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Further education

You'll find discussions about A Levels and universities on our Further Education forum.

Probably failing an AS course - is there any point continuing it?

7 replies

BlackNoSugar · 25/02/2015 21:11

In DD's sixth form, they do 4 AS levels for a year, then after the exams they drop the weakest one and continue on to complete 3 A levels.

DD absolutely loathes one of her courses (as do the other students on the course). She has no interest in it and knows she is pretty likely to fail the exam. It's supposed to have a high level of discussion and debate, but with only 3 of them in the class it's a bit hard to do. In her defense, it's a subject that's not offered below AS level so although the course sounded interesting, she had no idea what it actually entailed until she began it.

She has already had one meeting with the subjects adviser at her college, explaining she wanted to drop the course now and concentrate on her other 3 subjects. She was persuaded to continue, the adviser said she would speak to the teacher about DD's concerns and that it looks better on CVs to have more subjects. Things haven't improved.

It's at the point where DD is really down on the mornings where she has this subject. She dreads the lessons, she's fallen behind, and the teacher has a go at her because she's not pulling her weight.

DD has asked me to intervene and speak to the adviser.

I'm going to get DD to drop a note off asking the adviser to give me a call when convenient. I really don't see the point of putting DD through another five months of a course which she's most definitely not going to pass. She could much more productively spend the time on homework and revision for her other three subjects.

Am I missing something here? Is there a good reason why she should finish the course? (honest question - it's a very long time since I did A-levels and everything's changed in the past xx years!)

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Runningtokeepstill · 26/02/2015 10:40

What does DD hope to do after A levels? With high grades required for Uni courses I'd be tempted to ask for her to be pulled out of the "extra" A2 course so she can make sure she's going to meet her targets. It would only be worth continuing if doing this AS would help to get into a preferred Uni but I suspect from what you've posted that this is not the case. If unsure you can check with the Uni(s).

It may be that the college are trying to keep the course going. If there are only 3 students then it's clearly struggling at the moment and maybe there are fears that if one pulls out then the other 2 may follow. However, if it was me I'd still want to put my dc's needs first. Your DD has tried to continue, is still struggling so I'd be arguing for pulling out before other subjects start to suffer.

BlackNoSugar · 26/02/2015 14:40

She does want to go to Uni, two of her other courses have quite a bit of homework which is research and essay-based (the other is Maths which is slightly different but also takes a lot of time). This particular subject has an enormous amount of reading associated with it, she quite literally has three times as much paperwork for this one subject than she has for any of the other three.

It seems such a waste for her to be putting in the extra time and effort for a subject she's not going to continue.

I will definitely push for her to drop it.

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MillyMollyMama · 26/02/2015 23:28

Some universities will be looking for 4 AS and others will not care, especially ones that want UCAS points from 3 A2 subjects. If she wants to get onto a competitive course at a university that rejects plenty of applicants, then there might be a problem. It will depend on the course and the university. It's not Politics AS is it? DD was sold this subject on a false premise.

BlackNoSugar · 27/02/2015 21:56

It's Drama. They want 3 A2 subjects.

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BlackNoSugar · 02/03/2015 13:47

Good grief. I've just had a half-hour long call from the adviser. All four students are having problems with this teacher, "it seems to be a personality issue", and one of the other students is coming to see the adviser this afternoon with his/her parents about the same issue. The Head of Social Sciences is involved, as is the Head of the College. And I found out that last week the teacher got in DD's face and shouted, with witnesses, for no apparent reason.

The adviser wants DD and her friends to meet with her to let her know what's going on "for ammunition" (which she quickly realised she shouldn't have said, and backtracked).

FFS. I am fuming. Angry

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MillyMollyMama · 30/03/2015 13:21

How has this been resolved? Only 4 students doing drama would really worry me!!! Loads did it at DDs school because it was taught amazingly well. Has she dropped it?

BlackNoSugar · 14/04/2015 12:47

MillyMolly sorry if I wasn't clear - DD wants to go to Uni for Drama, it's another subject that is the problem.

DD and her friend have met with the Head. There has been some kind of internal meeting apparently involving the Head, the Head of Social Sciences, and the teacher. Something has been done, as the teacher in question has improved somewhat - enough that DD is (reluctantly) willing to stay in the class.

Apparently the college drama class is normally 4-6 students; it's a fairly small high school, only about 25 students take GCSE drama each year. It is taught well and they are all on track for A's.

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