Retake A Levels or take a clearing offer?

yeah, but warwick has a 60% acceptance rate for econ, while LSE's is 17% and oxford E&M is even more competitive - a mere 8%. i wonder what their criteria is, and if they know how many amazing students they're missing out on..

Tbf, my friend got into E&M at Oxford and went on to get 4A*s but was rejected by Warwick for Econ. So it is competitive, just a bit random is all.

Posted from TSR Mobile

I was in this position last year and didn't want to go to a non-russell group uni. In the end, I had chosen to retake the year at sixth form to improve my grades. It eventually worked out for me having improved my grades a lot securing a place at the University of Leeds to study Economics. This may not be the best uni in terms of russell group options for Economics but I was happy with my decision to resit otherwise I would have went to a university that I had not wanted to go to with lower A-Level results. Although it took me 3 years to complete my A-Levels, I now believe I stand a better chance of obtaining a better job than with the A-Level results I had achieved last year especially hearing about some companies demanding certain UCAS points regardless of your degree qualifications.

I would definitely recommend that you should re-evaluate your decisions about attending university this year. From your predicted grades, I believe you can achieve better results through resitting but that requires you to believe in yourself. If you do decide to go ahead with university this year, I wish you good luck and all the best!

I'll be honest after getting results and having the initial feelings this was the kind of thing I thought - I still worry how universities will feel about me doing this. Obviously I'd chose 5 'lower' options (still try to keep to Russell Group + Bath too) - hilarious to think this point last year I was trying an Oxford application :O

Most unis are actually quite accepting of retakes, I know because I phoned up probably all of the RG unis last year and pretty much all of them said it wasn't much of an issue. Ofc, hinsight being 20/20, I realise my set up of travelling 3 hrs to my exam centre and back every week to sit exams wasn't the wisest move... Add insult to injury, the exam board lost my papers lol. Anyway for me retaking is useless because this was my 'retake' year - self studying a levels essentially vs Scottish Advanced Highers and I'm pretty much sick of secondary school exams now and want to move on.

But for you, this would be your first time taking a year out and imo, you don't have a whole lot to lose if you do. So, sure, stick with City if you want but I would at least give the whole retaking thing a think - consider logistics and costs thoroughly. If it ends up being unfeasible, then fair, City is still a pretty decent university with an attractive location and alumni in very significant places*

So did you miss your offers the second time around? Retaken once then?

Yh, got into Reading last year and missed Notts. Then missed Warwick's A*AA offer, and Bristol's AAA this yr. First time was a coursework issue (I actually did alright in the exams but my teachers didn't submit coursework on time) and this time was messing up + exam board losing papers (literally, 6/16 papers weren't even marked on my results sheet).

So.. safe to say I couldn't care less anymore.

Posted from TSR Mobile

That's ridiculous, how the heck can that even happen?!

I hope it works out, I guess your options have been really limited given all that...

No idea, and I'm not even going to pursue it further.

Eh, life goes on tbh, thankfully my highers meet the ucas point requirements of many grad schemes so shouldn't hold me back too much. My CV for my age is also pretty decent, and I have a wide network. So hopefully, touch wood, I can navigate through this mess.

Good luck with whichever choice you make - do let me know how things go in PM too.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Did you go to school during your retake or did you just go for exams? What did you do during your gap year?

Self studied at home, all the state schools here teach the scottish curriculum and my exam centre is 1 of 2 across all of scotland that took on private candidates for a level exams.. So was the only option short of being rich and affording the £25k+ to go to private school for a year.

Not much really: continued to run my after school tutoring organisation, networked with some more professionals, studied, visited friends at different unis, applied and got into a few investment banking insight days, became a Mod on here and did some small scale consulting (web dev, careers advice/CVs etc) projects.

I guess I 'travelled' as my exam centre was in Edinburgh, whilst I live in Aberdeen. So did some sight seeing after revising.

Summer spent it doing insight days and visiting Spain


Posted from TSR Mobile

You said your CV was good for someone your age, was it from your gap year or before that?
What did you do on your CV ?
Just wanted to use my gap year and do as much as possible
Thanks

No idea, and I'm not even going to pursue it further.

Eh, life goes on tbh, thankfully my highers meet the ucas point requirements of many grad schemes so shouldn't hold me back too much. My CV for my age is also pretty decent, and I have a wide network. So hopefully, touch wood, I can navigate through this mess.

Good luck with whichever choice you make - do let me know how things go in PM too.

Posted from TSR Mobile

I am also in a bit of a dilemma but my results were way worse I was predicted AAA but got BCD. So I've asked for photocopies of my scripts and might resit. It's wierd though cos I honestly thought I aced the exams and was absolutely gutted when I saw my results

Pretty sure most of the grad schemes only accept fist sitting in two years anyway, never mind three (unless family issues ect . I always thought by 'top 3 grades' the schemes just meant they accept the points from these grades but I contacted them and most say they mean top grades as in first sitting in two years, rather than just saying they only accept three of your highest grades
Are you into a uni you're happy with now?

Not all, it's generally not a hard and fast rule where you get wiped out for 'first sitting'. Depends on a few things, and whether the employer is strict or not.

Lol, I can't complain really. Swansea is ranked 19th for CompSci this year so could have done a lot worse.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Hi, I got BCD I need Between AAB-BBB to get into pharmacy in my first choice uni, I decided to re-sit some exams and Isas, I didn't want to risk going to a sh**ty university so I spoke to the university and they told me to re-apply for 2017 and I will be considered.
It's the last year for OCR retakes.
Do you think I done the right choice?


Posted from TSR Mobile

100%. university is too expensive to settle for a *****y one.