Resitting exams after school, uni and repeated grades

Hi
Does anyone know th process of privately taking Sqa Exams. I'm from Scotland and just finished 6th year. Will I have to take a gap year to resit my exams if because I think my grades will be low?
Also which courses apart from medicine don't accept repeated grades? For example dentistry?
I currently have 2 conditional offers, optometry and Biomedical engineering, but I don't think I'll meet the grades for them.
Also this is a dumb question, but are you allowed to reject your conditional offer if you get ur grades and it becomes unconditional?
sorry for so many questions, I'm just a bit lost.

Reply 1

StudentForSQA

15

Original post by dude1568

Hi
Does anyone know th process of privately taking Sqa Exams. I'm from Scotland and just finished 6th year. Will I have to take a gap year to resit my exams if because I think my grades will be low?
Also which courses apart from medicine don't accept repeated grades? For example dentistry?
I currently have 2 conditional offers, optometry and Biomedical engineering, but I don't think I'll meet the grades for them.
Also this is a dumb question, but are you allowed to reject your conditional offer if you get ur grades and it becomes unconditional?
sorry for so many questions, I'm just a bit lost.

1.) There are 2 ways: you can apply for HNC or HND (HNC takes one year then you’d need to do HND which takes another year so 2 years altogether in college) HND takes only 1 year before you go to uni. Or you can do 1 or 2 specific subjects for highers in college which maybe you didn’t meet which would also take 1 year (wouldn’t call it a gap year since work is required).

2.) Which courses in particular do you mean? Do you mean healthcare courses? If so, there are other subjects such as Orthoptics, Opthalmic Dispensing, Forensics, Pharmacology, Oral health science, Diagnostic imaging etc.. which are other subjects in healthcare. Reply to me if you want information about a specific one.

3.) If you don’t mind, can you tell me which grades you need to meet for your optometry conditional offer? Also, yes you are allowed to reject the offer if you get unconditional.

Reply 2

dude1568

OP

8

Original post by StudentForSQA

1.) There are 2 ways: you can apply for HNC or HND (HNC takes one year then you’d need to do HND which takes another year so 2 years altogether in college) HND takes only 1 year before you go to uni. Or you can do 1 or 2 specific subjects for highers in college which maybe you didn’t meet which would also take 1 year (wouldn’t call it a gap year since work is required).

2.) Which courses in particular do you mean? Do you mean healthcare courses? If so, there are other subjects such as Orthoptics, Opthalmic Dispensing, Forensics, Pharmacology, Oral health science, Diagnostic imaging etc.. which are other subjects in healthcare. Reply to me if you want information about a specific one.

3.) If you don’t mind, can you tell me which grades you need to meet for your optometry conditional offer? Also, yes you are allowed to reject the offer if you get unconditional.

Hiya thanks for the info.
A B in higher English is all I need for optometry but I'm pretty sure my teacher put a C as my predicted grade, unfortunately.
For Biomedical engineering I need one C In any Advanced higher, hopefully I can at least get that. My dumb brain really struggled with advanced highers.

It was just dentistry I'm interested in. I know medicine does not accept repeat grades so that's out the window. But I'm not sure about dentistry. Glasgow uni says that they don't accept deffered entry but I'm not sure if that applies to someone who resits their exams aswell.
Also im pretty sure I can't apply for college now and would have to wait till next year? Also would I have to go to college to redo highers can I not self study?
Thanks for the help, really appreciated. I'm just trying to escape from a pit that I dug for myself by not studying enough.

Reply 3

StudentForSQA

15

Original post by dude1568

Hiya thanks for the info.
A B in higher English is all I need for optometry but I'm pretty sure my teacher put a C as my predicted grade, unfortunately.
For Biomedical engineering I need one C In any Advanced higher, hopefully I can at least get that. My dumb brain really struggled with advanced highers.

It was just dentistry I'm interested in. I know medicine does not accept repeat grades so that's out the window. But I'm not sure about dentistry. Glasgow uni says that they don't accept deffered entry but I'm not sure if that applies to someone who resits their exams aswell.
Also im pretty sure I can't apply for college now and would have to wait till next year? Also would I have to go to college to redo highers can I not self study?
Thanks for the help, really appreciated. I'm just trying to escape from a pit that I dug for myself by not studying enough.

I think deferred entry means for example you can’t apply in 2020 September to start Uni in 2022 September, you’d need to apply for 2021 at latest. Also can I ask what higher grades you have, or are predicted to get in your opinion? Yes I think if you apply for college now you’ll need to wait a year before starting. I think for self studying, you’d need to ask your school that information yourself, try to talk or email your support teacher about it because you will need to do assignments and unit assessments. The thing is, it really depends on your school if they would allow you to do it. But yet again, you’ve just finished 6th year so I don’t know if they’d allow you in. I still think you should talk to your school about this issue, particularly for what you’re gonna do this year. But yeah what grades did you get or are predicted to get for highers?

