oxbridge and resits

I think starting next year Oxford will be able to see what exams you have retaken. Cambridge has been doing so for a few years now.

Half of the information they ask for in that SAQ is survey type stuff anyway, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's not even looked at in the assessment process.

I can't speak for Oxford, but I've applied to Cambridge twice (Trinity and Clare), in year 13 and post-A2, and I haven't had to divulge what modules I'd retaken on either occasion. I don't believe they can tell on their own.

They do ask whether you intend to retake any modules. In my opinion, that's only so they know whether to regard the score you give them in the SAQ as final, and perhaps so they can get an idea of the standard you hold yourself to. Half of the information they ask for in that SAQ is survey type stuff anyway, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's not even looked at in the assessment process.

I'm only speculating, but I can't see why they would look down on resits. It's not as if they make A levels any easier, really. Giving yourself the added pressure of more exams and more work over the same space of time can hardly be called the less-capable-student's easy way out. It all piles up in the end.

Are you joking? The mosy obvious example to demonstrate that resits have the opposite effect to what you are saying iis modern languages exams. The very fact that you can resit these is revolting. Get rid of resits in all subjects, and watch the number of A graded A levels shoot down from over 1 in 5 to about 1 in 10 overnight. Just f**king watch what happens. You can train a monkey to use a typewriter if it goes over it enough. The amount of people ive seen who got Cs in french and spanish AS and were **** at languages, unable to get more than a D in the A2 exam, who resat the AS until they got 280 or 290 out of 300 is truly sickening.

Modern Languages are a cumulative subject therefore sitting AS exams in Year 12 are a waste of time anyway, because obviously you will be better in year 13. At my school we were advised to resit AS modules even if your score was already quite high because you are bound to do better with another 6 months exposure to the language. I would say get rid of AS in Modern languages not resits!

Modern Languages are a cumulative subject therefore sitting AS exams in Year 12 are a waste of time anyway, because obviously you will be better in year 13. At my school we were advised to resit AS modules even if your score was already quite high because you are bound to do better with another 6 months exposure to the language. I would say get rid of AS in Modern languages not resits!

I totally agree. I got As last year but I'm still retaking a module, it's not like I'm killing anyone

Anyway everyone who resat AS Spanish last year either got worse or hardly improved, so you're not guarenteed to improve. And I really don't think that someone who was only capable of a D at AS would be able to get 280/300 the next year

Exactly. One girl in my class went from an E to a C with 2 resits, but then one boy stayed on an E and in one of the exams, he actually did worse than he did the first time! That just shows that, even in languages, if you don't put the effort in to a resit, you won't do any better. I have to say though, I do think it's ridiculous that some schools encourage students to resit unless they get 100%! At the end of the day, an A is an A and no univeristy makes offers based on UMS marks, so what's the point of doing resits to get 100% when you could have stuck with 85% and still got the same grade?

Same here, but my teacher has told us that if we didn't get 100%, we're resitting
Anyway everyone who resat AS Spanish last year either got worse or hardly improved, so you're not guarenteed to improve. And I really don't think that someone who was only capable of a D at AS would be able to get 280/300 the next year

One C went up to 290, which was better than what i got first time round without any resitting, 280.

I was in a dreadful school/spanish class and two people on Ds at AS went to Bs and, 4 Cs went up to As by resitting twice. One C went up to 290, which was better than what i got first time round without any resitting, 280. In the A2 section this person got 158/300, which im sure is a D. I got 290. The whole thing is a pisstake. So your approximations of what can and cannot be done are glaringly flawed. Imagine waht can be done in a decent private school with a good spanish/french department if this is what happens where I was!

Should have retaken lots, you could have beaten them.

lol, you have a good sense of ironic humour, but in all seriousness, it is cheapening school education, you cant really deny it. Getting a low to middle A and wanting to improve it is a whole different ball game to getting a C and then basically being able to gain a decent grade via resitting in a subject you are crap at. That amounts to nothing more than deception, or fraud, in my opinion.

Out of curiosity, why do you think you did better at A2 than AS? Surely A2 is harder?

How is someone who scraped an A and resat to get full marks any different to someone who got a high C and resat to scrape an A? Sure, the first person did better both times, but they're being equally deceptive or fraudulent.