should I stay or should I go? (a level resits)

(edited 9 years ago)

The main question you have to ask yourself is can you pull up your bio, chem & one other grades from DE &C/D to AAA by resitting some papers in year 13 and getting extremely high marks on A2. I'm concerned about the E in chemistry as it is the most important subject for medicine at most med schools, and it seems unlikely that you would be able to bring that grade up to an A without resitting all the AS units.

As you say, it does put you at a disadvantage to have done a resit year when applying to medicine, and it may be possible to pull up your grades in year 13 by resitting a lot/all of the AS units at the same time as A2, but the workload would be immense and this alone would make it less likely you would get 3 As.

If you have extenuating circumstances that can be proved (doctor's notes etc) then that opens up more medical schools who are willing to consider you with a resit year. http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Medical_School_Resit_Policies

If you cannot prove extenuating circumstances it may be worth initially trying to pull up your grades in year 13 to complete your A-levels in 2 years. Only do this if you can be sure that the circumstances that contributed to your grades at AS are over and won't affect year 13.
If you still miss your grades in year 13 you could then resit, but with limited options for med schools to apply to.

It doesn't really matter which school you do it at, it's more about your own drive to succeed; the only thing I would say is that having fewer students per class can make a difference to your understanding.