Applying to Russell Group universities

Hi, I want to do Geography BA. I've been to open days at uni's like Birmingham, Manchester and Exeter and have loved them. But I was really disappointed with my AS results. I got BBDE and I don't know whether to apply to the Russell group unis or whether I'd be wasting offers. I'm dropping chemistry (the E) leaving me with BBD. I will most probably get predicted grades ranging from AAC-BBD but I will also be predicted an A in Welsh Bac (like general studies) which some uni's like Manchester and Exeter accept. I know I could have worked a lot lot harder and I wasn't surprised at my results but I want to know whether it would be worth applying to better uni's with my AS grades.
Thank you to anyone willing to respond

Russel group Uni's are rubbish.

My sister didn't get the support she needed and was told to leave because she was over qualified for her course, and made her lecturers look like uneducated pond scum.

Her IQ is 189

Hi Anna,

Ignore the guy above.

BBDE isn't too bad but I'm sorry to say you might find it difficult to receive offers to these universities for standard 'BA Geography' based on your results. Typically these places ask for AAB for geography. What you should do, however, is phone up all of the university admission departments that you are interested in, to see whether they have any courses where you might be likely to get an offer - for example, at Birmingham some of the 'Geography with x' courses have lower requirements because most people just want to do standard 1 subject courses.

You have four real options if you want to go to an RG uni to do an in-demand subject:


1) Continue with your grades and apply to courses with lower entry requirements.

2) Continue with your grades and try and improve them as much as possible with retakes etc. Then take a gap year and apply to university for entry the year after with your improved grades.

3) Retake some of your A levels completely (not just individual exams). This isn't as drastic as it sounds - let's say you only decided to 'retake' your D subject i.e. you would spend an extra year at college/sixth form doing this subject only (if the college let you). Then try to retake individual exams to boost your other grades and if you try hard there is no reason you cannot boost your BB to AA the next year. Then in your gap year you would retake 1 subject and you could get a temp job as well. During the gap year you would apply to university the year after.

4) Retake all of your A levels. This is the 'safest option' if you are aiming to get into a better university to do a better course as it would mean you would be starting again from scratch, you could think about your subject choices more and generally try harder.


Hope you make the best decision. Some people say that universities/certain careers don't like retakes but this only applies to very specific universities or industries. For example, you're not going to have much luck going to Oxford after taking retakes or going on to a 'top level graduate scheme' like banking because they dislike retakes.

I got similar AS Grades as you (BBDD) and I got offers from 3 Russell Group Universities (Nottingham, Exeter and Warwick), and my predicted grades were only ABC

Russel group Uni's are rubbish.

My sister didn't get the support she needed and was told to leave because she was over qualified for her course, and made her lecturers look like uneducated pond scum.

Her IQ is 189

Ah that gives me hope! My brother got into Cardiff uni (RG) and he had ACDE and AS level, but that was 4 years ago and I didn't know if things were different these days! What course did you apply to do?