worth taking a gap year?

So eventhough i was so optimistic about going to 'good' unis in my first yr of college, i sort of flunked year 12 and ended up with much lower predicted grades then i need to apply to those universities, I had ACC (econ, psych, maths). Thankfully in yr 13 i managed to raise these to A*AB (econ. psych, maths), and i have applied to some universities, but they generally are just reputably not as good, which is fine but not what i wanted, i guess

so since im doing better in life and in school, i thought maybe I'll get my official results, take a gap year and apply the next year instead to the unviersities I would actually like to go to.

I have no idea what I'd do during my gap year, maybe study AS further maths but i dont know whether that has any value since its an AS subject and not A-level

plus my GCSE grades in comparison to many others is extremely low. After getting my GCSE grades I genuinely though I did really well in comparison to others since at my secondary attainment is really low (33% pass rate in English and maths for my year), so getting mostly 7s, 2 8s and two 6s was very good to me. But honestly going to my sixth form and seeing people here at studentroom, I was ASTONISHED by how well people did, and realised yes my grades do indeed suck in comparison lol

I mean sure there are reasons for why i attained lower than i could of, but im not sure if univerisites would care about that

so now im thinking whether i should just not take a gap year and go to one of those 'lesser but still good' universities since considering my GCSE grades and stuff like that I feel like Id have a low chance of getting in where I want to go. My options would be e.g. bath and bristol, honestly LSE would be an incredibly idealistic dream lol but yeah. Any advice would be helpful

What subject are you applying for?

I’m wanting to do straight Economics

So eventhough i was so optimistic about going to 'good' unis in my first yr of college, i sort of flunked year 12 and ended up with much lower predicted grades then i need to apply to those universities, I had ACC (econ, psych, maths). Thankfully in yr 13 i managed to raise these to A*AB (econ. psych, maths), and i have applied to some universities, but they generally are just reputably not as good, which is fine but not what i wanted, i guess
so since im doing better in life and in school, i thought maybe I'll get my official results, take a gap year and apply the next year instead to the unviersities I would actually like to go to.
I have no idea what I'd do during my gap year, maybe study AS further maths but i dont know whether that has any value since its an AS subject and not A-level
plus my GCSE grades in comparison to many others is extremely low. After getting my GCSE grades I genuinely though I did really well in comparison to others since at my secondary attainment is really low (33% pass rate in English and maths for my year), so getting mostly 7s, 2 8s and two 6s was very good to me. But honestly going to my sixth form and seeing people here at studentroom, I was ASTONISHED by how well people did, and realised yes my grades do indeed suck in comparison lol
I mean sure there are reasons for why i attained lower than i could of, but im not sure if univerisites would care about that
so now im thinking whether i should just not take a gap year and go to one of those 'lesser but still good' universities since considering my GCSE grades and stuff like that I feel like Id have a low chance of getting in where I want to go. My options would be e.g. bath and bristol, honestly LSE would be an incredibly idealistic dream lol but yeah. Any advice would be helpful

I'd say take a gap year (forget your grades), discover who you are and what you want to do in the next 10 years of your life. If the answer to that means getting higher grades, going to a top university and studying economics then go for it.
I can't help but feel students do university the wrong way around. There is a huge clamour to get into a "good" university (whatever that means) in the blind hope it will lead to better things in the next step. Figure out where you want to get to and then work backwards rather than hoping for the best.
Good luck!

As a good few people have said, think about why you're going to uni, or why you want to. Also, to chip in on the gap year for LSE note, it's probably a bad idea. Not to crush your dreams or anything, but as a few people have said, some of these courses are so ridiculously competitive that having the predicted requirements doesn't fully cut it. Also, they'll look at your GCSEs and predicteds, in most cases.
By all means be aspirational with your application, though, I'm not discouraging that. There's also clearing and clearing plus, I think, which can help you if you do better than thought on your exams. Often some really good unis fall into it.

thank you sm for this! i completely agree with you but im truthfully clueless on what i want to do. i thought going to a ‘good’ uni would just provide me with more chances to take whatever path i want in life and what not. but thank you for this, greatly appreciated

So eventhough i was so optimistic about going to 'good' unis in my first yr of college, i sort of flunked year 12 and ended up with much lower predicted grades then i need to apply to those universities, I had ACC (econ, psych, maths). Thankfully in yr 13 i managed to raise these to A*AB (econ. psych, maths), and i have applied to some universities, but they generally are just reputably not as good, which is fine but not what i wanted, i guess
so since im doing better in life and in school, i thought maybe I'll get my official results, take a gap year and apply the next year instead to the unviersities I would actually like to go to.
I have no idea what I'd do during my gap year, maybe study AS further maths but i dont know whether that has any value since its an AS subject and not A-level
plus my GCSE grades in comparison to many others is extremely low. After getting my GCSE grades I genuinely though I did really well in comparison to others since at my secondary attainment is really low (33% pass rate in English and maths for my year), so getting mostly 7s, 2 8s and two 6s was very good to me. But honestly going to my sixth form and seeing people here at studentroom, I was ASTONISHED by how well people did, and realised yes my grades do indeed suck in comparison lol
I mean sure there are reasons for why i attained lower than i could of, but im not sure if univerisites would care about that
so now im thinking whether i should just not take a gap year and go to one of those 'lesser but still good' universities since considering my GCSE grades and stuff like that I feel like Id have a low chance of getting in where I want to go. My options would be e.g. bath and bristol, honestly LSE would be an incredibly idealistic dream lol but yeah. Any advice would be helpful