Should DD retake A Levels to hopefully go up a grade to an A?

[HoofWankingSpangleCunt]

Hi all,
Apologies if this is the eleventy billionth thread on here Today, I did have a look and couldn't find anything quite right.

The situation is this..

DD got A in Biology and 2 Bs in English Lit and History. The Bs were a surprise as do all of the course she had been getting A s and As. She also got an A on her English coursework.
She also did an EPQ which earned her an A*.
Unfortunately her results were not high enough to get her into her Firm and Insurance choices (Oxford and UCL respectively) and she is now in Clearing . She has had lots of offers including ones from Manchester and Lancaster.

Obviously DD is heartbroken that she didn't get the As and now wants to retake. The Modern History tutor at the Oxford college has been in touch with DD and in one of his emails he suggested ( without pressuring her) that she retook History and Eng Lit and that his college would be sympathetic to her 're applying for Sept 2019.
The problems are manifold.... firstly finance. We would have to find the finance to do the two a level courses and have discovered that online learning would be our only options realistically. However we have been quoted a grand just for the sitting of the exams next year, on top of the actual course fees. I'm on an extremely limited income (Pip And ESA) and now Dd is 18 the child related benefits will cease at the end of the month.

Then of course there is the possibility that after doing all that her grade may not improve.
She us extremely diligent and self motivated. Not working hard enough has not been an issue which makes this all the more galling.
She feels that her current grades won't be enough to get her into the law firms/ conversion courses.
There is also the factor of the 'What ifs" DD has a tendency to overthink and I can see that she won't be able to accept this for some time.
She is going into school tomorrow to ask for access to her marked papers as I believe they are available online through the Edexcel portal. There is no guarantee that her school will be able to do this tomorrow and she needs to have her decision made by Monday. She needs to see where she went wrong in order to calculate if it's worth retaking.

I think her results are bloody awesome considering the crappiness of her school ( a whole other tbread) and I wish she could feel as proud of herself as I feel of her but i can see how upset she is and understand why.
I'm sorry for the essay, didn't want to drip feed but DD could really do with some objective advice to help her make the decision.
Take a year out and retake and hope to go up a grade or suck it up and go to a less prestigious uni and accept that it is what it is ?
Any replies gratefully received ( from me and a miserable DD)
Thank you!

Sorry for ťypos btw

The problem with this plan is, what if (god forbid) she still didn’t get the As next year? She could get a dodgy question, she might be ill when coursework is due etc. You can’t guarantee the As.

I would advdise going to Manchester, keeping in touch with the Oxford tutor, and keep the possibility of a masters at Oxford at the back of her mind.

She has done brilliantly, you must be very proud

How far off an A is she in History and English? I’d do a remark first of all.

On the other hand even in a worst case scenario and she doesn’t get the a next year she will always have the a b b. No ones going to take them away. If she decides to resit she can apply to a range if places in October presumably including Oxford again and that would give her more chance to consider the alternative courses and syllabus at other places in case she misses Oxford again. Only she will know what she wants to do but needs to reflect on the options. So difficult I know when she s had a shock. Is it worth just retaking the degree subject only. Would be cheaper with more time to focus on that and working.

Also do you have any decent private schools near by, in your situation they may be willing to help out even with coaching and exam technique if not a full course.

I agree that resitting in pursuit of perfection just seems so unnecessary when a) B grades are good grades and b) there’s no cast iron guarantee she’ll achieve A grades next time. I think the pressure would be too much. Oxbridge and UCL aren’t the be all and end all, as you know.

I know it’s disappointing, but I think there’s a lot to be said for taking it on the chin and moving forward (once the initial disappointment has worn off, obviously). A level results matter very little in the world of work and your DD could go to Manchester or Lancaster with a renewed determination to excel.

She probably needs a day or two to come to terms with the disappointment, but given all you've said, I'd be wary of resitting. Firstly, those are very good results and many good employers will be fine with those and a good degree from a well-regarded university, which both Manchester and Lancaster are (Manchester I know has good historians).
Secondly, saying they will be 'sympathetic' to an application doesn't guarantee anything come next year when they will be dealing with a whole new set of numbers and student results. It would be a great shame to incur all the financial hardship for nothing, when she could move on right now to a good university place and a very bright future. I'd echo the pp saying look at what each history course actually offers as they can have very different emphases, but many high-achieving people have not gone to Oxford in the end and still done very well.

