Should DS resit an A level to turn AAB into AAA?

[fluffyhamster]

DS is in first year of a Maths / Computer Science degree.

He was predicted A*AAA in A levels but got AABB, which was a shock to both him and us!

He chose to go to his insurance offer uni, rather than gap year and resits. So he is now at a well-respected Top 20 Russell Group, rather than his Top 10 first choice.

One of his Bs was actually in Computer Science which he was hugely embarrassed about. He says he just misjudged the volume of revision required / left it too late so didn't know enough (as opposed to not understanding it).

He's started applying for summer jobs/internships etc but has so far been unsuccessful. Someone has told him it might be because a lot of the top employers look for AAA minimum in A levels as a pre-screener. Anyone know if there is any truth in this?

Theoretically, it would be possible for him to take his A level Computer Science papers again this summer to try to improve his grade. He was about 4.5% short of an A last time.
Some of the content is similar to his First Year uni courses and he still has all his notes/ practice papers etc.
I guess if he worked hard, there is even a chance he could improve it to an A*.

Any thoughts on whether this is a good or bad idea?

I'm inclined to let him try, as he still has a thing about how he feels he "let himself down" in his A levels. However if he did improve it to an A, then it means he will have the grades that would have got him into his first choice uni and I am worried that he may begin to regret not having taken the year out, resat and reapplied.

But equally, I'd like him to have the best chances for success in future employment...

Getting a first doesn't open up Cambridge Maths as a postgrad possibility. You typically need a minimum of 80-85% to be accepted on the fourth year/Masters programme at Cambridge.

I would seriously suggest that OP actually looks at employment data for her son's course. If this is a Maths course at somewhere like Exeter, Nottingham, Southampton, Birmingham, then OP's son is simply not going to struggle to get a decent job. In fact, places that offer financial maths options (such as several of these) actually have higher employment statistics than places like Durham Maths, which require higher entrance grades.

Perhaps a better option would be to go for a First and then apply to do a Masters at one of the Top 10 unis.

You do understand that there is no definitive list of top 10 universities, right? That what might be top 10 according to one list is not top 10 according to a different kind of ranking? And that even amongst the top universities they are not all top at everything? So a university can easily have a top 10 statistics division, but only a top 20 applied maths division, or vice versa.

You seem to be putting far too much weight on rankings. Some employers do have filters on 2:i/First. I do not know of a single employer that would definitively filter on institution, dropping "top 20" and retaining "top 10". This would be utterly meaningless, because some universities that aren't quite "top 10" overall are actually "top three" for specific subjects. For example, maybe Southampton isn't top 10 for Maths, but it is consistently top 5 for Electronic Engineering and Computer Science.

And, even if a university isn't top 10 or even top 20, that doesn't mean that there aren't some fantastic students graduating from them.

I meant the CS course as that is what he is hoping to pursue.

Top RG, Comp Sci 1st class grad here. Do not bother retaking. A lot of people, even at RGs do not get 1st year internships. Even the employers that say they do, don't. I was one of the few that did because I was sponsored by a company I did a year in industry between school and uni with. He will have to do 100s of applications to get an internship. No one cares about a levels after first year. People do care about module grades. 40% in first year can hold him back from masters later, he should focus on this. Risk of repeating a year is worse than not having a 1st year internship. There are 10000s of companies. He should look beyond the big ones everyone talks about.

If he wants to have a go he can but I wouldn't bother.
Law firms (not his area) want your marks in each subject in each year by the way as well as minimum AAB so your first year marks would be very useful and important but it sounds like that does not count for his subject.
Law does second year internships - paid - summer of year 2 often - and it may be as others say above this applies to his internships too. Perhaps check what the websites say as for law it clearly states you apply in your second year, not first.

He needs to move on and stop fretting nd being anxious about his B grade.
Focus on getting firsts thru his course
Look for other possible internships or work experience

In any case if he took it in June it so t help for this year's summer as he won't get result til August. Next summer his uni reference is going to be more important.
Is internship compulsory? Uni must have some back up options?not everyone can get the top ones