The Student Room Group

Re-Sitting A-Levels at Home?

Hi guys was wondering if anyone here has resat their A-Levels away from school or college. I left my Sixth Form after one year doing really poor in my opinion and having chose bad subjects except for Business. I went to College which I hated managed to rush my course to a pass and get a job, since then I've really wanted to get back into Education and study at Uni so i can make a good career for myself instead of doing crappy deadend jobs.

I only have 140 UCAS points currently, I could try and get a foundation year
course but I feel like I'd only be offered lesser courses, where as if I redo my A-Levels and perform well I will have better quality courses on offer to me and wont have to pay an extra £9,000 in fees.

The idea I have at the moment is to work a part-time job whilst studying for my A-Levels independently, I really don't want to go to College with a bunch of immature drop outs after the course I was on last time was. So if anyone has any advice on studying at home then sitting the exams I'd really be grateful or if anyone has any alternative advice for me. I'm 19 currently going to be 20 this October so if I managed to do a fast track and apply for Uni in 2017 would I class as a mature student? Or is that too ambitious to try and do it all in that period of time?

Thank you to anyone who responds to this! Apologies if i rambled on! (Also I want to do a Business degree at uni)
Original post by NotACop
Hi guys was wondering if anyone here has resat their A-Levels away from school or college. I left my Sixth Form after one year doing really poor in my opinion and having chose bad subjects except for Business. I went to College which I hated managed to rush my course to a pass and get a job, since then I've really wanted to get back into Education and study at Uni so i can make a good career for myself instead of doing crappy deadend jobs.

I only have 140 UCAS points currently, I could try and get a foundation year
course but I feel like I'd only be offered lesser courses, where as if I redo my A-Levels and perform well I will have better quality courses on offer to me and wont have to pay an extra £9,000 in fees.

The idea I have at the moment is to work a part-time job whilst studying for my A-Levels independently, I really don't want to go to College with a bunch of immature drop outs after the course I was on last time was. So if anyone has any advice on studying at home then sitting the exams I'd really be grateful or if anyone has any alternative advice for me. I'm 19 currently going to be 20 this October so if I managed to do a fast track and apply for Uni in 2017 would I class as a mature student? Or is that too ambitious to try and do it all in that period of time?

Thank you to anyone who responds to this! Apologies if i rambled on! (Also I want to do a Business degree at uni)


Hi, I was homeschooled until A levels so I took all of my GCSEs independently at an exam centre. I also did two AS levels independently, again at an exam centre (basically, first theme: find an exam centre; there are different ones depending on the region but you should be able to find one and pay to sit your A levels).

Which subjects are you thinking of doing other than business (I would say maths for business, but I'm not going to assume as there are many pathways)? I would say that you could do it in that period of time, especially if you find a way to work and use your resources efficiently. You have to be very self-motivated.

As a note: it will set your application apart when applying to university as they seem to like people who can work well independently. University learning is independent, and most people who have been in school their entire lives have had almost everything dictated to them by teachers.

I'm not sure about the mature student thing as I have not looked into it. Google it! Anyway, I hope this helps.
Reply 2
Original post by bioeng98
Hi, I was homeschooled until A levels so I took all of my GCSEs independently at an exam centre. I also did two AS levels independently, again at an exam centre (basically, first theme: find an exam centre; there are different ones depending on the region but you should be able to find one and pay to sit your A levels).

Which subjects are you thinking of doing other than business (I would say maths for business, but I'm not going to assume as there are many pathways)? I would say that you could do it in that period of time, especially if you find a way to work and use your resources efficiently. You have to be very self-motivated.

As a note: it will set your application apart when applying to university as they seem to like people who can work well independently. University learning is independent, and most people who have been in school their entire lives have had almost everything dictated to them by teachers.

I'm not sure about the mature student thing as I have not looked into it. Google it! Anyway, I hope this helps.


Was possibly considering doing a Spanish however I wouldn't want to give myself an impossible task, think that may be hard without any tuition? Did you literally just pay to sit the exams and do everything yourself?
Original post by NotACop
Was possibly considering doing a Spanish however I wouldn't want to give myself an impossible task, think that may be hard without any tuition? Did you literally just pay to sit the exams and do everything yourself?


That depends if you can already speak the language. One of the AS levels I did was German (my mother is German), so she helped me with it and we did the whole thing in around six weeks before I sat the exams. For Spanish, if there is a good tutor in the area, you could probably get a tutor for it. With a language, you really do need somebody you can speak it with. So it's likely doable, but depending on circumstances.

With the GCSEs, some subjects my mum helped teach me and others I taught myself and later my brother, but having gone to sixth form I realize how much more independent homeschooling is. For example, I never had anybody tell me that just reading things from the book (without taking notes, etc.) is not a way that you could learn, so the entirety of my International GCSE notes probably fits on 2 A4 sheets (still got predominantly A*s). Of course you don't just use the textbook. There are a lot of online resources, some of which you have to pay for but there are a lot that are free. Basically, it's figuring out how you work best. When you get closer to exams, go over past papers and mark them, etc.

The one thing might be that if you need to do coursework for any of the exams, the exam centre might not do it. Coursework and practical work is hard to do independently, which is primarily why I went to sixth form as I did the sciences for AS/A level. In that case, you might want to look at International A Levels. Again, it depends on the subject. I am also a bit unsure about A level reforms as I was still lucky enough to be on the old system.
Hi there, I just wanted to say that I resat my A-levels at home and did them as part of a gap year. I studied while at home and then I was travelling for a while (australia, africa etc) but I have to stress that it is a lot of hard work.
I resat 5 exams - 2 maths, 2 chemistry and 1 biology. It takes A LOT of commitment throughout the whole year, not just the couple of months leading up to it. But it perfectly possible to do.
I resat this summer and I improved my grades and I'm now going to be doing an Integrated Masters degree (I'm 19 also). So it is definitely worth doing. All the best with whatever you do :smile:
Original post by NotACop
Hi guys was wondering if anyone here has resat their A-Levels away from school or college. I left my Sixth Form after one year doing really poor in my opinion and having chose bad subjects except for Business. I went to College which I hated managed to rush my course to a pass and get a job, since then I've really wanted to get back into Education and study at Uni so i can make a good career for myself instead of doing crappy deadend jobs.

I only have 140 UCAS points currently, I could try and get a foundation year
course but I feel like I'd only be offered lesser courses, where as if I redo my A-Levels and perform well I will have better quality courses on offer to me and wont have to pay an extra £9,000 in fees.

The idea I have at the moment is to work a part-time job whilst studying for my A-Levels independently, I really don't want to go to College with a bunch of immature drop outs after the course I was on last time was. So if anyone has any advice on studying at home then sitting the exams I'd really be grateful or if anyone has any alternative advice for me. I'm 19 currently going to be 20 this October so if I managed to do a fast track and apply for Uni in 2017 would I class as a mature student? Or is that too ambitious to try and do it all in that period of time?

Thank you to anyone who responds to this! Apologies if i rambled on! (Also I want to do a Business degree at uni)


Yes its possible but it depends on your ability to self teach and be disciplined.

You copuld also consider doing an access course, which would get you more structured teaching.
Reply 6
Thanks for all the advice guys, I think i'm going to try and do it. I know they are changing the UCAS points system for next year will that affect what A-Levels I'd choose? Also would the points I've already got be added on top of the points I'd get for doing a re-sit even though i technically haven't sat my A-Levels because I never completed them?

Is there a deadline to sign up for a re-sit?

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