Any experience of DC retaking AS's alongside A2's?

[Lurgano]

DD of my friend did this. Got ABB at AS - applied for medicine at Bristol got AAA offer - retook all 3 AS's with A2's and achieved A*AA.

Not sure how it worked out practically at school - think she just did the revision herself and sat the exams. Not sure if all schools allow this? Or how Unis view this -- should you tell them that you are retaking the ASs?

I think it very much depends on the course & how they make offers. I think in many cases as long as you meet your offer conditions they won't mind AS resits. They obv would know your marks from first time round so wouldn't make an offer anyway if they were not deemed good enough? Unless the marks hadn't been banked.

My daughter had to retake one as she got a C and needed an A. She was invited to some AS lessons and revision sessions. I also hired a tutor as the teaching in year 12 was shit and we were the only family who hadn't done so for that subject. In the end she got all A/A*.

Depends on the uni, some sift on AS results, some on predicted grades. Can also apply after results and take a gap year.

Are AS re sit exams only in summer term?

yes

My DD is doing 2 AS resit papers this year. Her school recommend that you only retake 1 paper in each subject so that it doesn't interfere too much with the A2 revision. DD is just doing the revision herself. The highest mark counts so if the retake goes pear-shaped she hasn't lost anything.

DS is re-sitting one AS paper, this hasn't been passed onto potential universities.

DS is re sitting 2 of his AS Maths modules in the next couple of weeks before taking A2s after 1/2 term.
He put his actual AS results from last Summer on his UCAS application and was then told to put down his AS re-sits separately as 'results pending' so it was quite clear to the Unis he applied to that he was re sitting. He got offers from all 5.

There is now no option other than to do the re-sits in the Summer at the same time as the A2s Lurgano unless you re-sit a whole year.

DD is resisting 2 subjects
A lot of them are
I think it's normal

I can't speak as a parent, but can comment as both an ex-university (senior) lecturer and a tutor.

From a university perspective, if it's a competitive course (as mine was), most are not happy with resits and my old institution was looking at asking for the breakdown of module marks to differentiate between students who achieved an A/A* on the first sit and those who did so on a resit. That said though, it varies very much from university to university and course to course - ours was an extremely competitive course, with the department being ranked no. 1 in the country, so they were more stringent than most.

From a tutor's perspective, I see many students who are resitting one or more AS units. It is not particularly uncommon. Most don't seem to get much extra support at school for resitting, though a few are allowed to sit in the AS classes (which can cause resentment with current year 12's, if not handled well by the school though.

However, I don't know whether you are asking for this year's exams or next? Don't forget for students starting the AS exams in September 2015, some subjects (including sciences - my own area) will follow the new specifications, where the AS results will not contribute to the A'level grade - how this will pan out in terms of grades remains to be seen.

My DD got all 5 offers for her course (including I think a place/course you are familiar with Magrat) and did declare her 2 resit units. Her overall AS results were still good though initially but she is hoping to get extra points on her weaker papers to allow for slip ups on the A2 papers

hellbells99, congrats to your dd , that's excellent. It is both a good course and university (but I'm possibly biased).

Wow this is really good to know. Thanks

Thanks Magrat!

Should have added, I don't think I've ever seen it do any harm to resit modules. Most will find their AS modules easier by the time they've also covered A2 (and may be able to use some of the additional info they learned at A2). It also helps many in their A2 studies if they are resitting AS, because they have to go back and revisit AS material, check foundations are solid etc, which students who are not resitting don't do.

In general, ime there is more to gain than lose by resitting.

As I understand it:-
For an A* you need 90% at A2 and 80% overall.Therefore as long as you get 70% (ie a B) on your AS modules, then there is no benefit (and quite likely a detriment to your A2 performance) in retaking them.