D hating A-levels and college

[Bluemoon321]

My daughter started doing A-levels a few months ago and is absolutely hating it. She likes the college she is attending just fine, but the actual a-levels she does not enjoy. D said she regrets the ones she picked and is finding the whole thing extremely stressful.
For the last couple of months she has been saying she wants to leave, her anxiety has got worse and she cries most Sundays about going back on Monday.
Some people have advised she repeat year 12 but do BTEC instead?
I need some advise, since A-levels is only two years, should we encourage her to keep doing them? Or should we see about other options? The only problem I have with BTEC is I think they are defunding them in 2025? And she would have to start at a new college, which she might find worse.
I would be grateful for any advice!

Has she got any idea what she wants to do next - uni, apprenticeship etc?

Is it 'just' the subjects she is not enjoying, or actual A levels themselves? They are a big step up from GCSEs, so if she is struggling with the work, I think that is relatively normal, and she should speak to her teachers.

What options are available at her college - has she spoken to any of the staff?

A levels are tough. If she really isn't enjoying them, or is struggling with the work, I don't think encouraging her to carry on for the rest of the course is the right thing to do.

What subjects is she doing @Bluemoon321 ? Agree, is it the subjects or more the A levels in general. @Seeline is right, it’s a big step up, and also often not what a student expects based on GCSE (looking at you Eng lang).

Would she be interested in an apprenticeship or something more practical like T level?

How were her GCSEs? I mean by that, did she gain 4/5/6 or were they higher? Nothing at all wrong with lower grades, but it can indicate A levels might not be the right path.

I suggest you and she look at other options. Starting again in Sept might be the right thing. She has three years of funding post 16.

People do have a second go at A-Levels in Year 12, but usually this is because they want to switch from humanities to science or vice versa, essentially a big subject change. This is absolutely a decision that needs to be made based on her specific circumstances, what exactly she is struggling with at the moment, what she wants to do when she finishes, and what her college (or any other college/school) will support.

It's important to get it right because, while there are other routes to university and exciting careers, you really only get one further chance to start sixth form.

I was the same. Couldn’t cope with the jump from GCSE, in my day I did zero work for my GCSEs and still came out with A/B/C. A levels were much harder. I picked subjects I’d been good at at school but just hated it. I didn’t really know how to study and honestly, I just wasn’t that clever. It just looked like it as I went to a crap high school and was one of the best of a bad bunch!

Really wish I’d done something vocational (like beauty therapy) as you always have a skill to fall back on. I drifted for years as I couldn’t afford uni and had zero idea where my interests lay.

Have a chat with her and find out what she’d like to do, not what she thinks she should do.

Does her college have a careers advisor? She could make an appointment and discuss her options. Maybe it's not too late to change subject or courses, or at least look at what she would like to do instead.

When I found myself in this situation the careers advisor helped me to switch to another course at another college but I was still in term 1 still so hadn't missed too much of the new course (BTEC).

When DN found herself in this situation she left college, got a full time job until September then did an access course instead. The access course got her into university and she enjoyed it much more than A Levels.

T-levels are the new BTEC, a bit more academic is my impression, but as your DD was able to attempt A levels that shouldn't be an issue.

Who does her college have who deals with this kind of thing? At ours they all have a tutor but also a Student Progress Advisor assigned to them.

I would advise stepping in and helping her find help in college. Ring up reception maybe and find out who you can talk to. Take the pressure off her a bit.

Having a second run at Y12 is fairly common but it would need to be a change to something she is excited about and confident with ideally. A complete change is not ridiculous but the key is pinning down exactly what the difficulty is at the moment. How were her GCSEs? How and why did she choose her A Levels?

Does she know what she wants to do after? Does she want to go to uni? It is not necessarily a case of A levels or BTECs. You can currently do a mixture of the two. Eg she could do two A levels and one BTEC, maybe restarting year 12 with different choices for the A level subjects.
A lot of subjects are a big step up for A level so she should not worry unduly if she is not getting great marks at the moment. Is she doing subjects she is interested in?...if so maybe things will get better over time. If she likes the current college she may as well persevere a bit longer as she will not be able to change subjects until september anyway.

Hi everyone, and thank you for all the responses!
To answer some questions, she chose Literature, History and Sociology and got relatively good grades for GCSEs (mainly 6s and 7s @clary .) As for what she wants to do in the future, I am pretty sure her main goal is uni although she is not entirely sure what she wants to do yet. @biarritz
I think the main problem is some of her subjects aren't what she expected, e.g., she says history is taught in a lecture like style which she finds hard to understand and boring. She also finds the pressure of exams overwhelming, this was similar in GCSEs but we hoped that if she did subjects she liked she would not be as stressed doing them. But alas, the school has pretty high expectations (they expect As and Bs for upcoming mocks) and she is very anxious about it. @Seeline
I was personally looking into BTECs, I understand most have some exams but I still think it would be less stressful?
As for teachers, we have spoken to the college but they have honestly not been too helpful, claiming she is "too smart" to do BTEC (I do not agree with this at all and honestly think its a bit patronising to those who do BTEC!) @Pineapplewaves @TreeStone

She shouldn't regret her choice, she made the best decisions she could on the data available. It sounds like she is getting useful stuff out of this year, not least the realisation of what works for her, and that a History degree might not do that. If she would make a different choice with hindsight then she's learned something, and it will all feed into finding a good way forward in the end.

If her mental health is up to it, would it be realistic to keep going through to the upcoming set of exams? Agree it's not about getting Bs but getting experience and data on how achievable the exams feel, and which type of paper is more approachable for her. Eg if she flies in Sociology relative to English, maybe a fresh start with social science A Levels might be an option, or continuing with 2 of her A Levels. Or it might confirm that a Btec would be a better fit. It's a big ask though. She has a bit of grace between now and Sept to figure it out so she can take her time, and still have lots of time to decompress before Sept.

Another 18 months is a lot if she is really hating it. But sometimes the hate comes from panic and lack of confidence and is fixable. Would a tutor in her weakest subject be an option?

Thanks for the advice! Honestly I don't think its so much the academic side but just that she generally does not enjoy the content or the pressure of exams. I advised her similar, to try do the upcoming exams, see how she copes and go from there!

Let her leave. Or swop course asap. She won't get good grades if she hates it

This happened with one of mine, I wouldn't push her to continue, it's fine educationally to restart A-levels or another type of course at the same or a different school or college the next September. I'm not sure what would happen about being out of education until September, leaving age was 16 not 18 at the time so didn't cause us a problem, you'll have to look into that. I think it is really important that young people feel they can change their qualification, school, college, uni, or career path if it's not working for them. I recommend she is encouraged to talk to her current place and other course providers, go to bridging weeks and taster days, and make a new choice.