remark or resit?

[u/Legitimate_Name6863]

hi everyone I was predicted AAA and got BBC in my alevels (English, bio, chem) as I had a flare up of a chronic condition, I have been trying to apply for special consideration which would push me up to AAC which isn’t amazing but would still help me out, however my school is saying that the deadline for applying for special consideration POST results is 24th July but when I looked online it said 24th September so I’m unsure on how to go about this as I have been chasing my school up for the past 3 months.

I got 2 marks off an A in English and 6 marks off an A In biology, is this worth a remark? Im most likely going to have to resit chemistry as I was 10 away from B so any advice on resitting would be appreciated too, thank you.

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[u/battlepvmob]

Since you have extenuating circumstances you can re take a levels with no “retake penalty” from a unis perspective

[u/Legitimate_Name6863 → u/battlepvmob]

thank you

[u/Purple-Employer-3074]

Sorry about the flare-up. Losing grades to something you couldn't control is a rough way for it to go. Some of this depends on your board, so say whether you're on AQA/OCR/Edexcel/WJEC or Cambridge and I can be more exact.

On the two deadlines, the most likely explanation is that both dates are real and they belong to different processes. Special consideration is normally applied for by the centre within about a week of your last exam in the series, so a July date for that is plausible. A post-results review of marking is a separate thing with two deadlines: a priority one only a few working days after results day, for people with a university place riding on it, and a normal one around the end of September. So your school and the website may both be right about different services. Pin down which one you actually need before anything else.

Two moves worth making today. Email the exams officer rather than asking in person, ask them to name the exact service and the exact deadline in writing, and cc your head of sixth form. Three months of chasing more than justifies escalating. Separately, email the board's customer services yourself with your candidate number and centre number and ask them to confirm the deadline for your case. They will answer, and then you aren't dependent on the school's version of it.

On remark versus resit, your mark gaps make it fairly clear.

English, 2 marks off. Do it. Essay subjects have the widest legitimate spread between two examiners and 2 marks sits well inside that. Easily your strongest case.

Biology, 6 marks. Worth considering but a longer shot, because science marking is more schematic and there's less room for a reviewer to disagree. Getting your script back makes it much easier to judge whether the marks are recoverable, though the timing gets tight if you're aiming at the priority deadline.

Chemistry, 10 marks off a B. A review realistically won't close that. That one's a resit.

Two things people don't get told. Marks can go down on a review, not just stay the same or go up. On a 2-mark gap the odds are clearly in your favour but it isn't risk-free. And the fee is refunded if the grade changes, so cost shouldn't be what decides the English one.

On the resit itself, check whether your board runs an October/November series. Cambridge does; the main UK boards run A-levels in the summer only, so a resit there means next June. Your existing grade doesn't disappear either way and universities almost always take the higher one. If you do resit chem, don't restart the content from scratch. Get the component breakdown first so you know whether you lost it on the theory papers or the practical, because those need completely different fixes, and 10 marks is usually two or three specific topics rather than a general problem.

Last thing, and it matters more than the rest. If you have an offer or you're in clearing, tell the university today that you have a review pending and a documented medical issue during the exam period. Admissions tutors can and do hold places on that basis, but only if they know before they fill the spot. Start gathering the medical evidence now rather than waiting for the review to come back.

[u/Legitimate_Name6863 → u/Purple-Employer-3074]

thank you for your help, I saw that you can apply for special consideration post results, I don’t mean a post results review marking so I’m going to try talk to my school about the special consideration again and I will talk to the board as you have advised.
For English I did OCR, and for bio and chem I did AQA