Should DC repeat year 13?

[Justbetweenus]

I’m hoping someone who knows about university admissions can give me some advice. DS (year 13) has uni offers ranging from AAB to BBB. Unfortunately I think it will be a miracle if he achieves these levels and possibly his best option is to redo year 13 and resit the same A levels next year.
How would this be viewed by admissions teams? I’m wondering if he’d be better withdrawing from sitting exams this year (if that’s even possible). That takes away ‘hope’, but he wouldn’t have very low grades on his transcript. He’s not applying for really top unis - but how would this be viewed by admissions teams? Would they care he sat them twice or would they only look at year 14 results? If anyone can offer any advice I’d be ever so grateful.

Unlikely he could do so at this late stage. Curriculums change and it is possible to repeat from year 12 rather than 13. Is there a genuine reason or just lack of effort? What grades is he predicted now? If he can get onto a uni course , even via Clearing , it may be better to move on.

I agree. I think at this stage he's better off sitting the exams and then deciding what to do. That might be clearing, it might be resits, or perhaps he wants to look at non-university options. Equally he may be offered a place after all, esp if there is a genuine reason for him not doing as well as predicted.

How far below those grades do you think he'll be? Is there a chance he could do a foundation year before his degree course? Or if he's not likely to get those grades us Uni even worth considering?

Kids do worse than needed for uni in their exams all the time. Schools would be very reluctant to let them just sack off Y13 and try again, because what would be stopping the floodgates opening and anyone who fancied higher grades having another go?

So I'm not sure the school would agree to it, unless you have a very good reason.

I’m pretty sure you can’t restart year 13 because you would be 18 at the start of the year and so the school doesn’t get funding for it. Someone more knowledgable will be able to confirm whether that’s right though.

Yes sometimes students repeat year 13.At my dcs school there are always 1 or 2.The school only let them do it if there is a really good reason why they didn't mske the grade first time round

How/where would he do it?
DD is taking a year off to do an extra A level due to the course she wants to do and there was nowhere she could do it locally and further afield there were Private options but limited and expensive. She is going to do it online but it’s not cheap and I wouldn’t want her to do more than 1

Lots of students do this and the situation just repeats itself....

What does your DS think about repeating year 13 ?

Unless it was due to having missed a lot of school this year, e.g. due to illness; I know mine would be dead set against it, having to repeat the same syllabus again whilst watching the majority of his cohort move onto other things.

If he genuinely thinks he’s going to fail he’d maybe be better off rejecting those offers and applying for a lower tariff course through extra. There’s always clearing though if he misses his current offers

I agree with others he'd be better off just taking the exams and seeing what he gets. He may have to change to a less popular course (if those are offers at not top universities I can only assume they must be very popular courses) or maybe consider a degree with a foundation stage?

I am a former admissions tutor at an excellent but not absolutely top Russell Group university. Our School’s admissions standards are very high. However we take the view that it is all about where you end up, and therefore we do look down on, or attach any penalty to, resits.

I don’t know much about the policy elsewhere. Admissions tutors are always happy to give guidance. If it is even possible for DS to withdraw from this year’s exams he might want to contact the admissions teams at his top choices to get their opinions. Email is probably preferred, as it is much the easiest at the other end. And such queries are always best received directly from the applicants, although if DS really cannot do this someone will need to step in.

However if you anticipate that DS will be a near miss I would recommend that he consider going ahead with this year’s exams. If he is in England Student Finance allows the option of a Foundation Year. Chances are high that either he could find a suitable place in Clearing or find a good FY place. If his background knowledge is a bit shaky, the FY year is a great opportunity to consolidate and extend his knowledge in order to begin uni with a newfound self confidence. Starting the FY with a clean slate in a new environment is often psychologically preferable to redoing Y13, which may be attached to a feeling of failure.

A major caveat: health always comes first and that includes mental health. If your DS is having any kind of health crisis I do hope he will be able to stop the clock until he recovers. If he must take exams now, I would advise a gap to regain his health before starting FY or repeating Y13. Too often pupils and students force themselves back into study prematurely and it is a downwards spiral. We see this all the time at Mitigating Circumstances Panels. Good luck

where do you think they would do it? my dc school uk state don't offer this (i asked !)

Thank you everyone for your thoughts and ideas. I’m just thinking of all the routes from here if he doesn’t make the grades and no, I haven’t asked him (he needs to work on Plan A). There’s all to play for still, so I think the general consensus is that he goes for it, sees if he gets into uni, and if not cross that bridge then. (And students do come back for year 14 to PP who wondered if that was a thing. Not sure how it’s funded though.) Thank you all so much 😊

So much depends on why he may not get the grades? Is it because he isn't clever enough?, hasn't bothered doing any work or he has had difficulties such as health, bereavement, trauma etc. Personally I'd only consider redoing the year for the final one (if that's what he wants).

If he isn't putting the work in for her a levels then maybe a course with less academic pressure or a job/ apprenticeship would be better.