The Student Room Group

What should I do?

Hi, I'm new to TSR so I'm really sorry if I seem clueless about the site!
My AS results did not go the way I planned- BCDDE in law, chemistry, Spanish, general, biology. I'm not sure where I could possibly apply to or what course. Could someone help me please?
Do you have any plans for your future now? If you're looking at a biology course, obviously retaking the whole AS level is probably the best course of action. However, if you're looking at Law, then a retake of one or two exams plus a mid-range university is good for you. What were you hoping to get?
Reply 2
Original post by loperdoper
Do you have any plans for your future now? If you're looking at a biology course, obviously retaking the whole AS level is probably the best course of action. However, if you're looking at Law, then a retake of one or two exams plus a mid-range university is good for you. What were you hoping to get?



BBCC. I'm totally devastated with my bio results :frown:
I don't think my school will allow me to resit all of bio AS... I need to ask them about that. I was thinking about doing law but I heard that it's a very competitive and tough degree? With my grades I highly doubt they'll look at me at all! So I'm not sure what to do...
Original post by Kittyrockz
BBCC. I'm totally devastated with my bio results :frown:
I don't think my school will allow me to resit all of bio AS... I need to ask them about that. I was thinking about doing law but I heard that it's a very competitive and tough degree? With my grades I highly doubt they'll look at me at all! So I'm not sure what to do...

Okay, so you're not too far off the mark in some cases, which is great! You have less to worry about than if you were aiming for AAAA.

If you intend to continue with three subjects to A2 (so Law, Chemistry and Spanish), your school will probably not let you retake an entire AS level as well, but like you said you should check with your school to find out their policy on this is. However, if you were aiming for BBCC grades, you're probably looking at a mid-range university who won't be looking too closely at your fourth AS grade, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

So, ignoring Biology for the moment, you wanted BBC and got BCD. How high was your D? Could it be averaged to a C with hard work next year, or with a remark? Could you retake one of your Spanish exams or pieces of coursework (I'm not sure on coursework rules, I don't take a language). The same can be said for Chemistry, although naturally a remark would be unlikely to change much.

I assume you're aiming for BBC at A-level? That's 280 UCAS points, enough for Anglia Ruskin's Law course (typical offer being between CCC and BBC), or Bangor, or University of East London (typical offer starting at CCC). And that's just me searching for five minutes on UCAS.

Remember: Not all is lost. Do a little searching on potential universities, look closely at your marks vs grade boundaries, consider retakes, and speak to your school. Good luck!
Reply 4
Original post by loperdoper
Okay, so you're not too far off the mark in some cases, which is great! You have less to worry about than if you were aiming for AAAA.

If you intend to continue with three subjects to A2 (so Law, Chemistry and Spanish), your school will probably not let you retake an entire AS level as well, but like you said you should check with your school to find out their policy on this is. However, if you were aiming for BBCC grades, you're probably looking at a mid-range university who won't be looking too closely at your fourth AS grade, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

So, ignoring Biology for the moment, you wanted BBC and got BCD. How high was your D? Could it be averaged to a C with hard work next year, or with a remark? Could you retake one of your Spanish exams or pieces of coursework (I'm not sure on coursework rules, I don't take a language). The same can be said for Chemistry, although naturally a remark would be unlikely to change much.

I assume you're aiming for BBC at A-level? That's 280 UCAS points, enough for Anglia Ruskin's Law course (typical offer being between CCC and BBC), or Bangor, or University of East London (typical offer starting at CCC). And that's just me searching for five minutes on UCAS.

Remember: Not all is lost. Do a little searching on potential universities, look closely at your marks vs grade boundaries, consider retakes, and speak to your school. Good luck!


Thanks for the info :smile:
I was actually supposed to do medicine but those targets were mine when I realised I was struggling with AS and so I decided I'll go down the law route. My computer generated grades were AABB- A in law and bio, and B in the other 2. So technically I failed massively :'(
I could definitely resit but remark is a bit risky especially with AQA... My teachers suggested asking for my papers.
I'll definitely check out the unis you mentioned :smile:
Original post by Kittyrockz
Thanks for the info :smile:
I was actually supposed to do medicine but those targets were mine when I realised I was struggling with AS and so I decided I'll go down the law route. My computer generated grades were AABB- A in law and bio, and B in the other 2. So technically I failed massively :'(
I could definitely resit but remark is a bit risky especially with AQA... My teachers suggested asking for my papers.
I'll definitely check out the unis you mentioned :smile:


Computer generated grades mean nothing, they're very incorrect. I was predicted a C in physics, and it was very clear about two weeks in that was never going to happen. It was a massive achievement to get the D that I did. The only targets that matter are the ones that you set yourself.

Getting papers back is a great idea (especially to look through with a teacher), as long as you ask for a photocopy of the paper so you can still get a remark if you feel like you need one. There are a lot of horror stories with remarks, but also a lot of successes (My AQA history GCSE paper was remarked and I went from a B to an A). If you decide on a resit, make sure you plan your time accordingly to still fit revision time in for your AS exam.

I just clicked on a collection of random universities and looked at their entry requirements, so make sure you do some wider searching as well. The Unistats website is very good, as well as the UCAS search tool.
Reply 6
Original post by loperdoper
Computer generated grades mean nothing, they're very incorrect. I was predicted a C in physics, and it was very clear about two weeks in that was never going to happen. It was a massive achievement to get the D that I did. The only targets that matter are the ones that you set yourself.

Getting papers back is a great idea (especially to look through with a teacher), as long as you ask for a photocopy of the paper so you can still get a remark if you feel like you need one. There are a lot of horror stories with remarks, but also a lot of successes (My AQA history GCSE paper was remarked and I went from a B to an A). If you decide on a resit, make sure you plan your time accordingly to still fit revision time in for your AS exam.

I just clicked on a collection of random universities and looked at their entry requirements, so make sure you do some wider searching as well. The Unistats website is very good, as well as the UCAS search tool.


What happens if you ask for the original papers instead of photocopy? I will definitely resit- if my school lets me
Original post by Kittyrockz
What happens if you ask for the original papers instead of photocopy? I will definitely resit- if my school lets me


You can't ask for a remark if you get the originals back, although I think there's an exam board who don't do photocopies so they have different rules. So if you get your original paper back and you think they've marked you unfairly, you can't get it remarked.
Reply 8
Original post by loperdoper
You can't ask for a remark if you get the originals back, although I think there's an exam board who don't do photocopies so they have different rules. So if you get your original paper back and you think they've marked you unfairly, you can't get it remarked.


Oh, thanks for telling me that before I made the mistake of asking my original paper back! The courses I'm doing are all AQA. I just want to see where I've gone wrong so it could aid me with my revision for the resit
Original post by Kittyrockz
Oh, thanks for telling me that before I made the mistake of asking my original paper back! The courses I'm doing are all AQA. I just want to see where I've gone wrong so it could aid me with my revision for the resit


Your school may have caught any mistake you made though, so I wouldn't worry! But if you're just looking for revision for the resit, getting the original paper back is fine.

Quick Reply

Latest