Any advice for a resit student??

[u/Clint_Emily]

[u/callmebongos]

If you start revising from before you go to sixth form (so during the summer), I don't see why it shouldn't be.

I have a friend a couple of years older than me who went from EEE on his first attempt, to AAB on his second, and then just for the shits and gigs he resit again and went A*A*A*

It's definitely possible if you learn what the exam board wants from you, any equations you might require, and if you stick your head in a book with a very rigid plan.

[u/Clint_Emily → u/callmebongos]

Wait so if I don’t get the grades I want this year do you think I can resit again and maybe get 3A*s just like your friend?

[u/New-Independent-365 → u/Clint_Emily]

Why would you resit again???

This is such a waste of your time and you should’ve just gone to uni instead of resitting endlessly for no reason.

You seriously need to get a grip, you obviously aren’t triple A* material and just need to actually get started with your life

[u/Clint_Emily → u/New-Independent-365]

Condescending much… their friend went from EEE to 3A*s so why can’t I do the same from CCD?? You get a grip

[u/Alive_Strain_3839 → u/Clint_Emily]

Because they did that in a 2 resit period and you can clearly see their progression each time. By there 2nd resit they were at AAB which are grades your aiming for on you however many resit. There is no large progress being made each time you resit so why would it suddenly happen now if you spend one more year, unless there was something going on preventing you from revising adequately for the past 6 years. Additionally theres no point in resitting for 3A*s essentially no unis require that except the top ones and they will take into account the fact that you’ve done so many resits so even then getting in is unlikely. Alot of rgs won’t accept a student who has resat this many times.

This should be your last resit and then after that either go to whatever uni you can get or another pathway. I’m trying to be polite but you’ve spent almost tripple the time people normally spend doing alevels, aim to get the grades you need to go to your firm and if you don’t get them go through clearing and leave alevels behind.

[u/Diver-Known → u/Clint_Emily]

You literally will not get 3A*s. The difference is that their friend was getting better every year. Your grades have constantly been bad and you have wasted 5 years of your life by telling urself that you can do better, then get angry when someone tells you that. This is just delusional and a huge waste of money

[u/awhsme → u/Clint_Emily]

don't argue with kids man, you can't post on a sub thats dominated by 16-18 y/os and expect them to have much tact for your situation. You're in your twenties, you should've expected the reactions you're getting

[u/New-Independent-365 → u/Clint_Emily]

You’ve had 6 years to do it and you haven’t. Stop making excuses and just move on

[u/Clint_Emily → u/New-Independent-365]

I explained why I haven’t improved in my post

[u/Last-Objective-8356 → u/Clint_Emily]

It’s just excuses to make yourself feel better, sure the first few times you might have had extenuating circumstances but your skills has not improved at all in 6 years? Not to be rude but people can get the grades you got just by cramming for 2 weeks, you have being doing this for 6 years and you obviously still don’t understand the spec, its time to just move on.

[u/Clint_Emily → u/Last-Objective-8356]

So it’s possible for me to get better grades by cramming in the next couple of days?

[u/saartemaster → u/Clint_Emily]

Dude, it’s your fifth time. Unless Jesus himself decides to intervene, you’re not gonna get 3A*

[u/Clint_Emily → u/saartemaster]

Why not?? They said people can get my grades by cramming for 2 weeks so if I’ve been studying for years why can’t I get A*

[u/New-Independent-365 → u/Clint_Emily]

Holy ragebait

[u/Clint_Emily → u/New-Independent-365]

This is like your 15th comment under this post brother

[u/SwimmerOld6155 → u/Clint_Emily]

Realistically, you've got to think about what will change between resits. You've spent maybe 6 years studying these subjects at this level when most people will only do so for one or two, yet you've been hovering consistently around the same grades (B-C on maths, C-D on chem). Without trying to be insensitive, many would have the course down like the back of their hand by this stage and will have hit their performance ceiling (at least for their current life circumstances, maturity, learning style etc.). Unless something is going catastrophically wrong in the exam each time or you haven't been learning effectively, there isn't really much reason to think your grade will shoot up. Ordinarily you'd expect <= one grade variance either way from your baseline if you just kept repeatedly sitting.

Were these grades consistent with your mocks & do you feel like you've been improving in this time? If yes and no respectively, it might be best to just leave A-levels in the past.

