{"id":28234,"date":"2026-08-19T13:42:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T12:42:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/?p=28234"},"modified":"2026-08-19T13:46:40","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T12:46:40","slug":"finding-success-through-clearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/2026\/08\/19\/finding-success-through-clearing\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding success through Clearing"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a guest blog from Alice, a BSc (Hons) Psychology graduate sharing how she came to Bournemouth through Clearing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I completed my A levels via distance learning through the National Extension College. In 2021, I finished my Spanish A level with an A grade, and in 2022, I had obtained two conditional offers whilst awaiting my Maths and Psychology A level grades. My first and insurance choice wanted me to achieve a AAB\/ABB overall to study Psychology BSc with them. My exam season was a complete mess. I sat down in my first maths exam, and as I opened the paper, it was as if my brain showed a blue screen of death. I forgot pretty much everything, and knew that the likelihood of me passing, let alone getting the grade I needed was slim.<\/p>\n

Then came A level results day. I already knew I was probably going to need some back up clearing options, so had a piece of paper to hand with a flow chart of what to do on the day to keep me focused. I had my friends and family around me, and as the time came, I saw a grade C for Psychology and a Grade U (ungraded) for Mathematics. I wasn’t released out of clearing until two days after results day, meaning several university clearing spaces had been gobbled up by the time I was released into clearing. It was a nightmare. I experienced feelings of being a complete failure, and by the time I got round to calling up universities for clearing spaces, I genuinely thought my chance of going to university to study Psychology was just a pipe dream.<\/p>\n

Top of the list was Bournemouth. The person behind the phone was so lovely, empathetic and helpful when I was feeling super stressed, but they were happy to offer me a place straight onto BSc (Hons) Psychology and also gave me information on the bursaries and other support that I was eligible for during my time there. Only a few weeks later, I arrived in Bournemouth, eager to learn and so grateful for the opportunity.<\/p>\n

I had an incredible time at Bournemouth, and honestly, despite getting a place through clearing, this option put me on the path to achieving a First Class Honours degree in Psychology. Clearing provided me with an opportunity to study Psychology, when I thought that dream had already been lost.<\/p>\n

In conclusion, if you don’t get the grades you want this A level results day, totally fail them, or get rejected by your ‘dream’ universities, your grades do NOT define your capacity to go on and succeed beyond your wildest dreams. Do look into clearing options, you never know where they can take you. You are capable of doing incredible things<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a guest blog from Alice, a BSc (Hons) Psychology graduate sharing how she came to Bournemouth through Clearing. I completed my A levels via distance learning through the National Extension College. In 2021, I finished my Spanish A level with an A grade, and in 2022, I had obtained two conditional offers whilst… Read more » about Finding success through Clearing<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1268,"featured_media":28239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[411,496,19,1094,1638],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clearing","category-ug-courses","category-featured","category-psychology","category-undergraduate"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28234"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28246,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28234\/revisions\/28246"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}