The Student Room Group

Re-sitting alevels at home

I plan on retaking my alevel exams , chemistry biology and psychology.
i would like to know if its beneficial for me to go to an actual school and do year 13 again or just homeschool myself.
does anyone else have any stories of themselves of resisting a levels?
Reply 1
I previously resat two Mathematics A2 modules on my own. I found it more beneficial but only because Maths just seems to be an easy subject to self-teach since there's plenty of helpful resources online such as YouTube etc. I would say it depends on how confident you are with those subjects and what your grade was. I achieved a B grade and retook for an A so I knew that it would be pointless for me to attend all the Maths classes when I only needed to go through about 4 topics.
Reply 2
I re-sat my A-levels at home and worked full-time for half of the year. I went from CCD to AAC, which was one grade from my firm. It's doable, i went to the library most days; can get depressing especially if you aren't going out or seeing your mates everyday like you would in school - I found that transition quite difficult, so I would advice to still see your friends often and try volunteering, sports or whatever you're into.

Once I left my job I also found it hard to stay in routine, I was constantly falling asleep by 3am and waking up at 11-12am, eventhough I tried really hard to fix it, I just couldn't manage, which would waste a lot of time and could possibly be the reason I didn't get the grades I needed. But if you're responsible and self-disciplined maybe you can manage - if you live near a uni and your mates study there, then you could use/buy the uni's library pass for a year and study as if you were a university student, but of course you would be revising your A-levels whilst your mates would be studying their uni content.

Working full-time definately helped me mature, a lot - but again, I don't know if that's what you're planning on doing.

What grades do you now need?
Reply 3
Original post by Abz231
I re-sat my A-levels at home and worked full-time for half of the year. I went from CCD to AAC, which was one grade from my firm. It's doable, i went to the library most days; can get depressing especially if you aren't going out or seeing your mates everyday like you would in school - I found that transition quite difficult, so I would advice to still see your friends often and try volunteering, sports or whatever you're into.

Once I left my job I also found it hard to stay in routine, I was constantly falling asleep by 3am and waking up at 11-12am, eventhough I tried really hard to fix it, I just couldn't manage, which would waste a lot of time and could possibly be the reason I didn't get the grades I needed. But if you're responsible and self-disciplined maybe you can manage - if you live near a uni and your mates study there, then you could use/buy the uni's library pass for a year and study as if you were a university student, but of course you would be revising your A-levels whilst your mates would be studying their uni content.

Working full-time definately helped me mature, a lot - but again, I don't know if that's what you're planning on doing.

What grades do you now need?

Yeah i do plan on getting a job.
So i got BCD (in order of psych, bio, chem) and need to get AAB (abb minimun)
Reply 4
Doable. But you need to put in a lot of work. I thought that since this will be my 3rd year, I will easily get AAB - I was expecting A*'s actually lol. You started revising again?

Have you also made arrangements for your UCAS application? Whether or not you will be applying independently or with your old college, as well as the predicted grades and references you need.

If you want to see my PS then feel free to inbox me - my last paragraph explained my gap-year situation.
Reply 5
Original post by Abz231
Doable. But you need to put in a lot of work. I thought that since this will be my 3rd year, I will easily get AAB - I was expecting A*'s actually lol. You started revising again?

Have you also made arrangements for your UCAS application? Whether or not you will be applying independently or with your old college, as well as the predicted grades and references you need.

If you want to see my PS then feel free to inbox me - my last paragraph explained my gap-year situation.

So right now im making a timetable.
As for UCAS im going to contact my school as they are quite helpful with all that. I plan on taking my exams in a center and they have it for £75 per alevel. I was wondering how and where you sat your exams.
Welldone for you results though getting an A is really hard too. what degree did you go on to do?
Reply 6
This was this year lol - didn't get the grades (AAB) so deciding on whether to take another year out and apply next year, but I have a place at a good uni for an Econ degree.

I went back to my college; I kept in contact with my head of year to ask any questions I had and in order to help arrange the UCAS application. My school charged me the basic fee which is around £100 per A-level - if you were to go to a different college then they can charge ridiculous fees, so bare that in mind, but you should have until February to apply for the re-sit.
Reply 7
Original post by Abz231
This was this year lol - didn't get the grades (AAB) so deciding on whetherah to take another year out and apply next year, but I have a place at a good uni for an Econ degree.

I went back to my college; I kept in contact with my head of year to ask any questions I had and in order to help arrange the UCAS application. My school charged me the basic fee which is around £100 per A-level - if you were to go to a different college then they can charge ridiculous fees, so bare that in mind, but you should have until February to apply for the re-sit.

ahhhh lol sorry i read your other comment wrong. So you're also retaking it this year okay. So if you decide to retake are you going to resit all three or just one.
Yeah the center i found opens its application in January. I'm going to call them up to confirm everything though
Reply 8
Also, does anyone know when the deadline to decline/change the student finance is?
Reply 9
Hi! I resat my A-levels this year and I just got into Manchester University :tongue:

I went from BCE to A*AC in maths, physics and FM. Although, I put in zero effort when I sat my A-levels the first time (long story), it was surprising how terrible my teachers were. I had learnt so much from just reading a textbook on my own - looking back makes me realise that I never actually did this when I had a teacher to listen to! They explained things in such complicated ways, and always misunderstood me.

I totally recommend resitting on your own since all the time learning is spent focussing on yourself, rather than your classmates. You also get to make your own learning structure so you can allocate more/less time to easier/harder subjects. You basically get a whole year to revise, compared to other students who just get a few weeks before the exams.
Reply 10
Original post by babushkac4
ahhhh lol sorry i read your other comment wrong. So you're also retaking it this year okay. So if you decide to retake are you going to resit all three or just one.
Yeah the center i found opens its application in January. I'm going to call them up to confirm everything though

Just the C.

Sounds good - all the best!
Original post by babushkac4
I plan on retaking my alevel exams , chemistry biology and psychology.
i would like to know if its beneficial for me to go to an actual school and do year 13 again or just homeschool myself.
does anyone else have any stories of themselves of resisting a levels?

I'm gonna be doing it this year. I'm not resitting though. All the subjects are new to me.

I'm taking maths, FM, physics and possibly something like chem or bio. I'm much better at self-studying as there are a ton of resources online. You can learn anything with the internet/ textbooks these days.
Reply 12
Original post by Abz231
Doable. But you need to put in a lot of work. I thought that since this will be my 3rd year, I will easily get AAB - I was expecting A*'s actually lol. You started revising again?

Have you also made arrangements for your UCAS application? Whether or not you will be applying independently or with your old college, as well as the predicted grades and references you need.

If you want to see my PS then feel free to inbox me - my last paragraph explained my gap-year situation.


Hi , I'm wondering how do you apply for ucas if your applying independently because since im resitting do i put me bad grades as my predictions .I'm really confused :frown: .
Reply 13
Original post by SK???
Hi , I'm wondering how do you apply for ucas if your applying independently because since im resitting do i put me bad grades as my predictions .I'm really confused :frown: .

Hi. You can apply through your college/Sixth form or independently - college would be the same process as last year; they would arrange your references and predicted grades.

Independently you can still get a predicted grade my teacher told me, but you need to ask them for a reference,

My advice would be to email your college/sixth form and see what the best thing is to do for you - I know some colleges won't give you predicted grades (as they have no proof of you being to achieve say, AAB if you got DDC first time around lol) - but I went to a sixth form and they were cool with giving me good predictions.

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