Uni, Retakes and Transfers

Ok, so just wanted to get peoples options on my situation.

I got my A2 results and did terribly! Was predicted ABB and managed to get B in Psychology, C in Biology and an E in Chemistry. :eek:

My mock results and papers were all in the B/C's ; not once did i get a U (which i did in my chemistry) I knew as i came out the exams they hadn't gone well, but didn't think they went that badly!

I went to clearing and am now set to do biochemistry at Nottingham Trent (had originally applied for Neuroscience before I went into clearing).

Originally when I was told my results I wanted to take a gap year and resit. But both my teachers and parents thought it'd be a waste of a year as both they (and I) agreed that I had worked very hard for my exams and they didn't think I would improve but much and would end going to clearing next year. My teachers said that (especially for chemistry) said that I never seem to give the answer that the question asked for. They said that A levels just weren't my thing and said this was partly due to my dyslexia?. That no matter how hard I worked it just wants going to happen :frown:

. This was obviously quite hard for me to hear as they had been saying this from the beginning of 6th form but upon seeing my As results (ABBC) they had quietened down. My parents said that if I was really unhappy I could always transfer, but they wanted me to enjoy life, move on, and to not loose my self confidence.

Now my problems, (I apologise for the easy :colondollar:

).
- The university I am going to is 3 h an half hours away, which is really difficult for me as there are some family issues that might require me to travel home a far amount (about ever 3 weeks).
- I want to retake my Biology and Chemistry and bring them up to an A in biology and a B in chemistry (resitting 5 modules in total; 2 small ones and 3 big ones). My reason for retaking is that for employment supposes I don't want them to bit me in the back side 3 years later. (Also will affect my likely hood of getting a placement in 2nd year!!). I would be getting an online tutoring and them resitting them in my home town. BUT i don't know my uni exam timetable an some of them might clash??
- I keep thinking, why am I doing bioCHEMISRY when i got an E in my chemistry. But i enjoyed the subject just did badly in the exam? Also compared to the courses i looked at when applied, my biochem course content looks a kind bland and simple?? but other part look interesting. BUT it has no Neuroscience bits in it, which is the part i was/ am really interested in!
- If i want to transfer into a different uni for my 2nd year, their probably going to reject me straight way due to my E in chemistry. So why bother?? but the thought of going to uni and being unhappy for the next 3 years keeps me up at night. :frown:

I've looked into transferring in my second year and they all seem to want to know my A2 Grades, hence not being able to ask/email individual uni's if they would consider me as a transfer student as I'm too ashamed to say my A2 grades and to be honest I just couldn't deal with them rejecting me at this point in time.

I know its not all doom and gloom, i am genuinely happy about going to uni and learning more material :smile:

. The university does look nice and I've finally got some nice accommodation sorted. I'm excited at prospect of the future; Its just that there's a small voice in my head that keeps nagging at me and it just haven't stopped! so I thought id ask other peoples opinions? Should i bother retaking both my bio and chemistry? Should i consider transferring if Im unhappy at the uni? Should i ask Unis now if they would consider me and a transfer so that I can get my references and ucas sorted? Am i just setting myself up for failure?

A big thank you for reading this most, i know it was really long and depressing! any thoughts/advice would be much appreciated. :biggrin:

Reply 1

BlueSheep32

If you're not sure about doing Biochemistry (which I'm not going to lie is hard - although I suppose any course is - and you do have to understand Chemistry and also Physics to an extent pretty well) and Neuroscience is what you're really interested in, then it might be better to try and get onto a course with more Neuro in? I'm sure some universities do Neuroscience as a degree actually. This might be of interest to you: https://www.bna.org.uk/undergraduate-opportunities.html

University is hard and if your degree is in a subject you don't really like you're going to struggle to motivate yourself to work hard for it. As you've already accepted your place on the Biochemistry course, it might be worth giving it a go to see if you like it and if not reapplying to do something else - the UCAS deadline is usually in January so you'd have a few months. If you did decide to transfer, you'd probably be better off submitting a whole new UCAS application and doing first year again at your new uni than transferring as courses and universities do differ ever so slightly in their teaching methods - people do transfer, but I don't think it's particularly common. It's fair enough you wanting to do better in your A-Levels, but I wouldn't advise studying for A-Level retakes whilst doing a degree because a degree is worth more than your A-Levels - again, if you're not keen on Biochemistry as a course, and you wanted to raise your A-Level grades & do something else, you'd probably be better off taking a gap year this year or next to do that.

There's no shame in having to take a gap year and starting uni a year later, plenty of people do it for various reasons, many of them because they're retaking A-Level exams so they can get into uni. You won't need to tell any of your friends why you took a gap year either, although I doubt they'd look down on you for it. You could always get a job in that year and build up some money so you're better off financially when you do start uni - it wouldn't be a waste of a year! I read somewhere once that as long as you get to where you want to be in life, the timing of that doesn't matter, and there's a lot of truth in that.

I hope this helps :smile:

Reply 2

red122

Hey I was in exactly the same situation as u. But I applied for Maths and I managed to get into the foundation year at aston. And I'm planning on retaking my a level modules at the same time. So maybe u can find out if u can get into your course via a foundation year.
Good luck with whatever u decide 😊

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Uni, Retakes and Transfers

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