Help! Advice for ho-hum AS results for medicine

Hi,

Here are my AS grades and their breakdowns:

Psychology - A (164/200)

• Unit 1 -
038 / 60 (c)
• Unit 2 -
126 / 140 (a)

Biology - B (221/300)

• Unit 3T/ISA -
38 / 60 (c)
• Unit 1-
85 / 100 (a)
• Unit 2 -
98 / 140 (b)

English Lang&Lit - B (156/200) [4 UMS marks off an A!]

• Unit 1 -
92 / 120 (b)
• Unit 2 -
64 / 80 (a)

Chemistry - C (204/300) [6 UMS marks off a B!]

• Unit 1 -
68 / 90 (b)
• Unit 2 -
93 / 150 (c)
• Unit 3/ISA -
43 / 60 (b)

I don't have actual GCSEs per se, but I have an equivalent qualification before AS.

Er, I genuinely don't know what to feel about my results - mixed feelings since I've done better than I expected in English Lang&Lit (which is my second language), fine with Psychology, a bit meh with Biology, and worse in Chemistry than I was predicted. I could partially explain my marks in chemistry since I literally was not able to sleep before both exams, as hard as I tried to, hence my mind was all over the place during these exams - but I realise this is not an extenuating circumstance. Thoughts?

And if I do stand a chance, what should I do first - access to marked module scripts/remark/re-sit - and for what modules particularly?

Lastly, which unis should I avoid applying at all costs?

Many thanks for your help, it is much appreciated!

Hi,

Here are my AS grades and their breakdowns:

Psychology - A (164/200)

• Unit 1 -
038 / 60 (c)
• Unit 2 -
126 / 140 (a)

Biology - B (221/300)

• Unit 3T/ISA -
38 / 60 (c)
• Unit 1-
85 / 100 (a)
• Unit 2 -
98 / 140 (b)

English Lang&Lit - B (156/200) [4 UMS marks off an A!]

• Unit 1 -
92 / 120 (b)
• Unit 2 -
64 / 80 (a)

Chemistry - C (204/300) [6 UMS marks off a B!]

• Unit 1 -
68 / 90 (b)
• Unit 2 -
93 / 150 (c)
• Unit 3/ISA -
43 / 60 (b)

I don't have actual GCSEs per se, but I have an equivalent qualification before AS.

Er, I genuinely don't know what to feel about my results - mixed feelings since I've done better than I expected in English Lang&Lit (which is my second language), fine with Psychology, a bit meh with Biology, and worse in Chemistry than I was predicted. I could partially explain my marks in chemistry since I literally was not able to sleep before both exams, as hard as I tried to, hence my mind was all over the place during these exams - but I realise this is not an extenuating circumstance. Thoughts?

And if I do stand a chance, what should I do first - access to marked module scripts/remark/re-sit - and for what modules particularly?

Lastly, which unis should I avoid applying at all costs?

Many thanks for your help, it is much appreciated!

First get re-marks for subjects that were close to the grade boundary; realistically re-marking does not raise your UMS by more than 5-10. Talk to your teachers about this.

Then when these are back think about if you need to resit those units/any other units you did not get re-marked. It is at this stage that getting the papers back is a good idea - you can go through them with your teachers and work out where you went wrong and how you can improve. Only resit if you have a chance of significant improvement as med schools don't like it. Some will accept resits within the normal 2 year span, but they can limit the number of units re-sat during that time. You need to check the individual policies on this.
Have a look here:http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Medical_School_Resit_Policies

When it comes to application choices, avoid those that look at AS results/rely on them a lot. As a general rule, oxbridge (though not oxford so much), kings, ucl, birmingham, cardiff, leeds, and st andrews like high AS grades, this may also be true for other med schools.

Have a look at this http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Applying_to_Medical_School_using_your_Strengths

I have heard that Manchester is not so fussed about AS, and there are others as well. To be sure, ring up their admissions departments and ask. The important thing is to get predicted AAA, which may mean negotiating with your teachers, although they are more likely to do it if you are asking them for advice, looking at the papers, retaking and appearing to be working very hard.

Cheers for your reply!

Yes, I will talk about my teachers about the possibility of getting a remark for certain modules. However, I went to talk with our exams officer and she gave me a form for the EAR services, and in it says that: "Note: Only Service 1 (clerical re-check) can be requested for objective tests." -- does this imply Chemistry and Biology? Thanks for the advice, much appreciated!

I think 'objective tests' are only multiple choice question tests, so this doesn't really apply to A-level as even chem & bio are mostly written answer, so need a human to make sense of them! Good luck

Thanks!!!

Have one question though - I just looked at the OCR grade boundaries and it seems that by comparing it, I got 54/100 raw marks. This came as a huge surprise as I've done 5 mocks before the exam and consistently getting 75-85 raw marks. Surely I either straight-up flunked the real exam, or there has been a huge clerical/examiner error?

Cheers

In which exam? What was the UMS?
Sometimes you can get a really high UMS and look at the raw marks and be surprised at how comparatively low it is.
Remember UMS is based on the relative performance of all students sitting that paper, it is meant to reflect how hard the paper is. So if it was a really hard paper & a lot of students got low raw marks & 'A grade' students were getting lower than expected, the raw mark boundaries for UMS would be lower. Otherwise, I can't really guess what has happened!

Hiya! It was the OCR AS Chemistry F322/Unit 2 Exam, which was 93/150 UMS according to my results slip.

Don't know though, not bragging but I honestly didn't find it hard at all, well most of it haha. I was fairly optimistic leaving the exam hall.

I doubt my chemistry teacher would predict me A though if my UMS doesn't go up, he absolutely hates me

I'll take your advice on remarking and resitting though. Thanks for the help!!!