Need to resit your A levels? A guide to getting it right second time round.
Need to resit your A levels? A guide to getting it right second time round.
Making the decision to re-sit your A-levels can be a stressful time. Where do I start without guidance from college? Who will help me revise? How do I make sure I pass?
We’ve had the pleasure of supporting many students through their A-level exam resits who’ve done themselves proud with amazing exam results second time round.
Here’s our top tips for nailing A-level resits in 2020.
Request your script back from the exam board. This is usually done via your previous school or college and they will require your consent to do so. You will usually incur a charge from the exam board starting at approximately £11 per script.
Ask for a de-brief of your script from your school or college on where you went wrong. The head of department is usually a good first point of contact.
Check with your previous school if you’re able to enter as an external candidate the following year. If that’s not possible then find another local school or college that will allow you to.
Speak to your previous school/college careers department. They can advise you on your UCAS application and will often hold workshops for students re-sitting or taking a gap year.
Put together a timetable of study and focus initially on tackling those areas which let you down. This could be specific topic areas, or it could be exam technique.
Remember: You may have taken a year out to work but you will have to keep the subject material alive to be successful second time around.
Source as many tools as possible to help support your independent learning.
View You Tube videos on tough topic areas. Many departments post video lessons or demonstrations.
Use free websites to support your existing subject knowledge. https://isaacphysics.org/ is a good example of a free online platform to support Physics and Chemistry A level revision.
All exam boards have past paper questions and mark schemes available
Read the examiner reports from the exam you sat. OCR recently shared some good tips on how to make the most of them! https://www.ocr.org.uk/blog/tips-for-making-examiners-reports-work-for-you/
Visit your old teachers at your school/college. See if they can offer any ongoing informal support during your re-take year.
Attend an Easter revision course to consolidate your independent learning and gain expert advice from well qualified tutors in the build up to the exam.
Doing resits without the support of college can feel daunting but for lots of students it can work out for the best. In our next post we’ll hear from Beth who nailed her Biology resits and is going from strength to strength in her first graduate job. Watch this space!