A Levels from home

Need to get an A-Level in Biology to get on course I want to do and as I work full time need to do from home.

Anybody done it and how you found it??

Seen ICS and NES courses, worth the money??

Also if study myself how do I go about finding places to do exam and to hand in coursework??

Advice appreciated, many thanks

Reply 1

rubyrubyhobo

Heya, I'm doing this at the moment :smile:

I decided to opt for self-study as oppose to paying hundreds to a course provider, mainly as I found that I could do everything for myself anyway, and ICS in particular I found had really bad reviews.

For the exams you need to find a centre (a school or college) who will take you on. This can be quite difficult, and subjects with coursework elements are even more of a headache as you'll find the majority of places don't want to mark it.
Would you be able to try your old secondary school/college? This is what I did, I approached a teacher (who I got on well with) directly and asked if he could mark my coursework for me, thankfully he said yes :smile:

Or, another option for coursework is to get it authenticated by someone (it has to be someone who can confirm you have been studying independently and the work is your own, but not a family member) and then hand to your exam centre who will send it away to be marked by a moderator for the exam board.
This all depends on which exam board your course is with - I know AQA will mark coursework, Edexcel doesn't.. I'm not sure about the others.

Reply 2

sutton85

Thanks for reply :-)

How do you get the coursework then?? do you just contact exam board to get it??

Thinking self study is best too cause hearing bad things about ics, nec,etc

Reply 3

Tw1x

Im just self studying as heard some bad reviews about several course providers.

Reply 4

rubyrubyhobo

Original post by sutton85

Thanks for reply :-)

How do you get the coursework then?? do you just contact exam board to get it??

Thinking self study is best too cause hearing bad things about ics, nec,etc

If you go onto the exam boards site you can download the subject specification, which tells you what you need to be studying and about the different exams etc...

AQA's is here - http://www.aqa.org.uk/qualifications/a-level/science/biology/biology-key-materials

Edexcel's - http://www.edexcel.com/quals/gce/gce08/biology/Pages/default.aspx

and OCR's - http://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/type/gce/science/biology/index.html

I'd suggest you find an exam centre willing to take you before deciding which exam board to go with as most of them will only allow you to sit exams for the same specification that they're already teaching.

Hope that helps :smile:

Reply 5

sutton85

Original post by rubyrubyhobo

Thank You ruby!!! You are a star :smile:

For exam i contact school but to get coursework do i contact school too or find out which exam board, they send me coursework and school mark it??

Sorry for allthe questions,but cant find anything on the net about self study for a-levels. Thanks again!!

Reply 6

rubyrubyhobo

Original post by sutton85

Thank You ruby!!! You are a star :smile:

No problem, like I said I've been sorting this all out myself in the last few weeks so I know how much of a headache it can be!

You have to set up the coursework for yourself, it should tell you exactly what you need to do in the specification, and then get yourself a decent text book and away you go!

But defo start looking for somewhere to sit your exams asap, the centres will want all their candidates to be registered very soon.

Reply 7

Data

Original post by sutton85

Be aware that it is incredibly hard (and expensive) to sort the coursework/practicals units for A level Biology. There are plenty of people who have to abandon the A level because they can't find anywhere to undertake these. If you're in London you should be able to find somewhere but there are parts of the country where you may have to travel 150 miles to do the practicals. I strongly recommend that you find somewhere that will allow you to do the practicals before finalising which syllabus you are taking., but you are most likely to find somewhere for AQA.

Reply 8

PeterXD1

My advise you is to try london brookes college. You can do practical and also exam.

Reply 9

glitterphobia

Hi,
I'm also self-studying Biology A-Level and Maths, however it's technically a resit as I already took Biology (and got good grades in my practicals) so I only need to sit the exams.
I really recommend eBaying course books as the official exam board books are expensive in the shops.
Also, you can get loads of past papers to see what they're like here: http://www.freeexampapers.com/past_papers.php?l=Past_Papers%2FA+Level%2FBiology/
If you look at the specification and then type some keywords into YouTube there are some great videos that might help you visually where a teacher would usually.

Reply 10

Tw1x

Original post by Data

This. I have to travel and hour and half on the train to get to my centre, purely because of practicals

Reply 11

Rhia1

Self Studing is really hard and so espensive NEC is good i'm about to start a a-level in Classical Civilsation with them and haven't heard or seen any bad reviews