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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To despair? Please tell me positive stories of your DC whose A levels went horribly wrong.

171 replies

MargoLovebutter · 04/06/2018 08:12

DS is going to tank his A levels. I’m not exaggerating or hedging my bets or anything like that. He is going to do really badly.

I’m struggling to understand how a boy who is academically able and hasn’t gone off the rails is going to do this badly but that’s another topic.

He needs 3 Bs for his uni course (biochemistry) and realisticly, he is looking at 1 B if he is lucky in music and there is a strong possibility that he won’t scrape Ds in two of his subjects: biology and chemistry! He is getting Es in all the practice papers and the teachers assure me they aren’t marking harshly.

He is despondent and I’m worrying myself into a small hole.

Please can I have some stories about DC who turned around from doing much worse than they were expected to.

OP posts:
FASH84 · 04/06/2018 08:15

My DH ended up doing an extra year at sixth form, resat everything at AS level which our him a year behind the rest of us. He did well at uni and now has a great job/career. He seemed to struggle with the more independent study at A level but that was enough to make him dig in and get on with it. Does DS still want to do biochemistry? Does he enjoy his A levels?

MorelloKisses · 04/06/2018 08:15

Me. All As at GCSE Ca at A-level.

Went through uni clearing and got into a top CompSci course came out with 1st class degree, tech in Funancial services career, comfortably earn 6 figures and travel the world

Bluntness100 · 04/06/2018 08:15

My friends son did. Totally tanked them. Two Ds and an E. Then did a one year HNC at a local college in biochemistry, last year, and has just got a degree apprenticeship with a pharmaceutical company and his degree will be in biology or something, so same field.

DitheringBlidiot · 04/06/2018 08:16

I can tell you mine!! At GCSE level I didn’t need to do any work in terms of revision, I am deadly serious when I say that other than the class revision sessions I did none. When I got to A Levels I stopped even really going to the classes, but I was so sure I’d be fine. I got one U, one B and one C. I took two years out and got a job, saved up some money, went on a few holidays and generally grew up a bit. Then I took an access course to get me into uni. Came out with a 2.1. Those two years out were probably the best thing I ever did.

Euphemism · 04/06/2018 08:17

I know a number of people who failed at school and went on to do well. Either through going to college first or through working a few years and returning to education later or through getting a job and working up from there via professional qualifications. Everything is possible.

There was an article in the papers a week or so ago about a woman who failed her GCSEs and went off the rails yet returned to education first to do nursing then later to qualify as a doctor.

BillywilliamV · 04/06/2018 08:18

Only me I am afraid, B O D but got into university on clearing 40 years ago. On the positive side it taught me an extremely valuable lesson as up to then I'd coasted . He will get onto some other course with those results but he might be better resitting. He hasnt written his life off though it might feel like it, it will all just be a bit harder.

Sleepinghooty · 04/06/2018 08:19

Do you know why he's doing worse than expected? Too hard, not interested, distracted?

A long time ago but I found A-levels really tough - I did similar ones to your ds and had straight As at GCSE, but think I didn't ever really get going with A-levels. My university - red brick with good reputation for course, luckily let me in anyway and I ended up with a 2:1. Obviously it is harder to get in now, but there may well be other universities that take him with lower grades or he could do a foundation year?

So all may not be lost. I'd tell him to just keep at it for now and see what happens afterwards

FASH84 · 04/06/2018 08:19

Oh not the same level but at GCSE I got an E in my maths mock, I got an A*. Although my maths teacher said to me after my mock, 'this isn't English or languages you can't just waltz in and get the top mark, you need to work at it' so no idea if he'd downgraded me, but it terrified the bejeezus out of me and I got a bit teary when I opened my results and I got a good mark. (Yes I'm.old we had to go in and collect paper envelopes!)

