Can you get into russel group universities when...

Why do my teachers lie to me about everything??!!
Stupid school!!
My form tutor told me retakers will never be accepted at any russel group uni, I was so depressed about it for like weeks!

I can't account for that. I'm sorry. Retakes are frowned in in a small number of cases for courses such as medicine, and you will find some places which state that they will not consider three year A levels but you only have to look at the stories on the clearing threads to see that for many, many RG universities, it is not an issue. They may make higher offers to resitters, though.

At the end of my AS I hadn't done too well. I ended up resitting my English and French exams, as well as my French Oral exam and then even went on to resit my French Exam again. Now I've got A*AA at A2 and I held offers for Exeter, York, and Queen Mary (3 Russell Groups)

no, not really



WRONG. I resat year 12, gave no explanation as to why on my personal statement and I got 5 offers.

Would you mind saying where your offers were and what for? I am trying to figure out how much my AS grades might have affected my plans..


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Why do my teachers lie to me about everything??!!
Stupid school!!
My form tutor told me retakers will never be accepted at any russel group uni, I was so depressed about it for like weeks!

I can confirm that that's rubbish. I came out of sixth form with BCU, so I went to an FE college to study a fast-track A-Level and retake the modules I screwed up in the subjects I passed. I mentioned in my personal statement that I was 'embarking on re-takes' and aiming to get AAB. I received conditional offers from Birmingham and Manchester, and now I'm a student at Birmingham, so what your teacher said is bullcrap.

Admittedly some universities probably do frown upon retakes. The ones I'd imagine would are Oxbridge, the top London ones, and the really hideously snobby ones like Durham, Exeter and Bristol, but who cares about those places?

Show determination in your personal statement. Say something along the lines of 'I don't feel that the grades I achieved are a true reflection of my ability'. Worked with me.

How is birmingham?? It's one of my possible options.
I'm also thinking of exeter and bristol, so I care about them.

I have personal reasons for flopping the year, so would the top unis still frown on me??

I will be transferring from sixth form to college next month (like you did), do I have to mention this on my personal statement?

Birmingham's a great uni. The campus is lovely - has a nice American feel about it - and the accommodation is generally awesome. One downside is that it's a 30 minute walk to the town centre (or 10 mins by bus or train - it's the only university in the country to have its own train station!) although whether or not that's a bad thing is a matter of opinion. The fact that it's actually got a campus is definitely a pull factor, as quite a few big city Russell Groups like Bristol and Manchester don't - but on the other hand, the absence of a campus usually means that you're more likely to be situated in the urban parts and have more of a typical downtown lifestyle. Overall it depends on your preferences. Personally I wish I had more of the latter, but unless you're in far-away private halls (which are situated closer to the urban parts), you won't get much of that.

Another downside is that a lot of the halls are pretty expensive. The most populous one, Mason, is at least £6,000 for self-catered (at least £7,100 for catered). The other halls aren't that much (except Shackleton hall, which I must warn you is a horrible place), but on average they tend to be more expensive than halls in other universities.

One last downside is that for second and third years, most of the student housing is located in a suburb called Selly Oak, which is on the doorstep of the campus - but on the whole it's not a very nice place. But most people go there and it's quite a haven for house parties...

Birmingham is also one of the sportiest universities in the country, and there does tend to be a slight dominance of captain-of-the-high-school-football-team types. Again, whether or not that's a bad thing is down to personal taste (I'm more of the quirky artsy type myself). Footballers' wives types are pretty abundant too...

If you had personal reasons, I'm sure they won't be too harsh about that. I've heard that Durham sometimes looks down on applicants who take gap-years without intending to retake anything, but that might only be the case for the most competitive courses...

Is it possible to get into Russel group universities if you resit your AS year? Unfortunately, I did not do as well as I hoped or would have and decided that the best course of action would be resitting AS. Would this in anyway hinder my chances of getting into one of the top unis in the country when I am applying? All your help is greatly appreciated. Thanks

I resat all my AS subjects and got 5 offers including from Edinburgh, Cardiff and Glasgow. My application looked like I just hadn't sat any of my AS exams because they were all 'pending' but I'm sure the unis cared about my expected grades and reference more. I wouldn't worry about it, just as long as your personal statement stands out and your expected grades are high enough to be accepted!

I'm assuming you applied a few years ago? This is no longer an option as all exams now have to be declared.

I applied for 2013/2014. I was resitting at least one module for all of my subjects and was told to put pending instead of the cash-in grade