A-level results, late ADHD/autism diagnosis and reapplying to UCL – looking for advice

[Milliondreamz98]

I’m hoping some parents here might be able to share advice, as I’m feeling quite lost about what to do next.

My child missed her UCL offer after not achieving the required A-level grades. Her predicted grades were AAA, so this has been a huge shock.
There is a long background to this.
Before GCSEs, my child developed severe depression and started counselling. Despite this, she achieved strong GCSE results. We were advised to seek ADHD and autism assessments, but the waiting list was around two years.
During Years 12 and 13, the depression improved, but school became very difficult. She struggled with attendance, motivation, and what looked like school refusal and exhaustion. Despite this, they still received AAA predictions and an offer from UCL.
In Year 13, things worsened. Concentration and study became very difficult, and performance declined sharply, with very low mock results.
After nearly two years, She was finally diagnosed with autism and ADHD, which likely affected their learning, focus, and behaviour. However, this came just as exam leave began, so there was no time for school support or adjustments.
There was also a serious issue with a private maths tutor, where boundaries were crossed from his side and we had to stop lessons about three months before exams, causing further disruption.
In the end, she achieved an A in English and a D in Maths, which was very upsetting given her earlier GCSE success in maths.
She still want to go to UCL. She is now on ADHD medication and is determined to try again. As a parent, I feel she faced many challenges without proper understanding or support during A-levels.
We are considering reapplying to UCL, but I’m unsure how realistic this is with her current grades. I also wonder whether her late diagnosis and lack of support could be explained in a future application.
I’m also confused about the reapplication process. Since she has left school, how do we get a reference or predicted grades for UCAS? Their grammar school says they do not support former students. Is this normal?
I would really appreciate hearing from anyone who has successfully reapplied to UCL or a similar university after lower-than-expected A-level results, especially where ADHD or autism was diagnosed late.
Any advice on reapplying and possible options would be very helpful. Thank you.

Would she consider taking a longer route but that will slow her to manage herself?

I know someone who’s just gone into teaching via an OU degree then teaching apprenticeship.

Id be encouraging her to look at psychology degree through the OU.
the advantage is she can start off slowly and as she heals can take more on and do as much as she can manage.

She will be able to study psychology with a B at a university
but not at UCL

Hi @Milliondreamz98 am I right that the current plan is for your DD to retake all three A levels this coming year after self-teaching? I think, as others have said, the difficulty in obtaining an offer from UCL will be what (if anything) teachers from her previous school will be willing to advise as to predicted grades if she is not retaking at their school. The usual offer for Psychology for UCL is A star, A, A so she would usually need those grades predicted to have a chance. I don't think any previous teachers will feel able to predict those grades if she achieved A, B, D this year. If she started at a private one year course, and had reasonable adjustments in place early on, then I suppose it is posisble that teachers there might feel they had sufficient evidence to predict the higher grades before the Jan UCAS deadline.

Psychology with Education requires AAA, and DD actually received an offer this year with AAA. Since she's already achieved an A in English, I thought that, with medication and treatment in place, it might be worth taking on the challenge of studying the other two subjects and trying to achieve the required grades. But I suppose that, with her current grades, it would probably be difficult to get an offer in the first place…

It was a private tutor and the offer they gave for math was a

Forget UCL OP, really.

encourage her to look elsewhere.

UCL will not accept a student that got a D in maths

Tbis isn’t just a good uni. This is right up there with Oxbridge and LSE

My undergraduate degree was psychology at UCL. It was very heavy on statistics - we were taught some statistical tests by the people who had devised them. Maths A level wasn’t compulsory then, as it isn’t now, but it certainly helped.

Apologies, I was only aware of the straight Psychology degree requirements so hadn't appreciated Psychology with Education was AAA. I can totally understand your hope that with medication and treatment she may be able to do better after retaking the maths and psychology and very much hope that this is indeed the outcome. But yes, I'm afraid I think the challenge will be in securing the offers on the basis of predicted grades. I suppose an alternative is that she retakes this coming year and them applies with grades in hand either in clearing august 2027 or for entrance in 2028 but appreciate she may feel that is a long way away.

