Special consideration is supposed to be applied in circumstances that affect your performance during the exam and not to compensate for missing study or revision time in advance of the exam. Basically if you missed a year of your education you are expected simply to repeat that year or find a way to catch up. So you would need to show how these horrible circumstances affected you on the day of the exam (e.g. side affects of medication, anxiety etc). At best you would only qualify for a small mark adjustment, if anything at all (maximum is 5%). You might get more of a result by contacting Leeds university admissions staff - they may give you a lower offer. TBH though given how much you seem to have missed and how much you haven't had the chance to learn, do you think you could cope with the step up to Uni maths, would you be better off retaking the year?

Reply 5

marleyxx

OP

xx

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 6

gdunne42

21

marleyxx

Yeah i take your point - thats why im asking if I do qualify not say I should. The thing is it would only be about 5% i would need - its very much on the wire. I panicked in the exam and made stupid mistakes, i know lots of people do this, but there is a chance it was down to the fact I haven't been in a room with more than about 10 people for a long long time so it could be largely down to my anxiety - i was petrified walking into my exam room with loads of people there.

The thing is I find the hard things really easy and I just don't see what benefit a year out would have, i think im more likely to forget things i've learnt. I think i'll write to the exam board and see what they say.

*oh and it is for people who have missed a lot of study time as well...rightly or wrongly it is designed to try and reflect potential. It says on there website sever depression and anxiety are causes for special cons.

I got the impression from your original post that you had done really really badly and worried maybe that might mean you wouldn't cope well with undergraduate stuff.... So hey then if you only need a bit of an uplift go for it, you can't lose anything by asking and every situation is reviewed individually. Talk to your exams officer asap as the examiners are only supposed to get a request through them. Good luck, Leeds is a fun place to spend a few years.....

Reply 7

username163092

19

Your school/someone similar can write to the unis telling them what's been going on and ask them to bear that in mind if you don't achieve the grades required. Apart from that :dontknow:

I think you have to apply before the exams for special consideration, not after.

yeah, probably.

steffi.alexa

Your school/someone similar can write to the unis telling them what's been going on and ask them to bear that in mind if you don't achieve the grades required. Apart from that :dontknow:

I think you have to apply before the exams for special consideration, not after.

You can apply after - I did last year.

Reply 10

username163092

19

moomin_love

You can apply after - I did last year.

Oh okay, I've never heard of that happening before.

Reply 11

moomin_love

15

steffi.alexa

Oh okay, I've never heard of that happening before.

Yeah, it's for things that affect you on the exam day that you didn't predict e.g. majorly bad period pain, any illnesses on the day of exams, insomnia etc. Anything really lol. That's all applied for after the exam/s.

Reply 12

username163092

19

moomin_love

Yeah, it's for things that affect you on the exam day that you didn't predict e.g. majorly bad period pain, any illnesses on the day of exams, insomnia etc. Anything really lol. That's all applied for after the exam/s.

Oh right. But would the OP be allowed to apply for it in her case? She could argue that she couldn't predict that it would happen?

ETA: I mean apply after.

Also, OP seriously think about informing the unis you've firmed/insured, it could help :hugs:

Reply 13

mespannerhanz

13

exam boards can certainly give special consideration. my friend was sitting her maths gcse with me, did the first paper fine, then on the second one her dad died on the actual morning, she came to school with full intention of doing it, but had to rush home before exam started at 9. school applied to AQA, and she got A* cos they just took her score from first exam, and had got an A* on that one so that was what she got overall. i realise this is an extreme case, but it does happen.

Reply 14

moomin_love

15

steffi.alexa

Oh right. But would the OP be allowed to apply for it in her case? She could argue that she couldn't predict that it would happen?

No, she'll easily qualify. I have a certain type of insomnia which means that I've had it all of my life and it becomes awful, like literally not sleeping for days on end around exam times. I could have predicted it was going to happen, but I didn't and I still got special consideration, but I only applied for it in 1 exam because it was 1 exam where I hadn't slept for about 30+ hours. But now I get extra time because I'm so tired a lot of the time that I find my mind wondering off and stuff so it's better for me to have extra time rather than special consideration.

