Can I apply to AAA course with BBB in as level

I’m planning to apply to an AAA course and for as units I got BBB. I can try to rewrite two units to get AAB for as. The question is, would it have meaning for me to apply to a competitive AAA course (law) with as grades of BBB/AAB?

I’m planning to apply to an AAA course and for as units I got BBB. I can try to rewrite two units to get AAB for as. The question is, would it have meaning for me to apply to a competitive AAA course (law) with as grades of BBB/AAB?

As above it depends more on your predicted grades, however these usually follow from AS grades if you are in a location where separate AS exams still form part of the whole qualification (i.e. IALs, or doing A-levels in Wales or NI), and are probably going to be considered by the university.

I'd probably realistically advise against it, and to focus on AAB or ABB courses. Perhaps if they use the LNAT and you do extremely well on that it might be worth adding one AAA course as an "aspirational" option. I certainly wouldn't suggest applying to the majority of AAA courses with your UCAS options generally.

Caveat being, the above is for scenarios where exams weren't widely cancelled due to Covid-19; I imagine predicted grades are going to hold as much if not more weight as CAG grades or exam board moderated grades for cancelled exams last year. So it's a bit harder to say for the current situation, and it might not be such an issue if you are predicted AAA or above after having exams cancelled last year.

Unfortunately I’m IAL. So even if I’ll get good AAA predictions and change the two Bs into As, it still wouldn’t be smart to apply to AAA law course?

I think maybe apply to one, or perhaps at most two if they require the LNAT and you get a very good LNAT score, but keep the rest of your options a mix of AAB and ABB courses. Having one course that is "aspirational" in relation to your grades isn't a huge problem because even if you do get instantly rejected from it, you have four other options which you should be realistically considered for. It just wouldn't be a good idea to apply to all AAA courses (or even mostly AAA courses) because then there is a very real chance you could get no offers.

Thanks for the answer. That’s pretty sad for me though.

But as I said, there is the question mark of the coronavirus situation - as they may not pay as much attention to the grades from last years exams and focus on your current predicted grades instead, if your exams were cancelled.

You can of course risk it and apply to all AAA courses, as long as you're prepared that there is a possibility you may get no offers, which would leave you to wait for clearing to open later in the summer to see what you can find in there. However on that note, it's quite possible that some ABB and AAB law courses could end up in clearing (although there is never any guarantee). Worst case scenario you could take a gap year and apply as a post-qualification applicant, in which case they would usually focus on your final grades rather than any intermediary AS grades you earned in the process.

To clear up, if I’m IAL unis consider as level grades just as much as predicted grades?

I’m planning to apply to an AAA course and for as units I got BBB. I can try to rewrite two units to get AAB for as. The question is, would it have meaning for me to apply to a competitive AAA course (law) with as grades of BBB/AAB?

It's very hard to say outright "no don't apply to any AAA courses" or "yes apply to them they won't care about the AS grades", because it's all shades of grey - you need to consider those factors in the context of admissions at each individual university. In general though, it's inadvisable to apply to courses where your predicted grades are lower than the standard offer (although this can sometimes be outweighed if there is an admissions assessment), and as suggested if you have achieved grades for qualifications that are below the standard, consider the real competitiveness of the course, rather than perceived competitiveness due to the entry criteria.

Most universities seem to indicate if you take AS levels as part of the normal qualification (e.g. doing IALs like you) then they will consider them. It is one of the few pieces of information they have that directly attests your academic ability, compared to predicted grades which are a bit less reliable. However, due to the widespread disruption due to coronavirus last year for exams, that may not apply so much for the current A-level cohort. It is possible unis may focus more on predicted grades or performance in any admissions assessments (e.g. LNAT) you might take. The application ends up being a coin flip depending on how they view applications for people who were part of this cohort. This consideration for your particular cohort isn't going to be the same as any other year, because there hasn't previously been a worldwide pandemic affecting examination procedures before, and probably won't be again. Unless you find concrete statements from the university in question that they aren't considering AS grades from those affected or similar, you can't know though.

Entry criteria however do not necessarily indicate competitiveness for admission in a course, and so some with relatively "lower" admissions criteria (e.g. Oxford "only" requiring AAA) can be as or more competitive than some unis with higher grade requirements. It also goes the other way - some universities inflate their standard offers as published on their website to make themselves seem more selective, but are well known to regularly make lower offers or unconditional if firm offers (e.g. Exeter, Birmingham). This is why I suggest only applying to one or two AAA courses, because I don't know which ones you're looking at and if they're e.g. Oxford and UCL then it's quite possible you could get autorejected in normal circumstances.

So for example if you were predicted e.g. A*AA, I would not suggest applying to LSE, which is an enormously competitive law course with the majority not only meeting but in fact exceeding the requirements, and your lower AS grades probably will influence whether you get an offer. Likewise if you were predicted AAA, I would probably not suggest applying to Oxford, since likewise most applicants will not merely meet but in fact exceed the standard offer, unless perhaps you get a really outstanding LNAT score. However for somewhere like Exeter, which routinely gives out offers below their standard entry criteria anyway, it might still be in the realm of possibility.

You can only do so much to change your AS grades, so you just need to hope for high predictions from your teachers and focus on applying to unis that fit your predictions, while giving due consideration to the fact that you also that you have slightly lower AS grades already. If you are applying to LNAT unis, you also need to consider your performance in that (bearing in mind strong performance in the LNAT may ameliorate lower AS or, for unis that consider them, GCSE grades)

As others have said it all depends on your predicted grades more. If your teachers will predict you AAA at A level and you’re confident that you could achieve that then you shouldn’t really have much of an issue.

No joke i knew so many people at my school who got offers that were considerably lower than their AS grades so from my experience it seems as though they don’t matter too much. Few examples of people at my school : offer of AAA with CCC as grades, offer of ABB with BDD as grades, someone even got an oxford offer (which i think was AAA) and i’m pretty sure they got around ABB/BBB at as level. So i’m pretty sure that unis mainly look at your predicted grades for the end of y13 rather than AS level grades, which i guess kind of does make more sense since not everyone does them.

thank you a lot for taking time to answer and explain.

I think my top bet is going to be Glasgow, they have LNAT there (at are notorious for accepting peps with low LNAT scores). If you maybe know about this uni, how good are my chances with good LNAT?

Unfortunately I'm not that familiar with Scottish universities generally, just a couple specifically for STEM courses