Access to medicine course vs full A-level resit: Advice appreciated

I’ll try keep this as short and simple as I can. I (30F) am from a very working class background and went to a pretty bad secondary school in a pretty rough NW area, but somehow managed to come out with above average GCSE’s even though I was lazy and didn’t really work. I did my a-levels in biology, chemistry and geology from 2010-2012 but wasn’t really motivated and didn’t really know how to study properly at the time so only came out with BCC. I then moved away from home and have been working in various jobs until within the past year or so been thinking about applying to medicine.

So, I’m aware that my A-level grades are not good enough for medicine, so now I’m a bit stuck on the best course of action. Should I fully retake my A-levels doing the Edexcel IAL modular ones (replacing geology with geography) with private tutoring on the side or should I do the Access to Medicine course with Manchester college? I’d rather try and avoid going the grad med route if I can possibly avoid it

Thanks in advance

Reply 1

TSR Hippocrates

Hey there, thanks for posting a question in the Medicine forum. :biggrin:

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Reply 2

étude06

Original post by Smeraldettoi

I’ll try keep this as short and simple as I can. I (30F) am from a very working class background and went to a pretty bad secondary school in a pretty rough NW area, but somehow managed to come out with above average GCSE’s even though I was lazy and didn’t really work. I did my a-levels in biology, chemistry and geology from 2010-2012 but wasn’t really motivated and didn’t really know how to study properly at the time so only came out with BCC. I then moved away from home and have been working in various jobs until within the past year or so been thinking about applying to medicine.
So, I’m aware that my A-level grades are not good enough for medicine, so now I’m a bit stuck on the best course of action. Should I fully retake my A-levels doing the Edexcel IAL modular ones (replacing geology with geography) with private tutoring on the side or should I do the Access to Medicine course with Manchester college? I’d rather try and avoid going the grad med route if I can possibly avoid it
Thanks in advance

I know with you current a levels you may be able to do a foundation year for medicine at some universities which is 6 years.
Retaking your a levels privately could be done in a year or you could redo them at a school where sometimes takes 2 years.Some schools don’t accept a level resits unless you have attained certain grades during the first sit (e.g BBB).
Access to medicine is only a year and you’ll be able to apply to unis which do accept the Access to medicine however I think you’ll have to pay for the course.But you have to have a certain amount of points,yet that’s also the same with a level grades.With access to medicine you can start the medicine course straight away (5 years sone places 6).But there are more schools that accept access to medicine than the BCC.
I would say Access to med seems like a better option.

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