Girlfriend failed in her AS', will she get any offers?

Last year my girlfriend completed her first year of AS'. She got pretty average results (A in Polish, Cs in Literature and Language and a D in philosophy). She decided to repeat the year but taking Chemistry and Biology (as well as Polish A2) instead of her previous subjects.

This year she got an A in her Polish A level overall but got Us in chemistry and biology. This sounds really bad but doesn't tell the full story. She has suffered from depression for most of her life (she had a horrible upbringing, an abusive mother as well as mild aspergers, which meant she was bullied at school) and was in a really bad place for the majority of the last school year. This led to her having an awful work ethic, meaning she got Us in all her coursework papers. Fortunately she managed to find motivation from somewhere in the Easter holidays. She worked very hard and started getting increasingly good marks in her past papers (from Ds to Cs to Bs and even some As). It was therefore a huge shock to see she got Us in both her chemistry papers. By contrast she managed a B in biology unit 1, but got zero for unit 2 as she missed her exam due to a timetable mix up.

The upshot of all this is that she is currently not depressed, still willing to work hard (she's already started working on her A2 biology from home) and, with a whole year to prepare this time should hopefully be able to (with a lot of retakes) secure good grades. Her personal statement should be good, she's got relevant work experience, entered prize essay competitions, read books, got a part time job and can explain the issues she's had. Will unis make allowances given her depression? She wants to study either Zoology or Animal Science, as a really ambitious choice she likes Sheffield, but would also apply to the likes of Swansea, Nottingham Trent, Hull, Roehampton etc. Does she have any chance? I was hoping unis might make offers on the basis that, if she does get better grades she'll have earned a place, if not, the uni can simply not take her. For the record she got ABBBCCCCDD (with a B in chemistry and a C in biology) at GCSE.

TLDR:

- Girlfriend has AUU at AS due mainly to depression
- This was her second year of AS', so repeating the year again is a no go and a gap year undesirable
- With a good personal statement, would she get offers?

Reply 1

Meehar17

Original post by Gumperst

Last year my girlfriend completed her first year of AS'. She got pretty average results (A in Polish, Cs in Literature and Language and a D in philosophy). She decided to repeat the year but taking Chemistry and Biology (as well as Polish A2) instead of her previous subjects.

This year she got an A in her Polish A level overall but got Us in chemistry and biology. This sounds really bad but doesn't tell the full story. She has suffered from depression for most of her life (she had a horrible upbringing, an abusive mother as well as mild aspergers, which meant she was bullied at school) and was in a really bad place for the majority of the last school year. This led to her having an awful work ethic, meaning she got Us in all her coursework papers. Fortunately she managed to find motivation from somewhere in the Easter holidays. She worked very hard and started getting increasingly good marks in her past papers (from Ds to Cs to Bs and even some As). It was therefore a huge shock to see she got Us in both her chemistry papers. By contrast she managed a B in biology unit 1, but got zero for unit 2 as she missed her exam due to a timetable mix up.

The upshot of all this is that she is currently not depressed, still willing to work hard (she's already started working on her A2 biology from home) and, with a whole year to prepare this time should hopefully be able to (with a lot of retakes) secure good grades. Her personal statement should be good, she's got relevant work experience, entered prize essay competitions, read books, got a part time job and can explain the issues she's had. Will unis make allowances given her depression? She wants to study either Zoology or Animal Science, as a really ambitious choice she likes Sheffield, but would also apply to the likes of Swansea, Nottingham Trent, Hull, Roehampton etc. Does she have any chance? I was hoping unis might make offers on the basis that, if she does get better grades she'll have earned a place, if not, the uni can simply not take her. For the record she got ABBBCCCCDD (with a B in chemistry and a C in biology) at GCSE.

TLDR:

- Girlfriend has AUU at AS due mainly to depression
- This was her second year of AS', so repeating the year again is a no go and a gap year undesirable
- With a good personal statement, would she get offers?

Sorry to tell you this mate, but it's impossible, the only alternative is doing her resits at a college to boost her grades.

Reply 2

crazy.cat

I can't offer any advice, but I would just like to say it's really lovely you're thinking about her, and helping her despite her situation.
I hope you can find a solution! :smile:

Reply 3

Ben Kenobi

No. Polish will not count at unis such Sheffield especially if she is native speaker.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 4

Gumperst

OP

6

Thanks for the replies even if they're not too positive! On the Polish thing, we emailed universities at the start of the year and most of them said they'd accept it

Reply 5

zergonipal

4

Except for the few that interview, universities can only judge applicants based on their grades and their personal statements. While personally they might sympathise with her situation and her depression, how does the uni know it won't flare up again? Compared to an equally-qualified candidate she's a much higher risk for failing or dropping out. And almost worse than the low grades is the fact that she missed an exam: if a student can't make sure they get to the right place at the right time for something that important, it's a huge red flag.

