Hello everyone, its been almost a year now since I first decided to actually take charge of my life and get the education I needed. Before taking this step I was literally doing nothing. I come from a quite privileged family so I didn't feel like I needed to work for anything in life. This reasoning saw me wasting years away just enjoying myself and not taking anything seriously. Now after the majority of the course is over and exams are fast approaching I feel so happy that I decided to do go back into education. But enough about me!
The Access to HE course I choose was Business and I attend Birmingham Metropolitan College - Sutton Coldfield Campus (so if anyone who's interested in Access to HE: Business or studying at Sutton Coldfield college just ask any questions you have and ill answer as well as I can.
At the start of the course everything was slightly intimidating, I had been out of education for the last 6 years and when I was in education I did really horribly, mainly because I didn't bother with the assignments or homework. So yeah at the start I was thinking things like: oh **** im going to last one week then drop out. Looking back now its kinda funny really.
First things first, yes this access course is the equivalent of 3-4 A-levels (depending on what course you choose), however there is NOT a lot of work! There is little to no homework and 9/12 courses are assessed on Essay/reports. Thats right, there are only 3 exams! And for those who are panicking at the thought of having to write long assignments let me put your nerves at ease. The first 3 assignments we were issued were 500 words. 500 words is approximately 1 A4 page of paper with font size 12. These three assignments were all that we got until the middle of October. These assignments were easy just to ease you into learning again and to give you a chance to learn how to Harvard reference before the longer and more important assignments.
The next three assignments we were 1000 words each. Oh the horror! Having to write 2 Pages isn't that much more then 1 page in reality. Once you get going (and they do make sure to give u interesting topics to research and write about) the extra 500 words will go by so fast. Most of the time you end up hitting the word count and having to cut down on your assignment.
Remember when I said that I was a ****ty student in school? I thought for sure I would scrape by with Passes but nothing ells (low self confidence maybe?). Well people, so far I have received distinction in every single assignment that was Lvl3 (Lvl2 assignments u can only get a pass or fail on). I guess what I'm trying to say is that its not hard! So what if u weren't the best student at school? Just put a tinny bit off effort in now and you will get the high grades you always wanted.
Anyway, on to the summer term, 3 assignments each consisting of 2000 words. Alright so these assignments are harder now and the word count is doubled. However the topics you are set to write about are a lot more interesting and you pretty much get to choose what you write about. Believe me 2000 words go by in no time. Im currently finishing off the last 2000 word assignment I have and its been so much fun researching an area of interest that I'm kinda sad to see my word count reaching towards the finish line.
Exams.. well since I havent had any yet I can say much about them, however 2 out of the 3 exams you are allowed to bring in your notes. Only hand written ones, but still...
Obviously I have only done Access to HE: Business so some other courses may be structured completely different.
If anyone has any questions just ask! And if your still on the fence on wether you want to do an Access to HE course I hope this helps you make your decision easier.
Oh and if your wondering about universities... I got conditional offers from every Uni I applied to. I selected Aston - Business and International Relations (Merits through out the course) as my firm choice and Birmingham City University - Business Studies (Pass your Access course) as my safety choice.