Do Oxford or Cambridge accept those for medicine who take 3 years to do A-levels?

If I'm still sitting all of my exams at the end of year 13 and, I did not fail in year 12 initially but other extenuating circumstances had forced me to repeat year 12 *at a different sixth form* , would I still be considered? I'm not exactly learning the exact same topics (they are the same subjects though) as I did in year 12 at the other school because they had different exam boards.

Thanks! 😊

Yes, but you would need A star, A star, A grades.

Oxford explicitly states they expect A-levels to be taken over the typical two year period with 3 exams done in year 13. I suspect however if you have extenuating circumstances explained by your academic referee this will be considered. Cambridge is less explicit on this but does also note that any extenuating circumstances should be explained in the reference.

I expect this would be similar for other medical schools - generally they expect them to be done over 2 years, doing the same subjects over 3 years is a potential issue (the exam boards being different is not a factor), but depending on the extenuating circumstances this may or may not mitigate it.

Make sure your academic referee explains the situation in your reference basically, and I'd probably suggest contacting the medical schools to enquire about how they consider A-levels done over 3 years where there are extenuating circumstances.

Thank you for your response. I have previously already contacted many medical schools regarding my situation. Cambridge didn't really give me an answer they just told me to read their website which wasn't exactly helpful but Oxford had basically told me that I would be considered but my application would be at a disadvantage due to taking A-levels over 3 years. However, I do have valid reasons as to why I had to do it over 3 years. It wasn't to do with academic performance which is usually what I believe they frown upon. I also have a lot of contextual circumstances so I really do hope I will be successful if I apply this year. I understand it will be very difficult for me to create a strong application but I'm going to try my best.

Perhaps worth contacting individual colleges at Oxford/Cambridge about this also. It's the colleges that make the decisions on who to give offers to.

Thank you for your response. I have previously already contacted many medical schools regarding my situation. Cambridge didn't really give me an answer they just told me to read their website which wasn't exactly helpful but Oxford had basically told me that I would be considered but my application would be at a disadvantage due to taking A-levels over 3 years. However, I do have valid reasons as to why I had to do it over 3 years. It wasn't to do with academic performance which is usually what I believe they frown upon. I also have a lot of contextual circumstances so I really do hope I will be successful if I apply this year. I understand it will be very difficult for me to create a strong application but I'm going to try my best.

Just make sure your academic referee is aware of the circumstances and documents them in your reference, they can then consider those to mitigate any concerns they may have over you taking them over 3 years