basic uni advice needed

[djones]

Hello,

I have a nephew who has had some disappointing AS results and is now despondent about applying for 2011. He got B (eng lang) B (religious studies) D (french) D (history) after he was predicted AABB. (I think he never bothered doing the work, though he says otherwise.)
He originally wanted to study English Language & French, but has looked at the ABB (320 points) needed and is now claiming he wants to do something/anything else. Needless to say his mum & dad are furious with him and he's not speaking with them. I thought I had better get involved, as they are getting no where.

Has anyone any advice about his situation regarding his grades/application. I have persuaded him to resit his french and he has agreed. Is it worth him applying for ABB courses or will his AS grades result in rejections? Could he use the D (AS history) which must be worth some points, as part of the 320 he needs, even though he won't resit it? Where is the best place to go for advice? Are there any resources that may be useful? Sorry to have to ask so many questions, but not sure if he will research things properly on his own.

should say - he's doing A2 english lang, religious studies and french. Teachers told him to carry on with french, do resit and then A level. The problem is he wanted to to do a combined eng lang and french course. They will now see he he got a D and will resit. Will that work heavily against him?

Thanks in advance,
Dean Jones.

Does your DN know what his predicted grades will be? If they are significantly higher than the AS grades he now has, he should have a chance of getting offers from universities with ABB tariffs. Lots of students retake modules in Y13, so that shouldn't be a problem except with the very top universities. He would do best by applying to a range of universities where offers will vary from ABB down to BBC level in order to guarantee offers.
The points from the AS History probably won't be taken into account as most of the better universities will ask for a certain number of points (e.g. 320) to be achieved from 3 A Levels.
Of course, he really needs to work hard to improve his performance ...

I've found searching for courses on Unistats ( google it )helpful because it's easy to find the nos of required points per course .

A Level English Language is a fairly niche qualification, isn't it? www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/ec/gce.htm

my dd got BBBD, the D being in her favorite subject Eng Lit and being very close to A's in the others. she is resitting Lit in Jan and has dropped psychology to concentrate on trying to get the others up to A's. She is looking at wider range of uni's now but hopes to get higher predictions for UCAS form, wants to get to AAB english lang/lit degree course.