The Student Room Group

Retaking A levels

So I'm doing my A2 examinations now, which is paper 4 and paper 5, and I messed up my bio paper 4 and chemistry paper 5, I'm wondering can I only retake bio paper 4&5 and chemistry paper4&5 in November? Or I have to retake all including paper 1,2 and 3?
I'm doing CIE board, thanks a lot. And will retake affect my chances of getting into university? Like if someone got A* without retaking but I only got an A* after retaking, will we have the same chance, or he/she has better chances than me?
Hey! Year 13 resitter here. So first of all, I did CIE history at AS, and although I didn't resit this, I had friends who did and they had to do both exams (in November series) (but this was AS, so it's gonna be different for A2 and different subjects). But moving on to actually resitting and grades being counted: unless you're going to apply for Oxford, Cambridge or Medicine/Dentistry, I would be surprised if you had issues, most unis don't even specify their policy on resitters, because they don't really care that much. There's the odd uni here and there that may give you a higher offer, but if you've got an A*, then you've got an A*. A uni would much rather have a student who got an A* on the second attempt (shows persistence too, btw) than got a B on the first attempt (nothing wrong with a B btw, I'm just saying, A*>B). If both applicants had the same grades, then I honestly don't know what would happen but it would probably go down to personal statement rather than number of attempts. I got 5 offers on resit grades I'm going to Lancaster (hopefully) in October to do Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology, on a reduced offer due to the way my resits worked, and I had lower predicted grades than the standard offer, so it's all worked out for me. I can honestly say that resitting was one of the best decisions I ever made, but of course, our individual circumstances are probably different, this was just my experience. I'm sure you actually did great on your exams btw, I wouldn't worry until results day, nothing you can do now. Good luck :smile: (also, random aside, where are you from doing CIE? I thought schools in the UK didn't do CIE exams because of the reforms? I live on the Isle of Man so we have some weird exceptions, and being able to do iA Levels is one of them)
Original post by ciarasowerby
Hey! Year 13 resitter here. So first of all, I did CIE history at AS, and although I didn't resit this, I had friends who did and they had to do both exams (in November series) (but this was AS, so it's gonna be different for A2 and different subjects). But moving on to actually resitting and grades being counted: unless you're going to apply for Oxford, Cambridge or Medicine/Dentistry, I would be surprised if you had issues, most unis don't even specify their policy on resitters, because they don't really care that much. There's the odd uni here and there that may give you a higher offer, but if you've got an A*, then you've got an A*. A uni would much rather have a student who got an A* on the second attempt (shows persistence too, btw) than got a B on the first attempt (nothing wrong with a B btw, I'm just saying, A*>B). If both applicants had the same grades, then I honestly don't know what would happen but it would probably go down to personal statement rather than number of attempts. I got 5 offers on resit grades I'm going to Lancaster (hopefully) in October to do Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology, on a reduced offer due to the way my resits worked, and I had lower predicted grades than the standard offer, so it's all worked out for me. I can honestly say that resitting was one of the best decisions I ever made, but of course, our individual circumstances are probably different, this was just my experience. I'm sure you actually did great on your exams btw, I wouldn't worry until results day, nothing you can do now. Good luck :smile: (also, random aside, where are you from doing CIE? I thought schools in the UK didn't do CIE exams because of the reforms? I live on the Isle of Man so we have some weird exceptions, and being able to do iA Levels is one of them)

Yes I know we could retake AS Level and do it together with A2, but my question is, can I only retake the A2, which is paper 4 and paper 5 only in the Nov/Oct 2019 series?
And also I'm a A Level student outside of the UK, I studied in a school in Asia.
Same situation here, I did AS in nov 2018 and A2 in june 2019. I want to retake only A2 in nov 2019. On the CIE website, they said AS mark can be carried forward within 13 months (e.g. nov 2018 AS can be carried forward until nov 2019). But since I already used my AS mark in june 2019 with bad A2 marks, I am wondering whether AS mark can be used twice, in june 2019 and nov 2019.
Or do I need to retake both AS and A2 in nov 2019?
Original post by Lokiiiiii
So I'm doing my A2 examinations now, which is paper 4 and paper 5, and I messed up my bio paper 4 and chemistry paper 5, I'm wondering can I only retake bio paper 4&5 and chemistry paper4&5 in November? Or I have to retake all including paper 1,2 and 3?
I'm doing CIE board, thanks a lot. And will retake affect my chances of getting into university? Like if someone got A* without retaking but I only got an A* after retaking, will we have the same chance, or he/she has better chances than me?

Quick Reply

Latest