Applying to Uni with post A-level retakes

Hi,

I just got my A-level results back, with AAB. I got A's in Maths and Economics, and a B in French. Although these results are respectable, I find myself pretty disappointed knowing that I can achieve better. So I'm planning on retaking all of my French, and a Maths module in January. Having not applied during my A2 year, I'm a bit naive to the UCAS system. Obviously I won't have the results for these exams before applying this year, I was wondering how retakes will affect my application, do I submit my current grades or not? What do I need to do to make it clear that I'm retaking subjects? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Dom

Reply 1

mogambo

I wouldn't complain about those results. I would only retake if you're not able to get into one of your top choices for uni otherwise it is a complete waste of time to just retake for the sake of "I know I can do better". It be more wise to spend that year as a gap 'yah' globe trotting let's say rather than retaking; it will look a hell of a lot better on your CV. Once you get into university, no one will really care what you got. The only time it may matter (depends on what you decided to do!) is when you're applying for certain graduate schemes/jobs that specify how many ucas points they want and considering that you already have 340 points, you'd be able to apply to pretty much all of them (very rarely have I seen jobs specify 340 points). PWc for eg I think is one company that wants a-levels to be done within 2 years for certain jobs they offer. Retakes aren't looked upon very favourably unless you had mitigating circumstances in which case it is understandable.
The best thing to do would be to perhaps email the universities that you're interested in and see if they'd be happy to accept resits and then go from there. I had a friend who retook his a levels (years ago though!) and his teacher put down predicted grades as well as what he already acheived. The teacher also stated in his reference that she was retaking for 'x' reason.
Anyway goodluck with whatever you decide to do!