Please help regarding UCAS!!!

[LemonLovesLilac]

I'm probably posting in the wrong place but hope some of you can help. We are in Ireland and my cousin is repeating his leaving cert as he wants to do medicine, however he was told that he could not apply to UCAS as he is a repeat and UCAS does not accept repeat leaving cert or GCSE students!! Is this true??

Not as far as I am aware. Is he applying to an Irish or English Uni? I teach up to A level (in England), although my subject is History, and we generally advise students that if they fail to get their required grades it is possible to re-take. However...you need to be aware that all Unis/Courses have different requirements and it is not uncommon for a Uni which has made an offer to then insist on higher grades for repeat students. If, for example, you had had an offer requiring one B and two C grades and got 3 Cs they might offer you a place for the next year, conditional upon 2 Bs and 1C. Requirements/competition change every year and are often very individual. Medicine is highly competitive and there are very few places available. A/A grades will generally be expected I believe and even then competition is fierce. A friend of my DD got 3As, and 1A at A level and an A* AS level as well, yet failed to get accepted to med school.

Hi he is applying to an English uni! I don't know where he heard this! Thanks for the info!

Lemon, there's also a Further Education section on the Education board of Mumsnet, you may get further info there.

I went through the UCAS system this year so I know a fair bit about it. The UCAS system itself has no problem with students that are resitting; he won't have any problems there. However, medical schools are of course hugely competitive, and depending on what his grades/points are, he might find it difficult getting accepted. Unlike Ireland, even candidates with the highest grades possible are rejected if other aspects(interview, work experience, entrance exams etc) don't stack up. He should be aware that he might face difficulties if the only reason he's repeating the Leaving Cert was that he did badly the first time(because so many candidates will have perfect grades on the 1st attempt) and he will have to work hard on the other aspects. :)

Also worth noting that a separate medicine-specific exam is required when applying for medicine, and that he may have to travel to the UK for the interview. Also I'm not sure whether it's the case in the Irish system, but work experience is very important for UK applicants so he should try to do that if possible.

He really needs to think about where he wants to apply and check out whether they would accept resits as it might rule out him applying to certain universities.

The Student Room is a v useful source of information
www.thestudentroom.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=195