them. For the A2 modules I got A's (one was full marks and the other bit far off --gloating) which made my overall grade a B

Just be careful though, if she wants to do the subject at A-level, if the teacher gives her predicted overall grade as a C, the university may reject her because of this. It didn't matter that I had done really well and got a B instead of the D my teachers predicted me, I still got rejected from my first choice university because of that particular grade prediction--bitter, me?!)

My teacher only told me AFTER that if I had done extra coursework to prove that I could do work up the an A or B grade standard they would have adjusted my predicted grade, meaning I would have gone to the uni I wanted to.

So short answer, yes it's completely possible but requires a lot of hard work, and make sure the predicted grade her teacher gives her is high enough to get into the university of her choice. Again, requires lots of hard work!

My DD (now 21) did pretty badly at A level after good GCSEs. Mostly I think due to the lure of freedom and autonomy of college life.

She lost her place at her first choice uni and ended up at the local one, she also ballsed up the first year there due to working late in a bar and partying all night.

She ended up resitting her first year but it has taught her an expensive and time consuming lesson. She really pulled herself together after that and has got good grades.

She won a sought after placement in the US and is currently there for a year before doing her final year.
Sometimes I think they mature at different rates and have to learn from their own mistakes.

This is the first year when they didn't have January modules.
I recall in 2013, lots of DC at DS's college who had a full string of A*s at GCSE flopped badly in the January modules because they really underestimated how much work they had to do or got swept up in the extra curricular excitement. It was a wake up call and they were able to knuckle down and put it right by re taking in the summer at the end of Y12.
Now they have to wait a whole year to re-take. If they don't re- sit then their chances of high grades at A level are affected.

Hmm The trouble is there are no January resits and so unless you want to do the whole lot AS and A2n at the end of upper sixth , there is probably too much ground to make up

After a tough year and poor grades at AS, a friend's son went to a different 6th form and did a BTEC. No exams, all coursework. He is now off to his chosen RG uni in sept! It might be worth seeing if the course they want to do will accept alternatives to A levels.

DS also did worse than he had hoped (CCCDD) in 3 Sciences, Maths and Gen Studies. He also wanted to do a course with high entry grades at a RG Uni although has now resigned himself to considering plan B of applying to the very limited number of 'ex poly' unis that offer his chosen course although he will still need at least 2 Bs plus a C for them. We are also looking at Plan C which is a Foundation Course in his chosen speciality followed by a degree. He is still hoping, however, that he can turn it around and get As and either see if he can get into a RG through clearing or take a gap year and apply with actual grades. Nethertheless I have advised him to apply this year to the unis with the lower grade requirements and hope he gets some offers.
He is very bright but doesn't 'get' hard work and didn't do nearly enough revision - although he thought he did at the time. Only time will tell if he is prepared to make the sacrifices it will take and get off the bloody computer games

I am strangely relieved not to be the only parent of a child with less-than-excellent AS results (B, D, E, U). We knew the subject in which he got a U would be bad, but not how bad - halfway through the year he realized it was a mistake, but it was too late to switch to anything else.

DS is berating himself very hard for being lazy all year and is very upset that he will not now get into his chosen university (niche subject, so only on offer at a handful of places). He had had plenty of warnings, but thought he could pull it off at the last minute, as he did for GCSEs.

His form tutor told us last term that he know of other DCs who had turned things around after poor AS's - but didn't say how poor. DS will be talking to him when we return from holiday next week.

Another mixed bag here. Ds got A, B (1 mark off an A), C (3 marks off a B), but an E in Psychology, the subject he was most interested in, wanted to pursue, and thought had gone pretty well

Not sure what to do about the E, or what went wrong, but he will get the B and C remarked. Good to hear of dc who have gone on to get good A2s, after poor AS results, but retrieving anything from an E is probably too big an ask! Doubt they will let him carry that on, unless there has been a significant under-performance in the whole year, which gets investigated!

Hope it works out for you Remus.

We have a similar situation. DD is studying sciences. She needs 3 'A's next year. She did really well in GCSE, 5 'A*'s and 5 'A's last year.

She did badly in her AS exams this year. We don't have the overall grades, just the individual marks, which are mostly B, C and D and one U. She did get some A, but only in practicals, which she thinks don't count for much.

She is very upset, and as far as we can see, she did work very hard, but she finds the subjects difficult, and I don't blame her!

We don't know if all the results are down this year, or if it is normal to do badly for first year A level. Perhaps she just doesn't have the ability. We have an appointment on Monday in school to see what the next step is. She has always done brilliantly in school, with hard work though, and this has come as a huge shock. She expected to do badly because she felt the exams went badly, but not as bad as this.

Anybody else's child have a similar experience?

Chaos good luck to your son. I was that child I was predicted a's but got d d e as was too arrogant and did no work! I am now 31 with 3 kids and going to uni after completing an access course. It isn't the end of the world. I left college at 18 and worked had a family then realised what I wanted to do. A lot of people at 18 don't have a clue about hard work or what they want so don't try hard but it all works out well for them