can anyone who has retaken year 12 or 13 answer some of my questions? :)

1) There are a very small number of the most competitive Unis and degree subjects that may not accept A level resit application, but the overwhelming majority of Universities will have no problem with this at all, and it won't disadvantage your application.
2) You should not mention this in your PS - that is only for you to explain why you really want to do this subject/course at University, and its up to your school/college to explain the reasons for any resits in their UCAS reference (there is a specific section of the reference form for this).
3) Competitions, DoE and other school-fluff are not critical to any University application. Most Admissions staff just ignore it - so focus on your A level grades, they do actually matter. Sutton Trust etc should not be a problem, but check on their website or just drop them an email.
What degree subject are you going to be applying for, and what are your resit grade expectations?

PPE. aiming to get all A's and by the end of Y13/14 (which is a realistic goal for me because of my predicted grades and mocks this year, my exams just went really badly).
i don't really understand what you mean by the third point though, as one of the new personal statement questions is focused on what you've done outside of education to prepare for the course? by competitions, i mean essay competitions like John Locke and other similar subject related activities. i'm mainly worried about this because i'm still in Y12 this year and haven't signed up to any competitions which I could talk about in my PS. i did a few programmes throughout the year, although i don't think they're sufficient enough and i'd like to do more.

1. how did retaking affect your university applications? did you get rejected from any universities because of retaking exams?
2. did you mention your retake in your personal statement? if so, how did you go about it?
3. did you struggle to do super curricular activities (such as residential trips, competitions, work experience) during your retake year? for example, if you were retaking year 12 did that prevent you from doing an essay competition meant for y12 students (aged 16-17)? and if you were previously in programs like sutton trust, were you allowed to stay in them?
ty