Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

Becoming a Doctor has soon been taken away from childhood dreams :-( help!

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I can't give advice for your problem but I can say that it is always good to explore a career option very thoroughly before you commit to it. I, like you, wanted to study medicine at one stage. My marks were good enough and I shadowed doctors in emergency wards and stuff like that before discovering that, while I really liked the sciences and biology, medicine wasn't for me. It was . . . boring.

I then ended up doing biology and then changed to biochemistry, which is what I really liked all along but didn't know it because it isn't taught at school and medicine is the glorified profession of all academics taking biology.

All I can say is that, at this stage, there are many different subjects in biological sciences which are interesting and it is best to investigate all of them.

okay thank you very much :-), i want to study biomedicine now.

Reply 41

username2459871

Original post by 999tigger

Didnt they already say they got CDE?

Didn't actually read the full thread, just the OP - but yeah just realised!

Original post by mathsaddictive21

Thank you very much, i got CDE for AS, does that mean i would need to drop down a year and also, does that mean i have to attend yr12 lessons again??

Ohhhh so you're a resitter. Well this changes things. You need to consider your options more carefully now as medical schools are accepting less and less resit students each year - I resat year 13, and the stress that came with med school applications after this was like nothing else.

First of all, you need to think about your reasons for resitting. Did you have any unfortunate personal circumstances through year 12 that stopped you from studying to your full potential? Or did you simply get those grades because you didn't work hard enough? If it's the first, then make sure you email every medical school in the UK - I'm not exaggerating - explaining your situation and asking whether they will accept a student who resat year 12 due to extenuating circumstances. Work from that, and make sure you use the extra year to fix your grades. Most medical schools, if they accept your application, will ask for a few sentences in your personal statement to explain the mitigating circumstances / extra year.

If it's the second, you'll have a harder time finding medical schools who will accept you, but it should still be possible. Do the same as above, but instead ask the unis if they'll simply accept applications from repeating students. The good thing about repeating year 12 is that you'll have a chance to redeem yourself, so if you end up getting AAA at the end of this year then I'm pretty sure you can find many unis who will accept your application as many places are given on a basis of good predicted grades. Your teachers will only be able to predict realistic grades, so if you end up with CDE again, your hopes on getting offers in year 13 are pretty dire.

Also, try to think realistically. I don't know what the reasons are behind you getting CDE. HOWEVER: if it's simply because you didn't work hard enough, or you worked your best and that's what you managed, then you will really struggle in medical school. The sheer volume of things you need to learn, starting from year 1, is nothing like A-Levels. If you can't manage it now then it's probably best to stick with a cell biology based undergraduate BSc to give you a few years to mature and get used to a high workload.