Christopher identified during his GCSEs that his desire to help others and his love of human biology pointed to a medical career. He worked hard on his exams, and made a number of A level choices designed to support an application for medicine. Christopher’s school, however, had other ideas. Concerned about the possibility of low grades in challenging subjects like A Level Chemistry damaging their league table ranking - they refused to let him study Chemistry at all.

Christopher and his family both knew he could do it, though - and with Spyglass, hatched a plan. We arranged full-scale 1:1 Chemistry tuition, and found a school that was happy to accommodate him as an external candidate. We developed his supercurriculars with targeted recommendation, reading lists, and resources - and we coached him in both of the Admissions tests needed by UK medics at the time.

His school continued to oppose his medical application however, and even insisted that they wouldn’t provide a reference for him if he chose to do so. After long strategic discussions with the parents and with his school - Christopher and his parents decided to apply as an independent candidate. We were able to guide him through the process of finding a suitable referee, and finishing his application.

The satisfaction of proving his naysayer’s wrong with four A*s at A Level was, we suspect, only matched by that of his offer to read Medicine at Imperial College London, on the basis of his strong application and demonstrable commitment to medicine. We couldn’t be more proud.