is it worth retaking english lit gcse next year to try and bump up an A to an A*?

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generalebriety

Where are you considering applying to, out of interest? I'm sure the interviewers would love you if they said anything against your strong views and you started slagging them off like you're doing to me now.

I'm already at university; I applied to Cambridge, Warwick, Durham, St. Andrews, Manchester, Sheffield and UCL. I was accepted by all of them. Ultimately it was a toss up between Sheffield (good for french and closer to home) or and St. Andrews for its excellent reputation and it had a good reputation for politics, my other chosen subject. I chose sheffield based on the fact that my fiance went.

You may be wondering why I turned Cambridge down, many people seem to, I went along and didn't like the place, didn't get a good feel for it - much to the disappointment of all my family.

Plus, all my decisions were based on my fiance - daft you may think, but love does that to you and i'm happy.

I had straight A*s and one A at GCSE and I had 5 As at A level. The A in GCSE? French.. the subject Cambridge accepted me for.

Game,set,match

Reply 21

generalebriety

Timeslikethese

I assumed because you were 18 you weren't at university yet, but clearly I didn't read far enough in your profile. Fair enough, and congratulations. I don't believe there's no more to life than Cambridge and I respect your decision to turn them down. There is more to studying than prestige.

And if "game, set, match" gives you some self-attributed personal moral victory over me, then that's fine too.

Reply 22

MisterE

Explain in more detail how i talk crap. You are the one that is talking crap.
At the end of the day, A Levels are harder than GCSES. One must ask how can one obtain an A on such Advanced Level, and only obtain A at GCSE? Simple, improvement.

Reply 23

Mustardseed

I'm in the same situation; I'm pretty sure I haven't done as well in my English Lit exam as I was predicted and that I will get an A instead of an A*. While it's tempting to feel disappointed, an A is, in the long run, pretty much as good as an A* and I don't think it would be worth re-taking just to go up from an A to an A*.

Saying that, wait for your result before you worry about this! It's easy to misjudge your performance, and you don't know what the grade boundaries will be yet- so there is hope for the A* anyway. :smile:

Reply 24

kateykat

No, it's not worth it, don't bother. Unless you're applying somewhere like Oxford, Cambridge or other extremely popular English course universities such as York or Durham then getting an A at GCSE rather than an A* is not going to hinder you at all. Actually, I think even at these universities it's unlikely to be a problem, because an A is very good and they take so many other factors into account. Universities are a LOT more interested in AS and A-levels than GCSE results.

Also, at GCSE level it's difficult to imagine just how intense the work at AS level becomes, but I'm telling you now...it gets difficult! The transition from GCSE to AS-level is massive and if you try to retake a GCSE in the middle of it all then you're just going to overload yourself.

I've just looked back at some posts saying that not getting an A* might disadvantage you when applying for English, which may be true to a certain extent because it is such an oversubscribed and popular subject, but on the other hand if you get an A grade at GCSE and then an A grade at AS then they will KNOW you're good and will then feel more encouraged to read on to your personal statement (which I feel is extremely important, especially when applying for English).

Furthermore, I do think it is important to sometimes try to accept that we can't always be brilliant at everything. Some people are only satisfied when they get top-notch grades and I understand that, but as you get older and progress in your studies you will realise that thousands of other bright sparks are getting exactly the same grades as you. If anything, rather than retaking a GCSE while doing AS-levels it would be much more beneficial if you join a club, do work experience, involve yourself in the 6th form council etc. It's things like this which are ultimately going to stand out on your personal statement a lot more than grades are going to.

Reply 25

beach surf babe

They don't look at GCSE's that much I don't think. Just concentrate on getting a good grade at A Level...

Reply 26

kateykat

generalebriety

MisterE, you talk crap. How does an A at AS level override the exact same grade at GCSE? That doesn't show improvement or excellence at all, just an accumulation of knowledge and a bit of experience. There's no way you can tell between a low and a high A grade at AS, although there is at GCSE with the introduction of A* a few years back now. If someone gets an A at AS and an A* at GCSE, it's fair to assume they're a better candidate than someone who gets A at AS and A at GCSE, because the latter looks like they may only have a low A at AS and the former may well have a higher one, based entirely on the GCSE grades. Don't be so dismissive.

I see where you're coming from, but I disagree and I think that an A grade at AS-level definitely does override one at GCSE. You can have some idea if an A grade is high or low at AS because of the UMS points collected from each module. Universities realise that the requirements and skills needed to reach an A grade at AS are a lot higher than that at GCSE. So many A* GCSE students get B grades at AS-level because they're not so good at developing these new techniques in such a short space of time and have difficulty writing independantly.

That doesn't show improvement or excellence at all, just an accumulation of knowledge and a bit of experience.

I really don't understand how that is relevant. Accumulation of knowledge and experience attributes to academic success. At AS and A-level people can do AEAs in English and start doing extra-curricular things such as writing articles for the college newspaper. I strongly believe that things like this, along with an A grade at AS-level, truly demonstrate academic ability much more than an A* at GCSE. Isn't there talk of introducing A**? A* grades seem to be very common at GCSE and although to an extent they do provide some guidelines on who is excellent at a subject, I don't think they are a true indicator of real talent.