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A level resit and GEM?

How is resitting A levels viewed by admissions when applying for graduate entry medicine?
Do they care about A level grades or only look at your degree?

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Moved to medicine

Original post by Anonymous
How is resitting A levels viewed by admissions when applying for graduate entry medicine?
Do they care about A level grades or only look at your degree?
I’ve looked at Swansea and Warwick but the websites don’t even mention A levels. I just want to know if I’ll be disadvantaged in any way by resitting A level exams because I’ve looked at the requirements for undergrad and haven’t come across any schools that will accept resits especially without mitigating circumstances.
Original post by Anonymous
How is resitting A levels viewed by admissions when applying for graduate entry medicine?
Do they care about A level grades or only look at your degree?


It would depend on which university you apply to; there's an excellent summary here on page 52 that goes over all the requirements of all the schools:

https://www.medschools.ac.uk/media/2357/msc-entry-requirements-for-uk-medical-schools.pdf

If you're thinking of applying for undergrad medicine as a graduate you'll have to contact the admissions of the universities you're looking at individually as I know a lot don't accept medicine resits even for graduates
Really? I know Oxford and Cambridge do (weirdly) but I know Manchester doesn't. Good news all around then :biggrin:
Reply 5
Original post by Annonymous0932
I’ve looked at Swansea and Warwick but the websites don’t even mention A levels. I just want to know if I’ll be disadvantaged in any way by resitting A level exams because I’ve looked at the requirements for undergrad and haven’t come across any schools that will accept resits especially without mitigating circumstances.



Not an expert on GEM, but can give some advice about standard entry!
I think we are now to 16/17 med schools taking resit applicants now, without extenuating circumstances, and not all have released their 2020 prospectuses yet. They include
 Sheffield, Bristol, HYMS, UEA, Keele (but only with achieved A*AA), Liverpool, Manchester, Leicester, Nottingham, Plymouth, Exeter, ARU, Sunderland, Kings (though they do say “applications from students that have achieved, or are predicted to achieve our typical entry requirements in the first sitting, may be more competitive overall than students who have not reached the grades required upon the first attempt”) and Aston say they will look at things on a case by case basis, so would need contacting prior to application. There is also BSMS and Lancaster if you do BMAT.
Reply 6
:hat2:
I don't think Manchester do as I've emailed them quite recently to ask and they were adamant they don't
Original post by GANFYD
Not an expert on GEM, but can give some advice about standard entry!
I think we are now to 16/17 med schools taking resit applicants now, without extenuating circumstances, and not all have released their 2020 prospectuses yet. They include
 Sheffield, Bristol, HYMS, UEA, Keele (but only with achieved A*AA), Liverpool, Manchester, Leicester, Nottingham, Plymouth, Exeter, ARU, Sunderland, Kings (though they do say “applications from students that have achieved, or are predicted to achieve our typical entry requirements in the first sitting, may be more competitive overall than students who have not reached the grades required upon the first attempt”) and Aston say they will look at things on a case by case basis, so would need contacting prior to application. There is also BSMS and Lancaster if you do BMAT.
Reply 8
May be changing for 2020 admission, but this is their website for this year

https://www.manchester.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/2019/01428/mbchb-medicine/application-and-selection/

"Policy for applicants who resit their qualifications
We welcome applications from those re-sitting their A-levels, though applicants may only re-sit one of either Year 12 or Year 13.

Where A-levels have been attempted in Year 13, applicants are expected to have obtained a minimum of grade B in each subject at the first sitting for the re-sit grades to be considered.

All re-sitting applicants are required to achieve Grades A*AA in the A-level subjects specified above, and the A* is expected to be achieved in the final examinations in either of the two required sciences."
Ah I see, minimum grade requirements was where I was going wrong then
Original post by GANFYD
May be changing for 2020 admission, but this is their website for this year

https://www.manchester.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/2019/01428/mbchb-medicine/application-and-selection/

"Policy for applicants who resit their qualifications
We welcome applications from those re-sitting their A-levels, though applicants may only re-sit one of either Year 12 or Year 13.

Where A-levels have been attempted in Year 13, applicants are expected to have obtained a minimum of grade B in each subject at the first sitting for the re-sit grades to be considered.

All re-sitting applicants are required to achieve Grades A*AA in the A-level subjects specified above, and the A* is expected to be achieved in the final examinations in either of the two required sciences."
Reply 10
Quite a few med schools have minimum grade requirements for a first sitting but I don't retain who needs what from that point of view, I'm afraid!
Really are you sure about this? Might need to resit so wondering if you've confirmed this with the university??
Oxbridge said it was fine for my individual circumstances; yours might be different. I’d recommend emailing them and checking
Original post by sweetietweetie
Really are you sure about this? Might need to resit so wondering if you've confirmed this with the university??
thanks for replying! and just out of curiosity, did you retake all or some a levels?
I haven’t retaken them yet but I intend to
Original post by sweetietweetie
thanks for replying! and just out of curiosity, did you retake all or some a levels?
are you undergrad or grad

sorry if it appears nosy im just trying to weigh up my options as well at the minute
I’m in second year of undergrad. I’m planning on redoing biology and chemistry IAL syllabus and picking up IAL Maths, because they still do the modular exams and there’s no practicals
Original post by sweetietweetie
are you undergrad or grad

sorry if it appears nosy im just trying to weigh up my options as well at the minute
@GANFYD at an open day at Southampton last year they said they were planning to accept resit applicants in the future (they said something along the lines of 'it matters that you've met the standard, not how you've met it'). I've just had a quick look at their website and can't see any mention of resits one way or the other. It might be one to add to your list for people to check out.
Reply 18
Original post by jzdzm
@GANFYD at an open day at Southampton last year they said they were planning to accept resit applicants in the future (they said something along the lines of 'it matters that you've met the standard, not how you've met it'). I've just had a quick look at their website and can't see any mention of resits one way or the other. It might be one to add to your list for people to check out.

Thank you. Southampton are indeed going to accept resits for 2020 entry and say:
"Retake Policy
3.14 Applicants who are retaking their A Levels/GCSES/or equivalent qualifications will be considered for our programmes. However, if applicants have retaken the same subjects more than once, these applications will be considered on a case by case basis. If a subject is not retaken the following year but at a later date, these applications will be considered on a case by case basis.
If accepted, the offer would be the same as the standard offer for the appropriate programme."

I think linear A levels have led to a lot of meds schools relaxing their policies as with modular A levels, many applicants had already resat at least some of their AS modules
(edited 4 years ago)

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