The Student Room Group

Should I retake Year 12?

For my as results I got:
Biology - C
Psychology - C
Citizenship -C
Maths - E
Chemistry - E

My college is saying I should carry on with Biology, Psychology and Citizenship and take up AS English Literature or English Lit and Lang. I don't mind taking up either.

But I don't see many courses accepting Biology, Psychology and Citizenship. They often want Maths or another science as well. I am considering doing Psychology or Law at university. They might seem quite random, but in the end I want to work in the medical field. Or around medicine, even if I wouldn't be a medic.

Should I retake the whole of year 12 instead? At my college they do not allow this but I would consider applying somewhere else. If I did this and then did a lot better would I still be able to apply to Medicine? Because this is my ultimate dream. To do medicine, but chemistry is a subject that went horrendously bad, this was expected as it hadn't been going well all year. But if I redid the year, I know I will be able to do better at it. Maths was a shocker I did not expect the result at at all. I was predicted a C. Do unis accept you if you have retaken all your AS? I know that they don't if you resit you entire A-Levels. But I would only be resitting a year of AS. Is this stupid?

I know that most unis expect AAA. But I was on an Access programme and hoped that they would accept me. No matter what I do. I know that I will have to defer my uni application for a year, right?

Please help.
(edited 9 years ago)
Firstly, if you want to end up in the Medical field, why are you considering Law? A Science degree would make more sense...

If I were you, I would continue with Biology, Psychology and Maths. I would resit the worst AS exams from Maths with the aim to pull it up to around a B. You should be able to get B's in Biology and Psychology from C's. I would also resit all/ most of AS Chemistry to get a higher grade at AS. With that, you should be able to get onto a Science course related to Biology at university, from which you could enter the Medical field. (Although without A2 Chemistry you won't be able to do straight Medicine even at Graduate entry, unless you take a Foundation year).
Original post by LeFailFish
Firstly, if you want to end up in the Medical field, why are you considering Law? A Science degree would make more sense...

If I were you, I would continue with Biology, Psychology and Maths. I would resit the worst AS exams from Maths with the aim to pull it up to around a B. You should be able to get B's in Biology and Psychology from C's. I would also resit all/ most of AS Chemistry to get a higher grade at AS. With that, you should be able to get onto a Science course related to Biology at university, from which you could enter the Medical field. (Although without A2 Chemistry you won't be able to do straight Medicine even at Graduate entry, unless you take a Foundation year).



Okay. Thank you!
Would I be able to do Medicine with a foundation year if I had done chemistry at AS?

And, wow. I didn't know that you can't do graduate level medicine without chemistry! Omg I almost wasted four years of my life doing that. Wow. Thank you! And I said Law because thats a degree that doesn't have specific subject requirements and I would want to end up doing work with medical negligence and things that like that. I am not fussed as to what approach to the medical world I take, even if it isn't science. Although doing a science degree would obviously make sense. Its just at my current college they don't allow you to carry on any subjects you haven't achieved a minimum of D in. So that means I would have to drop Chemistry and Maths. And then most science courses require a minimum of two science A-Levels and not very many people consider psychology a solid subject never mind a hard science.

However I have read on several courses that if you get at least ABB then and only then would they consider psychology as a science. But does that mean I can never achieve those grades? My teachers at college have said that I can resit some of my biology modules to bump my AS up to a B and said the same about Psychology.

I don't know. Thank you.

Does anyone know if you can move to a different college but carry on to A2 anyway? And do resits there? Is that possible? Or is that just ridiculous?
Original post by MissBellyrina
Okay. Thank you!
Would I be able to do Medicine with a foundation year if I had done chemistry at AS?

And, wow. I didn't know that you can't do graduate level medicine without chemistry! Omg I almost wasted four years of my life doing that. Wow. Thank you! And I said Law because thats a degree that doesn't have specific subject requirements and I would want to end up doing work with medical negligence and things that like that. I am not fussed as to what approach to the medical world I take, even if it isn't science. Although doing a science degree would obviously make sense. Its just at my current college they don't allow you to carry on any subjects you haven't achieved a minimum of D in. So that means I would have to drop Chemistry and Maths. And then most science courses require a minimum of two science A-Levels and not very many people consider psychology a solid subject never mind a hard science.

However I have read on several courses that if you get at least ABB then and only then would they consider psychology as a science. But does that mean I can never achieve those grades? My teachers at college have said that I can resit some of my biology modules to bump my AS up to a B and said the same about Psychology.

I don't know. Thank you.

Does anyone know if you can move to a different college but carry on to A2 anyway? And do resits there? Is that possible? Or is that just ridiculous?


I don't know if Foundation years accept people with Chemistry AS... you could always email the universities and ask. They definitely don't accept people with Chemistry A2.

I don't know if every university has a policy for no Medicine without Chemistry, but at least the vast majority do. Most universities ask for similar A level requirements for their Graduate entry course as for their normal entry course, with the exception of a couple like Nottingham which just need a 2:1, ideally in a science. Obviously, those universities are more competitive because more people apply there as their requirements are lower...

Some courses, like Nursing at some universities, will accept Psychology/ Sociology as science-substitutes. This will probably be stated on their entry requirements. (In fact for Nursing, some universities don't require science at all).

With resits, you could probably achieve a B in Psychology and Biology. An A would require a lot of work but that doesn't mean it's unattainable.
Original post by MissBellyrina


Does anyone know if you can move to a different college but carry on to A2 anyway? And do resits there? Is that possible? Or is that just ridiculous?


Technically it's possible as long as the college you move to uses the same exam boards... but many colleges won't accept you in the middle of the course.
What about general subjects? Never mind medicine. That's ridiculously difficult to get in to even if I do awesome. Will other courses accept me if I have resat my entire AS year?
Do universities accept you if you have resat year 12?
Reply 7
Original post by MissBellyrina
Do universities accept you if you have resat year 12?


Depends which university and what course you are wanting to go to. Usually top Russell Group universities are not fond of students who resit year 12.
Original post by MissBellyrina
For my as results I got:
Biology - C
Psychology - C
Citizenship -C
Maths - E
Chemistry - E

My college is saying I should carry on with Biology, Psychology and Citizenship and take up AS English Literature or English Lit and Lang. I don't mind taking up either.

But I don't see many courses accepting Biology, Psychology and Citizenship. They often want Maths or another science as well. I am considering doing Psychology or Law at university. They might seem quite random, but in the end I want to work in the medical field. Or around medicine, even if I wouldn't be a medic.

Should I retake the whole of year 12 instead? At my college they do not allow this but I would consider applying somewhere else. If I did this and then did a lot better would I still be able to apply to Medicine? Because this is my ultimate dream. To do medicine, but chemistry is a subject that went horrendously bad, this was expected as it hadn't been going well all year. But if I redid the year, I know I will be able to do better at it. Maths was a shocker I did not expect the result at at all. I was predicted a C. Do unis accept you if you have retaken all your AS? I know that they don't if you resit you entire A-Levels. But I would only be resitting a year of AS. Is this stupid?

I know that most unis expect AAA. But I was on an Access programme and hoped that they would accept me. No matter what I do. I know that I will have to defer my uni application for a year, right?

Please help.

Psychology and Citizenship are not highly regarded by universities, especially medical schools. I suggest drop those two then focus on Biology, Maths and Chemistry. Could you carry on with A2 and resit modules of AS to boost your grades?
That's the thing. My college doesn't let me carry on the other subjects. Ideally I would be doing exactly what you've said... But I'm gonna ask if the other colleges will even consider letting me carry on a2.

Quick Reply

Latest