A'level resit.Where to start?

[cobhamhall]

DD needs to resit A'level chemistry.Got a B .Other grades were AA. Plans to reapply for Medicine .
Went to a Grammar but unable to resit there.
Where do I start??We live in NW London.Concerned about the cost!
Any help appreciated.

I came on to say at the school she sat her original exam at. My ds will resit his maths, also a B, was expecting an A/A star. (his grade wasn't a shock though as he completely missed, (as in just didn't see them!) the last 5 questions on paper 1)

Also at a grammar. At his school you sit at the normal June sitting the following year as an external candidate. I think the school said it was a couple of hundred quid.

I can't fathom why school don't offer resits. You can take them as an external candidate anywhere that offers them, you just have to pay. And find where they'll take you!

Good luck. Bloody stressful. How is your daughter doing?

Any particular reason why the school won't let DD sit it there? I had to resit one of my A-levels and did it as an external candidate at my school.

In terms of sitting the exams, your DD will be able to do this at any centre that accepts private candidates (not all schools / colleges do, as you’ve found - I know it’s frustrating when it’s her old school though). If you look at the JCQ website (Google JCQ private candidates) you should be able to see options in your local area. Good luck.

Try Brampton College in Hendon - it’s private but achieves very good results. If you phone them they’ll let you know what sort of cost would be involved for a single subject retake.

I've just registered to answer this. 20+ years ago this was me.
(Although I got worse grades and needed to resit 2).
My parents couldn't afford to send me to a private college/crammer which is what most people seemed to do.
My school (also a grammar) didn't do resits.
We found a sixth form college which did A levels in a year for resitters.
It was great. I was from a little village and had always had a school coach etc; I had definitely been sheltered - I had to get a bus and a train to the college, I was in classes with a completely different range of people than I was used to... also I was "the clever one" in that I had Cs and they all had Es or Us which was a boost to my confidence.
I am so glad I did it. It was a brilliant "in between" step for me and really prepared me for uni.
I'm pretty sure Woodhouse college does resits and that has a great reputation.
(I now live in N London. I've been a doctor for 20+ years. A level results day was terrible for me but I'm glad in retrospect for everything that happened. And I also do stuff with med school admissions - re-applicants have a higher offer rate and nearly all medical schools are happy with resits...)

I assume she's checked the med schools she wants will accept resits -
many don't.

For a science a pass is also needed in the practical bit, so wherever you find to facilitate the exam will also need to sort this. FE colleges are likely to be a good option.

She could work for a year and use some of the money to fund a private Chemistry tutor in the evenings. You can pay to take exams externally at most schools, it shouldn't be an issue.

@Bunnyannesummers I would assume she has already passed the practical component so would not need to resit that.

Has she checked that the university/universities she wants to attend will accept resits? Many don't, and medicine is an extremely competitive course.

She needs to check the resit status of the med school. I know a number of people who've resat (not for medicine) and they went one of two routes - private with the DC working to fund the fees (or parents paying) MPW are rated as Brampton mentioned by a PP above. The issue with Chemistry is having to do a practical exam so applying as an independent extrenal candidate is tricky. The other route was to find an FE college or sixth form that offered the same syllabus/board and repeating year 13 in the resit subject.

In either case I'd recommend she looks for part time work that would support a med school application - care home or taking the (v straightforward) HCP course and working in a health setting.

I'm not sure why people are advising now to look at medical schools. A lot of medical schools will accept resits - and she'll just have to apply to ones that do. If she wants to do medicine, med school choices are very much dependent on lots of factors (GCSEs in some cases, entirely on UCAT in some cases, weighted ucat in other cases) and it's rare to have "choice" in the way others do... This is just another factor in that equation.

If the OPs child is already limited in her choices (GCSE results, UCAT, even down to location for example) there's nothing wrong with checking to see if the ones they want to attend (or with all the other criteria could actually attend) would still take them. Aberdeen is extenuating circumstances only, as is Aston, Birmingham, Cambridge, Dundee, Edinburgh, Leeds, ICL, and I'm sure others. Queen Mary is only if you qualify under the Equality Act. Cardiff, UCL and St George's don't accept resits at all. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the OP looking into this, at least potentially having to prewarn their child that they might have to apply to other schools.

Yes I appreciate that but the reality is that many of the students I work with have 3 or 4 possible options (the ones that do badly in ucat mainly). It's depressing but I'm not sure it's worth overthinking it at this stage. She will be having to pick herself up from this setback, get booked in to ucat in the next few weeks, start revising for ucat again and find somewhere to resit. I'm just not sure it's helpful to add "oh and also your favourite uni won't look at you" into the mix at this stage. Obviously that needs to be done by mid October but at least she'll know her ucat score by then....
I'm not trying to disagree, just trying to soften the process a little bit I suppose.

It wasn't really about their favourite uni, but as you said most only have 3 or 4 options. If most/all of those options don't accent resits the OPs child might better off finding an alternative course.

Sorry to hear this news OP. The med school application process is tough and has so many hurdles. Can't advise re resit centres but I would say that if your DD can just focus on the UCAT in the coming weeks and ace that , she should easily be able to find four med schools that will accept a resit. More med schools are using the UCAT this year too. Have you seen the Medicine 2024 thread on here? There is a lot of useful advice and it is a very supportive thread.

Have you checked which medical schools will consider applicants who have resat?

My DD was in this position last year.
First of all book and revise for the UCAT, resits re med school there are quite a few which accepted resits - She only researched mainly northern ones but Newcastle, HYMS, Sheffield and Bristol all did last year but she may need an A Star.
She was going to resit at her school but then she got a job tutoring for COVID catch up so ended up resitting at another local school ( AQA honoured her practical pass)
1year courses were hard to find but they are there mainly at college's - one of the nearest was 20 miles away from us.
She ended up just doing the work herself - practicing past papers- she just resat and got an A Star and starts medicine next month.
Good luck, it's an awful time for them but looking at her now the year out has done her good ( and she has earned money).

Sorry to hear about your dd op. Is your dd doing her UCAT soon? Wait i the result of that before deciding to resit - a low ucat will probably mean doing medicine won’t be possible. Also, some unis that do accept resits, eg UEA, usually want an A*.

Thank you everyone for all your input ,great advice and support.
DD is currently revising for her UCAT which she will sit next month.Hoping that she will do better this time!.The plan is for her to work for the year.She did the OCR board ,so hoping her pass in practicals will be accepted.
Didn't realise some Unis don't accept resits so that's good to know.
Will definitely read the Medicine 2024 thread.