Just in case it's not clear, the problem with the re-mark route is that Oxford won't, I assume, save her place whilst it's happening. It would save retaking if successful but obviously still incurs a year's wait.

Just to interject that A level resits do not require a whole year of additional study, resits are either before Christmas or after depending on the exam board. DS's school permit (and pay for resits) but doesn't provide additional teaching. This was also the case when I retook 2 A levels back in the 1980s - from an E to an A (studying half new texts in 3 months) for English and D to B for Economics. Even if this hasn't been the case at your Dc's school, I'd insist the school cover the cost out of their school funds usually available for discretionary cases, or perhaps lobby your MP?

Look at different courses, joint honours at UCL so Lit and Politics or History and something else. Normally the offers are lower for joint courses so UCL may still be an option. Then you can possibly drop a part after 1st year....

I'd recommend looking at grade boundaries and getting remarks with a copy of the paper. It is around £100 per paper, but you get refunded if the grade changes. Both DDs went up on A2 remark, one last year by 27 raw marks or something absurd like that.

The advantage of having the paper too, is that she could look at the papers with the teachers and see where/if she fell down. It could make it easier to decide about resitting. The whole thing took less than a week. Cambridge held DD1's offer open during that time and still took her after the remark.

Whatever she decides, your DD has done so well in such difficult circumstances at school.

Agree with potteringalong and Lenalive. Why waste a whole year redoing something for a couple of extra points when she can go to a great university and study now.

I would definitely be encouraging her to go to Manchester. It is a great place and she will have a great time.

I think if your Dd has set her heart on going to Oxford she will always regret not trying again. I do think it’s a good idea to request a remark. My Dd last year did this and her BBB went up to AAB. However she still needed that A. So we hired a tutor and shared the cost with another friend. They had tuition every week from September and a couple a week closer to the exam. The most important thing is to hire someone from a school that gets brilliant results and can teach you effective exam technique.
Dd also worked up to 5 days a week as well as having a very active social life. Of course closer to the exam she cut down to 3 days a week.
It’s all very doable and there is absolutely no need to go back to school. In fact it sounds as though she has gone as far as she can at that school.

Could she ask for her papers to be remarked? When I did my alevels I had mine remarked and suddenly my grades were back to where they were predicted. This was over ten years ago but I would imagine it's still possible to do.

What a difficult decision to make. No right or wrong, but the decision needs to be based on the best facts.

DD took Y13 with quite a high number of pupils retaking their A levels after disappointing results. Sadly, the majority of them didn't improve massively their results, although one did. Speaking to a teacher friend at another school, she said that the difference between an academic intelligent pupils getting A/A* rather than a B or lower often comes down to how well they understand not just the subject, but the marking and what pupils need to write down to get the top marks. If the issue at her DD's school is that the teachers know their subject well but not as much what is required to get top marks, and similarly, your DD knows the subjects very well, hence expected the As, doing another year might not change the outcome.

What she needs to question is why it is she so much wanted to go to Oxford. Is it for the prestige or because it offers something that she won't get at Manchester? Is her ambition to be a lawyer in a top firm where her coming from Oxford will get a better chance of a job, or does she want to be an excellent lawyer in a very good firm?

What would be worse for her, to graduate from Manchester and possibly passing by job that will instead go to an oxbridge graduate (even then she would never know that was the reason for the other person being selected), or retake her A levels and not improve on her results?

Personally, if it was my DD, I would want to know why going to Oxbridge meant so much to her, but if it does, then I would encourage her to take the year again, but would also find a tutor who marks A levels papers in these subjects.

Working and study should be feasible. DD worked evenings and week-ends all though the year until April and got top grades.

The key question is whether this email.was sent out to everyone who missed their grades or whether she was a special case. Press school to pay for the remarks(after all they get the bragging rights of all.As) and then I would retake if that failed and her heart was set on Oxford because you'll get tax credits and child benefit for her for another year.

And also it will give her a chance to look at other unis she might like that would take her with ABB (e.g. Newcastle on partners)

She us extremely diligent and self motivated. Not working hard enough has not been an issue which makes this all the more galling.

not worth retaking, in my opinion, unless she will be doing something different this time, and if you say she was already being diligent and self motivated, there is nothing she can change, is there.

