Why failing my A levels (UCAS) was OK

It's any student's worst nightmare, and it certainly was mine. A levels were easily one of the most trying and stressful times of my life, and really for no damned good reason at all. So I'm telling my story for you... Don't panic, do your best, etc. I wish someone could've told me this at the time. This was 4/5 years ago now, so I have all the benefit of hindsight.

[video="youtube;cR7gHQZOrO0"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR7gHQZOrO0[/video]

Sorry for the slightly long video, but I didn't want to miss any main bit out. Hopefully this can be of help to anyone out there who finds themselves in a similar situation. Of course my particular details might not apply to everyone or even anyone, but the underlying advice and attitude should at least give some hope!

Good luck on exams and do not kill yourself over it :h:

Reply 1

JD1lla

You got ABB. That is not failing A levels. Failing is receiving Us. Missing a university offer is very different to coming out of 2 years of education and not receiving any qualifications. You have a very nice accent btw.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 2

claireestelle

your title says you failed but you didnt?
should have been didnt meet ucas offer or something

Reply 3

Flying Cookie

Original post by JD1lla

Aww thank you :h:

yes obviously I did not fail in the grade sense of the word, but I assumed on TSR it's hardly the case that students are genuinely facing getting straight Us... I guess I intended it in the sort of failing from an elitist perspective which unfortunately had plagued me by the time I had applied through UCAS.

Reply 4

Flying Cookie

Original post by claireestelle

your title says you failed but you didnt?
should have been didnt meet ucas offer or something

You're right, and at that point not meeting UCAS was the same as failing for me because I expected to go to my firm or insurance uni. Anything less than the offer I saw as a failure. That's why I wrote UCAS in brackets but I guess it could've been clearer.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 5

claireestelle

Original post by Flying Cookie

Guess you have a different concept of failure to me but thenthen I almost failed two of my a levels and had to use clearing :tongue:

Reply 6

JD1lla

Original post by Flying Cookie

Aww thank you :h:

I hope I didn't retract from the positive outlook you maintain.

Back when I did my A levels, I failed some. You could spell 'dude' with my A level results. Even though E and D is technically a pass, it has almost zero weight to any job application.

Now I'm at a red-brick university.

Got in without using UCAS at all.

...okay a few resits here and there ...

Reply 7

Flying Cookie

Original post by JD1lla

Oh wow dude... :lol:

DUDE! :P

Yeah, I guess realistically there is a grade threshold above mere passes (E) where A levels become useful for uni or anything else. And I guess regardless of the actual grades, for different people they would be different and mostly correlate with the UCAS offers, where the lowest acceptable outcome is to meet the insurance. So beyond achieving the university place, lower grades than required are a "fail".

A levels are academic in nature so I can hardly imagine why any employer would care much for A levels without subsequent higher education. Although having said that I have seen employers requiring a couple of A levels - no mention of the grades so don't know if Es would cut it.

Reply 8

AnswerThis

You didn't fail, stfu. You just make everyone else feel crap who did fail.

Reply 9

JD1lla

Original post by AnswerThis

You didn't fail, stfu. You just make everyone else feel crap who did fail.

I failed when I did A levels about 5 years ago, and her post did not make me feel like crap. Relax yourself.

Reply 10

Michael_98

ABB is far from failing, i'm guessing the reason why you struggled to get a place tht u didn't want to change your career etc. But atleast every thing worked out

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