Should I resit my A levels even though I am at uni to ensure I get a TC?

So hello. I am a 1st year student at UWE studying law. My A level grades were horrible mainly due to a personal life problem at that time which didn’t allow me to focus and study. My final grade was BDD. I’d also like to point out that for my A levels I sat in subjects I had no interest in such as Psychology and Biology. My passion was always law but my parents wanted me to do medicine. I took business which i excelled at and got a B due to one paper which I did bad in. For the rest I got a D. I am an international student and want to make sure i secure a training contract so I can get a visa post graduation. Now the issue is that most of the city firms that have the facilities to sponsor a worker require ABB a levels for their applicants. I’d also like to point out that even though it seems out of reach for me I am very sure that I will graduate with a first or at least a 2:1. Now crazy coming from a guy who got a BDD but please do keep in mind that I never had a passion for those subjects and I had very bad personal situation so overall I truly believe I am cut out for it since law is my passion and I’ve spent my whole life learning as much as i can at the Pre uni level. I also plan on doing my masters in a Russell group uni such as a birmingham and getting vacation schemes and internships throughout my uni years. Now the question is should I resit my A levels to make sure that I don’t lose out on opportunities because of my A levels or do you think that if I excel in university I should be fine?

Any help would be appreciated because it’s stressing me out and i’d hate for 1 bad year to ruin my whole life plan.

Reply 1

Kb00

6

Hey!

I'm not so sure whether it is worth resitting your A-levels. If you get a 1st in your degree, this might compensate for your A-levels. I would also keep in mind that some law firms do not have A-levels requirements and they look at a candidate's journey as a whole. What you could do is to go to open days, law firm events and insight days to discover the law firms that you would be interested in applying to. Make sure you speak to trainees and members of grad rec to get a sense of the culture of the firm and ask trainees about their journey into law.

From there, I would try to prepare applying to law firms going into your penultimate year by mentioning how talking to these trainees or the events you attended persuaded you to pursue a career with the specific firm or why you chose to pursue a career in commercial law. I remember taking Commercial Law Academy's "Writing successful applications" course, which helped me to structure my answers to questions such as "Why commercial law?", "Why the firm?", and "Why me?". I would really recommend it.

Reply 2

username6497485

5

Original post by Samij123

So hello. I am a 1st year student at UWE studying law. My A level grades were horrible mainly due to a personal life problem at that time which didn’t allow me to focus and study. My final grade was BDD. I’d also like to point out that for my A levels I sat in subjects I had no interest in such as Psychology and Biology. My passion was always law but my parents wanted me to do medicine. I took business which i excelled at and got a B due to one paper which I did bad in. For the rest I got a D. I am an international student and want to make sure i secure a training contract so I can get a visa post graduation. Now the issue is that most of the city firms that have the facilities to sponsor a worker require ABB a levels for their applicants. I’d also like to point out that even though it seems out of reach for me I am very sure that I will graduate with a first or at least a 2:1. Now crazy coming from a guy who got a BDD but please do keep in mind that I never had a passion for those subjects and I had very bad personal situation so overall I truly believe I am cut out for it since law is my passion and I’ve spent my whole life learning as much as i can at the Pre uni level. I also plan on doing my masters in a Russell group uni such as a birmingham and getting vacation schemes and internships throughout my uni years. Now the question is should I resit my A levels to make sure that I don’t lose out on opportunities because of my A levels or do you think that if I excel in university I should be fine?

Any help would be appreciated because it’s stressing me out and i’d hate for 1 bad year to ruin my whole life plan.

Hi there,

I would not resit my alevels unless you were planning on going to do law at a different uni. Your best plan would be to get a first, then do a master's at a better uni for law and get a distinction in that. If you have a good reason for getting low alevels that you can tell the firms like poor mental health, they will be overlooked considering you smash your law degree and do well and get good internships. I graduated with a 2.1 in Law from bristol and have A*AA btw.

Original post by Samij123

So hello. I am a 1st year student at UWE studying law. My A level grades were horrible mainly due to a personal life problem at that time which didn’t allow me to focus and study. My final grade was BDD. I’d also like to point out that for my A levels I sat in subjects I had no interest in such as Psychology and Biology. My passion was always law but my parents wanted me to do medicine. I took business which i excelled at and got a B due to one paper which I did bad in. For the rest I got a D. I am an international student and want to make sure i secure a training contract so I can get a visa post graduation. Now the issue is that most of the city firms that have the facilities to sponsor a worker require ABB a levels for their applicants. I’d also like to point out that even though it seems out of reach for me I am very sure that I will graduate with a first or at least a 2:1. Now crazy coming from a guy who got a BDD but please do keep in mind that I never had a passion for those subjects and I had very bad personal situation so overall I truly believe I am cut out for it since law is my passion and I’ve spent my whole life learning as much as i can at the Pre uni level. I also plan on doing my masters in a Russell group uni such as a birmingham and getting vacation schemes and internships throughout my uni years. Now the question is should I resit my A levels to make sure that I don’t lose out on opportunities because of my A levels or do you think that if I excel in university I should be fine?

Any help would be appreciated because it’s stressing me out and i’d hate for 1 bad year to ruin my whole life plan.

Hi @Samij123

It really depends on the firm whether they are willing to overlook worse A Levels or not. If there is a requirement for ABB then it may be difficult to convince them to offer you a TC even if you have a good degree. However, this certainly isn't to say it will be an impossibility as all firms will take into account mitigating circumstances. Without knowing the personal issues you sadly were encountering at the time of your A Levels, it is hard to say whether firms will deem this enough of a challenge to lower their required A Levels. However, saying this, there will be firms that do not have an A level requirement and will just be focused on other factors such as a uni degree or extra curricular. Equally, even firms that do show a need for a certain level of academics will only have academics as one part of the process and will score you for other things as well. Therefore, I think it would be better to keep your A Levels as they are and research different firms that may take you with those grades or those that have mitigating factors in their assessment procedure. Trying to resit your A levels now will be a very tough process and probably won't change your overall ability to achieve a TC dramatically!

I hope this helps and good luck 🙂

Sophie

Reply 4

17Student17

16

Don't resit them. It won't make a difference as firms will look at when they were taken if you resat them and the timeline would look weird so don't bother. Just try to go for firms without a high requirement for A level grades. If your GCSEs were really good (and if you did AS levels in lower sixth which were high grades) you could put those down.

Should I resit my A levels even though I am at uni to ensure I get a TC?

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