The Student Room Group

A Level Crisis...What should I do?

I guess the past 2 days for me have genuinely been the worst days of 2016 for me. To see a whole year's worth of work destroyed in one day was really not what I was expecting this Thursday.

Discovering my results nearly gave me a heart attack:

Biology - B
Mathematics - B
Chemistry - D...

My firm for Manchester was AAB and as you can see already I got rejected from it, my ABB insurance offer at Liverpool was also declined unsurprisingly. I was pretty disappointed with my results because I knew I could definitely do better.

I've been trying to look for Universities with suitable courses to my interests but to no success so far - Either I have been rejected or they were simply not interested.

I am really considering taking a gap year to get a job, amass some money for the future and re-sit specific modules since some of them really ruined my grades, despite the final UMS scores actually being quite close to their next grade up, but I guess my parents are quite against and are not really into the whole idea of a gap year.

My question to the people reading is that what would you suggest I should do right now? I was offered the possibility of a foundation year into my desired degree but the £9,000 for that year is quite scary to be honest.
Original post by Studious_Student
I guess the past 2 days for me have genuinely been the worst days of 2016 for me. To see a whole year's worth of work destroyed in one day was really not what I was expecting this Thursday.

Discovering my results nearly gave me a heart attack:

Biology - B
Mathematics - B
Chemistry - D...

My firm for Manchester was AAB and as you can see already I got rejected from it, my ABB insurance offer at Liverpool was also declined unsurprisingly. I was pretty disappointed with my results because I knew I could definitely do better.

I've been trying to look for Universities with suitable courses to my interests but to no success so far - Either I have been rejected or they were simply not interested.

I am really considering taking a gap year to get a job, amass some money for the future and re-sit specific modules since some of them really ruined my grades, despite the final UMS scores actually being quite close to their next grade up, but I guess my parents are quite against and are not really into the whole idea of a gap year.

My question to the people reading is that what would you suggest I should do right now? I was offered the possibility of a foundation year into my desired degree but the £9,000 for that year is quite scary to be honest.

A gap year if you use it properly sounds very sensible in your situation :smile:
A gao year would be good regardless. Time to get out there and live in the big wide world and understand that everything is not in a cloud like life is at school. There are so many cheap flights and hostels that you can learn so much in one year.

You have 2 B's which is good! Better than nothing, so be positive! You could get in to a good university through clearing no problem, plus it is in mathematics which is a difficult subject.

What do you want to do at university? What are you ideas for your future career?
Original post by claireestelle
A gap year if you use it properly sounds very sensible in your situation :smile:


Thank you for the input :smile:
Original post by post-grad-u-ate
A gao year would be good regardless. Time to get out there and live in the big wide world and understand that everything is not in a cloud like life is at school. There are so many cheap flights and hostels that you can learn so much in one year.

You have 2 B's which is good! Better than nothing, so be positive! You could get in to a good university through clearing no problem, plus it is in mathematics which is a difficult subject.

What do you want to do at university? What are you ideas for your future career?


I want to do Pharmacology, and hopefully become a Pharmacologist.

Unfortunately most of the good/decent universities I was interested in have declined me during clearing.

My parents told me to be positive too ahaha, but I always feel a bit disappointed in myself knowing I could have improved. I am 5 UMS off an A in mathematics, which was quite irritating because I got straight As at every module except a very difficult C4 exam which I got a C in.

I am also hoping to use the gap year to experience a sense of responsibility for myself, I have always felt like a bit spoiled in the care of my parents and I think getting a part time job where I can provide for myself will also help me in the future as well as provide me better social skills so I can interact with others better.

Did you do a gap year yourself? If so, how was it? :smile:
Original post by Studious_Student
I guess the past 2 days for me have genuinely been the worst days of 2016 for me. To see a whole year's worth of work destroyed in one day was really not what I was expecting this Thursday.

Discovering my results nearly gave me a heart attack:

Biology - B
Mathematics - B
Chemistry - D...

My firm for Manchester was AAB and as you can see already I got rejected from it, my ABB insurance offer at Liverpool was also declined unsurprisingly. I was pretty disappointed with my results because I knew I could definitely do better.

I've been trying to look for Universities with suitable courses to my interests but to no success so far - Either I have been rejected or they were simply not interested.

I am really considering taking a gap year to get a job, amass some money for the future and re-sit specific modules since some of them really ruined my grades, despite the final UMS scores actually being quite close to their next grade up, but I guess my parents are quite against and are not really into the whole idea of a gap year.

My question to the people reading is that what would you suggest I should do right now? I was offered the possibility of a foundation year into my desired degree but the £9,000 for that year is quite scary to be honest.

What did you decide?
Original post by LPauling
What did you decide?


Haven't decided yet, although I am really leaning towards a gap year myself.
Original post by Studious_Student
I guess the past 2 days for me have genuinely been the worst days of 2016 for me. To see a whole year's worth of work destroyed in one day was really not what I was expecting this Thursday.

Discovering my results nearly gave me a heart attack:

Biology - B
Mathematics - B
Chemistry - D...

My firm for Manchester was AAB and as you can see already I got rejected from it, my ABB insurance offer at Liverpool was also declined unsurprisingly. I was pretty disappointed with my results because I knew I could definitely do better.

I've been trying to look for Universities with suitable courses to my interests but to no success so far - Either I have been rejected or they were simply not interested.

I am really considering taking a gap year to get a job, amass some money for the future and re-sit specific modules since some of them really ruined my grades, despite the final UMS scores actually being quite close to their next grade up, but I guess my parents are quite against and are not really into the whole idea of a gap year.

My question to the people reading is that what would you suggest I should do right now? I was offered the possibility of a foundation year into my desired degree but the £9,000 for that year is quite scary to be honest.


Okay, not bad results.

I feel it would be wise doing a gap year and literally just think, make some money and do some retakes on the side.

Just curious what exam boards did you do for each subject.
Original post by Kira Yagami
Okay, not bad results.

I feel it would be wise doing a gap year and literally just think, make some money and do some retakes on the side.

Just curious what exam boards did you do for each subject.


Mathematics - OCR MEI
Chemistry - AQA
Biology - AQA

Yeah, if I do take a gap year I'd definitely use the job to pay for the retakes myself since last year my parents paid for half the retakes I did and I really don't want them to waste money again.
(edited 7 years ago)

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