[DeanWilliams]

I'm 17 and about to start my A2 year and I just phoned Kings College Hospital regarding work experience placement as I want to study medicine, and they asked for my AS grades as soon as they're available in about 8 or 7 days time. My AS grades will be poor I know this already as I had a rough first year but I'm more than capable of fulfilling my potential in the second year coming up in which I do A2 which will determine my overall A Level grades. Regarding applying for University, and this problem, I have a few questions:

1. If I apply this year with my poor grades that don't cut it for Medicine, Biomedical Science or Neuroscience, can I still have a chance of getting into the universities that I want once I complete my A2 year with much better grades? If I get good enough grades for A2 may I get offers at any time between results day and applying the following year?

2.Will some universities look for applicants that have a better A2 year that AS although applying this year to go to Uni in 2013 would depend on my AS grades?

3. If I apply next year to go to University will my A level grades as a whole be considered, determined by my A2, instead of my AS grades which determine entry this year?

4. If I have to do resits for AS exams, would Universities frown upon this?

I hope I made my self clear because I really need help on this and I'm really stressing out.

[Dan12]

1. the only grades that matter are your predicted grades when applying but make sure you get those grades in A2
2. maybe but I'm not sure. Just try and do your best at whatever you're doing
3. your A-level grades as a whole will be considered

You may have done better than you think, anyway if you haven't you can just do resits.
I did about 5 or 6 resits in January so I could focus on my harder A2 unit in June.

Good luck

[matthewoingram]

Hi, I'm applying this year too (for English rather than medicine) but when I've expressed concern to unis about not getting grades the general answer I seem to get back from them is "We accept people on their potential to meet the grades at A2 rather than solely on AS" so if you 'under-achieve' at AS but have a blinder of an A2 year you should be fine.

That said with competitive courses like English and Medicine you'll be coming up against people who have the best grades and marks possible. Unis only identify you as a piece of paper until interview so my advice to you would be don't worry too much about AS, but focus all of your energies into a great A2 year, nailing your personal statement so that you stand out from the crowd and working really hard on interview technique