The Student Room Group

doing an A level a year later?

currently going through a bit of a crisis as I just saw my 'anticipated predicted UCAS grades' from my spring term report so hopefully this'll all make sense! of course, I'll be getting a new set of predicteds next month so if they're better than the current ones then none of this'll matter. anyway.

background:

I've wanted to be a doctor for ages, but due to my contamination based OCD that got really bad around GCSE results day/choosing a level options (my results were 998888887A, since that tends to be somewhat important for medicine) I ended up convincing myself that I couldn't be a doctor and so I didn't take a level chem. told myself I'd do languages at uni instead.

shortly after GCSE results I went into hospital for a month (different issue), got out at the start of yr12 and started doing the AS part of my a levels, if that makes sense. everything was going well, got good marks, became a prefect, overall doing alright. then around march of yr12 I went into hospital again and wasn't discharged til october. because I ended up missing so much of yr12, I agreed to resit the year rather than going back into yr13, especially as I want to apply to oxbridge and that's got an early deadline.

when I was in hospital I received help for my OCD to the point where it's now manageable and I can see myself becoming a doctor. however, when I started yr12 again my school wouldn't let me take chem (just bio) and so I decided I'd just have to do GEM, which is a shame, but whatever.

anyway, I've been doing some thinking, and I was wondering if it's possible to do this instead. I'd ask someone at school but it's the weekend and I'd rather get a second opinion before bringing it up anyway!

- sit a levels (bio, maths, french) in summer 2021
- start work now on a level chem, to sit in summer 2022
- apply to uni after receiving a level chem result in 2022, to start uni (medicine) in 2023

does this sound like it could actually work or is it a bad idea to take chemistry a year later, particularly if I want to apply to oxbridge? obviously I'd spend the year between my first set of a level results in summer 2021 and starting uni in 2023 getting experience, working, etc. so it wouldn't be a waste of time. but is it looked down upon to take an a level a year later? am I better off just applying to uni to start in 2022, doing my first degree and then applying for GEM? does anyone have any better ideas as to how I can make this work? there's a high chance I might not apply to uni this year anyway, but I want to receive my predicted grades before I make that decision, and if I do end up not applying this year then I wouldn't want to waste a year off and so I feel like sitting a level chem in that year off and then applying to uni after is a better option. but idk. I'm just a bit worried that I've made some bad decisions and I don't know how to fix this
(edited 3 years ago)
If you really want to go to oxbridge, then this isn't an option but not all medical schools require chemistry at A level so you could just do your current subjects and maybe take a gap year to allow you to get some work experience (apply to medicine in 2021 for 2022 entry). I know some medical school don't really like it when people take A levels over more than 2 years. Obviously, your circumstances mean that you should be okay redoing year 12 but I'm not sure how they would feel about you taking an extra year to do chemistry as you could have just started chemistry when you started year 12 again. It will be best to contact the medical schools you want to apply to and explain your situation. Do you know why your school wouldn't let you do chemistry when you started year 12 again?
Original post by jupiiter
which medical schools don’t require chem? I wasn’t aware that was an option (unless it’s a course with a foundation year)

yeah, I heard that taking a levels over 2 years isn’t great but I’m struggling to think of an alternative :/ i couldn’t do chem when I came back because it was after October half term and I hadn’t been doing it before I went into hospital, so they didn’t want me to take a new (and difficult) subject esp considering I wasn’t in school full time until February. they thought it’d be too stressful since I was just adjusting to getting out

Yeah, not a huge number of medical schools don't need chem but you can still make a full set of applications. I study medicine at Sheffield and you only need bio or chem and a second science (includes maths) so your subjects now would be okay.
Take a look at this - it's the entry requirements for 2021 entry
https://www.medschools.ac.uk/media/2701/msc-entry-requirements-for-uk-medical-schools-2021.pdf

Like I said in my first post, it will be best to contact medical schools and explain the situation and ask whether you would have a chance of being considered.

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