Psychology with A,B,E this year or try to up the E grade and try again next year?

[DyslexicPoster]

Ds has got History A, Phycology B and a E in Biology. In hindsight Biology was a stupid choice but it too late now. Everyone is saying via clearing they won't consider a E as its a fail.

But we aren't sure if they would consider if it was a D grade for clearing.

Not sure right now if he should take the year off and try to get the E up to a D. Or try to cram another A level into a years course if that's even possible?

He had a offer of history at Liverpool but he wants to be a educational psychologist

I have a psychology degree and did not study biology though it would have been helpful.
if he genuinely wants to be an EP, he needs a good psychology degree, then probably a masters too.
i recruit psychologists and psychology trainees - we consider a masters conversion as equivalent to a degree and most applicants then have a psychology masters on top.
i would advise him to retake his biology in a year.

Near Guildford

OP did you consider Surrey Psyc with foundation year. In clearing.

You need to understand your strengths. My brothers are amazing at maths, I’m certainly ok but not on their level. One is a research scientist with a doctorate doing research in to drugs that treat cancer. I’m not up to that standard maths and science wise.

My friend did psychology and then a masters. What is his maths like because she didn’t do maths A level and then found that part hard and far more of the course than she thought,

Do any of the courses he wants to do have an access/foundation year course? They typically accept lower grades and usually comes with guaranteed entry onto the full course if passed.

I got As in humanity subjects, didn’t do a science at A- level and massively struggled with psychology at degree level (it was only part of my degree and I dropped it after a year). I agree with other posters that if he got an E in biology A-level then some psychology modules at degree level will be difficult. If determined I’d maybe consider a resit alongside another A-level

It might be important to understand the biology grade. I'm a clinical psychologist, when I did my a-levels I was in a small sixth form and the teaching didn't suit my style of learning. I got an E in biology too. I decided to spend a year resitting biology at a local college and also took another a level in a year, and got Bs in both. It wasn't the biology, it was the teaching and my own study skills.

when I did my undergrad psychology the statistics were quite hard going, BUT, it's maths with a context. So you are always using that maths to understand and make sense of research, not on its own as an abstract mathematical concept. It was hard but fine (and I got an N in a level maths😱).

The masters conversion is good, but expensive, and if he has the chance to do an undergrad psychology course that will enable graduate basis for registration I'd take that route personally. Doing history just because he has an offer, but really hankering after psychology seems like a bit of a waste of 3 years!!

He goes to a SEN school so has done really well to get a A and B. People told me I needed maths for Biology and my career in programming but I didn't. I you get the concept of statistics and arrays you don't really need the rest like calculus etc. I wish he had never taken it.

He is going to see if a foundation year can be transferred to another uni.

I do think a year out and resitting while studying online, working and potentially picking up another backup A level might be the best idea. I can tutor him in Biology too as that's my degree ( he wasn't overly keen on my help before). Biology I guess is word heavy and he has a language disorder.

@Twoshoesnewshoes Eduvational psychologists don’t just need a masters, they need a Doctorate. The details were posted earlier. Then they need experience of working with dc. It’s very hard to get into this and I’m not seeing this dc as good enough without a massive slog.

@MeetMeOnTheCorner you might well have felt the same about me from my first set of A level results. But I'm now a pretty successful clin psych, head of my service etc. I have an undergrad, masters and the doctorate, yes it's competitive, but not impossible to achieve. Completely inappropriate to write this young person off at this point!!

maybe biology isn't the right thing to resit? What about doing something more humanities based like sociology, politics etc in one year?

As mentionned by a poster already, if he does find a Psychology undergraduate course please ensure it gives 'Graduate Basis for Registration'. This is vital if he (or anyone else) wants to progress to clin psy, Ed Psy etc

There are Psychology degrees that do not meet this requirement, so be careful!

Good luck!

Honestly, if he doesn’t have an aptitude for biology he should really reconsider doing a psychology degree. There’s a LOT of biology and it’s nothing like the A level syllabus which is heavily weighted towards social psychology.

Don’t re take an A level, do a Foundation course and then you can top up your degree.

Foundation years absolutely can be transferred and used for admission to other unis - we lose quite a few of our FY students every year to our competitors! As others have said, where he does the degree doesn’t matter, as long as it is BPS accredited.

Yes - I meant he would need a good psychology degree, as pp were suggesting a history degree then a conversion masters .
my point was this only counts as a degree whereas lots of applicants for the doctorate will have a psychology degree and a psychology masters.
I recruit from the doctorate .

If he wants to be an Educational Psychologist then he needs a BPS accredited degree (or he’ll have to do a conversion Masters like someone with a History degree). Often courses in Educational Psychology or Psychology and Education aren’t accredited.

OP does it have to be a RG unit? As long as the degree is accredited ? I know students doing psychology with similar grades ? Look at Northumbria , NTU , Leeds Beckett ?

I don’t know who you are but think I recognise the child. If he gave an impassioned speech at founders day then I have no doubt he will find a way to fulfil his ambitions, I remember listening and thinking he might be an education minister in the future! Listening to the older boys really gives me hope for my own child’s future. I hope you and he figure things out!

E is not a fail.

A-E are A level passes but I guess what they are saying is they want higher grades to meet their requirements.

ABE it’s obvious the E is the outlier so a good uni may still accept them, perhaps not RG though. It’s very competitive to become an Educational Psychologist which makes me think maybe the resit is a good idea. Your son has to be very honest with himself about does he think he could improve the grade if he was just focusing on Biology.

Good unis that aren’t RG include Surrey and Lancaster … they are sometimes more flexible and the RG label isn’t that meaningful. It’s mostly about research not undergraduate study.

Disagree with that. Yes there is some Biology in it but my daughter managed fine with A levels in Psychology, History & Economics and she is not scientific at all. Came out with a 2.1 from Lancaster.

I get the E isn't a fail. But for Bristol it was. Anything below a D is discounted and zero points. That is what admissions told him.

Going to Surrey is only possible via the foundation year, so he may be better off resitting, getting work experience at school and picking up another Alevel to get that E off his CV. If he had put Surrey as first or second choice he would on the degree right now. But he didn't and it's already full at clearing.

Biology isn't a required A level for the degree. So he'd know more Biology with a E than someone without that A level.

He knows its incredible competitive. But someone has to be that one in x hundred to become a EP.

Anyway he is much calmer today. He has researched a lot of different things to do the resits. Who knows, a year of working in a school might put him right off!

I agree that resitting would be better than doing a foundation year. Much cheaper too as no need to build up another year’s student debt. Plus he can get some useful work experience too.

Sometimes what feels like a negative can be turned into a positive 😀

He could apply to Surrey next year and 4 other unis too. Insure (or even Firm) a uni that gives him an unconditional offer which Surrey would probably do.

Did you try to have the 3 biology papers remarked? Last year we managed to move from D to C via remark without which my DC was planning a gap year & retake

He was 6 marks off a D and Bristol said they wouldn't have accepted the D either. I think he is waiting on advice about a remark from school. In the past when trying to get a remark on maths he gained the marks he needed but they also removed the exact same score elsewhere on the papers. I think 6 is too much of a streach

You certainly don’t need A level biology but you are wrong, there is a significant amount of biology content and you do need some sort of aptitude in science - I’m not sure an E in biology demonstrates that.