Sitting an exam you haven't put down on your ucas form?

Hi as the title says ,Can you sit an exam that you haven't said haven't put down on your ucas form ? Will it count ? Or will it not .
I'm a gap year student and I want to retake my ISA and/or one of my other psychology units .For now im not sure whether to sit them or not especially the Isa .I costs £250 on top of £99 + travelling costs from South Yorkshire to Birminghan and I'd have to find somewhere to sleep overnight .I don't have such money atm. it's a big financial ask .i'm not working yet but ive got interviews coming up .later this month ,one next month .Hopefully I'll be able to get one of them.The problem is I want to send my ucas application off within the next week .It will go through my old school and I know they take at least 2-3 weeks before they can complete it and send it off .
The centre where I want to take my Isa don't allow you to pay later ,you have to pay before they can enter you .

Thanks



Posted from TSR Mobile

Hi as the title says ,Can you sit an exam that you haven't said haven't put down on your ucas form ? Will it count ? Or will it not .
I'm a gap year student and I want to retake my ISA and/or one of my other psychology units .For now im not sure whether to sit them or not especially the Isa .I costs £250 on top of £99 + travelling costs from South Yorkshire to Birminghan and I'd have to find somewhere to sleep overnight .I don't have such money atm. it's a big financial ask .i'm not working yet but ive got interviews coming up .later this month ,one next month .Hopefully I'll be able to get one of them.The problem is I want to send my ucas application off within the next week .It will go through my old school and I know they take at least 2-3 weeks before they can complete it and send it off .
The centre where I want to take my Isa don't allow you to pay later ,you have to pay before they can enter you .

Thanks



Posted from TSR Mobile

£250 on top of £99 + travelling costs from South Yorkshire to Birminghan

Hold up, seriously? It's less than 100 miles! I paid £140 for a return bus ticket from my hometown to Southampton which is more than 10 times that distance, can't you find anything cheaper?

The exams will count, but obviously the universities won't be aware of you resitting them so it won't factor into their decision making process.

Ok thankyou



Posted from TSR Mobile

Have you looked into doing the ISA somewhere closer to where you currently live, to save on travelling costs? Also, 350 pounds sounds like a LOT of money for a resit - are you sure you're not being ripped off??? Perhaps ask your old school if you are able to resit it there - they are more likely to do it at cost price rather than trying to make money out of you!

You also need to think about what benefit you will get from retaking - if you're not planning on mentioning it on your UCAS application then there really is no benefit, since universities will just look at your existing grades. How much could your grade go up by, realistically? If it's only by one grade overall, they may also not be a lot of point - unless you are struggling to meet the entrance requirements for your course. If you don't 100% need to retake it I personally wouldn't bother - although of course it does depend on your personal circumstances, how much money you have available, how much time you are prepared to spend on it, etc.

On the ISA I want to retake I got a U which was a shock .An even bigger shock because I got the same marks in both ISAs .They were 2 days apart .I have never failed an ISA ever .On both last year's ISAs i got As .
I don't think you understood my question .On my personal statement I have mentioned I'm retaking my Alevels and have put the other 6 exams on my application under the new centre im retaking at .Its just the ISA .Its a big final ask and im not sure whether it's worth it is with it .
The reason I want to take it is because I know I can do better and it takes the pressure off the written exams .My chemistry is about 40 Ums off an A The is what let me down I got 18/60 Ums on it .Which is really weird as my others are above 54.The two units im taking are unit 1 70/100 Ums and unit 4 87/120 Ums.So the ISA would take the pressure off .I would have to get > 90/100 and >107/120 .
No I'm not trying to deceive the universities of that's what you think .

Schools and colleges don't accept candidates for ISAs or EMPAs because they're coursework elements .Only tutorial centres .So far I can find 2 ,the one I mentioned and another which allows you to sit the ISA only if you sit a written exam with them. Which I think is a load of balls.Their written exams cost 100 lol .

Another thing as well is ;the centre can't tell you what the ISA is on .At school we sat 2 ISAs (one based on unit 4 and the other in unit 5) since Im only retaking unit 4 I'd be screwed if it is a unit 5 based ISA :/ i don't know it's a gamble !

On the other hand I could use that ISA money for tuition and help with my exam technique .Thats one of the things I lack .
And also I would like to point out ,yeah I believe my grades can realistically go up .I was young through some stuff in y13 and I do think it affected my exam performance to some extent .There were some nights I couldn't sleep and I would have exams the next morning .There was a time where I felt suicidal and omg it just went wrong.(I won't go into detail) .atm im trying to improve myself and change things .
I'm going through counselling .The support has been great .Fingers crossed I can get over it

I forgot to mention ,ISAs are pretty damn expensive .Its because they are coursework elements and are internally marked .Theres a place in London that charges 935 ,That was a no-go .Idk who has that amount of money :/



Posted from TSR Mobile

Sorry - you said in your original post that you were looking to resit your ISA and/ or one of your other psychology units. The question asked was about sitting an exam you didn't put down on your UCAS form. Therefore, I assumed that you had submitted your uni application but not put down your interest in resitting, and that you weren't planning on retaking any other exams than the one you mentioned. I certainly wasn't suggesting you were trying to deceive the universities - just pointing out that it would be pointless to do so!

