E in Alevels coming back to haunt me
I did my Alevels three years ago and got A, B ,E. The E was in mathematics, at my school you needed to get a 7 at least in GCSE to do maths, I got a 6 but since my original third choice was removed at the last second, I was told I had to choose between maths and music, so I picked maths. My teachers weren't the best, but ultimately I got an E because I didn't want to do the subject at all and because it was hard. But I got into a Russel group through a foundation year, got an internship, good grades, became an abassador and surpringly, tutored maths modules for finance students.
Anyway, applying for grad jobs now and I fear this E is coming back to haunt me. I see people say grad jobs don't ask for A-levels, but nearly every single application I've come across has (accounting, finance, adjacent sectors). I don't want this E being the reason holding me back in an already competetive market. I'd rather be flopping applications because I'm crap at assessments because then I could at least fix that.
I've spoken to career teams at my univerisity and was told to just not mention my A Level grades, but with the software firms use to look at CV's, I feel like ommission will send mine into the bin. Lying is also a slippery slope. Is there anything I can do to sway things in my favour or should I kiss my chances of employment goodbye? This whole thing is making me feel awful.
Posted Sep 5, 2026, 3:48 PM UTC