I'd suggest your gf repeats her whole AS year. A2 is tough enough without having to repeat an entire extra year of work, and that way she'll be applying to uni with good grades to show them.

Dump her

Hi : )
I'm applying to university September 2013 for 2014 entry. Do I have to declare my As-level grades (AAB) or just my predicted grades alone on my UCAS form???? I go to a private school if that changes anything because I was told it does..

Reply 8

zergonipal

4

Absolutely you have to declare your grades! Predicted grades are notoriously unreliable and universities don't put much stock in them. Not sure about the private school business, I hadn't heard that :\

Reply 9

Gumperst

OP

6

I can see what people are saying here. I guess higher unis are out of the question, but from my perspective, the only thing missing from her application will be grades. As offers are conditional, why wouldn't an admissions tutor give her a conditional offer? If she meets it, she'll have done exceptionally well and will deserve her place, if not, the uni won't have lost anything in giving her an offer.

Also Helen 5 you have to declare all your grades from all your papers

Reply 10

Tridentus

10

Original post by Gumperst

I can see what people are saying here. I guess higher unis are out of the question, but from my perspective, the only thing missing from her application will be grades. As offers are conditional, why wouldn't an admissions tutor give her a conditional offer? If she meets it, she'll have done exceptionally well and will deserve her place, if not, the uni won't have lost anything in giving her an offer.

Also Helen 5 you have to declare all your grades from all your papers

well unis have only a certain amount of places on the course.. if they were to offer too many conditional offers out, too many people would meet the requirements and the course would be oversubscribed.

this is just the most efficient way i'm afraid.

Reply 11

Gumperst

OP

6

I thought most courses were generally under-subscribed? Obviously I know unis hand out a fair amount of rejections, but looking at sites like which uni (which gives stats on acceptance rates (does anyone know how reliable these are btw?)) it seems most places hand out loads of offers knowing most applicants will end up going to one of their other 5 choices.

As an alternative, I guess she could just rely on clearing

Reply 12

csc42804

mUy boyfriend did the same thing,but dropped out after two years of as and did a btec at the local college. He got add and got 5 offers for engineering. People laugh but its only 3 days a week, no exams so if you get I'll you can still pass. Also another friend got his a2 results and rang up universities as he hadn't applied- got a place at Loughborough and got a first at the end of year one.dont give up. Lots of options

Reply 13

Voyager_2002

11

Original post by Gumperst

Last year my girlfriend completed her first year of AS'. She got pretty average results (A in Polish, Cs in Literature and Language and a D in philosophy). She decided to repeat the year but taking Chemistry and Biology (as well as Polish A2) instead of her previous subjects.

This year she got an A in her Polish A level overall but got Us in chemistry and biology. This sounds really bad but doesn't tell the full story. She has suffered from depression for most of her life (she had a horrible upbringing, an abusive mother as well as mild aspergers, which meant she was bullied at school) and was in a really bad place for the majority of the last school year. This led to her having an awful work ethic, meaning she got Us in all her coursework papers. Fortunately she managed to find motivation from somewhere in the Easter holidays. She worked very hard and started getting increasingly good marks in her past papers (from Ds to Cs to Bs and even some As). It was therefore a huge shock to see she got Us in both her chemistry papers. By contrast she managed a B in biology unit 1, but got zero for unit 2 as she missed her exam due to a timetable mix up.

The upshot of all this is that she is currently not depressed, still willing to work hard (she's already started working on her A2 biology from home) and, with a whole year to prepare this time should hopefully be able to (with a lot of retakes) secure good grades. Her personal statement should be good, she's got relevant work experience, entered prize essay competitions, read books, got a part time job and can explain the issues she's had. Will unis make allowances given her depression? She wants to study either Zoology or Animal Science, as a really ambitious choice she likes Sheffield, but would also apply to the likes of Swansea, Nottingham Trent, Hull, Roehampton etc. Does she have any chance? I was hoping unis might make offers on the basis that, if she does get better grades she'll have earned a place, if not, the uni can simply not take her. For the record she got ABBBCCCCDD (with a B in chemistry and a C in biology) at GCSE.

TLDR:

- Girlfriend has AUU at AS due mainly to depression
- This was her second year of AS', so repeating the year again is a no go and a gap year undesirable
- With a good personal statement, would she get offers?

If the reference from her college makes it clear that her work was affected by problems that have now been solved, she might have a chance. And in any case, IF she ends up with decent grades at A2 she could probably find a place through clearing.

However, she might consider doing the year yet again, so that she could demonstrate a consistent track record of success for this stage of her education. That is particularly important in the sciences, where what you learn at stage 2 builds upon what you should have learned at stage 1.