I say again. She does not have to do psychology with education to be an educational psychologist, and she does not have to study at UCL in order to be successful later.

I see. But what if she takes the exams through a private exam centre and is able to get predicted grades of A or above? Would that help to offset or somewhat mitigate the D she received this year?

Yes, I know. But my daughter is really set on it, and since it’s what she wants, I want to support her as much as I can. She didn’t do her best in Years 12 and 13, but I believe that if she gives it her all this time and it still doesn’t work out, there will be other good options for her.

One of the crucial skills for being a successful ed psych is being able to problem solve, negotiate, find alternative solutions, and analyse. Being very intransigent or being unable to think through solutions is not what a good EP does.

She needs to more widely consider her options. What is non negotiable? The end result of the job, I assume? So get her to work backwards from that, armed with the new knowledge that the uni she goes to matters an awful lot less than she thinks it does (as long as it's a BPS accredited course).

OP my daughter's story is very similar to yours. She was predicted A*AA, got an offer from UCL, and due to a very late diagnosis of ADHD she got ABC - although the B (in Biology) was immediately remarked to an A, and the other A was in English which is the course she had applied for. I know there are differences - but she reapplied the following year, got accepted on condition of retaking the C subject (chemistry) and achieving an A and she did that. Her school did provide a prediction for Chemistry but with a lot of pushing from us and the input from a private tutor. So she has just her A and she is starting in September. Note she had actually started a degree in her insurance choice but she was so committed to UCL she decided to drop out and try again. Maybe UCL has a special appeal to people with ADHD? :)
in any case i would say given the late diagnosis i think it is worth trying to retake. PM me if i can help further

What is it she likes about UCL? Was she planning to live at home?

What the fuck?

Safeguarding report to any institution he works with and a report to the police, pronto 😳

Oh, that’s really good news! Thank you so much for getting back to me.

I was also wondering what you think about emailing the university before the retake to explain my current situation. There are a lot of complicated circumstances that I won’t be able to fully explain in my personal statement, and I’m also not sure whether my current school will be able to provide a reference or what I should do about that.

For the predicted grades, I’m thinking of taking the exams at a private exam centre. Do you think it would be a good idea to explain all of this to the university in advance?

Not going to happen
Been brushed under carpet

You, as her mother, should not be emailing the university to explain anything.

She should

I agree. I think we should use this year to talk things through more with my daughter and explore the different options available to us. Thank you so much.

Is this mother or daughter writing this?

OP - and OP's daughter who i think may have responded to me :). yes i think contacting the university in advance can only help. they will be upfront and understanding. My daughter called them on the day she missed her grades and got a rejection, and they were kind and encouraging and told her they did not care/mind retakes - so encouraged her to reapply if her heart was set on them. so i think calling or emailing can only help, it sounds to me like there are a lot of complicated circumstances that you have had to struggle against and i do understand having your heart on UCL so you may as well try everything so you don't have any regrets or 'what ifs'!

the more i think about it the more i think contacting them and explaining everything is the perfect first step. if they say no, then you will know and can move on - for now at least. My daughter was also thinking that another option would be to just take a levels first, and then apply grades in hand! That obviously takes longer but UCL wont care about that and as someone already said in this thread, they love people who are older, etc etc etc.

we are both happy to help you - best of luck x

Yes. Also she liked the vibe 😅

I went to UCL and my degree included some psychology. It might’ve changed since I was there, but I didn’t find it a supportive or easy place to be. I really enjoyed some of my modules and I do see the appeal of UCL, but it probably isn’t the place for someone who struggled with a levels. There are much more supportive universities available.

No not stay in uni accommodation but commute in?

Let me add my 2p - I did psychology at uni with non STEM A levels and a B in maths.

It is NOT that maths heavy.