Resitting A-Levels while doing my masters; pointless or potentially worthwhile?

You're about to study a masters in a fantastic subject. Unless you are applying for a particular job or scheme for which your grades are inadiquate, resetting A levels will be as useful as retaking year 6 SATS.

Imo it would be a waste to resit FM when you have a masters degree in maths from such a good university (!!)

Hey everyone,

So I'm currently doing my masters at a top 5 University in Mathematics while applying for actuarial graduate programmes, and I did my bachelors in Mathematics in a top 10 University.

I'm quite disappointed with my A-Level grades as I didn't do as well as I expected, so I'm considering re-doing them but I'm unsure if there's any point in doing so.

In my A-Levels, I got A*BC in Maths, Further Maths and Physics respectively. I've spoken with an exam centre near my university and have been told that I could redo Further Maths (it would be an entirely different qualification as it's a different exam board) but I can't do Physics because of the coursework component. Because of this, I'm thinking of doing Religious Studies as I'm interested in religion anyway.

My question is, is there any benefit for my future in doing this? Or should I let go of my disappointment and not waste my time?



Thanks guys

The new A-levels are linear so there is no coursework requirement, no idea what they're talking about (unless they mean practical in which case you still don't have to don't as they don't have any affect on your end grade). I suppose FM will be a walk in the park because you're doing a master so it wont be hard to grasp the concepts. In terms of Physics that make take a little bit more work as you may of forgotten a lot of the work, maybe do the FM in one year then give Physics a go if you still want to?

My question is, is there any benefit for my future in doing this? Or should I let go of my disappointment and not waste my time?



Thanks guys

No benefit at all, get over it and use your time more constructively.

Anyone who cares, very competitive employers in specific sectors of employment, rightly or wrongly, are looking for sustained excellence so resitting anything, or doing it at a later age doesn't count. To anyone else, higher qualifications trump lower qualifications. It would just be a vanity project, and anyone you disclosed your new grades to would likely see it as such.

Essentially what I've been told is that one of the exams for any of the triples sciences is essentially coursework, as they do an experiment at the college so I won't be able to do it. I've had a look at the specification for each of the sciences and they are correct. My only option as of now is to do Further Maths and another A-Level (my choice being religious studies) this coming exam season, so June 2019. Further Maths won't take any longer than a week to learn I believe but religious studies will definitely take a lot of effort to learn and to be able to get a good grade. Should I just focus on my degree and forget about my A-Levels?

Thanks for the straightforward answer. You are completely right and I suppose that the only way to show that I'm capable of doing well is to get the best possible grade for my masters.

Cheers again

Thanks for the straightforward answer. You are completely right and I suppose that the only way to show that I'm capable of doing well is to get the best possible grade for my masters.

Cheers again