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?

I would echo what others say, as I also don’t think universities normally accept resits for Medicine. If she could do a degree in Biomedical Science or something similar, then if she does well enough there will be the option to transfer - and if she doesn’t do well enough then regrettably Medicine just isn’t for her. I have two friends who transferred to Medicine in their twenties after completing totally different undergrad degrees - one was in Spanish and the other History! Both are now very successful doctors. It seems now as though your daughter would be studying for ages, but of course we know that we’re in the world of work for decades so an extra few years of studying just doesn’t matter!

I don’t think the resit question only applies for medicine applications: they’re worth resitting for their own sake.

Could you afford private fees OP? If so are loads of tutorial colleges that specialise in resits and they truly excellent a delivering good grades. If there aren’t any round you, some few offer boarding.

Whilst doing a Biomed sciences degree first was a favoured route for previous generations, that was before the “grad tax” came in. I’d make sure to check the implications before committing to that route.

It sounds like your daughter was really close with her grades, if you can afford it I’d consider sending her to a crammer, reapplying and then she can work (HCA or similar would be good training!) and/or travel.

If she’s smart enough to get those grades then she’s smart enough to do the course but she’ll need to work hard because it’s that sort of degree. Best of luck to her!

A family member of mine did biomedical sciences and then applied for Medicine with that degree in hand. She’s a junior doctor now.

ETA: And that was post “grad tax”

Overseas East European med school uni fees are a lot cheaper than UK and entrance requirements are different. I met a young British doctor who trained in Bulgaria. He did F1 over there too, but had difficulty getting onto F2 in UK, despite being registered with GMC. So not an easy route but might be possible.

University of South Wales offer a BSc Medical Sciences undergraduate course from which most students are successful in securing places on graduate entry medicine courses around the UK.

I would look at doing a pathways to medicine course at uni rather than resitting A levels. It's a huge gamble just to improve grades and potentially a wasted year if she then doesn't get the As she needs. A pathways course would be more likely to be accepted than resat A levels as it shows you can study at university level.

Hi OP, sorry your daughter is going through this. I'm a doctor and agree with previous posters. She needs an urgent chat with a careers advisor. Moving forward with a different undergraduate degree might be a positive step forwards rather than going back to do resits. I don't think doing medicine in Eastern Europe with lower entry requirements is a good idea. I have worked with these doctors and they don't have the same training as UK graduates. They are also now going to be disadvantaged when applying for jobs compared to UK graduates. Medicine is a super competitive application process with UKCAT exam and interviews, someone with those grades or improved grades on resits will unlikely be a preferred candidate.

Pretty sure medical school doesn't allow resists and only accept grades from 1st time.

Rules changed this year for F1 so that those medics trained abroad have lower priority for UK training places. It can be competitive enough without that stacking odds against them

I know some Med schools do accept resits but you will need to check how many - some will only allow one subject.
The other thing is they will need to register to sit the UCAT again - you can’t roll over your result from last year. With the limited options of med schools that will take resits, this makes a competitive application even more tricky and they’ll need to smash the UCAT.
Finally they need to be honest with themselves about how hard this could be, retaking A levels without the structure and support of school is a lot - and all three subjects is even harder.
(I work in a school doing this and I know how devastating it can be for a student when this happens, especially when decisions have to be made quickly). I wish you both all the best

Great advice.

Although if OP can afford tutorial college - it’s exactly the same as school.

I would consider getting remarks - especially of the one 4 marks short. My daughter was 4 marks short and the remark pushed her into an A.

Have a look at some access to medicine courses - she might be able to do the course without the AAA and often the course will guarantee her an interview (I work for a medical school who do this). If you look at medical schools with widening participation status she may have a chance to do medicine without resitting those exams.

I would 1st recommend that school recall the scripts - they will be able to see how much she missed the As by and then look to see if they can find any extra marks. It might be worth a remark over a resit if she was close. Depending on what that throws up, are there any clearing options she might consider? As others have said, some Universities won't look at resit grades, even if she improves her grades. I hope that ultimately, whatever the decision, she is able to pursue her ambitions.

Hi Crispy, I just wanted to let you know that my DD is in a similar situation. Not for medicine but missed her grades (by quite some distance) and is now looking at resitting all 3 subjects. I'm also not sure of the best way forward. Doing it on your own is so hard, but my DD is adament that she won't go back to school. I'm not even sure if that is an option. I've had a look at the NEC as recommended above. It's probably the kind of thing we are looking for but they don't do the same exam board which I think could be a massive issue! I would love to know if you find a good solution

Depending on the course she wants to do she maybe better at looking for a foundation course that could get her where she wants rather then resisting A-levels.

This is not true everywhere. My son has just completed his A level resits by taking Year13 at his school again (and got into his first choice uni, hurrah!) He took the same subjects and improved by 5 grades overall. Having daily contact with other students and the guidance of his teachers really helped him, there is no way he could have studied alone at that stage.

