Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

Completely failed a-levels!! help!

Scroll to see replies

I think my best options are to do my a-levels as a private candidate and spend the year studying and working and then reapply for uni.

Thanks to everyone for your help! :smile:

As someone who was in the same position as you after A-levels and did a foundation year at a "good" uni, I would go with this. In my experience and watching some of my friends at the time, going to the university of your choice is better for your self-esteem than just settling for any old uni. Generally, the higher up the league table, the better (sounds awful, I know). Considering what happens after graduation, it is worthwhile taking an extra year or so to then have a high-ranking university on your C.V at the end of things than rushing ahead and graduating from a lower ranking one (that said I have friends doing very well from lower ranking uni's, depends how savvy you are after graduation :wink:

). Also, older students seem to do better once they get to uni anyway, they have more maturity and street-smarts and are there to get the job done.
You have to be fairly disciplined about the self-study though, but if you are I think it is more effective than going to official classes. There's plenty of resources out there to help you as I'm sure you know, and things will be easier this time because your brain has the time, experience, patience (and the taste of disappointment should you slack!) to accept the information better. Consider also doing some work experience in the field you want to go into to start to get you ahead of the other future job candidates in advance (it will also help you to see if you really need to study said course to get into it or if there are other, more flexible degrees/options) :wink:

Reply 41

rachrl03

Original post by SEHughes

Wanna do lab work? Do a bloody chemistry degree then!

Criminology isn't lab work......? Do you actually know what Criminology is?

Reply 42

tinyflame

Original post by Jinxy

You are much better off resitting your A2 year if you ask me, even if you didn't like it that much. You are there to learn and you've already covered it once before. An extra year will help you decide what you want to do. I resat my AS year and it helped me a lot. You could always apply to another college for your A2 year if they offer the same subjects and if your AS subjects can be combined with their A2 of the same subject (if it is a different board, that is something you'd need to look into. I had my general studies from one AS board added to the A2 of another board to make a complete A Level for example.)

What about me?

I have already resat AS, got E grades for maths, physics and chemistry, and took a gap year? :frown:

Resitting A2 exams seem like a high risk, low reward option, as I only would be able to push my overall A level grade up to a low B at most, due to my bad practical grades? :frown:

Reply 43

jonathanemptage

Original post by rachrl03

I originally applied to do Criminology at Leicester uni and had my heart set on it. I needed ABB but when I got my results back I only got DDD :frown:

in psychology, biology and religious studies. My results were mainly E's and U's, with a few C's. I got BCC in my first year so that brought my grades up slightly :/ I still want to do criminology at uni so here are my options:

-Re-take my a2 year. I have no idea how I would even go about sorting this out with my college to be honest and I didn't really enjoy it or like my teachers.

-Take a gap year to work and then resit my exams in the summer. I'm not sure how I would resit my Biology a-level because theres coursework that needs to be done and marked by a teacher?? also I'm worried that I will still not be able to get my grades up because of my as results.

-Do a foundation year at uni. Keele was my second choice uni and they're a fairly decent uni and they offer a foundation year for social sciences. I've emailed them and there are no spaces available for this year. so I could work for a year then start the foundation year?

-Do a foundation year at a worse uni. Southampton Solent has a law and criminology foundation year available to start this year, (I need to speak with them and check) but it's not as great of a uni as other places.

Would there be any chance of me doing the foundation year at Solent and then applying to another place like Leicester or Keele? Or would they see my a-level results and run? Please help I really can't decide what would be the best option!

I don't see what people have against Solent as a graduate I can tell you it may be low down in the league table but the classes are small so easy to ask questions if you don't understand something your treated as a person not a number and it has a nice relaxed atmosphere not to mention I guarantee you'll have a good time there location is important and southampton is a great city.

Reply 44

tinyflame

Original post by Ronove

In the long term I dare say returnmigrant and a couple of others are doing far more to help the OP than you are. You only get one shot at university (for the most part), you need to choose the course and the university very carefully. A lot of places and courses are not worth the expense. Better to start working and then have the option to start a degree in a few years once you've grown up and worked out what will be worth the paper the degree is written on (not to mention the time and money wasted on acquiring it).

Ahhhh, what about me??

I am interested in dong research in violence and childhood in psychology. Possibly becoming a forensic psychology or settling for becoming a psychotherapist when that doesn't work out.
But on the other hand, I frequently read how hard it is to just break into a psychology career?

If I wanted to becomea forensic psychologist for example, that would be the 3 year undergrad, plus 1/2 year Masters and then the 3/4 year doctorate (i forgothow long this takes exactly)??

I compared this to engineering, where it would take about 4 years at most to study it at university (only a Beng) and could then start to look for work if you have some work experience?
It's only the maths, and the difficulty of engineering that puts me off studying it, I'm also worried about ending up hating engineering and then dropping out in the middle of the degree? :frown:

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I failed my A levels terribly due to depression, I have E grades all across my A levels. And so now it's literally the case of studying engineering with a foundation year, or studying psychology with a foundation year?

-There are far more enginering foundation years available compared to psychology? :frown:

-Not only that, but the psychology foundation years hardly have the modules I am most interested in? Such as violence, crime etc.
And to be honest, I could go into places such as Bolton to get my psychology degree, but is it really worth it??? :frown:

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 45

tinyflame

Original post by SEHughes

Take this as a great opportunity to reconsider the merits of criminology as a career path.

Is criminology that bad?

I mean I was interested in forensic psychology, but since that's a logn tough road to become one, I thought that I would be more likely to work in criminal justice through doing criminology with psychology for example?

Or should I just settle for an engineering degree and consider a psychology conversion course? :frown:

Reply 46

SEHughes

Original post by tinyflame

If you want to work in criminal justice, study law. If you want to work in a lab, do chemistry/biochemistry.

Anything else is just a course made up for the unis to make even more money in fees. Like a Forensics access course just because people started watching CSI.