[HandmadeTurnip]

I'm attempting to do three full A-Levels in a year meaning I'm trying to squeeze all 16 of the exams I need into the two 2013 exam sessions. I want to take Physics, Maths and Further Maths all with edexcel but the maths modules seem to have a ridiculous amount of clashes with each other. No matter how I arrange them, I always end up with at least one clash.

So, does anyone know of a way around unavoidable clashes like this? It seems silly to have to wait a whole extra year just to sit one or two more exams to complete the A-Level.

I also find it odd that so many of the clashes seem to be so unnecessary; if you look at the timetable for January link There are a number of mornings and afternoons with just one exam yet they still put 3 maths modules on the same morning.

Thanks for your help.

[gdunne42]

(Original post by HandmadeTurnip)
I'm attempting to do three full A-Levels in a year meaning I'm trying to squeeze all 16 of the exams I need into the two 2013 exam sessions. I want to take Physics, Maths and Further Maths all with edexcel but the maths modules seem to have a ridiculous amount of clashes with each other. No matter how I arrange them, I always end up with at least one clash.

So, does anyone know of a way around unavoidable clashes like this? It seems silly to have to wait a whole extra year just to sit one or two more exams to complete the A-Level.

I also find it odd that so many of the clashes seem to be so unnecessary; if you look at the timetable for January link There are a number of mornings and afternoons with just one exam yet they still put 3 maths modules on the same morning.

Thanks for your help.

Creation of a common timetable for exams is a complex process and only so many slots are allowed for maths exams. Only thing you can do is talk to your exam centre and find out if they are willing/able to manage the clashes. It may be that they have other candidates with similar clashes but if not it may mean extra cost for you for supervision/ invigilation etc. The expensive private centres (mostly London) would be OK with it but can be very pricey.

[Data]

(Original post by HandmadeTurnip)
I'm attempting to do three full A-Levels in a year meaning I'm trying to squeeze all 16 of the exams I need into the two 2013 exam sessions. I want to take Physics, Maths and Further Maths all with edexcel but the maths modules seem to have a ridiculous amount of clashes with each other. No matter how I arrange them, I always end up with at least one clash.

So, does anyone know of a way around unavoidable clashes like this? It seems silly to have to wait a whole extra year just to sit one or two more exams to complete the A-Level.

I also find it odd that so many of the clashes seem to be so unnecessary; if you look at the timetable for January link There are a number of mornings and afternoons with just one exam yet they still put 3 maths modules on the same morning.

Thanks for your help.

It's not very long ago when it was compulsory for all AS exams for a subject to be in a single session (to reduce clashes between subjects), and this normally meant 3 hours of exams. The only exception to this was Maths as it had more than 3 hours of exams for AS and there C1 and C2 would be on a single morning and the other exam some other time.

Taking 2 1.5 hour exams in a session is completely normal and shouldn't cause any problems - you just do one straight after the other with a chance to go to the toilet if you are lucky. Having 3 1.5hr exams in a session is more of a pain but it is fairly common. The normal solution is to move one to the other session in the day and you are kept in isolation while you are out of synch with everyone else. (As a former exams officer I reckon this happened on about 12 days a summer at my school and affected anything from 20-80 people all told. Centres do it all the time.). (More than 6 hours in a day and you can move one to the day after.) The main difficulty for you will probably be that one off arrangements like this will normally cost an external candidate a fair bit as the centre may have to arrange for supervision just for you in isolation and possible invigilation just for you. Talk to any exam centre you find about how much they would charge you before committing yourself.

[HandmadeTurnip]

(Original post by Data)
It's not very long ago when it was compulsory for all AS exams for a subject to be in a single session (to reduce clashes between subjects), and this normally meant 3 hours of exams. The only exception to this was Maths as it had more than 3 hours of exams for AS and there C1 and C2 would be on a single morning and the other exam some other time.

Taking 2 1.5 hour exams in a session is completely normal and shouldn't cause any problems - you just do one straight after the other with a chance to go to the toilet if you are lucky. Having 3 1.5hr exams in a session is more of a pain but it is fairly common. The normal solution is to move one to the other session in the day and you are kept in isolation while you are out of synch with everyone else. (As a former exams officer I reckon this happened on about 12 days a summer at my school and affected anything from 20-80 people all told. Centres do it all the time.). (More than 6 hours in a day and you can move one to the day after.) The main difficulty for you will probably be that one off arrangements like this will normally cost an external candidate a fair bit as the centre may have to arrange for supervision just for you in isolation and possible invigilation just for you. Talk to any exam centre you find about how much they would charge you before committing yourself.

Oh ok, I didn't realise it was normal to do more than one exam in a session. In that case, I think I should be fine. I can probably arrange them so that I only have to do a maximum of two exams at any one time. Thanks a lot for the help.

[Horchata]

For maths I think sometimes they clash them on purpose? For MEI I had C2 and FP1 at the same time, C3 and FP2 at the same time and S2 and D1 at the same time.

It's better to have two maths clashing rather than two completely different subjects. Sometimes, it can even help, e.g. C3 was a bit like revision for FP2.

See if you can ask to have your exams in a particular order, for example, you may want to have an easier exam first just in case the harder one puts you off.

Good luck!