It is true that most medical courses will not accept resits. My son was applying for a science course.

My advice for OP's daughter would be to either take a foundation year or alternative course with lower entrance requirements in clearing, or take a related option like Biomedical Science and see if you can transfer after the first year. I know someone who did this and they ended up loving Biomed so much they stayed with that.

Be careful with resits in sciences after self study. She will need the practical exam.

How many marks away from the A grades was she? If I were you I would have them re marked. There is a fee for this, however if the grade rises you don’t pay it. My daughter’s philosophy A level went up by 16 marks!!

Hi @crispy2019 careers adviser and mum of med student here. My advice to your dd is don't panic and right now take a break from thinking about all of this just for a little while. You've had a shock, you're adjusting to new unexpected future plans and so don't make any rush decisions today about resits or alternative routes to medicine.

When you are ready, take a very honest look at why your A level grades were lower than predicted before deciding if retakes would be a sensible or positive route. Talk to teachers when school is back. There could be a whole number of factors.

Did your teachers over-predict to As in order to get you the med school offers but in fact you were always averaging borderline A/Bs?
Did you work as hard as you honestly needed to all year and this was the best score you could get on the day?
Are you a clever and high achieving student generally, but exams just aren't your thing and you underperform in test situations?
Or
Were there any mitigating factors/ things going on in your life (underlying health/ mental health issues, school, relationship or family issues etc) that meant your lower performance in these exams was 'out of character'?

If you genuinely did the best you could on this year and there aren't obvious reasons why things went off track for you then I would question if you really want to do retakes. Doing 3 self-study A level retakes on your own can be pretty tough and many/most people don't improve their grades. What will be different next year if you retake?

Also, think through, how do you feel about another year of grinding through A level revision followed by a career that requires regular, very difficult exams for the rest of your life? The great majority of people who get into medical school become successful doctors but my doctor dc have had friends who have struggled to keep up, failed exams and dropped off their medicine courses. (One friend failed his final year exams twice). Others just decided they didn't enjoy medicine enough to accept the constant pressure of exams while also trying to live a life and do an intense job.

I'd suggest you use this unwanted/ unexpected gap year to keep your options open and explore alternatives. Talk to teachers, redo your UCAT and sign up for retakes so if you're still dead set on medicine you can reapply, but also spend time exploring alternatives, look into other careers and other courses you could do at unis you'd like to go to, get a job, travel, have fun.

Good luck whatever you decide to do next - medicine is definitely not a closed door to you but a lot of other doors are also open to you right now.

Hi OP

Great advice above from @Backseatmedmum

We were in a similar situation two years ago with two missed grades for my son. A few friends of his were also in the same position though not all going for medicine.

My son was 3 and 4 marks off an A for two subjects and had an A for Maths. After remarking the two he was 1mark off one and 3 off the second. All advice was that you only ever get 1 or 2 marks on a remark. He decided to resit all three and study by himself at home. He was adamant he could get an A* on the maths and at least one more A. By December, he checked with the university he was aiming for and confirmed that they will accept his Maths result from the previous year so he dropped Maths.

It was soul destroying as PPs have said, he would not attend a college for lessons like some of his resitting friends did, saying he knows what he needs to do. He did the UCAT again and got offers from all his three choices. He was very good at UCAT both times though he can’t explain why. I think the high UCaT score got him the interviews.

We also learned that people rarely up their marks on a resit, unless there were obvious reasons like health, bereavement etc.

He got in last year and it was amazing for him getting results he needed and is now going into second year medicine at his first choice uni.

His friend missed out again and is now doing another degree at the same uni with the intention of going for GEM.

We looked at abroad the year he was resitting but it’s a lot of information.

As @Backseatmedmum said, take time and analyse why she did not get the results, what she actually wants to do, is she okay with the hard work of resitting or doing a degree and going through graduate entry. Then she can make the decision. Lots of research as well.

All the best to her I’m sure she’ll find her way x

She has Bbb that is great. Why resit? She has goid grades to do first year of uni instead then continue or transfer or grad med route . She should go do biomedical thru clearing and teansfer later or do grad medicine. Or an allied medicine role if available thru clearing

I know a young person who unexpectedly got BBB in their A levels when they were predicted higher grades and needed AAA.

All papers were re-marked and errors were found in marking that meant final grades in all 3 A levels were raised. The young person ended up with AAA but missed out on taking up their uni offer. Some of the papers went up by 8 marks or so. Made me lose faith somewhat in the whole process.

But for medicine the grades don’t guarantee you the place, it’s in interview as well and prior to that universities would look at academic history before offering an interview, and you have to put any exam results you’ve had in UCAS, even for exams you are resitting.

I’m not saying they’d outright rule out, I’m saying resitting may influence their choice between two candidates prior to deciding who to interview.