Failed one exam by one mark and needing to repeat the year in medical school

Okay let me start of by giving a bit of background. I’m a first year medical student and recently done my resit exams, out of the 5 modules I received 3 Merits and it was one single exam I have failed by one mark (science of medicine exam) . I’ve been told I need to repeat the whole of first year again. It’s very disheartening and disappointing to be needing to resit the whole year just because of one mark. I know that the uni can’t change the regulations of GMC and I was more than happy to carry this basic science course to re do and continue with second year. I was even keen do be registered to sit all of y1 exams on top of y2 exams but was told I can’t do them simultaneously. I’m on here to ask if anyone has experienced this and decided to resit the year, how do u get over this especially cos I was so close in passing yet not enough. I don’t think there’s any appeal process tbh.

Thanks

Sorry to hear of your situation.

On the plus side - you are being given an opportunity to restate the year (which I assume means a third attempt at this assessment) rather than being asked to withdraw. Many medical schools have a policy of fail resits and you have to withdraw. I know right now it feels so rubbish - but you get to continue your course. And years down the line, this extra year will seem less significant than it seems now, and it won't make a big difference.

You are not allowed to proceed to the next year if you have haven't successfully completed the previous year. Occasionally universities may have systems whereby a borderline fail in one module may be compensated by a good pass in another module - but most of the time each module is required to be passed outright. Check the assessment framework for your course and make sure that it has been followed appropriately.

You are correct that you can't appeal in the way that you want to (to be allowed to continue carrying a fail). You can only appeal to change the decision to something that is allowed within the assessment framework (ie appealing a decision to withdraw to one that allows an additional attempt at the assessment due to previously undisclosed mitigation). You have already been offered an additional attempt, which is sort of best case scenario already. The only alternative is whether there is remit for you to just resit the one module as an external candidate rather than resitting the year as an internal candidate (ie you take the year out and study independently and just come to resit the end of year exam, rather than attending all the classes). Downsides would be no access to student loans, needing to pay council tax etc - but potential to get a job for the year instead. Some unis will not allow a third attempt at a single module and will instead insist that you repeat.

It is worth chatting over your options with a senior tutor. Allow yourself some time to grieve this and to be frustrated about it - and then best foot forward and go and do this retake year. You were close this time - so there is every reason to believe you can manage this repeat year. There are plenty of excellent doctors who have had to repeat years / repeat parts of medical school. I had to do it myself - and next month I'll have finished my training and I'll be a paediatric consultant. No-one has cared about my winding journey through medical school for a very long time...

Best of luck.

Thank you so much for your response! When you looked back to when you had to repeat and where u are now, do you still think about the what if’s or is the situation so minor now that it doesn’t faze you anymore. Currently because this is still so fresh in my head I don’t think I’ll ever get over this and I get more and more frustrated about the one mark and how much of a different position I would be.

Right now, it will naturally be a massive thing for you. And it took me a couple of years to feel better about it. Nowadays, I don’t give it a second thought - but it was many years ago. I wasn’t as fortunate as you in being the automatic change to repeat, I was asked to leave and had to fight tooth and nail via an appeal to be allowed to repeat, which was hard. But whilst there were difficult bits about the repeat time, like my peers going ahead a year, financial implications of an additional year - it also gave me the opportunity to meet new people and gain experience I wouldn’t have otherwise had - and this included a mentor who was instrumental in some of my early career choices. Missing something by a single mark is so frustrating. I’m not good at exams (I usually just scraped the pass mark - or often didn’t) - and I absolutely get the ruminating on the “what if I had just changed that answer / not changed that answer”. And it’s hard to not do that. In many ways it’s easier to fail by a larger margin - and repeating feels more justified.

Right now it’s tough - and that’s normal - but once you’re a few years down the line and nearing graduation / starting as an FY, this will feel a lot less significant.

Hi,

sorry for hijacking this but i wanted to pm you but i cannot. I want to ask, if you fail resits in 4th year (out of a 5 year course) and you have passed everything up till then would they make you resit?

Every medical school will be different. You cannot progress immediately if you’ve failed, irrespective of whether you’ve passed everything else so far. Some medical schools may allow a third and final attempt at the failed exam, usually by resitting the year. Others will have a policy that failing resists (ie second attempt at exam) means you must withdraw from the course. And again, if you didn’t have mitigation then it wouldn’t matter that you’d passed the previous years of medical school. Either way, you wouldn’t be allowed to progress immediately to 5th year if you’ve failed something.

It is always important to submit prospective mitigation if you think you have grounds, as, if accepted then this may mean that a failed attempt is nullified and you are given a new second attempt (but would still mean a year out to do that rather than progressing to 5th year - you must pass the failed 4th year component before progressing).

Summary: check your own uni’s assessment schedule carefully. Best of luck.

thank you i’m not bothered with not going into year 5 but i would like to redo the year if i can

i spoke to someone from the student union and they told me to not worry about being kicked out but idk if i should take their word? the documents are quite blunt and the lady on the phone did tell me that the document is not the best source for this

im just worried cuz i’m in my second clinical year and i just don’t want to have to tell my parents why i won’t become a doctor

i’ve heard of students being given chance to redo the year as third sit but idk how true this would be

from your experience do you think i would be allowed to redo another year?

Again, I can’t tell you - as it will literally depend on the specific uni, everyone has different rules regarding this.

No, do not rely on student union advice. It’s highly unlikely they’ll know the specifics of medicine, which will be very different to other courses’ rules.

What does your coursebook say? However blunt it is, those are going to be the rules unfortunately, and yes you absolutely should take heed of them. There should be a clear and explicit schedule of assessment / progress, that tells you how many attempts you are allowed. Unis need to be consistent in their progress decisions, and unless there are mitigating circumstances then I would anticipate that they would follow their schedule. This should specify whether or not a third attempt would be allowed. Some unis have a blanket “yes”, some allow a third attempt if only x credits failed, some unis automatically say maximum two attempts.

Is this theoretical, or are you waiting for a resit result?