article: Continuing changes to secondary education mean the situation can be confusing. With only a few days to secure a sixth-form place or take an alternative path, such as an apprenticeship or vocational college course, getting the right advice is key. Vicky Coleman, an adviser with the National Careers Service, is offering advice to readers. My daughter is in year 10 and has received her results today. She is devastated that she got C and D grades in her science exams - and a C in English literature. Can these exams be sat again? Diane, Gloucestershire I'm sorry that your daughter did not get what she was expecting, although she should still be really proud of the C grades she has received. As she is only in year 10, she still has plenty of time to resit exams if she so wishes. It is possible to retake maths, English language and English (combination of literature and language) in November but unfortunately it is not possible to resit English literature on its own at this time. However your daughter can resit all of her exams next summer including science and English literature, it could help to speak to her school if she would like to resit, as they would be able to give her more information on their processes for resits. Most colleges and sixth forms will accept young people with four or five GCSEs at C grades and there are lots of other opportunities now post-16 such as apprenticeships and vocational qualifications. Your daughter still has lots of doors open to her and she should be very proud of what she has achieved so far. I have a better grade than I have expected, as a result of very hard work. My question is, I want to try better sixth forms than the ones I have got. How do I go about doing this, as I did not apply to these schools originally? Adannaya, Edmonton Firstly, a huge congratulations on your grades. It's fantastic to hear that all of your hard work has paid off. If you would like to go to a different sixth form or college, you would need to speak to them directly to see if you can get a place. The website Ucas Progress is great for looking for level-three courses in your local area. There is also a course-search facility on the National Careers Service website. After you have found colleges or sixth forms that would be of interest to you, I would suggest giving them a phone call over the next week to find out about places and their admissions process. My daughter has received her GCSE results and is disappointed with some of her grades. She had very good course work results and studied hard for the exams but in four subjects in particular she is gutted. These are geography where she was predicted A* and she got a B, English language where she had extra tuition and was expecting an A and got B, history predicted high A got a B and music predicted A
summary: What do you do if your grades are different from those you were expecting?