I am an A Level Student who scored 3A's, while 3A's 4B's 1C in O Level, was given about 77% of FSc marks. I was even denied admission from UET Taxila because of lower merit position. However in the last merit list of NUST I was offered admission at PNEC, Karachi, which I had to accept despite being resident of Rawalpindi. Now my parents would be paying a huge burden of fees again, after O & A Level, for Hostel + Tuition in NUST.
Taking a year off would have been a wrong choice, since situation in merit positioning would be tougher next year, because of growing number of students of FSc scoring very high marks.
Another interesting thing is that, only 10% of all the candidates of A Level in world are awarded grade A – source: wikipedia.org

DAMN !!!!!!! this is ruining my LIFE ..
i should'nt have done O/A levels
i want to do Aeronautical engineering !!
from CAE -college of aeronatical engineering
WORLD's top 5 college/university of aeronautical engineering .. and whole Asia's Top Aeronautical engineering university/college .. which is in PAKISTAN – Risalpur …
O .. man this has been my dream all my life ..!!