Will retaking Year 12 affect my chance of university offers? Is it worth retaking?

I chose to do Physics, Maths and Literature at the start of Year 12 thinking I would go into engineering, it was a sporadic decision based on the fact that I thought it was my only chance of making good money in the future. Don't ask me why because I don't know either. Naturally I'm really talented at essay-based subjects and in Literature I have been getting straight A's and A*'s with practically no revision. I want to apply to universities like Uni of Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol etc which require AAB-AAA. The only problem is that I am not confident in my ability to achieve these A's in Physics and Maths because I'm so scared that it'll get too complicated for me in Year 13, and I might get B's or C's even if I revise. I also don't even feel ready to be applying to university and would rather just do another year at sixth form.

Since choosing my A Levels I have embraced my inclination towards essay-based subjects and decided I would like to do a degree in Literature and (if possible) Creative Writing at uni. My grades in Physics are not amazing -- they started at A's when the topic was more content heavy, but any of the more applied parts of Physics where I have to use lots of problem-solving and apply logic I would get a C maximum. Then I got a D in my mock with was probably due to a lack of revision, then I failed my further mechanics end of topic test which was comprised of the easier questions. I did miss a couple of those lessons though.

Instead, I would do year 12 with subjects History, English Language and probably Religion, Philosophy and Ethics. I would continue with Literature. I am naturally very good at it and have been top of my class throughout the year.

Would this 3-year study period of Literature disadvantage me when applying to universities? Or should I just continue with Physics and Maths? I am predicted a B in Maths currently but just scared I won't be able to bring this up to a A especially as I've heard Maths in Year 13 is really hard.

Since your plan includes taking 3 A-levels over 2 years in the end still, I think it will generally be fine for unis. I think it makes sense based on what you've stated and if your school and you are happy with this plan, I think it's a good idea

Yes, my thought process was I will not attend any literature classes in y12 and in y13 I will rejoin to complete the final year, then surely it counts as doing it over a 2 year period? But then I'd be sitting four A levels in year 13 which is super intimidating, especially because they're essay-based... so would it be a bad idea to repeat Y12 Literature despite the fact that I don't really need to in that subject? And to do 2 different A Levels to Physics and Maths? I do love my classes so much but the subjects themselves give me so much anxiety, idk if it's a good idea I'm finding it so difficult to maintain good morale :,) and there's a chance I'll panic a lot in the real exam.

I'd prefer to sit 3 A level exams but Literature needs to be one of them. Maybe they'd accept the 3 year period seeing that I was getting straight A's and A*'s anyway and I can send them examples of my work from my first year which has been really good? I'm predicted an A*.

I don't think the plan for how you approach English lit makes much sense I will say. More sensible to just complete the A-level for that in year 12 (i.e. continue into the second year of your English lit course while you're starting your others and sit the exam at the end of your "restarted year 12"), and then finish your other 3 in year 13. You still do 3 A-levels over 2 years so that's not an issue, you've just done an extra one a year early.

My assumption is your current studies are thus:

year 12.1 year 12.2 year 13
physics New subject A New subject A (continued, sit exam and receive A-level award)
maths New subject B New subject B (continued, sit exam and receive A-level award)
- New subject C New subject C (continued, sit exam and receive A-level award)
English lit English lit (continued, sit exam and receive A-level award)

Thus receiving 4 A-levels in total over 3 years, but still sitting 3 A-levels in a standard 2 year setting. If that wasn't your intention then I've misunderstood (although think that is a perfectly plausible approach, albeit the coming academic year will be quite busy).

Either that or just drop English entirely and just start 3 new subjects in your essay based subjects of choice - obviously in this case you wouldn't have done A-level English lit so most likely wouldn't be able to do a degree in English literature (whether that is an issue or not depends on your preferences).

I definitely want to carry on doing literature which is my concern for being accepted into university courses if I did it either separately to my other A Levels or at the same time as the new 3 A Levels I‘d choose. I thought that most universities want all exams done in one sitting for whichever grades you put on your application? That’s why I said I wasn’t sure what to do about Literature 😅

Can I call universities or email admissions tutors to ask about this and get a helpful response do you think?

Universities mainly just want to see that you have done 3 A-levels over a 2 year period with exams for all 3 done in a single exam season- doing additional A-levels before or after otherwise out of sync is usually only and issue if as a result the student doesn't ever at any point do 3 A-levels over 2 years with exams for 3 subjects done in a single exam season. Hence, I don't think carrying on to do the A-level exams in the first year of your new set of 3 A-levels is an issue.

Contacting university admissions for these kinds of questions is perfectly reasonable. They may be somewhat evasive though I suspect.

Ahhh I see, thank you. So I could still apply for the literature course with the grade I achieved in Literature despite it being sat out of sync?

Possibly, although at that point it's such a specific circumstance that you're best off just contacting the unis you may want to ultimately apply to

True… If I decided to study Year 12 Literature again alongside two new A Levels would my application still be considered? When it comes to Literature I‘m genuinely really talented and I love it so it would be a shame if it stopped me from receiving offers, but four essay based subjects seems like an even more stressful situation than this 😅

I think doing just English lit and only two new subjects in that way would be a potential issue for some unis (although not all). As then you haven't done three A-levels in the standard two year time period sitting all three in one exam session - you've done one A-level over three years.

if the university doesn’t state on their website that exams must be completed within a two year study period, would they still have a problem with it?

and which universities do you think would be okay with it :,)

If it doesn't say then they're probably fine with it, might be worth checking just in case.

Probably really easier to list the ones that might have a problem with that, which is pretty much Oxbridge and LSE primarily. Maybe UCL, maybe some very selective specialist universities like the Courtauld? It's a very small number of unis it's likely to be an issue (particularly considering also many conventional humanities courses tend to be somewhat undersubscribed and univnersities are also usually keen to fill those courses as they are effectively the profit making courses relative to the very expensive to run STEM courses), but it's just worth noting as they're universities TSR tends to be quite focused on. Others are probably less likely to have any absolute issues with it I would imagine. But as always, you lose nothing by checking and/or contacting the uni to ask!

Thank you for this. What I would like to do is sit three A Level exams in one exam season and those would be Literature, English Language and History — but obviously Literature would’ve been studied over three years instead of two, which is annoying because I would’ve still done totally fine if I studied it in two years 😅 So if I got the grades required, you think they would most likely be okay with the fact one out of three was studied over three years rather than two?

I don’t plan on going to Oxbridge or UCL. The course I‘m most interested in is at the University of Birmingham which has entry requirements AAB but I‘m sure I could get A*AB at a minimum.