What would you do?

Aardvark1998

I'm applied for University, got all my places and put down my firm and insurance choice. The course is Environmental Science and both of the University's I've chosen have really good records and offer really good employment prospects afterwards.

Now, the firm choice want ABB (but I've been told that they'd more than likely let me drop 1 grade because they liked my personal statement), which I'm definitely capable of achieving but obviously there's always the chance that I could fluff up.

My firm choice want a LOT lower (it's a UCAS point offer in the 200s including a C in 1 of 3 subjects). For some reason, it's quite a lot lower than the average offer on unistats, and compared to what I've heard of other people being offered. Because I did 5 AS levels last year and I'm doing 4 A levels this year, I can afford to get the C in one of the subjects and then get an E in the rest. But I'd still end up here if I got BBB, which is obviously a lot better than the bare minimum grades.

So if I got the bare minimum I would get into Uni, but my A level results would be pretty terrible. In this situation, would you resit the year to bump up the results? Or would you just go to University, get the degree and go from there? I'm just thinking that it would be pretty bad to have to tell potential employers that I totally flunked my A levels, and also that it would sort of devalue my degree.

Reply 1

Nymthae

Resitting is practically pointless (depending...). There's occasional graduate schemes who will probably have a cap anywhere between 300-360 points but it's seems less of a thing in science, much more on a finance, law etc. front. The degree is the relevant part, because of the technical content. You'll probably look back and regret not doing better or something, but i'm not really sure it's worth a year doing them again unless you do get EEE. Given your firms, and the fact you're doing 4 subjects anyway i'd imagine getting in the region of BBB is fine, and if you get that then it really doesn't seem worth it.

It's up to you, but taking 3 years in my mind already opens the question that you didn't do very well first time at some point. It would get you through more filters, if you hit the filters. Once you have your degree and get a job though i'd probably remove the a-levels from your CV anyway, if you're not bothered about them or they don't look great. Online applications will probably still ask, but they value experience and the degree more by that point. It's mostly just graduate schemes from what i've seen.

Just my two cents, more than anything concrete. Seems like a waste of a year unless you can do something very worthwhile/relevant during whilst resitting.