Retaking A/S Exams

I'm just about to sit my A/S exams next week and probably should not be thinking about re-takes already but still...

If you retake some exams: What is your official grade for A/S (eg. Old or New / Best or Worst) ???

Which one do universities look at ???

Do you lose credibility for re-taking???

Reply 1

Unregistered

I think it depends on which degree course you are thinking of doing. I know that if you are applying for a course such as medicine (or a course that is very competitive) and you are re-doing your A-levels (over 3 yrs for eg) some universities won't accept you on those grounds. Presumming you are in yr 12, and are applying for university at the end of the year, the universities will take into consideration your AS when deciding to offer you a place or not and also your reference and personal statement. If you've had an illness or someone has died in your family etc, something that affected your studying you should let the exam board know before you take the exams. If you have not you should let the universities know this, as they will take this into consideration when offering you a place. They would usually make a decision before you do your re-takes anyway. And if they have given you a conditional offer and you do get the grades they ask you for, they cannot turn you down. So I would presume that doing retakes does not lessen the chance of you getting on a course. As long as you get decent grades this yr, you should be ok. Though work hard as you don't want to increase the pressure next year with even more exams. Hope this helps.

Reply 2

*Simran*

ur allowed to sit each module only twice. The best marks for each of those modules counts towards ur final AS grade . U can however decide to take a module the third time but ull have to do all the three modules again i.e. resit the thing as a whole new AS/A level. Your best grade goes forward to make ur overall AS/A level grade.

The unis look at your predicted grades, which are made by your subject teachers based on ur gcse grades and ur overall progress in the first year of Alevels. The unis dont usually ask for ur AS grade at an interview or nothing either.

U dont loose credit for retaking exam modules as long as u do the retakes in the 2 years of Alevels. Ull only loose credit if you resit the Alevels in a third year, where they will consider you to be a resit candidate, although some unis may still look at it positively.

Hope ive been of help to ya!

Simran
xxxxxx

Reply 3

Leekey

Thanks for the info!!

I feel a lot less pressure knowing that even if I screw up horrendously at the first attempt, I still have chance of getting on to the course I would like to do

Cheers