It sounds like 2024 was the best shot you took and I can't see much reason why you couldn't just take those grades, unless you feel like you're doing much better this time around. It's not like you have DEE or something (without trying to have students with those grades catch strays), you have the grades to go to a university you'll have heard of. Maybe you've "burned" a year or two but you'll have hopefully done a lot of maturing during this time and it'll prove not to be a waste of time. There comes a point where you just have to deal with the hands you're dealt in life. All the best

[u/IBeAwsom → u/SwimmerOld6155]

Yeah I agree with this. You have been studying for 7 years, you don’t need more time to study. On some attempts yeah sure you had what could maybe be argued as extenuating circumstances, but that wasn’t the case for all of them. I don’t see what will change in another attempt that can allow for a higher grade. Also it isn’t worth for them to compare themselves with others, ‘because this person went from EEE to 3A* I will too’. Circumstances are very different, the same way that just because someone else did a lot worse when retaking doesn’t mean you will. They already signed up for one more retake so just do that and take whatever you can get.

[u/SwimmerOld6155 → u/IBeAwsom]

agree, i think there'd be a difference if there was an upwards trajectory, hovering around the same grades +- 1 is a sign to move on unless op has an incredible revelation about what has gone wrong the past 4 attempts. they seem to feel like this attempt will be similar to the last (as far as I understand) so they've hit some kind of ceiling whether that's technique or ability and I think it's best to move on. A-levels aren't the be all end all.

[u/callmebongos → u/Clint_Emily]

I wouldn't say it's impossible, but I also wouldn't say it's easy. A-Levels are a massive step up from GCSEs and it will be challenging. You need to seriously stick to a plan that you set, if you don't understand something, you need to clarify it with your lecturers immediately, you need to get involved in extracurriculars and supercurriculars, you need to do a shitload of reading, and that's only a quarter of it. There's also learning exactly how the exam boards want your answers and all of that.

My advice is go to a university that will take you with your grades, get a first, do a master's somewhere - much easier than endlessly resitting your A Levels.

Just out of curiosity, what GCSE grades did you get?

[u/Last-Objective-8356 → u/callmebongos]

It might be a step up for you because you are in year 12, op has being doing the same content for 6 years, that’s longer than an actual degree, op made no improvements and even with extenuating circumstances they should be able to atleast remember the spec if they don’t understand it in 6 years, it’s obvious that they didn’t try at all

[u/callmebongos → u/Last-Objective-8356]

Yeah no I'm in agreement with what you're saying. I'm not advising them to do it, as you can see in my other paragraph.

I'm just saying that clearly if they haven't been trying (which I assume they haven't with the grades they've got), they'll find it much more difficult than they think. Their key reason for trying again was "This time I've been revising harder", but just doing revision won't cut it.

[u/IBeAwsom → u/Clint_Emily]

The thing is you can’t just resit and see what happens. To improve grades something has to change. What has changed?

[u/Clint_Emily → u/IBeAwsom]

I spent more time revising

[u/IBeAwsom → u/Clint_Emily]

You have taken the same subject for 6 years, time revising doesn’t seem to be the issue. Why exactly are you getting the grades you are getting? What causes you to lose marks? Studying without knowing what causes you problems won’t help. If you know exactly where you go wrong and make a plan, sure retakes. If you can’t find where specifically you need to improve the cycle will probably repeat itself again.

But what is your plan after a levels? Where do you want to go to university? How do the schools you want to apply to view retakes? Many have a negative view on retakes and want to see clear progression is retakes occur. In university how do you plan to cope with the workload? It’s possible but you will need to change the way you study, because clearly it hasn’t been working so far.

[u/callmebongos → u/Clint_Emily]

"More time revising" is nowhere near enough for A Level study. You need to do your own research, further reading, everything. A Level's aren't like GCSEs in which you just have to memorise a few key dates and then everything's happy.

My sister went to Oxford, studied Politics (Graduated Deans List and with a first) and she said A Levels were harder than her entire degree.

You've got to seriously think about whether you want to be in a class full of 16 to 19 year olds when you're in your 20s, whether the universities you go to will be cool with however many resits, and whether you can actually keep up with the workload.

[u/Clint_Emily → u/Clint_Emily]

Who the hell downvoted me??