Can UK students retake A-levels in November or January?

[Hariagers]

Is it possible to retake A-Levels in November and/or January? I know that it used to be the past and I understand that it stopped a few years (Gove?) but apparently "International A-Levels" are available in Nov and Jan still.

However I'm getting very conflicting information via Google and some seemingly authoritative sources are emphatically stating NO, albeit without much explanation.

Is a UK student who has previously taken UK A-levels allowed to retake via International A-Levels in the UK?

No. Different courses.

Also with retakes, you normally need to carry over the NEA marks.

I'm an exams officer.

This is much less of a thing than it has been in the past largely because most sixth forms or colleges look at the results of the internal end of year 12 exams and if a student is doing badly they suggest restarting year 12 and using the third year of funding rather than doing badly in a levels and retaking.

universities are reputed to not want retakes either.

Yes as @Gardeningsideeffects says, IALs are different courses. Even in my subject (MFL) while the language and grammar are obvs the same, the topics and the structure of the exam are very different. I imagine in many subjects most aspects (eg topics in history) would be totally different so it’s not a practical suggestion.

Right now it is mainly Maths that we envisage being retaken which I assume consists of more or less the same topics whichever version of A-Level one takes. There is no Non-Exam Assessment and from what I can tell so far the full A-Level can be taken with Pearson Edexcel International in October/January. Can a UK student take that full A-Level? So retaking the subject not the exam I suppose.

Well you can of course enter to take the IAL, most likely via a private exam centre such as Tutors and Exams (others are available - that’s just the group I am familiar with). It will cost (T&E fees) £114 per paper; glancing at the spec I infer you take six papers (with some element of choice) so that’s almost £700. I would strongly recommend if this is a genuine consideration you or the YP concerned studies the spec very carefully as knowledge of what is needed is on you as no school support is involved.

Usually not but is there a particular reason for wanting to? Would the specification even be the same?

No school support is anticipated so cost would be even greater as we will need to get some sort of tutoring arranged too. We're considering it as a way to avoid completely cancelling gap year plans.

OK well for sure you can take it. I am not sure how easy it would be to find a tutor as IALs are not super commonly taken in the UK to my knowledge.

The reason I am banging on about needing to check the spec is that I assess speaking exams for my subject for private candidates (including IGCSE and occasionally IAL) and more than. once I have had students who clearly have not looked at the spec – have turned up for a speaking exam when there isn't one, have not realised they had to study a book and a film, have clearly not studied the A level topics. Some for sure are very well prepped but some not so much. And if a YP is switching from A level in a subject to IAL, even in the same subject, yes they would need good spec-specific support.

I agree also with a PP btw you need to check that resits are acceptable to uni if that's the aim. If a low grade is expected on what has been studied for two years, would it not be better to resit the same-spec A level the following June?

Did your DC have to take the impossible paper last week and is now freaking out? Read an article in The Time about it and have a friend whose DS (high achiever) has been really upset ever since that paper. If that’s all that’s gone wrong I wouldn’t panic yet - they are going to have to do something about that as the exam bird obviously completely stuff it up.

Yes! Although in our case I feel it's brought forward a family conversation that we were inevitably going to be having after results day so the impossible paper might actually have done us a favour!

Yes private schools offer the option for dc to come back and take international A levels esp for Maths in Nov / Jan, the school fills in the syllabus gaps and there is of course a cost to the parents. It’s generally for those who dropped a grade, missed an uni place and are on a year out and reapplying via ucas.