I’m just going to give a life update because it’ll answer the questions I’ve gotten! I also think it might be useful for anyone watching the thread or revisiting for advice…it also makes me sad when people just disappear and I never get to find out what happened at the end 💀
So in my original post, I withheld some information (it wasn’t relevant at the time and I didn’t want to give away too much personal information, but for this to make sense I’ll just explain it lol lol). Essentially, I didn’t have the best relationship with my family, they were the toxic, controlling type, blamed me for the SA mentioned in the original post, not supportive of my dreams, etc.
So in Year 13, I originally wanted to apply for mechanical / electrical engineering on UCAS - Kings College London WAS my top choice, along with others like Loughborough, Royal Holloway, some others but I really don’t remember. But right before submitting my UCAS application, my parents did not allow me to do engineering, and instead, forced me to apply for law, a course I did not want to do, as they thought it would be ‘better suited’ for me. They also said I can only apply to universities close to home. They had access to my UCAS, so I literally couldn’t change it even if I wanted to. Throughout Year 13, this really demotivated me as well, as I felt like I wouldn’t get to live my dream career 😔
So even though I knew I was going to do badly in my exams (and obviously, I did, lol) I started revising as soon as my exams ended so that I could do my exams again, but I didn’t tell my parents this plan. I believe I wrote this post in August, right on/afterafter results day! But results day rolls around, my parents freak out at my grades, get extremely angry. Maybe a day or two after my original post I tell them my plans of a gap year and they essentially laugh in my face, call me a failure, not clever, and that I would be a disgrace to the extended family if I were to take a gap year (somehow blind to the fact that they greatly contributed to these grades). So I wasn’t allowed to take the gap year that I really wanted to do. They also said I would be a disgrace if I did a foundation year (obviously I don’t agree with that notion, they’re genuinely not sane people 😬) but all law courses wanted me to do a foundation year with my grades. I was able to find a BEng mechanical engineering course at a non Russel group university (they rank in the top 30 overall, and higher for engineering, which I was happy with) that didn’t require me to do a foundation year, due to my mitigating circumstances. So essentially, my plans for a gap year were axed. But my parents were happy because I didn’t have to do a foundation year. But both me and my parents agreed (for the first time lol) that I would still resit my A Levels privately over the duration of my degree (so like, one a level a year so that the workload is not too strenuous).
So fast forward, I start my degree, MORE things start going wrong (it’s too long to explain, I won’t delve into it) and even though I’ve moved away around 1.5 hours away for university, they still were extremely overbearing and controlling, to the point where it was difficult to even get work done. I decided to cut them off finally, as it was destroying my mental health. So now I’m an estranged university student. But this created a domino effect, and earlier this year, I decided to take time out of university because the situation again, started to affect my grades, and I wanted to work full time to save up, and restart my degree in September so I can actually be ready, and hopefully not encounter any issues.
So yes, currently I am working full time right now, will start university again in September. My new plan is to hopefully go to Oxbridge, UCL, or Imperial for my masters. I’ll still be doing my a levels and spreading my exams out throughout my degree so I don’t burn out. I know a levels aren’t as important for masters. But from what I’ve seen they do matter, and even if not, it’s kind of a personal goal for me. I love STEM, my passion has been rekindled, and I see it as a hobby!
Any advice for someone in a similar position. Things won’t go as planned. Life is NOT easy. I like to plan EVERYTHING in detail, so it’s a hard habit to break, but I’ve now learnt to create backup plans and contingency, because for some people, not everything will always go your way initially. And that’s okay. Good luck and I hope everyone does well

let me know if you have more questions!