Hope you are enjoying the summer as much as I have been! But, it's come to the dreaded month of August which contains the fortnight of results weeks. It is the most dreaded day of the year... even exceeding that stress you experienced when you sat the exams.
So in the summer period, you have sat your A-Level exams, hopefully one of them being Chemistry and usually the two others being another science and/or maths etc. I really hope that they went well for you and now your results will shine through.
As I think I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, throughout the year I did shockingly bad in my mocks. I could never achieve my target grade and my motivation was constantly being knocked. My school did for some bizarre reason use a method of collating extremely hard exam questions into a bank that we were tested on pretty much monthly - this of course screams "You're not gonna pass." whenever you got the results of another B, C and sometimes even U.
But you can imagine my astonishment on results day, a year ago, when I opened my envelope to see that I had achieved my entry requirement to get into the University of Bristol.
The main message I am trying to convey here is that sometimes exams don't go exactly how you plan them. You need to remember that you will only remember the BAD from the exam. Why didn't I put that? I can't believe I ran out of time to answer that question... Why on earth did I put that AS THE ANSWER? But you never think of the possible 50-60% of the answers that you did really well on! And sometimes, your 5/6 mark answers will still bag you half marks! These marks all add up and hopefully will give you the result you are looking for.
What if it all goes wrong? Well, getting into medicine has no deadline at all (apart from the application deadline in October!). So, if you open up those results and you didn't achieve the AAA, oh well! Either call through to Clearing and see if you are able to go into another university to study Medicine (where I believe they give a short interview on the phone. so I've heard?) and you may still be able to bag a place. However, if that isn't available, then I would certainly recommend to consider retaking.
By retaking, you can have another attempt at achieving the grades required.
- Some universities are rumoured to 'not accept retakes' by students that failed the year before and then apply again the following year. This is not particularly true. What I can gather from open days, if you didn't achieve the exams because of extenuating circumstances, there is a chance you could be shortlisted for an interview the following year.
- Some universities will not accept a candidate reapplying the following year after failing exams without extenuating circumstances.
- Through my own research and recommended by open days, universities will not accept a candidate who is applying after applying previously, being accepted and getting the grades but then doing a late deferral for no extenuating circumstance = eg. "I want to take a gap year, despite not putting on my application that I wanted to when I applied."
- If you are going to retake, do you want to stay in the same school? Do you think college would be better suited for you this year? Or possibly transferring to sixth form if you are already at college? You need to take chemistry, but what about the other two options? Maybe drop Maths and pick up Physics? Or drop Physics to pick up Biology?
- Finally, remember it is not all in the schooling to why you may have failed. Consider in your retaking year what may have led you to slip. Did you go out too much? Did you prioritise your time incorrectly? Did you not concentrate, slip behind work, stop attending? Maybe you hadn't mastered your revision technique correctly? This year, make sure you build on this 'mistakes' to ensure you achieve those results for next year!
I hope this post has provided some ease and I promise this time tomorrow you will be much more relaxed no matter the outcome. I hope you will be sat with your family having a nice meal celebrating your success in securing a place in medical school.
Massive good luck to you all!
