General Chat

Did you hear that Mr Gove is considering axing the AS grade ?

Thank you Helen for that reassuring reply. I only hope and pray that she can drag herself up from the depths and attain the grades she needs. The great pity is she has had her heart set on this particular career since she was about 5 years old and has never wavered and unfortunately, being so focussed, has not got an alternative in mind. Ah well, I can only keep on supporting her and hoping for the best. I could understand it more if she had 'messed about' but the girl works hard and is most conscientious. Trouble is, she gets so nervous about exams to the point of actually sometimes being sick before she sets off to do them. Not good. Thank you again.

Hi Margaret, I have three children - one who finished uni a few years ago, one who went into banking and one about to go to university next month. All three of them did pretty badly in their AS exams, two of them actually crying when they got their results.

As someone just said, it is a different way of studying and most children I know didn't do too well. Having said that there are those that do cope well, of course.

Universities do look at AS results as, usually, these are the highest results available from the kids at the time of applying - but they also take into consideration grades predicted by teachers and recommendations. I also said to my three that lousy AS grades might make them pay more attention and work harder in their final year!

Best wishes to your granddaughter.

Yes indeed she does. I feel so sorry for her particularly as she is on a family holiday in Spain and had to get her results over the phone !! I expect this has ruined her holiday for her too. Not a good time. Like you, I hope she can regain her confidence and tackle this 'mountain of a task' . Thank you for your help.

It can be a shock for the high acheivers. The style of teaching and examination is different. They have to 'think for themselves' rather than churn out what they have learnt, pulling together different aspects of the subject. No more thinking within the box, as it were.

Hope she can regain her confidence and go on to greater things. She needs to talk to her tutors for advice.

Thank you. Now I understand. What she will do I have no idea as at the moment she is devasted. She sailed through GCSE's getting 9 A* and 2 A, was awarded Student of the Year by her school, so to fall flat on her face with these AS has been a mammoth shock.

AS *do* count, but most are now modular. That means (unless they've recently changed it) she can be re-entered for the poor scoring ones in Nov/Dec and again next year if she hasn't bettered them. She can then apply the higher scoring results towards the overall A levels.

Some schools make their students sit all the modules in May/June at the end of the year, others in Nov/Dec, Jan/Feb and then May/June as soon as they have been taught the module syllabus, then the students do't have to retain all the details for up to 9 months.

Actually, they are now refered to as AS for the first year syllabus and A2 for the second. AS + A2 in the same subject = A level.

The advantage of AS is that they can be taken in 4 or 5 subjects, then one of them being dropped in the 2nd year to concentrate on the others. The results of the one(s) dropped still count as 'points' towards uni admission and the subject help to 'round out' her education.

All is not lost!

I am slightly confused. My Grand-daughter has somehow made a 'pigs ear' of her AS exams. What I want to know is - do these AS exams count towards the A Levels she is taking this coming summer, or are the A Level exams 'stand alone'. Why I am wondering this is because sometimes adults take A Levels to get to uni and they have not taken AS exams so I assumed - probably wrongly, that AS and A Level were two separate things. In other words, has she the opportun ity to redeem herself if A Levels are stand-alone. As it is, if they are a combined thing, she would have to have a near-perfect paper to attain the result she needs. Anyone know please ?