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