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C to an A*???

For my GCSE I achieved 1A*6A2B. For my AS levels, I achieved AAAC in maths, physics, chemistry and further maths respectively. This is really annoying because I want to study Mphys at top university ie Warwick, Birmingham , Manchester etc. I'm scared I wont be predicted an A for further maths, and do you have any advice retaking AS modules alongside A2.Thanks
Reply 1
You will not go from a C to an A*. That's 4 jumps, be more resonable. Most people go down at A2
Sorry you've not had any responses about this. :frown: Are you sure you've posted in the right place? :smile: Here's a link to our subject forum which should help get you more responses if you post there. :redface:

You can also find the Exam Thread list for A-levels here and GCSE here. :dumbells:


Just quoting in Fox Corner so she can move the thread if needed :h:

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Original post by Convex
You will not go from a C to an A*. That's 4 jumps, be more resonable. Most people go down at A2


That's not entirely true, I went from B's at AS to A*'s at A2 so it's certainly plausible
Reply 4
If you retake the first year in the second year, you'll probably do worse in one of them anyway. Also, I'm pretty sure it's impossible to improve that much.
Original post by Chemgawd99
For my GCSE I achieved 1A*6A2B. For my AS levels, I achieved AAAC in maths, physics, chemistry and further maths respectively. This is really annoying because I want to study Mphys at top university ie Warwick, Birmingham , Manchester etc. I'm scared I wont be predicted an A for further maths, and do you have any advice retaking AS modules alongside A2.Thanks


Does it matter? Uni's care about 3 A-Levels usually.
Reply 6
Original post by RDKGames
Does it matter? Uni's care about 3 A-Levels usually.

For my AS is achieved aaac. I am going to take 3 A2s in maths, physics and further maths to study physics. However I'm scared about my C grade in AS further maths because I will be predicted B highest so cant apply to A*AA unis and the work load of retaking AS+A2
Original post by Chemgawd99
For my AS is achieved aaac. I am going to take 3 A2s in maths, physics and further maths to study physics. However I'm scared about my C grade in AS further maths because I will be predicted B highest so cant apply to A*AA unis and the work load of retaking AS+A2


Wait, what? You are dropping a subject in which you got an A in for a subject you got a C in? That's one hell of a gamble. Those unis can take you on a physics course without Further Maths surely as long as you have maths + physics as 2/3 of yours A-Levels.
Reply 8
Original post by RDKGames
Wait, what? You are dropping a subject in which you got an A in for a subject you got a C in? That's one hell of a gamble. Those unis can take you on a physics course without Further Maths surely as long as you have maths + physics as 2/3 of yours A-Levels.

well I haven't decided yet but I find chemistry really boring and I would have to re-learn all the AS stuff as it doesn't count. tbh, I want to do FM to prove myself that C was due to a bad exam day, and I can get A/A* in further maths
Original post by Chemgawd99
well I haven't decided yet but I find chemistry really boring and I would have to re-learn all the AS stuff as it doesn't count. tbh, I want to do FM to prove myself that C was due to a bad exam day, and I can get A/A* in further maths


My advice would be go with chemistry because you have a significantly higher chance of getting A* in that than FM. If you want an A/A* in FM you would have to retake some FM exams at A2 so that's just more exams for you to do.
Reply 10
Original post by RDKGames
My advice would be go with chemistry because you have a significantly higher chance of getting A* in that than FM. If you want an A/A* in FM you would have to retake some FM exams at A2 so that's just more exams for you to do.


Thanks for your advice. As everything is a bit grey right now, as I don't know what to do, where to go etc etc. I will take all 4 to A2 and decide after the first 1-2 months and have a better idea of everything as a whole
While I don't want to give you false optimism, in my own experience I got a C in both my Maths AS core units. At A2 level, I resat both and ended up with an A on the resits and overall. In fact, I cumulatively resat all the core modules, but only in my final exam period did I really decide to 'buckle down' and do my best. So it is certainly possible to drastically improve your grades through resitting, but only if there's a good explanation for your initial poorer grade.

But I think the answer has to be that only you know what you're capable of. Saying "I just didn't work hard enough" was true for me, but since you did very well in your other courses you perhaps were giving it closer to 100% to begin with. And of course, you're trying to do this with further maths, which may well be harder. As has already been said, four grade jumps is a big ask.

Finally, if your grades are top and include maths and other sciences, I think your chances of getting into a red brick university to study physics are still very high. They don't care so much about further maths because that's basically what they teach you again in first year.
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 12
Original post by Lavaridge
While I don't want to give you false optimism, in my own experience I got a C in both my Maths AS core units. At A2 level, I resat both and ended up with an A on the resits and overall. In fact, I cumulatively resat all the core modules, but only in my final exam period did I really decide to 'buckle down' and do my best. So it is certainly possible to drastically improve your grades through resitting, but only if there's a good explanation for your initial poorer grade.

But I think the answer has to be that only you know what you're capable of. Saying "I just didn't work hard enough" was true for me and I ended up being able to do well in four maths exams at the same time when I really tried, but since you did very well in your other courses you perhaps were giving it closer to 100%. And of course, you're trying to do this with further maths, which may well be harder. As has already been said, four grade jumps is a big ask.

Finally, if your grades are top and include maths and other sciences, I think your chances of getting into a red brick university to study maths are still very high. I rarely see further maths as an absolute requirement.

for my AS in FM I got abu. The b was in fp1 and I had a bad day and the U was because well ... D1 and I didn't try for D1 so I got what I deserved tbh :frown:. Oh and btw how did you get offers with a C in AS maths (not in a rude way if it sounded a bit rude)? What was your maths predicted grade?
Went from a C at AS Chem to an A at A2 chem (2 marks off an A* >.<)
Original post by Chemgawd99
for my AS in FM I got abu. The b was in fp1 and I had a bad day and the U was because well ... D1 and I didn't try for D1 so I got what I deserved tbh :frown:. Oh and btw how did you get offers with a C in AS maths (not in a rude way if it sounded a bit rude)? What was your maths predicted grade?


Not rude at all :smile: I think I was predicted a B in maths because I got As in my Mechanics and Statistics modules, so they knew I had some ability despite my mediocre scores in Cores 1 and 2. I was also made aware when I got to Uni that a few people had managed to get in with straight Bs (the requirements were AAB and I ended up getting AAAB), so perhaps they didn't have as many applications as they would have liked and were more lenient throughout the whole process.

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