Advise on how to go about Alevel resits please

[crispy2019]

She had 3 offers for med school at AAA….however she has achieved BBB. Does anyone have any words of wisdom about the best way of approaching resits. Her school will support her taking the exams there but she can’t physically repeat year 13. Online at home seems soul destroying…does anyone have any advice?

It probably isn’t what you want to hear…. But if she only got BBB and needed AAA, perhaps medicine is not the right field for her.

Honestly, I probably wouldn’t resit.
Going from BBB to AAA is a big ask, and there’s no guarantee she’ll get offered a place at medical school again next year.
I would advise she either takes a gap year and re-applies for some kind of biological science or chemistry degree for next year, or has a look at clearing for this year.
I know a few people who went to medical school after their undergraduate degree.
She may also decide medicine isn’t for her and find something else instead.

Have you looked through clearing. There may be alternative schools that will accept at these grades. You can search on UCAS

A lot of universities for medicine don’t accept resits because of how competitive the entry is. Your daughters best bet is to do a degree such as biomedical sciences and then, as long as she gets a 1st or 2:1, she can try for Graduate Entry Medicine (GEM) which is a condensed 4 year course. It does mean 2 extra years at university but will give her good grounding and perhaps more realistic than resits to be honest..

That was the same position (and grades) for us today. She was debating between doing Biomed or the Foundation year with Medicine (6 years). She has decided to do the Foundation year course as her first choice offered her that as an option instead of straight Medicine.

The person i know who got in on resits is from a line of medics. Suspect also had a lot of work experience in the last year too

Sorry, butbif she got BBB she needs to find a different course. Medicine is not for your daughter, it's gruelling and they need to be super bright to get through it.

Ask for remarks on the two which are close. Need to be quick.

Does she still want to study medicine and is she ok with the idea of retaking?
Its a lot of pressure on an 18 year old.

As a former teacher and AQA examiner, I don't think either are close enough. Even 4 extra marks are a LOT to find. Usually, if there are any extra marks to find, it's 1 or 2. Sorry, that's probably not what you want to hear. I'd go for the Biomedical Science option (if she's still dead set on that field) and see how things go from there.

I’d look at bio med and transfer.

My daughter is doing biochemistry and there are a lot of people who didn't get the grades to do medicine doing various life science degree (biomed, pharmacology, biochem, neurology, microbiology) either as a route to medicine or they find something else they are interested in along the way they want to do

Have a look at Royal Holloway for
Biomedical Sciences with those grades.

Would your daughter consider studying abroad? Best of luck to her. This is just a detour on a long road trip!

Honestly? If she has struggled to get those As then she is going to struggle to do medicine - the scope for resits is very small and you need to really be on it and self motivated. Would she be better considering an allied healthcare career? Maybe she needs to think why she wanted to do medicine and could she find a fulfilling career in an allied field? I say this as someone who considered medicine at school and I could have got in if I wanted, but decided not to go that route (all I could see was a lot of stress to be honest) and I eventually did biology then a 2nd degree (didn't really know what I wanted to do) and now work in medical imaging. It offers a much better work/life balance and is rewarding in its own way.

Good options (amongst many)
Biomedical science (you can go into many different areas, lots of scope - but make sure it is an accredited degree)
Radiography (if she is intelligent and motivated she can make a good living by specialising)
A physics degree with the aim of becoming a clinical scientist (although it looks like she didn't do physics?)

I wouldn’t be looking at resits - look for Foundation courses accepted by med degrees.

There are other interesting pathways to medicine now. For example my niece did BSC Pharmaceutucal Biotechology at Queen's Uniiversity Belfast which is one option. She got BBB

She would love to study abroad but it all seems crazy expensive. She was predicted 3 As it just didn’t come together. She’s not ready to give up, there’s about ten med schools that would consider her doing resits with the grades she already has.

Foundation courses are only open to those that meet widening participation criteria, which she doesn’t

Only a few universities accept resits in one or 2 subjects.

Degrees with a foundation year typically have additional entry criteria so you must read the fine print.

She may want to explore the postgraduate route, or other healthcare roles.

My brother , her dad, is a doctor and likes to research stuff obsessively. When an A in chemistry was obviously out of reach ny end of Year 12, this is path they went down on UCAS form. She really enjoyed it and it turned out that she wanted to pursue this field instead and didnt prigress to medicine It kept her options open.

Even if a university advertises they accept resits, medicine is one of the most competitive and challenging degrees there are. Firstly, the university is much more likely to choose a candidate not doing resits at application stage because a student doing resits doesn’t bode well for the challenges of a medicine degree. Some have made the point that if BBB is what she’s got now then medicine at this moment could swamp her and really destroy her morale and enthusiasm for the field.

The most realistic route would be a biosciences degree and then the graduate 4 year medicine degree. I know people who have done that who have said the first degree gave them great grounding and preparation for the demands of a medicine degree (something that A levels don’t do)

One of my friend's dds wanted to do medicine but didn't get the results so is now training to be a paramedic. Getting 3 offers for medicine is very good so she obviously has what they're looking for.

Dd1 is a doctor and I remember both of her offers for medicine required an A in Chemistry - this was a long time ago so even if she got the other 2 bumped up to an A through a remark it might not make a difference.

This isn't true. There are universities that rank for interview solely on UCAT score, so as long as you're able to get predicted grades at the AAA level you wouldn't be ruled out just for being a resit candidate. I believe it's only one of the London unis that state they preference first sittings over resits.

Best of luck @crispy2019 - in a similar position weighing up options