Wearelocal · 04/06/2018 08:20

Sibling- straight As at GCSE, messed up A levels. Did an extra year and got grades for the uni wanted and is a successful lawyer. Some people struggle with the switch to A level, especially if they found GCSEs easy and didn't have to study hard to achieve them. Don't worry. See what the results are and plan next year in anticipation of bad results.

Foxyloxy1plus1 · 04/06/2018 08:21

If he is able academically and is focused, what is going wrong for him? Is he (and you) sure that he wants to go to university and do that course? It sounds as though music is the one that he enjoys more, if he’s likely to get a better mark.

I’m assuming this is Year 12. If it’s year 13, he may have to rethink his options. I’d want to know too, why at the end of the course, this hadn’t been flagged before. I don’t have experience of this with my own, but did teach for years. Sometimes, what appears to be a disaster, turns out to be a blessing in disguise.

FindoGask · 04/06/2018 08:23

Not a child but my younger brother failed all his A-levels. My dad was such an ogre that my brother and mum conspired to keep this from him somehow - still not sure how they managed that, but they did manage it, for a year. He did casual jobs for a bit then got a modern apprenticeship for an engineering company and now he earns about three times what I do!

CoraPirbright · 04/06/2018 08:26

Has he already taken them? Sorry - my children are much younger so I am a bit out of touch on dates. Are there any days left? I would get a tutor. A friend’s dd was tanking on her science - a few sessions with a good tutor really really helped!

Original poster
MargoLovebutter · 04/06/2018 08:28

Thank you. I don’t understand what has gone so wrong. He got Mostly As, A stars st GCSES with 2 Bs, so he is clearly not stupid. He coasted in year 12 and got a C and 2 Es in his AS exams but he had done NO revision, so I thought he just needed to pull his finger out, which was the view of his teachers too.

But year 13 has felt like an awful downwards journey and he grew to hate biology particularly and just couldn’t seem to up his game, despite diligent completion of homework. He seems completely overwhelmed.

OP posts:
danro · 04/06/2018 08:30

Yes. Me!

I worked reasonably hard for my GCSE’s and got a mix of A*s and A’s but thought I could get away with doing the same amount of revision and work for my AS levels. I had a huge shock when I received an E and two D’s on results day - resat in the January and pulled my socks up for the next year and managed to turn it around and ended up with an A and two Bs by the end of my A levels.

A levels are really difficult and I certainly wasn’t prepared for the step up from GCSEs but it’s not the end of the world if your son doesn’t do as well as expected this year.

DaphneduM · 04/06/2018 08:30

My child flunked her A levels, only getting Business Studies in the end. She is very bright, but seemed to disengage at college and bunked off a lot. We tried to address the core issues but got nowhere. She did a few low level jobs but has now got a very good job in insurance. Once she made up her mind to improve herself, she got on the case. It's sad that your boy is really trying to do well, could the school help with some extra support?

PanGalaticGargleBlaster · 04/06/2018 08:35

I completely bombed my A Levels because I was a cocky lazy twat. I had winged my mock exams with minimum revision and got As and Bs which gave me a ridiculous level of false confidence by the time the real thing came along. A 'C' and two 'E' later I had to rethink my life somewhat as I did not have the grades to get into my first choice unis

I got an office dogsboddy job and re sat my A levels about 4 months later studying during the evenings via a 'crammer' college and reapplied to uni for the following year. With an unconditional offer in my back pocket I worked for the rest of the year and actually put together a decent lump of money. I used a bit of it to spend 4 weeks backpacking on my own around Morocco before heading to Bristol to study engineering. Although I thought it was an unrecoverable disaster at the time in hindsight I would not change what happened. That year out made me grow up an awful lot and take a bit more responsibility. Twenty years later I am now a lead engineer for a an oil and gas operator and experienced working on five continents.

TrueBlue22 · 04/06/2018 08:38

I did well in my GCSEs, got all C's in A-levels as I just wasn't interested. Somehow into uni (applied because I was told I had to), but after a year found I hated it and quit. 7 years on I now have a really good job earning more than some of my uni educated friends, less debt than them and more work experience.

