Oh yea and they still kept that AAB requirement, sounds harsh but it actually motivates you to get over it, only around 5 gets kicked out of 130 (my year has mysteriously low numbers of students)
A lot in my year were scared of not meeting the standards by exam time and gets stressed, but think about it, at uni you face even higher levels of stress (especially the bunch of medics) and AAB is pretty much good unis want.
If you are aiming for good unis, AAB isn’t a harsh requirement and I don’t quite see the problem there. Rarely does people drop out but they do have sanctions on drinking and smoking which could risk you being kicked out (well that really only applies to borders) you’ll be surprised people are more likely to be kicked out due to offences than grades!