There is no guarantee either that she will improve her grades, or that the college will still take her even if she does.

she has perfectly good results, no need to resit, just needs to find somewhere that will accept her with what she has got.

OP, sorry if I have missed this but does it have to be two new A Levels? If so, and depending on the A Levels, I would say this was tough but not impossible. Not being able to retake the same ones seems unfair though.
I completely get why your daughter is so upset and can understand why other people are suggesting other unis but it will not be quite the same for her. In some cases, it will make a difference later on as well. Not sure about Oxford but Cambridge offered a lot of help many years ago through Newton Bursaries and similar so it is worth considering that. One of my closest friends was also fully funded through her local authority at the time.
The HAT is bloody hard and she's done well to pass that. I'm a teacher and happy to help with any of the qs about A Level choices and retake, if I can.

She doesn't need to do the course again as such, just the exams really. You could enrol her at a different school or college and just make sure she gets entered for the same exams. Or get her a few tutoring sessions? She must be able to write fairly decent essays already to have gained a place at Oxford, but she might just need some one-to-one advice.

I was in a similar position nearly 20 years ago (although I hadn't had contact from the tutor-that sounds very promising). I lost my place to read History at Oxford as I got a dodgy grade in Chemistry. I re-sat Chemistry, improved my grade, but sadly didn't get in to Oxford the following year. However, I can honestly say that I have no regrets about where I went to Uni and it was the best time of my life.

These are good results. If it was my DD I would encourage her to accept a good place at a good Uni - which Manchester and Lancaster are - and to forget about resitting. I think there has to be a really really good reason to resit - eg grades not good enough to pursue the course / career you want. Or one result way off the others. I don't think it's indicated in the case. But ultimately it's yours and DDs decision.

I would agree with the viewpoint here that everything can't always be 'perfect.' She won't always have the opportunity to have another go if something doesn't work out as she'd hoped. Sometimes you just have to accept it, adapt and move on.

Your DD sounds very bright with lots of potential, I'd accept one of the offers that she has, they're excellent grades and I'm sure she'll be just fine.

Lancaster is well regarded for law I believe

I know she will not want to hear it now, but her A level results are excellent.

I think she will achieve little by re-sitting especially if she is having to deal with uninspired teaching etc. Distance learning won’t move her grades up. She will also be isolated from her peer group and may find the whole experience demoralising and demotivating.

Most people would give their right arm for a place at Manchester. Great University, great city and living costs are much cheaper than London or Oxford.

I would advise her to take the Manchester offer, work hard with good teachers and then maybe look to Oxbridge/London for a Masters if that is still what she wants.

Any employer will look very favourably on a CV with Manchester on it.

I know you say she has lost faith in her school with all the staff turnover etc, but - what is this newest History teacher like? If they have recognised that there is a technique problem, would they be willing to support your daughter individually to hone her exam technique for a resit? That's probably one person to discuss possible options with in detail, I'm guessing.

(doi not a lot of practical knowledge relevant to this all, not UK educated and eldest is about to do GCSEs so on the "learning curve"!)

Well done to her, and I hope she can choose the next step in a way that makes her confident in her choice.

Gosh,' I'm so sorry I vanished. To be completely honest I forgot about the thread for a day or two and I'm touched beyond words that so many of you took the time to write such helpful posts.

This tale has a happy ending .. from September she will be studying History and German with a Year Abroad at King's College London.

After winning one of the Interrail pass this summer she spent time in Berlin and loved it so much that she is seriously considering moving there in the future. My family are German Jewish refugees from Berlin so it feels rather poignant. We will be applying for dual citizenship from Germany under the Right to Return policy. Because Brexit .

So no Oxford but a much longed for return to her hometown with the added benefit of being able to live at home while waiting for the right accomodation. She undertook a 2 week course in Ancient Greek at King's earlier this summer so is already familiar with the place.

Imho she has dodged a bullet with Oxford, and like a pp said,vshe may have the option to do an MA there in the future.

I'm so so proud of her and delighted that this cloud has a bright, shimmery silver lining.

Once again, many thanks to all who posted, too many to reply to individually.

Peace and love
Hoof