Also, I really hope you haven't wasted space in your personal statement talking about resitting - this is something mentioned elsewhere on your UCAS form and should be mentioned in your reference if there was a particularly important reason for the resit (i.e. extenuating circumstances).

If you are getting A/ Bs in your exams but then a U in your coursework, it definitely makes sense to repeat the coursework then - since that will make a huge difference to your mark. I know it's too late now, but did you look into why your coursework mark was so low??? I personally would have requested a remark on that if you thought you had done well in it...

Some schools DO accept candidates to resit ISAs, particularly if they are former students at the school. However, it is true that they are less inclined to offer ISA resits than exam ones due to the extra effort on their behalf.

The exam centre is not able to offer you an ISA based on a specific unit, since they are meant to be taken with no knowledge of them beforehand (some schools basically tell the students what the ISA will be about and coach them through it. This is against the exam board's rules, and so exam centres, which have no pressure on you obtaining good results, won't help you like this). I would highly recommend you revise the unit 5 knowledge before resitting your ISA, just in case it is a unit 5 one. This shouldn't take you more than a day or two if you still have your A2 exam revision notes to look through.

If you're lacking in exam technique, the key is just to go through past papers. A tutor may not be able to give you much exam technique specific advice, they usually just make sure you understand the topics. How many past papers did you do before your A2 exams? In order to get a good result and really master exam technique you should be looking at completing at least the last 10 years worth of past papers for each module. Make notes from the mark schemes on what the examiners were looking for, what questions came up each year, and where you always lost marks. It is really important to look through markshemes properly and mark your past papers strictly according to the marksheme. Just doing this should be enough for you to get the hang of exam technique, particularly if you are taking more scientific subjects (for essay based subjects it is a bit harder, I admit - perhaps here a tutor might be useful. Practice is still REALLY important though).

Did you get extenuating circumstances during your A levels? If your school was aware of the problems and mention it in their reference, universities may be willing to be more flexible on entrance requirements and not penalise you for resitting so many exams.

lol at us with these long responses !
I was asking just incase next month or after that I decide to take them ,then my application would have been sent .

No It was about 2-3 lines.
I said something like "the decision to retake my Alevels was..." and said what I learnt from the experience which was basically neglecting my health and the mistake of leaving everything too late .I didn't say it that way lol.Idk how admissions tutors will react to it .I do tend to get personal on my statements .I hate generic statements without a personal touch and the person sounds like a robot and not a human.
Last years' was pretty personal too .My ucas co-ordinator was like "It's very personal but somehow it works.it fits together"
It managed to get me an interview at an institution ranked 1st for my course and Is the most competitive (for my course) so I was pleased with it .Hopefully this one will score me an interview again .

I honestly didn't think I did well on it because I couldn't think around that time .Things were pretty bad then ,I remember reading the question and didn't know how to answer it .E.g there was a question where we had to calculate the number of moles of a substance at equlibrium.This is was something I had no trouble with .In that Isa exam I just couldn't do it :
After I got my marks i went to my teacher and she's like "what happened to you " and I cried because I just couldn't work it out .
We had a unit 5 mock around the time of the ISAs and I got a U on that as well .She was showing me those 3 results and she says "What is wrong .This is unlike you" .Still to this day I don't know what happened .Thank God I didn't get a U in my final Unit5 !
I didn't know you could get ISAs remarked .I also didn't have money at the time ,things between me and my parents weren't good so yeah :/

Erm idk,I don't really think of them as extenuating circumstances (im weird like that) but 'life experiences' (my situation of course) .
I believe What happened was Gods intention.The reason was to show me that I needed to change somethings in my life .If you knew me personally you'd understand .Thats what I'm focusing on right now.Just being happy and improving myself.Ive started wearing makeup again ! That's a big improvement !! I had given up.
And I would literally shut everybody off ,spend the whole day in my room and worry 24/7 .That escalated into mild depression .So in a way I feel responsible because everything was a result of my own thoughts ,behaviour and attitude.I hope that makes sense as to why I don't count them as extenuating circumstances instead I see them as 'you need to sort your self out' kind of thing.
My old school is writing my reference ,I really don't want to bother the ucas lady again.I think she's tired of me


Posted from TSR Mobile

Have you looked into doing the ISA somewhere closer to where you currently live, to save on travelling costs? Also, 350 pounds sounds like a LOT of money for a resit - are you sure you're not being ripped off??? Perhaps ask your old school if you are able to resit it there - they are more likely to do it at cost price rather than trying to make money out of you!

You also need to think about what benefit you will get from retaking - if you're not planning on mentioning it on your UCAS application then there really is no benefit, since universities will just look at your existing grades. How much could your grade go up by, realistically? If it's only by one grade overall, they may also not be a lot of point - unless you are struggling to meet the entrance requirements for your course. If you don't 100% need to retake it I personally wouldn't bother - although of course it does depend on your personal circumstances, how much money you have available, how much time you are prepared to spend on it, etc.