For Those Who Might Not Of Done Well In Jan/A-levels As a Whole

bridges dont just get desinged by one person and then they start the building process staight away, everything is checked several time.

even if the engineer did make a mistake and no one noticed it at first, someone would when its being built.
+ the bridge wont just colapse as soon as you walk on it, it gets tested e.g. trucks and lorries are made to go over the bridge

Hence why I said "and didn't get seen."

And fair enough, the mistake would get seen when it was being built, however I was just emphasizing how disastrous a flawed design would be.

But something tells me your post was just to try make yourself appear clever.

*Might not have done well.

*might not HAVE

..just sayin'

Foundation degree.
It's far lower than 9th.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/table/2011/may/17/university-league-table-2012

Ranked 9

do you automatically get accepted at the uni you do a foundation year at once you have finished?

I wouldn't want to walk over a bridge constructed by an engineer who struggles with AS maths :/

Yes you do, its hard to get on the foundation though, computer science had 100 applicants for 10 places and comp sci's not even that competitive.

why? what do you mean?
didnt you get average-ish grades, C's

Nice post
I think it's important to see, especially on a site like TSR where there are a lot of people get As, that you don't have to get perfect grades to get where you want to be!

hahaa i read that and then saw your sig.



On a side note, your cambridge conditional offer... is that real?

Some people might of not done as well as they expected this January or are not coping with A-levels very well therefore might see continuing onwards a bit of a lost cause. Just because you dont get A's and B's in exams Is not the end of the world.

This Is how my A-levels have panned out, hopefully some of you can take this in and realise that you are not stuckif you dont perform well at A-level and can still to go to a good university.

My Background

I go to a normal public school nothing special and my GCSE's were not amazing - enough to get me into sixth form. I was in a mixed ability class for maths mostly comprised of foundation borderline students, and top set science (Just).

I originally picked AS Physics, Maths, Geography, Business.

Maths/Physics I found very hard, the jump from GCSE was absolutely crazy and I quickly learn that the time I spent in the classroom at GCSE was useless and I had not covered any basic topics, I didnt know what a quadratic was, what lines were (like y=x) how to factorise ect and spent the first two months confused not understanding anything. Physics was just as bad and we were on a new syllabus to the teachers were learning at the same rate as the students were. Geography was not as bad considering I did not study it at GCSE I found this quite a nice break from my other subjects. Finally Business I did not get on with as it was long essay writing something I'm weak at and did not enjoy.

Ultimately I did very badly on my exams especially the January ones. The second term exams I did better on but still no way near enough to progress onto A2 and salvage a decent grade so I had a dilemma decided resit the year or drop out. Honestly I could of dropped out at any time but my parents persuaded me to stay on.

I found the lack of people in my year beneficial and allowed me to concentrate and understand my subjects. I rearranged what I was studying and did more A-levels over the 3 years but kept a manageable amount.

Now part way through my A2 year I'm coming on increasingly stronger at both subjects (maths and physics) though still not at a high grade like A, but that was not expected of me.

Now I have made my university choices with my grades looking to be CCDBc I have opted to go for a foundation year in engineering at Loughborough university which i would of never dreamed about before though I could of gone for the main degree at Nottingham Trent if I didnt want to do a foundation year, there are plenty of decent universities to pick from.




Before I get shot down for
A) Doing a foundation year
B) Resitting a year
C) Not having A grades
D) Not going to a top 10 university


The point of this post was to emphasis that you dont need do well in your first set of exams to get where you want, if you put effort it you can get there it might just take a little longer.

No, no, no, no...no.

Nice work mate. +rep for you! Very noble of you to be so open about it especially on a forum like TSR. People here can be very arrogant and patronising if you didn't get 9A*s and go to Oxbridge!

As some of you may know I am in a similar position. My GCSE's were not good enough to take the subjects I originally wanted to study at my sixth form, so I had to go to my local college. I originally opted to study maths, accounting, physics and ICT. Everything went down hill, I had an awful work ethic, poor attendance and generally didn't care at all about studying, never revised etc. I finished the year with one AS grade, a D in ICT.

Now after this I had to think long and hard about what I wanted to do. I'd wasted a year, I wasn't sure if my college would take me back because I'd been such an awful student. I got another chance, changed my subjects, this time I studied biology, psychology, chemistry (dropped chem) and English. This time I got BBC at AS and then BBC at A2. I had a conditional offer to study biomedical science at Dundee university. BUT, after much deliberation I decided I would cancel and change for mechanical engineering with a foundation year. There was no guarantee that with my background I would be offered anything by any of the unis I would choose. It was not a light-hearted decision, I spoke to my parents, girlfriend, friends and family (uncle is a civil engineer and 2nd cousin in law is lecturer at Bristol uni for EEE)

I searched for every university that offered a foundation. Some weren't suitable because they wanted physics and/or maths to AS minimum, some wanted one to A2 etc, so I had to be very selective. Eventually choosing Brighton, Loughborough, Sussex, Aston and Oxford Brookes. I received unconditionals from all the of them except Sussex as I withdrew. I knew I was going to put Loughborough as my firm, as it was unconditional I didn't need an insurance.

So here I am now, waiting to start university, trying to learn as much maths and physics as I can during my gap year to catch up and what I have missed. To be fair I couldn't be happier, even if it is going to be a lot of hard work. I think what Coffey says is really valuable to people like us who may have been in a similar position and have contemplated giving up. There are plenty of routes into university, even if your grades aren't good enough for your 'dream university'.

On a side note my 27 year old brother is also finally going to university (he couldn't bare the fact that I would be university educated and he wouldn't, good incentive ). He has a conditional for Cardiff university, he is currently finishing his access course at the same college I did my A-levels.

By your logic Professor Brian Cox is completely useless as well....

He may not be the greatest scientist but he's decent and he got a D at A level Maths.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/table/2011/may/17/university-league-table-2012

Ranked 9

By your logic Professor Brian Cox is completely useless as well....

He may not be the greatest scientist but he's decent and he got a D at A level Maths.

Not everyone gets the grades first time round, I would rather have my bridge constructed by an engineer who never gives up and constantly seeks to improve himself and really wants to do his course than some half arrsed attempt by a student who was smart enough to do well but really doesn't care about the subject and predominantly the bridge which I will be walking over !

Brain Cox isn't famous for anything actually within the realms of physics. He is good at publicizing science to society and doesn't look like the stereotypical scientist in a white coat that every layman imagines. A 'D' grade in A level maths nowadays just won't cut it. Barely any universities will accept you for Physics, especially those regarded as prestigious.