MY RESULTS ARE DOWN, WHAT DO I DO?

Every year some students get a sinking feeling on results day and my first piece of advice is don’t beat yourself up; it is unequivocally not the end of the world. In fact, there are plenty of options and your only task is to decide which looks like the best one for you.

Firstly, what are the implications? If grades do not materially affect your plans, then do not worry about them. Believe me, no one, especially you, will care about your grades within a year or two. Don’t let lower than expected results change your life. Take the positive from experiencing (and getting over) disappointment. Move on and seek advice. At ITS Education Asia (ITS), we can provide solutions and alternatives whether you are at a final (A-level/ IBDP) or interim stage (IGCSE).

First of all, check with the university. In recent years, for example, many UK universities have changed their conditional offer to an unconditional one for international students who missed their offer by one grade or a couple of points. If you are on a non-JUPAS application to a Hong Kong university and you miss grades, you will probably find that avenue closed.

So if you find your place is not available, you need to rethink. You may want to ask for a re-mark of your exam but this is usually only advisable if you are very close to a grade boundary. Alternatively, you could track a different study route, such as doing resits or a one-year A-level programme to change your application strategy. You could put study on hold completely and go into work or a gap year looking to resume study later.

With resits, some schools are willing to allow you to go back for exams only, but you need to check what is available and when. At ITS, one of our founding principles is bringing flexibility into the system. We offer courses and enrolments for a wide range of exams in all the available sessions – October, January and summer – precisely to accommodate students needing bespoke solutions.

Many schools have set criteria for allowing IGCSE students to continue to IBDP or A-level. This is usually a combination of a minimum number of passes, plus grade 6 or above in the subjects chosen at HL or for A-level. If you miss these, you need to find out whether the school is willing to allow you to continue, and what you will be allowed to do. Don’t just swallow an option you don’t really like. If the school cannot accommodate what you want and need then it is no longer the school for you (and missing your grades is an indicator of that as well.)

In this case, re-evaluate what you think the future looks like. Is it academic? Or do you feel happier in a more vocational mindset? You almost certainly won’t know what you want to do for work long-term. The best thing you can do is keep your options open and again, get flexibility into your chosen pathway. This is why modern curriculums stay broad and why the International A-level modular system is designed the way it is.

At ITS, we specialise in offering consultations at this stage of the learning pathway to help families properly evaluate all the options they have both in Hong Kong and overseas. We can provide a comprehensive overview of mainstream offerings available, as well as more alternative settings such as our own.