The Student Room Group

is it weird to take 2 gap years?

hello, my mental health isn't the greatest so I've had very low motivation and did bad in my a-levels. I'm planning to resit them in 2025. however, with revising for a-levels, as well as sorting out therapy, I don't think I could make a good enough UCAS application especially since I haven't gotten much valuable experience. taking another gap year to get more work experiencence/part time job and apply to UCAS for 2026 entry is what I'm planning on doing. but is 2 gap years too much?

Reply 1

Original post by dsttstshtsjtajjt
hello, my mental health isn't the greatest so I've had very low motivation and did bad in my a-levels. I'm planning to resit them in 2025. however, with revising for a-levels, as well as sorting out therapy, I don't think I could make a good enough UCAS application especially since I haven't gotten much valuable experience. taking another gap year to get more work experiencence/part time job and apply to UCAS for 2026 entry is what I'm planning on doing. but is 2 gap years too much?

2 gap years is not too much. Everyone is on their own individual journey, life is not a race so please take the time to do things at your own pace. Just because it is normalized to rush into university as soon as you finish A-levels, doesn't mean it is meant for everyone and sometimes taking 1 gap year isn't enough and that is ok.
I wish you all the best with your journey ❤️

Reply 2

Original post by dsttstshtsjtajjt
hello, my mental health isn't the greatest so I've had very low motivation and did bad in my a-levels. I'm planning to resit them in 2025. however, with revising for a-levels, as well as sorting out therapy, I don't think I could make a good enough UCAS application especially since I haven't gotten much valuable experience. taking another gap year to get more work experiencence/part time job and apply to UCAS for 2026 entry is what I'm planning on doing. but is 2 gap years too much?

You know yourself best and a 2 year gap year is totally fine if that is best for you and your wellbeing and actually not the most uncommon thing, but maybe don't completely give up on a UCAS application this year either. Going through UCAS yourself can actually be a lot less stressful compared to how colleges put so much weight on it and you've already got one PS to work off of.

Maybe don't set any expectations for yourself with it and trust that whatever happens happens. But don't feel like you have to put it off for another year just to talk about the perfect work experience. You can write about interests and hobbies that can be related to your subject (even loosely), listen to a podcast, read a journal article or 2 if you want to go a bit extra with it, etc - basically it doesn't have to be formal working experience. Sure it would help, but also a uni might not write you off just for not having that so don't let just that fear put you off trying it this year (if you wanted to you could literally do the whole thing in just a week or two). We are always more capable than we think we are. (Also, there are short virtual work experience opportunities you can literally do over a few days on springpod or speakers for schools that literally look fine in your application and you can do before January)

Just because, who knows maybe you end up doing well on A levels and feel ready to start that next chapter sooner than you previously thought and maybe you COULD get into a uni you like next year. clearing is also an option later for starting uni next year(which is also really not as scary as it feels at first).
And of course, doing it in 2026 is also fine, its all fine! I believe in you!
(edited 9 months ago)

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