Predicted grades

[Looking for help]

My daughter is going to be predicted AAC in her A2s, and most of the courses she is looking at require ABB. Will this C stop her getting offers? She has been told by the subject teacher that should she retake the one module that brought her down, he will up the prediction to a B, but I am really not keen on her doing a retake, as I've heard this will also impact offers.

What should we do ? Any advice ? Always looking for help x

[Belinda]

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[Looking for help]

Thanks Belinda for all your advice. The subject is Philosophy & Ethics, and she got a D in the Philosophy but a tremendous A in the Ethics. The teacher wants her to redo the Philosophy module. The problem is its a whole new lot of Philosophy this year, so it would be double the work. She got a B overall in the AS, about 3 marks from the C boundary, so its a close one. I will have to think carefully, maybe give the admissions folk a call, and see what they say.

[Marylou]

Sorry Belinda but I'm going to second what you said! LFH's DD's teacher obviously thinks she is capable of pulling up a grade if she resits the exam, but might be unwilling to predict a higher grade if she doesn't because she would need to score very highly in the A2 to make up the ground, as it were.

LFH - my DD managed to pull up to the grades she needs with a bit of judicious retaking. She's filled in her final A2 grades on the UCAS form for her (re)application and will only supply the module marks if asked. On the advice of her tutor, she wisely decided against resitting a Maths A2 January module that wasn't absolutely necessary and it turned out to be the right decision for her, as she did fine in that subject as it turned out - though resitting it might have adversely affected the overall grades for the other subjects because of the extra work.

It's not a bad idea to check with the admissions people, though I think most are OK with retakes within the 2-year A-level course...and where universities penalize retakes it often applies to resits outside the 2 years (i.e. retaking a summer A2 module or repeating a year). We also found it helpful to have a chat with one of DD's teachers who had a good overall view of the application process and the type of UMS marks likely to be needed for the grades, and how best to tackle the problem. This helped to put everything in perspective.

Oh yes - Belinda's point about the AAB policy for next year - if we are to believe what we are being told by our lords and masters (and I think we can all afford to be a little bit sceptical!) then anyone with AAB should have more options as universities will be able to recruit as many students as they like with those grades without facing financial penalty. Whether this will apply to the course my DD wants to do remains to be seen, as the current standard offer is already AAA/AAB - but we'll wait and see.

Good luck!

[Looking for help]

It is the potential effect on her other grades that is the worry at the moment. She has done really well this past year and I am really proud of her. The thing is, up till she got these results, she wasn't expecting to be looking at courses with such high grades required, as she did not believe she would achieve them. Now though, she is a completely changed person who suddenly believes in herself. I have to strike a balance, you see between making her see the right thing to do without damaging this newfound self esteem. As the parent of someone who didn't get the grades for university last year, I know what it's like to have hopes dashed and terrible disappointment - although that situation is all resolved very happily now, but I really really don't want history repeating itself in this household.

Aaaargh - it never gets any easier, does it

Thanks Marylou for your advice, it is really helpful.

[Belinda]

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[Looking for help]

Hmmmm.....I hadn't thought about retaking Jan modules in June

There is no January module in Phil&Ethics so she's only got the final one now in June to do, so we wont know till then whether any gambles have paid off....
I think it was knowledge was the problem , as her essay writing is very good, so it would be going over it all again, and she's not so keen on that. We will have a chat this weekend to see what we think is the best approach, i think I will really have to talk her round to doing a retake. I will have to think of a cunning plan so she thinks it was all her own idea

Thanks again, Belinda

[Looking for help]

Well....she has decided herself to retake the philosophy module, and hopefully get a few extra marks from this to make a B more achievable next year, so that's good. I just hope it doesn't get in the way of this year's work.

Now off to a few university open days - fingers crossed she doesn't change her mind about what she wants to do , again

[Belinda]

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[magwich2]

DD did philosophy and Ethics which she greatly enjoyed but found that the school did not teach all the material necessary to get the top grades. I would recommend that you peruse the spec really carefully and ensure that everything is covered as well as going beyond the spec wherever possible. The other annoying thing about retakes in this subject is that, very unfairly IMO the 2 exams are invariably back to back. Having said that the anecdotal evidence at school is that the january modules are more difficult than those in June.
Good luck anyway