Should I resit my A levels?

[Aspiringlawyer_]

Hello,

I’m a career changer who started my law conversion course last year. I sat my A levels in my home country over 10 years ago, but didn’t get any of my grades due to administrative failures at the school. I was still able to go to uni in my home country and finished with a first class hons. I also have a masters from a RG uni. I have outlined in more detail the mitigating circumstances in my applications, but I was wondering if I should just sit them again. I’m really not inclined to, as I put so much time and effort into studying for them the first time and it’s just frustrating that I didn’t get my results, and now have to contend with that in my applications. Do you think this will disadvantage me?

 

[Chris Brown]

Hello,

I’m a career changer who started my law conversion course last year. I sat my A levels in my home country over 10 years ago, but didn’t get any of my grades due to administrative failures at the school. I was still able to go to uni in my home country and finished with a first class hons. I also have a masters from a RG uni. I have outlined in more detail the mitigating circumstances in my applications, but I was wondering if I should just sit them again. I’m really not inclined to, as I put so much time and effort into studying for them the first time and it’s just frustrating that I didn’t get my results, and now have to contend with that in my applications. Do you think this will disadvantage me?

Hi,

I think a question like this is probably best for @Jessica Booker or @Andrei Radu to answer, but I will share my own initial thoughts and suggestions. 🙂

I think since you managed to get into university in your home country and obtain a masters from a UK (Russell Group) university, the lack of A-levels (or equivalent) would not disadvantage you, especially because it was out of your control (mitigating circumstances in which there were administrative failures in your school). 🙂

I am going to assume there was an application process for gaining entry into your undergraduate and masters universities respectively. How did you explain to those admissions tutors that you didn’t achieve any A-level or equivalent grades? How did they factor this into their decision? Seeing that they offered you places on their courses, it may be that you could obtain some kind of document from these institutions to verify the specific circumstances you were in (I don’t think this is needed but good to have if a law firm requested some form of evidence or verification). 🙂

I don’t think there would be any point in sitting A-levels now, given you already have a good first class honours undergraduate degree, a masters from a RG and now a PGDL course. I think law firms generally expect A-levels to be sat in one academic year. Most firms also accept mitigating circumstances and don’t even have minimum academic entry requirements. I also think that since you are a career changer, you will likely have a lot of really valuable experience to demonstrate in your applications which would make up for any academic shortcomings.

Best of luck in the application process! I hope things do positively work out for you! 🙂

 

[Aspiringlawyer_]

Hi Chris,

Thank you for your kind and thorough response. I hope my other qualifications and career history to date works in my favour. @Jessica Booker and @Andrei Radu keen to hear your thoughts as well.

 

[Jessica Booker]

No - I don’t think there would be any value in sitting your A-levels now. You have mitigating circumstances to why you haven’t got A-levels and enough years of further education to show your academic intellect.

It would be better to focus on getting the best grades you can in your GDL.