Anybody who has doubts in applying due to grades, read my story

Which college did you apply for?

Biology. I'm going to uni to study English language this year but biology relates to what I want to do in the future. If I stayed on for bio at A2 I might have chosen to do something different at uni but at least everything is on track now

Absolutely fantastic! Well done! You deserve to be where you are, you put in the hard work, you reap the rewards.

I was in a similar situation in 6th form, I came out with 3 U and a level due to personal circumstances, the head of 6 form told me to leave and get a job, I wasnt going to do any better, I'd never get to uni. I got into Uni with 3 U grades, and did an HND. Then got into Lancaster and did my Degree! I could not wait to "bump" into the head of year again and tell him how "rubbish" I was and how I never got into uni 😂.

Determination and perseverance gets you miles ahead. Never let anyone tell you you are not good enough. At the end of the day, it's your life, not theirs.
You sound a little like me, if someone tells you you can't do something, you have to prove them wrong 😂

WOW, this has really motivated me. I really want to go to Warwick, but I have received BCE, I'm sure by studying my butt off I can imporve that to AAB and apply through clearing or take a gap year and re-apply.

This post was so motivating. I got a C in english lit in AS and I'm thinking of resitting next year. How was resitting like and what advice can you give me?

Thanks!!

I'm not sure if we're on the same spec cos mine was the old one, but for me, resitting English wasn't too much work. It was revisiting and re-familiarising yourself with the materials, and also working on past papers. Our teacher only began preparing us for resits after we came back from Easter (he gave us some work to do over the holiday though).

I think the most important thing is to identify your problems at AS and tackling those. Like, I was so rubbish with time management that I only finished half of my Lit paper at AS and got an E. So as I was preparing for my resit in Year 13, I was working particularly hard on my time management techniques by doing past papers. I was also very weak at the production task (cos I just don't have that talent lol) but my teacher helped me by giving me a lot of model responses to look at. We also sat together and tried to predict what questions would be likely to come up and wrote practice responses for those.

This sounds like a lot of work but it actually wasn't. For English, it's usually the case that after your A2 studies you'll have polished your skills even further (because you'll have had another year of practice) so you'll find AS exams even easier than before. In my resit I didn't have the time management problem anymore (although my production task was still meh but at least I finished both halves of the paper this time around loll). No need to stress and just pace yourself with it. x

This is truly inspiring. Congrats for getting in!

Wow! You must have put so much work into those grades! Congratulations and good luck in oxford!!

Thank you so much. I plan to work harder this time around to get an A.

Oxford must have had faith in you, your GCSEs are absolutely incredible

Right.. At GCSE I got 11 A*s and was one of the top students at my school, then at AS I ended up with ABC (A in Bio, B in Geo and C in Eng Lang & Lit). I was devastated not only because of the huge drop from my performance back at GCSE but cos I was so set up for English at Oxford. It had been my dream and I spent my entire secondary school career preparing for it, and yet right there I got an E in the Lit paper because I only managed to finish half of it. It was like a slap in my face.

My head of 6th form told me to 'repeat Year 12' and said to me 'alright then now English at Oxford is dead in the water' and 'normally you should even drop English but shame that you're already only doing 3 subjects', right on the day when I was at my weakest. Then I decided to change and apply for Psychology instead and thus ignored him and carried on with Year 13. After some struggle I decided to still go for Oxford. Between Results Day last year and the day my school began, I was spending all the hours except sleeping and eating just studying and preparing for Psychology at uni. I was fueled with the sheer desire and will to rise back up from my rock bottom again and prove anyone who doubted my ability wrong. I had never thought I'd go for Psychology and so I had to catch up with what I think a typical Oxbridge applicant would have done in like 2 to 3 years within 3 to 4 weeks. And that was the only way I could prove to people that I'm capable and deserving of a high enough prediction out of my ABC when I went back in September in order to apply to Oxford.

After I got back to school everyone was telling me not to waste a place, and teachers were advising me not to apply for unis that have offers higher than AAB. The head of 6th form was telling my English teacher not to predict me anything higher than a B. My English teacher though was the one I must thank as he said to me in the end 'I won't predict you anything less than an A. I want to show you that I believe in you.' So there I went and went for it.

And then I got an interview invite. And then an offer. And then an offer for their scholarship.

I've put in a huge amount of work and time both for the preparation for the course and for my EPQ which is subject-related (and it has expanded my mind and knowledge so much; also helped massively at my interview), and an even huger determination and effort for 'upping' my grades. A2 was hard work, resitting was too, but when I found the will, I found the power.

In the end I got 4 A*s for my A2. A* in all 3 of my subjects and an A* for my EPQ. What kicked that head of 6th form and all others who have ever doubted me in the arse the most wasn't even that I got into Oxford, having defied all odds. It was that I got full UMS in my English, while just 10 months ago my head of 6th form was saying 'don't even predict a B'. And now I'm off to read Experimental Psychology at Oxford in October. This past year was my come-back, my rebound. I just want to tell you that if you have the will, you'll keep turning 'impossible' into 'possible'.

When there's a WILL, there's a WAY. Don't ever let anybody tell you that you 'can't', most of all, don't let yourself tell you that you can't. Find your will, prepare to be flexible and be open to changes, and always believe, and always always try, then you'll find a way. I hope my experience empowers you, and I wish you all the best. x

Wow, well done.. This is such an amazing inspiration... I am also aiming for A*A*A* (+ A* at EPQ) this year, and reading this (and other similar threads) are what motivate me to not give up...

Also, I really wanna give you a thumbs up, but its at 69