AS gone horribly wrong

[StrawberryTree]

Picked up friend's DD's AS results last week and had the unpleasant task of having to email them on holiday that she has BCDD. What makes it even worse is one of the D's is Economics and she wants to do something along the lines of Business Economics at Bath or Exeter.

They are getting a copy of the paper with a view to a remark, 2 marks off a C. She's gone from an A in the mock to this D. She's really struggled with transition from GCSE (10 A's) to A level. But is very capable and got a place at one of the big Accountancy firms this summer (1 of 8 who were accepted) coming out with an offer to go straight after school or of paid work experience placements at University, would need ABB. Not all of the 8 got the offer, she had to undergo an assessment day.

She also did work experience at a bank and got a job offer at end (decided not her thing) plus was selected for a local work experience thing so she obviously is very capable and Interviews well. She worked her backside off for the AS exams as well so not a case of not working hard enough. Personally think she could do with copies of all papers to see where things are going wrong.

One of the problems she's had this year is her school couldn't accommodate her options so she did Economics outside school with a tutor. She will be able to do it in school next year for A2 which hopefully gives her better chance for A2.

Question is what now re UCAS? I've said she needs to see Head of 6th form and Careers woman (has been very helpful) when back. Another friend has suggested Easter revision course so put that forward.

Neither of her parents have been to University so I'm helping support her Mum through this as she is finding it quite difficult to navigate the system. Sorry this is long, don't want to dripfeed and I've NC. Am off out for day but if anyone has any thoughts I'd be really grateful. She's dropping the other one she got a D in. The one she got a B in not something she wants to do at all.

Can you say what the other A levels are because to do the courses she is looking at I assume one must be Maths. If it is not, she will not get on the course she wants anyway. Economics would not be the deal breaker but lack of maths would be. Difficult to know what to suggest without knowing other subjects. Are retakes a possibility?

History B, Maths C and Spanish E. I think she can retake but I think they can only do them next summer now at the same time as A2? Spanish is being dropped. Thanks MMM.

She will struggle to get her C in maths up to a B and will most likely have to resit AS modules alongside her A2 modules. This wouldn't be such a big ask except she's going to have to do exactly the same for her other two subjects to achieve the required ABB. Economics at Bath requires A*AA so that's out.

When she applies to universities, her subject teachers will be asked to give predicted grades for her UCAS form. Based on her AS grades teachers will not be predicting top grades and so she will have to downgrade her aspirations. She will have to argue her case quite strongly to get teachers to predict her a higher grade than her AS results and even then she will be strongly recommended to have a second choice Uni with more realistic entry requirements.

Thanks Noble giraffe. That's what I thought and there was a difficult moment when I spoke to her day of results in the end and she said she wasn't going to get into Exeter or Bath was she ? I had to say no I didn't think she would.

She doesn't want to do straight Economics but that's not going to make much difference at this point is it. Basically, has she got much hope of getting ABB at this point ?

Back when I did A levels they were just sat at the end of the two years. If she is resitting AS modules with A2 is that very different to when you used to sit the lot at the end ? Please excuse me if that is a very silly question, I haven't hit A levels yet with my children.

There are two main differences to sitting AS and A2 modules in one sitting and the olden days. The first and biggest problem is that the other students in the class won't be sitting the AS modules and therefore no revision time will be devoted to them in lessons, no past papers worked through etc. She will have to do it mostly on her own, in topics that she won't have studied for a year - students who do this usually hire a tutor to help them.
The second problem is simply the number of exams she will be required to sit. In maths, for example, she will have to sit 3 A2 modules. Then she will also have to sit whichever of the 3 AS modules she has the best chance(s) of improving her marks on. Multiply this across all her subjects and her exam period is going to be very, very tiring and stressful.

Being honest, if she worked really hard for AS and got BCD, (rather than it being due to illness or calamity), then I think she has exceptionally low chances of improving that to ABB. What were her predicted grades from her mocks?

She needs a serious think about what she is actually capable of, and what her teachers think she is capable of. If she really thinks she can get top grades, then maybe resitting y12 at another sixth form might be the best course. If not, she needs to be looking at less demanding universities.

Thank you for being straight, you're confirming what I thought. I see what you are saying about the resits.

Things went pear shaped when school couldn't accommodate Economics and Spanish. She got into the Grammar at that point and went for 3 days as found she was dealing with the jump to A level plus they had done this in Year 11 she needed to catch up on. Basically it all got too much and she went back to old school and parents got a tutor for Economics.

She was predicted A for Maths, B History and C for Spanish. School didn't predict for Economics but she got an A in the mock. At the start of Year 12 they were saying all A's then it gradually went down. When I heard the predictions I did say to her Mum I thought she needed to look at places with lower requirements as I knew how hard she worked. She has managed to pass a numerical and verbal test for Price Waterhouse twice so I'm assuming wouldn't be easy.

Sailed though GCSE's which surprised her Mum and I was expecting a meltdown. It's as if she knew she'd get into 6th firm so was ok about it. As soon as the pressure went on and she realised that AS results will be on UCAS, she went to pieces. I'm not totaly sure about the teaching in the sixth form either.

She is apparently even more determined to get top grades amd I had been trawling MN to see if there is any hope of pulling up that much as knowing how hard she worked I can't see it. I suggested getting copies of all the papers so the teachers can see what's going wrong.

I don't think she will resist year 12 as is nearly 18 and the idea of an extra year wasn't well received when mentioned before. Apologies, that is long again. I just really feel for her, she puts her all into everything but when it comes to these exams it clearly isn't enough.