Will my teacher reference ruin my chances of medicine?

Medicine is something I have wanted to do for as long as I have remembered, but I've basically made a mess of it this year. I started my alevels, and 3/4 are linear. I have had medical problems all year and my attendance was around 82%(this was all because of authorised ilness - not because of bunking).

In chemistry I have consistently achieved bad grades because I had an awful teacher and found it difficult to teach myself, ( I know this is not an excuse) and I didn't think much of getrjng nkt so good grades as I had the mindset that because it is linear it doesnt matter as much and I have time.

I do not find chemistry itself difficult, I generally only struggle with moles/ calcualations. We did a couple of calculation-heavy tests where I only got 50-60%( which is a U ), but we have done some content based ones where I have got A's B's and a couple of C's.

My grades all year round haven't been amazing because I haven't revised enough because of medical problems as well not understanding and not taking initiative to learn everything that I didn't understand straight away.

My grades for biology and geog have also been not so good, (b's and c's) but for English I have been getting consistent a's.

My biggest issue was chemistry By March time I took my time to teach myself everything in chemistry and I was doing past papers from the old spec and achieved above 80% in every single one I had done. I fully understand chemistry and I found it easier that my other subjects once I had learnt it all.

But During the exam period revision was tough for a number of reasons and I know that is no excuse. I feel like I have got a B in chemistry (and biology) but also I feel like I may have messed up completely and got a D or E, I have no idea but I will find out soon My biggest problem is that my teacher references are awful.

I have always been pretty good at biology, my reference from my biology teacher was all positive but sounds rather generic, mostly because she is quite lazy. My English teacher gave me an amazing reference and my geog teacher gave me an okay but short reference. The problem is, my chemistry teacher gave me a bad one. He wrote that I have struggled with chemistry all year and it has proven a difficult subject. I don't agree with this because I have only ever struggled on calculations, and I don't find it difficult because once I learnt it I had done well. I have spoken to him about this and after a long discussion he decided he may reword it.

The issue I am having is, if I apply to medical school and I have a not so good reference from chemistry, which is the most important subject for med, will I stand a chance?

I know next year that I will get an A in Biology and Chemistry, and hopefully an A* in English language.( as grades do not count towards the alevel so the grade I get this year is purely to track progress and for my teachers to decide my predicted grade from) I haven't revised much this year and got some alright grades but I know with revision I can do really well.

Understandably, my chemistry teacher does not think I am capable of getting a C/B let alone an A so whether he will predict me an A is another issue aswell. If he won't, I am considering taking a gap year (which I really won't want to do) and applying with my real grades. If he does predict me an A eventually , will the not so amazing reference put me at a disadvantage?

My form tutor at college believes that me applying to medicine is pointless, she said I will not get in because of the reference as well as only having two science subjects. I really want to do medicine but it seems a bit far fetched at the moment I guess, so I just want to know if anyone has applied to medicine and got in with an average teacher reference, or any other steps I should take?

My extra curricular is really good and my ukcat should be good, my GCSEs are quite rubbish if I'm honest but my predictions/reference is what's holding me back. Do I have a chance?

I also wanted to know if anyone has suggestions on what universities I should apply for with my stats. I have decided that I will definitely apply to UEA and that is where I want to go but not sure about my other options.

GCSE: 2a* 7a 1b

As(hopefully): Biology:B Chemistry:B English Lang:A Geography(dropping at AS): A

Predicted grades should be(hopefully)A*AA

Ukcat is booked for September, I have no clue how well I will do but hopefully good considering my other points aren't that good. Have started revising from the 1000 q book which is really good.

Personal statement: Nuffeild, crest gold award, working in a hospital in a developing country, work with disabled kids, shadowing deiticians, doing my EPQ on obesity+nhs, and lots of extra curricular such as sports drama debating

If I were to apply to my advantages, which England Universities would be good for me.

sorry didnt manage to get through all of that, i skim read it. also i swear you have another thread with the same title?Anyways theses teacher references you are talking about were they on your end of year report? the only references that are actually sent or at least at my school are one from form tutor and one from head of sixthform so i dont see how your teacher references will make it onto ucas. also i dont know what your form tutor is on about, having 2 science subjects to including bio and chem meets the requirement for most if not all med schools ( i think the only ones that want it are oxbridge and imperial i think but dont quote me on that) many people to med school dont have 3 sciences so dont listen to your form tutor about that. even if you get average reference its better than bad reference and it only makes up a portion of the application i think most med schools will be more concerned with grades, volunteering, work exp and entrance tests than that. also one last thing some med schools (i think sheffield) do focus on personal statement and reference so maybe avoid them. good luck hope i helped.

Your teacher's reference by itself is unlikely to stop you studying medicine. Unless things have changed, only one "school reference" goes off to UCAS, which will presumably be an amalgamation of comments from all your teachers.

Your grades are a much bigger obstacle... why would you expect A*AA predictions if your AS grades in those subjects were ABB?

You will need to cane the UKCAT and select medical school options very carefully. You could start here for the institutions with the lowest standard offers but they are only correct up to August 2013 and so you will need to follow these up with individual course websites.

Your teacher's reference by itself is unlikely to stop you studying medicine. Unless things have changed, only one "school reference" goes off to UCAS, which will presumably be an amalgamation of comments from all your teachers.

Your grades are a much bigger obstacle... why would you expect A*AA predictions if your AS grades in those subjects were ABB?

You will need to cane the UKCAT and select medical school options very carefully. You could start here for the institutions with the lowest standard offers but they are only correct up to August 2013 and so you will need to follow these up with individual course websites.