ShakeShakeTheMuffin · 04/06/2018 08:38

I got very good O levels. Mainly As and Bs. Got CCE for my A levels (too many nights out). Ended up doing my degree in my E subject!

tealandteal · 04/06/2018 08:39

Not DC but my DH had health problems during first year of A levels and freely admits he couldn't be bothered in second year. Scraped through, I think he has a D in Chemistry but got in to University somehow (clearing?) to study Chemistry. He really applied himself and graduated 1St in his class with a masters, went on to do his PhD in Chemistry and then teach A levels! He is now doing post doctoral research.

TheFifthKey · 04/06/2018 08:39

20 years ago my exH got an E on his A level Physics. He was going to give up on uni but his persistent teacher put a phone on his hand and made him ring around for clearing places. He got into a decent uni (to do Physics!), ended up with a Masters and now teaches physics...with that same teacher as his head of department. He’d written himself off but all it took was one person who hadn’t.

Tryagaintomorrow · 04/06/2018 08:41

Don’t worry, I got mostly As at GCSE, did pretty rubbish at A level, think it was a couple C’s and an E.
Went to uni, got a 2:2 - a ‘social’ degree
Now I’ve got a MSc with merit in a well paying Job.

He’s obviously smart if he did well at GCSEs but probably just fed up - I was.
GCSE to a level was a big jump, but found a level to degree pretty similar!

MatildaTheCat · 04/06/2018 08:45

DN did extremely well in his GCSEs and then went on to do science and maths A levels. He struggled from the start and did badly in his AS levels. He moved to another school and started the IB doing different subjects, concentrating on arts subjects.

He’s now at a world class university on a prestigious scholarship.

Best of luck to your ds, it’s very tough to be in that position but to work out what went wrong and try again is fine.

DamnCommandments · 04/06/2018 08:45

My SIL was a couple of years ahead of me at school. She got D, E and U. Then got a job with Scope, caring for disabled children. She's now Head of Department for SEN at a huge, high pressure sixth form college. She did OU courses in the evenings up to Masters level in the end. She's amazing. It probably feels shit now, but it's not the end of the world - you don't have to do what everyone else does.

StephenStrange · 04/06/2018 08:48

I was the same as your son and most other posters on here, didn’t need to revise at all for GCSEs and was able to get A/A*s off minimal effort. Obviously A levels were a massive shock to the system, possibly because I never learnt how to revise or even learn, I’d gone through school just absorbing information not really having to try. Anyway, I came out with pretty poor results, didn’t completely fail but they were far off the grades any uni would want. I ended up taking 2 years out to work and then doing a university accredited degree at a local college. Doing that totally boosted my confidence again, it was something that I was interested in and I was able to get top grades again.
I’m now in academia as a result of that, I went on to do a masters from a red brick uni so my crappy A levels and less than red brick first degree didn’t hold me back.
Honestly, the few years out helped me a lot in terms of maturity and experience so I’m happy that things went the way they did. Your son will be fine! Might not feel like it now but he willSmile

Curious2468 · 04/06/2018 08:48

I messed up my a-levels spectacularly (predicted 3 As initially and ended up with a B, C, D.) Lost out on an offer from Cambridge and various other back up places and went through clearing.

Honestly, best thing ever for so many reasons. I ended up near my boyfriends uni who I ended up marrying and having 2 lovely children with. Loved the uni and everything about it and it was a really good ‘fit’ (Cambridge really wouldn’t have been). And ended up being top of my year in the first year and doing exceptionally well in my exams and came out with a very solid first class biology degree.

Seriously it is one blip. He could retake some if needed or simply find another route in to whatever he is interested it. It could lead him down a completely different path than could ultimately be so much better for him in the long run. All he can do at this point is try his best and re-evaluate once he knows where he stands :)

Good luck!!