Pharmaceutical science or re-sit year 13 ?

Hey,
My exams went terrible and I seriously doubt I got the grades for Pharmacy. I've found out a lot of Uni's accept students who achieve 70% in pharmacy related degrees such as pharmaceutical science/chemistry or pharmacology. So I was wondering is it better for me to get on those courses via clearing or is it better to re-sit Year 13 ?

Definitely resit year 13, that's what I decided to do and received offers from much better Uni's. Also its very competitive and much harder to transfer into pharmacy. You're much more likely to get better grades with a third year, plus you've probably done better than you think!
Hope this helps

Hey,
My exams went terrible and I seriously doubt I got the grades for Pharmacy. I've found out a lot of Uni's accept students who achieve 70% in pharmacy related degrees such as pharmaceutical science/chemistry or pharmacology. So I was wondering is it better for me to get on those courses via clearing or is it better to re-sit Year 13 ?

Yeah that is true but sadly Uni's ask for higher grades if you re-sit a year. By the way why is it hard to transfer in to pharmacy ?

I'm a 3rd year going into my 4th year of the MPharm.

Honestly forget doing any related degree or course, if your intentions are to do Pharmacy.

Trust me. One year of retaking and nailing your A-levels exams, should be the only thing you are considering.
I had to retake a subject (We can all guess which one) and I still got interviews for what was one of the two joint top schools of pharmacy at the time (Bath) and interviews everywhere else.

When people say the hardest thing you'll ever do is A-levels, it's pretty much true (Vet. Science at Cambridge not incl. )

Admissions would rather you had BBB in the sciences at A-levels then a First in a Medical Science degree with CCC at A-levels.

Also if you haven't already. Really consider doing the foundation pharmacy degree. I think you need C in chemistry. They do it at my school and it seems to work as those guys know their stuff and if you work hard you are guaranteed into the second year of the MPharm.

Well at A level I got BBC and did Pharmaceutical Chemistry I got my results and got 67%. Then decided to transfer into Pharmacy. The minimum requirement to be even looked at was 65% with a minimum of 80% attendance. (Internal transfer) I can say a good 60% was based in A level stuff so my modules where on [ Maths first module was basic basic maths perhaps GCSE then it jumped to C4 like straight to integration by parts and differentiation. So if your good at maths this is a plus. For Labs for me it was hell! Like your expected to know how to use NMR equipment and all the boring pages of the text book which are just images of equipment which I usually skipped ( I regret now). The biochemistry module I had was actually quiet challenging for me, it was usually very detailed in perhaps DNA and the nervous system etc if you did A level Bio you should be fine. The other Chemistry based modules are fine it's usually a level and one step further. If you understood the concepts at a level you'll be fine. My pharmacology lecture was really interesting but the exams were really challenging in terms or remembering things which at a level you would brush over you find are of huge significance (huge mistake)]

Over all I think you should go and do Pharmaceuticals etc but make sure you check re entry requirements to transfer. Only do this is you know you fully understood the chemistry aspects and biology of course at a level and just flopped your exams.

It's a really good experience and you can use this 'first year' to have fun and get the freshers excitement out of the way so when you do start Pharmacy you'll be more focused

I also decided to leave to do PCS because I wanted to get out of the house. But only again do this if you're sure Pharmacy is what you want to do compared to doing a levels you'll still have your options open. But I think doing PCS is a good option especially with all the talk on changing the way exams are written and when they are taken.





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Thats exactly what I thought but the only Uni's that really ask for higher grades are the best ones for example Russell group universities. I got a standard offer from Aston of AAB which is one of the best places to do pharmacy. Also I rang up admissions at the University of Birmingham and asked what the standard offer for third year students is and they told me it would definitely be AAA. But I decided to apply anyways and ended up with an offer of AAB. So they don't always ask for higher grades! Plus when looking to get employed they will look at your Alevel grades, pre-registration places are getting much more competitive. Plus what would happen if you didn't do so well in pharmaceutical sciences then you'll end up stuck on that course. Think through all the pros and cons, I had to make the decision last year ans now that I have my offer from Birmingham I'm so glad I made this choice!

Thank you very much for the detailed reply ! I've looked a lot at pharmaceutical science modules at none of them really interest, luckily the uni's I contacted also told me they also accept biomedical transfers and that is what I find interesting ,so now I'm hoping to do that. Doing pharmaceutical sciences would be a bit risky for me considering if I don't achieve the 70%, I would be stuck in a career that doesn't interest me at all. But at the same time I want to do the degree in which I'm more likely to achieve 70%.
By the way , I hope you don't mind asking what Uni did you do your pharmaceutical course at ?

If you resit year 13,already having low A-level grades,lets say CCC,and you resit modules,would top universities even consider you ?

However even if you don't get the 70% at your particular uni. I still applied via UCAS again where they look at your 1st year grades not your a level which is also another option. Not all uni's will accept biochemistry (but they should). When I applied via ucas I got offers from 60%-70% AND if you even want to consider being able to do the course you MUST have over atleast say 60%

Thank you very much. I've done biology and chemistry A-level so do you think this course would be easier for me, and when transferring via UCAS can you apply to more than one Uni ?