AS grades - how important?

I have never ever heard that and highly doubt that is the case. Why on earth would universities go "ah well his AS levels aren't good but he has good GCSEs, which are easier and some of the subjects are not important at all, but we don't mind that, we will accept him anyway". Can you send some links to universities who do do this and send some proof this does happen? As I said, I highly doubt this is the case.



Depends on what you count as low. If you had As and Bs all the other stuff would make up for it. If you had all Cs and below and were applying to a top medical school then it wouldn't really help that much.

im talkimg about whethrr to give the applicant a conditional offer or not...try look on Liverpools admissions Im pretty sure I got.this from theres, maybe i misunderstiod but I am sure Im right

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Don't panic too much - if your A*s are in science at GCSE and that's what your doing at A-level, then you are competent enough to get AAA.

If you have failed, retake. You may have to rethink your options for your applications as some don't allow you to apply with retakes (I retook 2 A2 modules from January and have an unconditional offer, so it can be done).

But at the same time, if you got below an E in chemistry, you have to think whether you have what it takes to be able to get an A by the end of next year. Was there a reason you did so badly? Did you not revise enough?

At the end of the day, see what you get, and then talk to your teachers about their expectations for you over the next year. If you did as badly as you think, they may not predict you high enough grades to get an interview.

If that is the case, again, DO NOT WORRY.

If you then get the grades, take a gap year and apply again. Not only will it allow you to save money for uni and become more mature, but it shows how dedicated you are to becoming a doctor, which is really important!

I've gone through the whole thing twice (went to uni in my gap year as well), so if you need any advice or anything at all, just message me

Congrats on the unconditional offer!! Yea I essentially didn't work hard enough and didn't ask for help when I needed it which was so stupid but I definitely have learnt my lesson there! I've already signed up for AS chemistry outside of school so I can take classes during the year to keep me studying my AS material to hopefully make the resits less difficult! I had always considered a gap year so that I can focus really hard on school this year and then more work experience and voluntary work in a gap year! Thanks for your help


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I thinking you might have misunderstood as it doesn't say that on the Liverpool website and anyway GCSEs and A levels are very different qualifications, they wouldn't decided to give an offer based on one or the other in the same way if you are doing music grades you wouldn't be considered a better musician for having a distinction in grade 2 compared to someone who has a pass in grade 5 just cause you got a high grade in the easier qualification.

You need a good academic profile in both and remember, you are made an offer which contains 3 A levels so they are very important. I think a good GCSE profile would not save a bad AS one.

ok Univeristy of Leeds consider gcse resukts or 'cashed-in' AS level results

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Can you send a link cause I'm on the leeds website for medicine and cannot see that

http://medhealth.leeds.ac.uk/info/202/applying_for_the_mbchb/84/the_selection_process/2

Under AS tab

Wow. I will always admit when I'm wrong but that is completely bizarre. I have no idea how they can choose between GCSEs and AS levels as they are very different qualifications (They says an A* at GCSE is roughly a C at AS but even so... you do a lot more GCSEs...weird)

i knew I was right haha

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Wow. I will always admit when I'm wrong but that is completely bizarre. I have no idea how they can choose between GCSEs and AS levels as they are very different qualifications (They says an A* at GCSE is roughly a C at AS but even so... you do a lot more GCSEs...weird)

Haha I think leeds is the only medical school which uses a system like that though. Would you not say AS levels are a better prediction of educational performance in comparison to GCSE's?

That's exactly what I think. You see people who do really well in GCSEs and then struggle with AS levels. Why should they get in over someone with really good AS levels just because candidate A has an amazing GCSE profile.

I want my doctors to be amazing at biology and chemistry and medicine in general...don't really care if they have A*s in drama, music, art, history, geography etc. GCSE (nothing against those subjects, all of them are great subjects but not great enough to say this person will be great at medicine over someone with AAAA in bio, chem, maths and physics AS level for example :P )

That's exactly what I think. You see people who do really well in GCSEs and then struggle with AS levels. Why should they get in over someone with really good AS levels just because candidate A has an amazing GCSE profile.

I want my doctors to be amazing at biology and chemistry and medicine in general...don't really care if they have A*s in drama, music, art, history, geography etc. GCSE (nothing against those subjects, all of them are great subjects but not great enough to say this person will be great at medicine over someone with AAAA in bio, chem, maths and physics AS level for example :P )

Definitely agree with you on that point. I suppose GCSE's allow you too show you are academically gifted in a range of subjects but getting an A* in GCSE geography, history, art etc.. isn't going to make you a better doctor. With medicine, it has come down to GCSE's as a differentiating factor since everyone has strong academics therefore you need to cut numbers down for interviews. Are you applying for medicine this year??

Nope. I've applied to study biology for 2014 entry Going to Imperial in october

The only reason I know most of this stuff is because when I was younger I wanted to become a vet (up until the summer between year 11 and year 12 where I realised I wouldn't be able to cope with putting animals down and I would get really sad if an animal never died in my care) but I had done loads of research

Congrats on your offer from Imperial!

Must be one of the hardest parts of being a vet. It's good that your research helped you in making that decision.

Thanks Can't wait to go...just waiting for results Less than 3 weeks now.

Good luck on your application