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 4

dude1568

OP

8

Original post by StudentForSQA

I think deferred entry means for example you can’t apply in 2020 September to start Uni in 2022 September, you’d need to apply for 2021 at latest. Also can I ask what higher grades you have, or are predicted to get in your opinion? Yes I think if you apply for college now you’ll need to wait a year before starting. I think for self studying, you’d need to ask your school that information yourself, try to talk or email your support teacher about it because you will need to do assignments and unit assessments. The thing is, it really depends on your school if they would allow you to do it. But yet again, you’ve just finished 6th year so I don’t know if they’d allow you in. I still think you should talk to your school about this issue, particularly for what you’re gonna do this year. But yeah what grades did you get or are predicted to get for highers?

I currently have the following highers: A in Math, B in Chem, B in Bio, B in physics

This year I was resitting higher english(I failed in 5th year) and doing Advanced highers: Bio, Chem, maths. With most likely predicted C grades.

Reply 5

StudentForSQA

15

Original post by dude1568

I currently have the following highers: A in Math, B in Chem, B in Bio, B in physics

This year I was resitting higher english(I failed in 5th year) and doing Advanced highers: Bio, Chem, maths. With most likely predicted C grades.

Those are very good grades! I’d just ask your school though about if you can do self learning and stuff because you will need to do assignments etc.. and it all depends on your school. You can also message a student buddy on Glasgow Caledonian university and they should reply to you within 5 working days. Just type up Glasgow Caledonian student buddy and find the guy for optometry, I have messaged him before and he replied in 3 days. Also just wondering, did you apply for optometry at the start of 5th year before exams?

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 6

Lewis T K

12

Original post by dude1568

Hiya thanks for the info.
A B in higher English is all I need for optometry but I'm pretty sure my teacher put a C as my predicted grade, unfortunately.
For Biomedical engineering I need one C In any Advanced higher, hopefully I can at least get that. My dumb brain really struggled with advanced highers.

It was just dentistry I'm interested in. I know medicine does not accept repeat grades so that's out the window. But I'm not sure about dentistry. Glasgow uni says that they don't accept deffered entry but I'm not sure if that applies to someone who resits their exams aswell.
Also im pretty sure I can't apply for college now and would have to wait till next year? Also would I have to go to college to redo highers can I not self study?
Thanks for the help, really appreciated. I'm just trying to escape from a pit that I dug for myself by not studying enough.

Dentistry, like medicine, is highly competitive. However, a good way for you to get in is to apply as a graduate. You'll need a 2.1 in your first degree and it would be highly beneficial if this first degree was a scientific degree. Biomedical Engineering would be a great undergrad to have, and I believe that optometry would too. Further to this you would need to sit the UCAT during your year of application , and for dentistry at Glasgow you would want to be sitting on roughly a 695 or >700 avg to secure an interview. At this moment UofG does not use the SJT section, however this can be subject to change, so you would, to be safe, be aiming to get a band 1 or 2 at very least. Moreover, during your undergrad you would like to gain as much work experience as possible to secure you minimum number of required hours and to make your PS enticing.
If dentistry is your main goal, I would definitely suggest to do an undergraduate degree first, and apply as a graduate. I think you would have a better chance at this route than resitting highers/advanced highers, after all a BEng (or BSc) is worth a lot more credits. A very important note is that you will need at least a 2.1 in your first degree, so choose your undergraduate wisely. Biomedical Engineering is a notoriously difficult subject at the University of Glasgow with a high amount of people dropping out, or failing the course. I personally am a graduate of biomedical engineering from the UofG and from experience I can tell you that trying to organise a uni application, studying for the UCAT and keeping up with the shear amount of work in the course is almost a Herculean task. That being said, if you do well in this degree, you'll be a fantastic candidate for grad dentistry and you'll gain a tremendous amount of knowledge .
You can also do an accelerated graduate dentistry course elsewhere in the UK. This is a 4 year course, rather than the traditional 5, and is only open to graduates. There is a course in Aberdeen that offers this. Again you would be needing at least a 2.1 in your first degree and a good UCAT score. There are other courses down-south that offer the 4 year course such as Kings College London, however to be eligible for this you would need to sit the GAMSAT I believe. This is a 5 and half hour exam that test reasoning, written communication and scientific understanding/reasoning. I'm sure that there are threads already started here in TSR regarding both the GAMSAT and the UCAT.
Finally the last thing that I would suggest, before deciding to commit to an undergraduate course, is to find out if you are eligible for pathways to dentistry courses throughout the UK. These are designed for students who are from more deprived socioeconomic backgrounds who have just missed out on the entry requirements. These courses include a preclinical year (or foundation year) where you learn/hone basic science skills and principles. For some of these courses you don't need ti have sat the UCAT as you sit it at the end of your foundation year and need to reach as certain level in order to progress to the next year (1st year of the standard course). Definitely call up all the Universities that offer this to find out directly from the Universities if you are eligible. Make sure you have done this before starting an undergraduate course, because as soon as you start this option is no longer viable. Dundee have a pathway to Dentistry.
I hope I've helped you out a bit, and very best of luck with your future studies and career.

Regards Lewis T Kenney

Resitting exams after school, uni and repeated grades

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