Tips & Tricks blog

WHAT TO DO IF YOU FAIL YOUR A-LEVELS?

by | Aug 22, 2019 | A-Level, GCSE, Results day, UCAS | 24 comments

 

Where’s the fun in getting things right the first time? OK – sorry, if you didn’t achieve the grades you wanted this year, you’re probably in no mood for light-hearted rhetorical questions. I certainly wasn’t after AS levels results day.

However, I want to give you a little glimpse of the future and show you how bad grades can actually be a blessing in disguise.

To start off, no matter what your grades are, it is not game over. You can turn this situation around. Why should you believe me? Because I turned my D’s and U’s into straight As, secured a place at a top university and wrote and sold 30,000 copies of a book showing others how I did it.

Also, having mentored thousands of students, I know a thing or two about turning bad situations into good ones. You wouldn’t believe some of the ‘academic rags to riches’ stories I’ve seen.

One student flopped his AS levels, got kicked out of 6th form for a fight and had to enrol into a private college. He worked a part-time job to pay for his tuition. To make matters worse, his teachers couldn’t control the class and many didn’t even finish teaching the course before exams.

Despite all these obstacles, he turned BCCE into straight As. Now he works at a top investment bank, owns several properties in London and earns a lot of money. He’s only 28 years old!

You may not feel it’s possible now, but you can achieve what he and many others have. You might be thinking ‘how do you know what I am capable of? You don’t know me’. I don’t need to know you.

All I know is that your capabilities are not set in stone. They are not a constant. They are a variable that can change and improve with effort. Sounds parental, I know, but it’s true! I’m a living breathing example of why it’s true. Did my intelligence suddenly improve between AS and A2 or was it something else?

Is there a silver lining to achieving bad grades? Yes. You can come back from this and if you do, it will do more for your character than a few letters on a piece of paper could ever do. Those who bounce back from a ‘rock bottom experience’ early in their life have a unique advantage over those who seamlessly excel without a hiccup.

It develops a pitbull-type resilience.

Till this day, I’m thankful that I failed my A-levels. Turning my Ds and Us into As in one year felt like coming back from 6-0 down to win in the champions league final.

It left me with an underlying confidence that with hard work, I could make vodka lemonade out of any lemons I ever faced in life. This helped me succeed in university, my career, relationships and in business.

 

When will I receive my A-level or GCSE results this year (2020)?

By the end of July.

Will your A-level predicted grades be your final grades?

No, the Department of Education realise this would be unfair and will consider other factors to calculate your final marks.

What if I'm unhappy with my grades?

You can appeal the decision, and if necessary, sit an exam after your school or 6th form reopens. You also have the option to sit your exams in summer 2021.

If I take the exam option, will I still be able to go to university this year?

This can't be guaranteed, but Universities UK have assured that most universities will be flexible.

WANT TO NAIL YOUR EXAMS?

 

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