[smudge09]

Hey!

I've just finished the AS year, and thanks to laziness I'm not likely to come out with the ideal grades for what I want to do, which is biomedical science (preferably at southampton). I'm confident I can get the ABB required at the end of next year in biology, chemistry and maths, but I'm thinking my laziness during the AS year (which I make no excuses for, I've been spending the past month or so kicking myself over) will mean I'll come out with CCD, or B (in biology) CD, which in turn will mean my predicted grades won't be sufficient for the typical offer.

I've been reading around the subject like crazy, from evolutionary biology such as Darwins and Dawkins to medical history, I volunteer regularly at two projects, and thanks to contacts at one of these, may have work experience lined up in a biochemistry research lab, and I also view talks and seminars around biomed offered by universities online. I was just wondering if there was any advice any of you could offer up for what I should be doing over the next couple of weeks / year to help improve my position?

Anything at all would be appreciated, Cheers.

[Beast unleashed]

Look grades are not the most important thing in the world. NOT AT ALL
its about the knowledge you gain and what you learn not what shape or letter you get at the end of it
hope this helps

[Conzy210]

OP clearly has a clear idea of what he wants to do, and despite not being an expert in that area, I'd imagine that university is the only way that he will be able to reach his goals so '**** education' posts are hardly going to help him so give it a rest.

Anyway, as I said I'm no expert on what you want to study but you pretty much have a few options I can think of;

1) Resit the year, put the effort in and get the grades required (check with the university where you want to go first that they accept A-levels completed over 3 years opposed to 2 as some don't). It's an extra year I know, but if you're as motivated as you seem, what is one year in the long run?
2) Beg your teachers to up your predictions, seems fairly unlikely as you'll be a fair bit below but worth a try, if they do resit AS and nail A2 next year.
3) Resit AS and nail A2 to get to ABB, then take a year out and apply the year after.

Also, what I've been told from a couple for university lectures is that a great personal statement is fantastic (which you will probably have) however it's not enough without the grades.

Anyway good luck!

[A7d8i6l]

I've realised that every time the teachers have tried to even predict what grades I'm going to get!! They underestimate my capability and I then so call "overachieve".

Basically they may give you rubbish predicted grades depending on your work ethic etc.


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[Door]

(Original post by Beast unleashed)
Look grades are not the most important thing in the world. NOT AT ALL
its about the knowledge you gain and what you learn not what shape or letter you get at the end of it
hope this helps

I agree. I think this man is saying in university you get a number for your grade, not a ltter. Letters dont matter in uni anymore. Only important grade is number, like ferst, 2:1 eg.

[Theafricanlegend]

(Original post by Beast unleashed)
Look grades are not the most important thing in the world. NOT AT ALL
its about the knowledge you gain and what you learn not what shape or letter you get at the end of it
hope this helps

No it doesn't help, grades are very important actually... Universities won't accept someone with EEU in his alevels nor would they accept a BBB if the entry requirement is AAA/AAB.

[smudge09]

(Original post by Conzy210)
1) Resit the year, put the effort in and get the grades required (check with the university where you want to go first that they accept A-levels completed over 3 years opposed to 2 as some don't). It's an extra year I know, but if you're as motivated as you seem, what is one year in the long run?
2) Beg your teachers to up your predictions, seems fairly unlikely as you'll be a fair bit below but worth a try, if they do resit AS and nail A2 next year.
3) Resit AS and nail A2 to get to ABB, then take a year out and apply the year after.

Also, what I've been told from a couple for university lectures is that a great personal statement is fantastic (which you will probably have) however it's not enough without the grades.

Anyway good luck!

Thanks, that's what I was thinking about, mainly 2 or 3. In the process of the beg (which isn't degrading AT ALL), failing that I'll hammer it second year and take a year out. Over the last week and a half I've managed to get myself 2 work experience placements on top of my reading, so pre-results things are looking up. Thanks for your help.

[Dollyandra]

(Original post by smudge09)
Hey!

I've just finished the AS year, and thanks to laziness I'm not likely to come out with the ideal grades for what I want to do, which is biomedical science (preferably at southampton).

I was just wondering if there was any advice any of you could offer up for what I should be doing over the next couple of weeks / year to help improve my position?

Anything at all would be appreciated, Cheers.

Hi there, I was in a similar position to you last year - I didn't work very hard and came out with Cs at AS in the same subjects as you. I retook my AS exams within my A2 year and managed to bring my grades up to As. A lot of people in my year did this too - it's easy to do so with Science subjects because a lot of the A2 content is contingent of AS, so you can do the resits without it getting in the way of your A2 work, and without much extra revision.

I found that the AS resits benefited my A2 exams - since a lot of stuff in A2 Biology/Chemistry is synoptic of AS, I was able to pick up quite a few extra marks where other candidates who didn't have the AS content fresh in their minds couldn't. This personally was the one thing that saved my arse! Learning A2 Chemistry reinforced my AS learning of organic etc, so I was able to excel in my AS exams thanks to it too. I think that some of the more abstract concepts in Chem do require more than a year to learn anyway.

I cannot stress how much of a help resitting my AS year in A2 was! I never thought I'd say that haha. I would definitely recommend this as opposed to taking a third year: unis are within their right to ask for higher grades to compensate for those taking three years instead of 2, seeing a third year as an advantage.

I hope my experience has been of some help! Obviously this tactic might not be for everybody, but if you're a worker bee then it could be a useful route to go down! Good luck

[smudge09]

(Original post by Dollyandra)
Hi there, I was in a similar position to you last year - I didn't work very hard and came out with Cs at AS in the same subjects as you. I retook my AS exams within my A2 year and managed to bring my grades up to As. A lot of people in my year did this too - it's easy to do so with Science subjects because a lot of the A2 content is contingent of AS, so you can do the resits without it getting in the way of your A2 work, and without much extra revision.

