Hope that everyone is OK today. Just popping in to share our experiences from last year in case it might help anyone.
DD unexpectedly dropped a grade in one subject last year by just one mark out of 300. This meant that she missed both her first choice and her insurance offer. To say that she was devastated does not even begin to express what she felt at that time.
Her teachers requested the papers and advised her to request a re-mark because they believed that some questions had been marked incorrectly. We did, and a number of changes were made, but marks were both added and taken away, so she ended up in exactly the same position. Gutting.
Meanwhile, her wonderful head of sixth form spent hours on the phone on results day to both her first choice and insurance choice, desperarely trying to plead her case. It made absolutely no difference to the outcome but it did make a huge difference to dd to know that someone was on her side and that they believed in her enough to make the effort.
Her top choice uni called her on results day to offer her a space on another course, but dd declined as the one thing that she was absolutely certain about was medicine. But the thought of having to reapply and go through the whole ordeal again was terrifying. Then there was the question of what on earth dd was going to do with her unplanned gap year. And the fear of being left behind by her friends as they all went on to the next exciting chapter in their lives. For dd, it really felt like the world was ending and nothing would ever be right again.
Fast forward a year and dd now feels that missing her grades last year is the best possible thing that could have happened to her and she is immensely grateful for what has been an absolute gift of a year. She has spent her time volunteering, travelling and earning money that will help her through her degree. She has had some truly amazing experiences through travelling and through the voluntary work that she has done. And she has had the opportunity to properly unwind and decompress after a few pretty stressful years with covid, A-levels etc. She feels that she is now able to start medical school in a much better state of mind, with greater maturity and resilience than she had before and an absolute certainty that this is what she wants to do, even when it's tough. She has learnt a lot about how to manage the transition to uni from visiting her friends and boyfriend through the year and seeing their experiences. And she is really looking forward to getting back into her studies.
We initially assumed that dd would have to retake an A-level, but in the end, it didn't work out that way - she re-did her UCAT and smashed it with a ridiculously high score, and (with some help from a wonderful MN poster to whom I will remain forever grateful) she identified a number of unis which would actually consider her with her existing grades. She really loved two of these choices and would have been very happy to go with either. She ended up with 4 offers, 3 of which were unconditional. The conditional one wasn't her top choice so she decided not to bother with retakes. The last few months have been wonderful - no uncertainty and just delightful anticipation!
So she is off next month to do medicine at a Russell group university with a wonderful year behind her and a whole lot more life experience as well. If we had known last year that things would work out as well as they eventually did, it would have saved a lot of pain and heartache for all of us, but perhaps we needed to go through that in order to appreciate the highs of where we are now.
I just wanted to share dd's story in case it provides any hope and comfort to anyone today for whom things might be looking a bit bleak. It really isn't the end of the world...it might just turn out to be the start of a whole new adventure.