Bad AS results - should I retake the exams or resit the year?

I got really disappointing AS exam results this year because of personal issues leading to me not working as hard as I should have and am unsure of what my next course of action should be.

General Studies - B
English Lit - D
Economics - D
History - D
Maths - U

I can either continue at my current school on to A2 and resit my exams which my school advised against. However, I am not going to bother with maths and I don't need to retake general studies. I was 3 marks off an A in one of my two papers for history so I will actually only be retaking four papers overall. I only have six papers next year (including 2 general studies which don't really count in my mind) so I will be doing ten papers overall which is on par with what a lot of people have at A2 even without the retakes. I am really confident I can turn it around as my mind is really settled now and I am really determined.

Or do you think I am being too optimistic and would it be advisable to go to a college and start my A levels all over again so that the pressure is taken off?

Any advice would be most appreciated!!

Reply 1

bueller1

Also not applying to uni this year, I will be applying a year later as the best my school can predict me at the moment is CCC

Reply 2

livinglife123

I don't think your being too optimistic - for me there's no such thing. I think you should get your history remarked especially if it was 3 marks off and its such a subjective subject. I also think you should carry on only 3 subjects at A2, that way you'll resit less.

PS. I'm not happy with my results either, I was hoping to apply to Cambridge, ironically to study history but ended up getting

History D
English Lit A
RS B
Maths E

I'm dropping maths and getting both my history papers remarked AND still applying to Cambridge InshaAllah (God willing). It's possible to still achieve all you want - just work harder next year.

Good Luck :smile:

Reply 3

rach-ell

At the end of the day your the best person to decide if you can handle the workload, and if you think you can do it then I say go for it! I was disappointed with my chemistry mark and so this summer was doing all the As and A2 exams on top of my other exams (I had 9 in total) and pulled my grade up to an A. If your willing to put in the extra work then it is definitely possible! :biggrin:

Reply 4

bueller1

@livinglife123 Yeah, I'm definitely dropping maths next year (worst decision of my life haha) so I will be doing English, Economics and History. General Studies is compulsory at my school so I've got to continue with that but it's not really an issue for me anyway because it's not exactly a subject you can revise for. Thanks for your advice, I will get that paper remarked.

Well done in your English and RS!! And I hope everything goes well in your Cambridge application!

Reply 5

bueller1

@rach-ell did you find that it affected your other exams at all or did everything go okay in the end? You did great getting that grade up to an A!

Reply 6

rach-ell

Original post by bueller1

@rach-ell did you find that it affected your other exams at all or did everything go okay in the end? You did great getting that grade up to an A!

Thanks!

In the end it went okay since I ended up with AAAB, as long as you begin revising well before the exams it's not too bad :smile:

All I'd say is if you do decide to resit is try and have a look before your entered at your exam boards timetable just to make sure there's not too many horrific clashes, because I was lucky the only 2 exams I had that clashed were maths and RE which wasn't too bad....but some had like 3 clashes at the same time!