Current Year 13 thread Mark I (2014-2015)

Hi guys, I want some advice. At GCSE I got 7 A*s 3A's and 2B's. This year at AS I did Biology, English Lit, Art and Chemistry and got BBCE in the same order. I want to go to a Russell group university and these grades aren't good enough. Originally I wanted to do a Biology degree but my college said my academic profile at AS wasn't strong enough to be accepted onto a Bio degree. I need good grades for 2 sciences to do a Bio degree and so these are my options :

1) Redo the one Chem exam that brought my A grade coursework down to an E grade overall and struggle through A2 Chem. This has the potential of me not getting a good grade overall in A2 meaning I couldn't go to a good uni

2) Do a psychology A level in one year as some uni's count
psychology as a second science. I would ditch chem.

3) Drop Chemistry and carry on with Art and bring that up to a B grade at A2 meaning I’d have a better chance at getting into a good uni. But an Art A level would mean I couldn’t do a Bio degree so I’d have to do an English Lit degree which I’m okay with but would prefer to do a Bio degree
4) Redo half my subjects- so carry on with English and Bio A2 but start two new AS’s and drop chem and art. This would mean staying on a third year to complete the two new subjects at A2 level. Staying at home another year is painful but could be worth it, seeing my friends leave without me would be hard.
Sorry, I’m really stressed. Thanks!

I'm kind of looking forward to next year but I'm worried that my anxiety is going to take another turn for the worse with the additional workload... then again hopefully my brain has got used to A Levels by now? Who knows. Bring on enrolment Tuesday!

I'm *so* excited but scared a bit

H'mmmmm realised I think I'm a part of the 5 year crew now since Current Year 10 thread.... gonna check my sign up date!


Senior :fuhrer:

Why is green blue?

I'm *so* excited but scared a bit

How is that possible?

Year 10, 11, 12, 13.. four years, no? I've been here longer than you and my account is only 4

Your 'green' label is blue, by the way

Not sure...................... back to the editing board gonna put users info in an expansion within the expansion I think :-)

oh and change green :L

No offence, and I'm not trying to question your dedication here, but you sound like you're still a little undecided about the route you'd like to take after sixth form. A lot of people still don't know which course they'd like to do, but biology and English literature are very different and the fact that you'd be 'okay' with either would suggest that perhaps you should look a bit more into it. Do you have a particular career in mind?

Do you think you can identify why exactly you didn't do as well as you hoped? You mention that you think it was only one chemistry paper which bought your grade down. This would imply that your performance in this paper was down to a possible lack of revision, as if it was due to genuine struggles with understanding the content then lower grades all round would be expected (well done on your A in the coursework! ) You do, however, say that you would have to 'struggle' on with A2 chemistry, which gives off the idea that perhaps you're not enjoying it and perhaps it would be best not to continue. Bear in mind that depending on what sort of biology you're studying, it may well have links to chemistry (in my AS course a large chunk was dedicated to biochemistry, and I'd imagine that this is studied in finer detail at degree level), so if you don't really enjoy chemistry then perhaps biology may not be the course best suited to you.

It looks as if you've put a lot of thought into your options, but while you've described your situation in detail I don't really want to be picking what you should do based on what I've read here. It's for you to decide, based on what you want to do later. If you're certain that biology is the path that you want to take then 1 sounds like the best option in my opinion, however if you end up thinking that English is more your thing then perhaps 3 is the better choice. Personally I'd advise against 2, as an entire A Level has a lot of content and it might be a struggle to do it all. 4 sounds like it could also be a contender, but as you say that would sadly mean spending an extra year at home. Bear in mind though, that while leaving your friends to go off to university may sound unpleasant, going to university to study the wrong subject only to drop out after a year and leave all of THOSE friends behind would probably be worse.

Sincere apologies if anything I've said comes off as a bit blunt, I didn't intend it that way, I'm just trying to get you to decide for yourself which path you'd be happier with, biology or English. I wish you the best, whichever you pick

Yeah good idea!

Although. The connect pages do all that?
So maybe have every uni course title, and expands people applying for it

I thought about that but that's a lot of Unis and courses Depends how many users we get, but it's harder as most of them aren't regular

green is fixed ;-)

Not unis, just course

Ie

Chemistry/NatSci/Physics
- evil fish
- mangofreak

Medicine
- techno

Vet med
- tails

Etc

Hmm I could do that :-)

shouldn't I put physics, chem and Natsci separate ?

Yeah was just a quick example to show have more than one under a title

Then have a link to connect pages

Alright then I haven't looked at the connect yet so i'll quickly look into it

I missed my 6000th post :O ??

Thank you so much for all your advice! I really appreciate it as nobody is giving me a direct answer and you have! I should have included that my career choice is a Psychotherapist. I researched this way before results and you can have any degree to become a psychotherapist so Biology or English Lit would be sufficient. I do enjoy Chemistry, well I find it incredibly interesting but my continuous failings in it continually put me down - I struggle with the maths element. The exam that brought me down to an E I didn't have time to revise for as I was working so hard for Biology and the first Chemistry exam which I got a C in! So immediately after ( too late I know) I asked for help from my college for time management which I will receive throughout the next academic year. What are your thoughts on this now? Thank you so so so much