Reply 15

username163092

19

moomin_love

No, she'll easily qualify. I have a certain type of insomnia which means that I've had it all of my life and it becomes awful, like literally not sleeping for days on end around exam times. I could have predicted it was going to happen, but I didn't and I still got special consideration, but I only applied for it in 1 exam because it was 1 exam where I hadn't slept for about 30+ hours. But now I get extra time because I'm so tired a lot of the time that I find my mind wondering off and stuff so it's better for me to have extra time rather than special consideration.

I hope you find a way to stop that soon, it must be awful! :console:

Okay, this special consideration thing is way more confusing than I ever thought haha.

Reply 16

moomin_love

15

steffi.alexa

I hope you find a way to stop that soon, it must be awful! :console:

Okay, this special consideration thing is way more confusing than I ever thought haha.

Haha yeah, if you look up the JCQ rules you can find out most things, but it doesn't really go into specifics!

Apparently it's just something I have to live with. It's a certain type of insomnia which affects you your whole life. You kind of learn to live with it, but when you're stessed/depressed or anything it gets reeaaallly bad, but because you're not in that state permanently or for long enough so you never really work out how to regulate it around those times, whereas once I've gotten into a routine I can sometimes regulate my sleep and actually have a relatively normal sleeping pattern!

It sucks though because when teachers ask you why you have extra time and I reply "insomnia" they just give me this look like I don't deserve extra time. I suppose it's because I usually get good grades and stuff so they assume everything is fine, but they don't actually realise how awful it can be! Only one teacher does because in that exam where I applied for special consideration my teacher said that it was the worst thing she has ever seen me write! lol. Got a C in that exam :frown:

1% special consideration doesn't really do anything lol. Extra time is much better!

Reply 17

username163092

19

moomin_love

Haha yeah, if you look up the JCQ rules you can find out most things, but it doesn't really go into specifics!

Apparently it's just something I have to live with. It's a certain type of insomnia which affects you your whole life. You kind of learn to live with it, but when you're stessed/depressed or anything it gets reeaaallly bad, but because you're not in that state permanently or for long enough so you never really work out how to regulate it around those times, whereas once I've gotten into a routine I can sometimes regulate my sleep and actually have a relatively normal sleeping pattern!

It sucks though because when teachers ask you why you have extra time and I reply "insomnia" they just give me this look like I don't deserve extra time. I suppose it's because I usually get good grades and stuff so they assume everything is fine, but they don't actually realise how awful it can be! Only one teacher does because in that exam where I applied for special consideration my teacher said that it was the worst thing she has ever seen me write! lol. Got a C in that exam :frown:

1% special consideration doesn't really do anything lol. Extra time is much better!

Yeah, I've looked at the rules before and they seem quite vague.

:hugs:

Well I still hope that things get better for you!

Urgh, I know. I've been advised to apply for it before and always turned it down because of how people reacted (some people have a 'if you're not in hospital why are you applying' mentality towards it :rolleyes:

Some people!). Oh well, stuff them, you evidently deserve it, as does the OP.

Reply 18

Juno

20

You also need to look at what you're going to do in the future. If you get special consideration and get into uni, what are you going to do to catch up? You need to make sure your basic knowledge isn't a bit lapse, so that this doesn't happen again with your first year uni exams.

Reply 19

Tinkerbelle ♥

gdunne42

Special consideration is supposed to be applied in circumstances that affect your performance during the exam and not to compensate for missing study or revision time in advance of the exam. Basically if you missed a year of your education you are expected simply to repeat that year or find a way to catch up.

Not always. You can get compensatory marks for circumstances which led you to miss large amounts of lessons etc - obviously depending on the circumstance.

If you feel it affected you, then it's worth a try. It is only 5% maximum however and you may not even qualify for that so it's not always worth it. Just a pointer I know it's horrible but the mitigating circumstance would not be for rape unless it happened within the acedemic year because they'll just argue you shouldn't have started your a-levels if you weren't up to it. So probably best just mentioning the anxiety and depression.

I agree with gdunne42 though, you should reconsider if you're up to uni really.

Do i qualify for special consideration?

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