I found that the AS resits benefited my A2 exams - since a lot of stuff in A2 Biology/Chemistry is synoptic of AS, I was able to pick up quite a few extra marks where other candidates who didn't have the AS content fresh in their minds couldn't. This personally was the one thing that saved my arse! Learning A2 Chemistry reinforced my AS learning of organic etc, so I was able to excel in my AS exams thanks to it too. I think that some of the more abstract concepts in Chem do require more than a year to learn anyway.

I cannot stress how much of a help resitting my AS year in A2 was! I never thought I'd say that haha. I would definitely recommend this as opposed to taking a third year: unis are within their right to ask for higher grades to compensate for those taking three years instead of 2, seeing a third year as an advantage.

I hope my experience has been of some help! Obviously this tactic might not be for everybody, but if you're a worker bee then it could be a useful route to go down! Good luck

yeah, having spoken to A2 guys who were in my class, this seems like a pretty good idea. How did it affect your predicted though? (if that's not too intrusive)

[Samus2]

I got CCC at AS, got predicted BBB and got accepted to Lancaster that wanted ABB.
When it came to it, I went through clearing to a uni that wanted 320 points and I got 260. So, grades really aren't everything when it comes to unis. your PS and references will play a huge part.

I would resit your AS exams, try your hardest in them. As far as I'm aware, the subjects you do at A2 simply extend on material at AS so it shouldn't get in the way of your A2 year

[JakeE10]

It's possible. I got a D in Economics at AS level, carried it on to A2 but resat both AS exams in the same year (as well as the two a2 exams), so basically i did the whole course in one year, and got As and Bs in my resits and will (95% certain) come out with a B overall at A2.

From a D to a B aint that bad!!! It is possible

[526540828]

my firm choice Cambridge would not reject until A Level comes out. Moreover they need to put all the applicant who missed the offer in Summer Pool, and it takes time for UCAS to upload the result, so I might be able to enter Clearing as late as 20th August. I am afraid there will be no place for Chemical Engineering at that time.

[Dollyandra]

(Original post by smudge09)
yeah, having spoken to A2 guys who were in my class, this seems like a pretty good idea. How did it affect your predicted though? (if that's not too intrusive)

No that's fine My predicted grades went up from BBC to AAB, because the teachers knew there was potential for me to improve now that I was effectively resitting the year.

You should probably have a chat with each of them and tell them why you believe your grade should go up - quote GCSE grades etc. and how much harder you're going to try in A2 now that you know what the workload requires. Ultimately they're there to help you, so if you can convince them higher predictions are more accurate they should give you the chance!

[worried01]

(Original post by smudge09)
Thanks, that's what I was thinking about, mainly 2 or 3. In the process of the beg (which isn't degrading AT ALL), failing that I'll hammer it second year and take a year out. Over the last week and a half I've managed to get myself 2 work experience placements on top of my reading, so pre-results things are looking up. Thanks for your help.

I am kinda worried and need help as I feel that I might get rejected from Manchester Uni which is my firm choice. I have exceeded the A-levels they wanted which was ABB -BBB and I have a BETEC Extended Diploma DD*D* and German A-level grade A. I am worried about my Maths GCSE which is grade C and they wanted a B (one of their condition is me getting a B), which is why I have resit my maths this year. My questions is would they reject me if I get another C in maths though I have higher A-level grades than they expect?

[dippers]

In my opinion the best thing to do is resit the year. Don't worry to much.

[Use Err Name]

(Original post by smudge09)
Hey!

I've just finished the AS year, and thanks to laziness I'm not likely to come out with the ideal grades for what I want to do, which is biomedical science (preferably at southampton). I'm confident I can get the ABB required at the end of next year in biology, chemistry and maths, but I'm thinking my laziness during the AS year (which I make no excuses for, I've been spending the past month or so kicking myself over) will mean I'll come out with CCD, or B (in biology) CD, which in turn will mean my predicted grades won't be sufficient for the typical offer.

I've been reading around the subject like crazy, from evolutionary biology such as Darwins and Dawkins to medical history, I volunteer regularly at two projects, and thanks to contacts at one of these, may have work experience lined up in a biochemistry research lab, and I also view talks and seminars around biomed offered by universities online. I was just wondering if there was any advice any of you could offer up for what I should be doing over the next couple of weeks / year to help improve my position?

Anything at all would be appreciated, Cheers.

I'm in the same position as you (but I want to do Law). I'm aiming for decent uni's as well (mostly group 1994 1's) but I really think I've messed up as I put no proper effort in pre exam time. My extra currics/legal experience stuff for my PS is probably amongst the best though (work exp, attended a summer law school, reading law books etc.) however obviously grades are still needed. Worse thing is that my school is known for being very strict with predicitions (usually same grade, sometimes one higher) and as I need grades like AAB/ABB for the uni's I want, I'm fxxd if I don't get BBB Thought over it a lot though and i'm sure that if I put in the effort starting from next week (results day), I should be able to do well in any resits/a2 exams. Then it'll be up to clearing / any offers that I was able to get. If not, then i suppose i'll have to wait a year which sucks but hey, if you really want something there's nothing that will stop you.

I'm thinking you'll have to do the same unless your school is nice with predictions (i've heard of people getting C's and D's in AS but being predicted A's and B's!) which will get you offers and will guarantee you a place at Southampton or wherever providing you work hard this time Anyway good luck! Message me how well you did because I don't seem to know anyone else in this predicament :/