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Failed first year medical school resit exam/ What are my options

Hi
I failed my first year medical school resit exam
My resit paper was much tougher than the june exam
I am really confused on what to do now?
Any advice will be appreciated
Thanks
Original post by drstup
Hi
I failed my first year medical school resit exam
My resit paper was much tougher than the june exam
I am really confused on what to do now?
Any advice will be appreciated
Thanks


Really sorry to hear this.

- What have the university told you regarding your options? Have they offered you the chance to repeat the year, or have they asked you to withdraw?
- What do you think? Do you still want to do medicine?
- Have a think about what happened with the exams and where things might have gone wrong. Study technique? Mitigating circumstances? Not enough effort? Genuine bad luck / bad day on exam day and tough set of questions?

Don’t make any snap decisions. You have a few days to process this news and think about what next.
- If you want to try again and your uni offers the chance of a resit year, then great. If they want you to withdraw, your only option would be to appeal - this would be difficult without a concrete reason / mitigation.
- If you think you don’t want to continue- make sure that that’s a definite decision that you won’t regret, as it’s hard to reverse and effectively rule out further attempts at a medicine course in the UK. However it’s an entirely legitimate decision that is fine to make (just be sure you’re fully certain). Be especially sure if the uni offer a resit attempt and you decline that. It would be worth thinking about what else you would want to do - a different undergrad course, a year out. Would be worth talking to your university career service.

Best of luck with whatever you decide.
If this was already a resit, that may not be an option, unless, possibly, there were serious mitigating circumstances that the university was aware of?

OP, what do the academic regulations say for your course? These (or a link to them) should be in your student handbook.
(edited 1 year ago)
Reply 3
Thanks
I did put a lot of effort
kept revising and did not even go out
the exam was really hard more than the june exam
I am just depressed at the moment
very confused
we were told that resit would be our last chance
i can appeal but don't have a medical reason
(edited 1 year ago)
Original post by drstup
Thanks
I did put a lot of effort
kept revising and did not even go out
the exam was really hard more than the june exam
I am just depressed at the moment
very confused
we were told that resit would be our last chance
i can appeal but don't have a medical reason


With your results, the university should have given you the progress decision from the exam board as well? Eg required to withdraw or required to repeat year? In the first instance you need to be clear what they’ve actually told you about your progress based on this specific result, not just general info from before. In any instance where the progress decision is not ‘progress to next year of study’ then they also have a requirement to inform you of your right to appeal your progress decision, and how you do that.

it’s understandable that you’re feeling rubbish about things at the moment. It’s a really terrible feeling to fail a resit and potentially have to withdraw.

You should meet a tutor at the university to discuss your options. They’re likely to be fairly neutral, as obviously they’ll be representing the uni and their decision (which is, presumably, to withdraw). However they should be able to discuss options with you including options outside of medicine such as whether it’s possible to restart a different course within the same uni. This may be particularly useful if you feel that realistically you don’t have grounds to appeal the decision.

Remember to be kind to yourself and look after yourself. Hopefully you’ve been able to share the news with some of your nearest and dearest, as otherwise this can be a very lonely time, and having people who can support you is important.
Reply 5
Thanks
I have been asked to leave the programme
I am waiting to hear from student welfare/councellor
Can I appeal?
I was depressed and as I am shy I didnt tell anybody and suffered in silence
Can anyone help with my appeal
Kind Regards
Gautam
Reply 6
Original post by drstup
Hi
I failed my first year medical school resit exam
My resit paper was much tougher than the june exam
I am really confused on what to do now?
Any advice will be appreciated
Thanks


You repeat the year.

You accept that this will be extremely hard at first. It is emotionally draining to watch your friends move on and you have to do it again, but it is worth it. I promise.
Original post by drstup
Thanks
I have been asked to leave the programme
I am waiting to hear from student welfare/councellor
Can I appeal?
I was depressed and as I am shy I didnt tell anybody and suffered in silence
Can anyone help with my appeal
Kind Regards
Gautam


Sorry to hear that. That’s a really tough situation.
In honesty - appealing is going to be hard. But on the other hand, you have nothing to lose except the time and energy doing the appeal.

There are usually two potential grounds for appeal - procedural irregularity (eg a page of the exam paper was missing), or retrospective mitigation.

Retrospective mitigation is very difficult. Universities clearly advertise their mitigation policies, and as an adult learner you’re expected to take responsibility. In order to submit retrospective mitigation, you have to have a very clear reason why you could not have told the medical school about it before now. With documented evidence. “I didn’t submit because I thought the exam was ok” is not good enough.

if you feel that you have a genuine reason why you couldn’t have told the exam board about your mitigation before now, then you can try to appeal. Assuming this will be with a health reason, you will also need to have documented evidence from health professionals.

I previously wrote this thread on appealing medical school decisions to withdraw from the course - the post is old, but it is still accurate and may be helpful to you. https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?p=88821624&highlight=Junior%20doctor%20guide%20appeal

Very best wishes to you.
update?

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