No one asks a doctor about their A-levels - results day does not define your future

There is so much pressure attached to those grades, particularly if you have your heart set on a competitive career pathway or a highly coveted university place.

So, what happens if you don’t get the grades you hoped for? Does that put an end to your dreams and ambitions? Absolutely not. What it does instead is give you the opportunity to stop and ask yourself some very important questions: “Is this still the path I want to take?” “Are there other ways I can get there?”, “What can I do differently to reach my goal?”

The pathway isn’t always linear and your A-levels are just exam results – not a reflection of who you are as a person and what you’re capable of achieving in life.

I remember my own results day very well – and the journey to get there – even 17 years later. My grades certainly didn’t reflect my potential, but I didn’t let them stop me from achieving a successful career as a doctor. Growing up, medicine wasn't even on my radar.

I was raised on a South London council estate, before social media and Instagram, when your career prospects were often defined by what you saw around you. I knew I loved science and I knew I loved helping people, but I didn't know anybody who was a doctor. My mum was a secretary and my dad was a minicab driver.

What changed things for me was seeing a pathway that I didn't even know existed and certainly didn't realise was open to someone like me. A friend's older brother came into school to talk about his journey. He was studying medicine at King's College on the Extended Medical Degree Programme.

It was a programme that offered opportunities to students from non-traditional medical school backgrounds, looking at more than just A-levels and considering how students compared with people in their area; focusing on potential rather than just those seemingly life-defining grades.

I was incredibly fortunate. I knew about that opportunity, I worked towards it and I got the grades I needed. They were perhaps not grades that medical school applicants from other backgrounds would have celebrated, but for me, they were everything I needed and guess what? No employer has ever asked me about them since.

Then came medical school, with its own hurdles. I experienced imposter syndrome from the outset. I had gone from an environment where everyone sounded like me and where I stood out for my achievements, to a place where everyone seemed incredibly academic and I stood out for different reasons.

I found myself asking: “Am I going to be able to cope?”, “Am I the right kind of person to become a doctor?”, “Do I belong here?" As I worked my way through medical school and later, my career in medicine, I realised that the very things that made me doubt myself were actually my sources of strength.

Those experiences helped shape the doctor I am today – thriving as a cardiology doctor, having led my fellow resident doctors as Chief Registrar, and even being honoured with the Freedom of the City of London for my work widening participation in healthcare careers.

So, to anyone opening their results today, I'd say this: take it one step at a time. We all have plans. Sometimes things go according to plan and sometimes they don’t. Remember that not everyone you look up to probably got the A-level results they wanted.

When faced with this moment, many of them would have asked themselves those same crucial questions and found another route, adapted their approach, or even discovered a different destination altogether.

This goes to the heart of my earlier point, that indeed the pathway is not always linear, and sometimes the setback you are facing today simply becomes part of the route that gets you where you want to be. It forms a core part of your story.

My pathway certainly wasn't something I could have mapped out at the age of 18 but by taking one step at a time, in a positive direction, and continuing to build, grow and develop, I ended up exactly where I wanted to be.

Whatever is written on that piece of paper today, remember this: it tells you how you performed in a set of exams. It does not tell you what you are capable of becoming.

Best of luck, everyone!

____________________

Dr Jermaine Wright is a Specialist Registrar in Cardiology, an educator, and a NHS leader based at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London.

LBC Opinion provides a platform for diverse opinions on current affairs and matters of public interest.

The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official LBC position.

To contact us email opinion@lbc.co.uk