Bad AS grades, worth applying for uni?

w11tho said:
That's utterly ridiculous. Physics and Chemistry are quantitative subjects for which knowledge of basic mathematics is absolutely essential.
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I wouldnt call the level of mathematical understanding for Chemistry and Physics A levels 'basic'.

Disco Boy said:
and the maths certainly isn't hard
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It certainly is for people who cant hadle it. Getting a B grade or higher at GCSE maths is basic and easy. The amount of mathematical understanding required beyond that point for Chemistry and Physics is too much for some people to handle, regardless of how good a scientific understanding they might have.

Disco Boy said:
Biochemistry ...... consists of learning loads of stuff
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Yup, that is very very easy compared to titrations, which I spent two years tryig to learn, and couldnt understand in the slightest.
 
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w11tho said:
It's GCSE level. That's extremely basic.
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No it definately isnt. I got a B at maths GCSE, A level chemistry and maths was by far harder than that was. I scraped my D grade in chemisty without being able to answer a single calculation, and failed maths.

When I looked at the figures when I did A levels (it was the first year of the AS / A2 split), 40% of students had failed maths, which was the highest fail rate ever for Maths at A level.

Human Biology at University was far far easier than A level maths + chemistry were. No calculations required, all statistics done on Excel, the rest of it just being learning and remembering.

I've never been able to understand any maths beyond GCSE level, and that included chemistry.

It is easy however if you are capable of understanding A level calculatons. I however, was not.
 
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If you can't do medicine but thats where your heart lies, do nursing instead imo. You still get a "uni lifestyle", albiet proper work placements throughout each year. Thats the closest you'd get to the life of a doctor though as neither biomedical science or biochemistry are anything like it.
 
bhavv said:
No it definately isnt. I got a B at maths GCSE, A level chemistry and maths was by far harder than that was. I scraped my D grade in chemisty without being able to answer a single calculation, and failed maths.
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A-Level mathematics was tougher than GCSE mathematics? Care to drop any more bomb shells? A-Level Chemistry, from memory, requires no more than basic rearranging of equations, which is expected of 14yr olds all over the country. This does not constitute advanced understanding of mathematics - it requires the most rudimentary knowledge of basic algebraic operations (i.e. addition and subtraction!).

bhavv said:
When I looked at the figures when I did A levels (it was the first year of the AS / A2 split), 40% of students had failed maths, which was the highest fail rate ever for Maths at A level.
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A-Level mathematics has become progressively easier since the 70s! I very much doubt 40% of students failed the mathematics A-Level when the AS system was introduced, and I'd be very surprised if you can find a source that backs your claim.

bhavv said:
Human Biology at University was far far easier than A level maths + chemistry were. No calculations required, all statistics done on Excel, the rest of it just being learning and remembering.
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Obviously different courses are pitched at different levels.
 
the maths in chemistry is not hard, well AS it isn't, I did the calculation fine, I just had problems when it got to the harder organic stuff.

Maths GCSE was extremely easy.
 
with grades like that u may as well give up on life. Ask yourself, is uni for you?
 
Disco Boy said:
Aren't there only two mechanisms to know for As organic chemistry? Electrophilic addition and nucleophilic substitution?
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there is much more, you got the green chemistry side (which is a pain) and all the resonance theory stuff and Mass spectrometry and wavelengths and all the C/Z isomers and naming lots of stuff and halogenoalkanes and fragmentation.
 
flibbage0 said:
there is much more, you got the green chemistry side (which is a pain) and all the resonance theory stuff and Mass spectrometry and wavelengths and all the C/Z isomers and naming lots of stuff and halogenoalkanes and fragmentation.
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What on earth is "green chemistry"? Is it some new dumbed-down term that the exam boards use?

That sounds like pretty basic stuff to me, not a lot to understand and not a lot to memorise. If you really struggle with this stuff then doing a decent science probably isn't for you. That includes biochemistry because biochemistry 1st year usually entails doing a lot of chemistry.

Biomedical science I have no experience of so can't really comment.

Of course I am talking about decent degrees and decent universities. As it is you seem to be able to write coherent English, so you could definitely get into a Micky-Mouse university, if you think it's worth the time and money.
 
At AS level in 2008-2009 I got BDDDD, and applied to University, knowing that I needed to buck up my ideas and sort it out.
I dropped one subject, and carried on the 4 D's (the B was Citizenship, which I was never actually taught, it was just compulsory with Law).
After numerous resits and A2 exams, I came out with BBCD, and got into my Uni (Offer was BBC).
So it's definitely possible to get in, but you've just gotta really go for it in the 2nd year. Like someone else said, you've gotta decide why you got the grades you did, and will you really change it in the 2nd year?
Still, it's best to apply, the worst that can happen is they say no. :)
 
Disco Boy said:
What on earth is "green chemistry"? Is it some new dumbed-down term that the exam boards use?

That sounds like pretty basic stuff to me, not a lot to understand and not a lot to memorise. If you really struggle with this stuff then doing a decent science probably isn't for you. That includes biochemistry because biochemistry 1st year usually entails doing a lot of chemistry.

Biomedical science I have no experience of so can't really comment.

Of course I am talking about decent degrees and decent universities. As it is you seem to be able to write coherent English, so you could definitely get into a Micky-Mouse university, if you think it's worth the time and money.
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Well it includes enthalpy stuff and some kinetics and ozone in a lot of detail UV rays (Uv-a,b,c) lots of terms to learn, carbon capture and storage, equilibrium and some stuff about fossil fuels.

I think it is also worth mentioning I did Edexcel 360 science (For GCSE) where 40% of it was multiple choice and it was very dumbed down.
 
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