If you dont meet your firm and insurance choice...

Well what do you mean by private center?
A private college where you take classes, etc or just exams?

Yes what I want is for everyone to give me the same answers over and over again because thats really going to help. Thanks for answering anyway

I know you do . that's why you're asking the same questions over and over again but slightly changing the wording

and decide not to go through clearing, can you simply pay to privately retake your exams and then apply next year without new references and an updated personal statement (as in just use the same ones I was given/wrote this year)? or would i need new ones? do I get to just use the same UCAS account I already have?

Sorry if this seems stupid, but I'm confused.

You need a completely new personal statement. They'll still run it through the same plagiarism software, and they'll assume you copied it (even though it's the same person - kinda silly). You also need another reference - this can be the same person, but I don't know if this can be the same actual reference. Your teachers would know.

You also need to explain why you took a gap year in your new statement. Some career or subject related work experience will look impressive. I recently read an article where a journalist sat in of the admissions process at Cambridge. One of the admissions officers said 'Ooh, this one's been on a gap year'. Another said 'If he's been sitting on a beach for the year, tear it up' (I read it in a really snotty voice in my head).

You can use the same PS again coz they know it's you.

It's not a good idea, but you can.

Now STFU and let me finish my Zinfandel.

You wouldn't necessarily need a buzz word, you can just apply as an individual not attached to a centre...

So could I just email my old tutor and ask her to give me the reference and buzz word or do i get the buzz word from the private centre and the references from my old college?

Ah, *******s.

This depends on your referee. If you're getting a reference from a school/college they will probably want you to apply through them and not as an individual.

Not necessarily, especially if the reference is going to come from a different centre to which the exams are going to be taken in... It would make it less confusing to apply as an individual and ask the old centre to provide you with a reference.

But the old centre, being a school, is almost certainly not going to agree to that

Having been in the same situation that the OP is describing, I completely disagree.

The ones where you pay to just do the exams