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Psychology A-Levels or OU - HELP

Hi, I'm in a funny situation and I could really do with some advice. So, I left school very early due to severe bullying, mental and physical. I'm 26 now (27 in September) and I am currently working from home, I'm self employed. I suffered a lot in the past with social anxiety and bouts of depression which is caused by the bullying, I'm pretty much over it now but I have the odd down day.
Anyway, Because of all this, I really want to better myself. Having no GCSE's and no qualifications isn't something I'm proud of. I've always been fascinated by psychology and have wanted to study it for a long time. I'd love to eventually work in that field and be able to help people the way my therapist helped me. So, my question is.. Do I start psychology A-levels, or do I go straight to an Open University degree? Would I been taken more seriously for having the A-level AND a degree when It comes to getting a job? Or would the degree just override the A-level anyway?

I have been doing a lot of online courses in psychology and I have the AQA psychology A-level books which I have been reading for a while anyway just out of interest as I find the subject so interesting and enjoy learning about it.

Any help would be very much appreciated :smile:
Original post by AmyBurge
Hi, I'm in a funny situation and I could really do with some advice. So, I left school very early due to severe bullying, mental and physical. I'm 26 now (27 in September) and I am currently working from home, I'm self employed. I suffered a lot in the past with social anxiety and bouts of depression which is caused by the bullying, I'm pretty much over it now but I have the odd down day.
Anyway, Because of all this, I really want to better myself. Having no GCSE's and no qualifications isn't something I'm proud of. I've always been fascinated by psychology and have wanted to study it for a long time. I'd love to eventually work in that field and be able to help people the way my therapist helped me. So, my question is.. Do I start psychology A-levels, or do I go straight to an Open University degree? Would I been taken more seriously for having the A-level AND a degree when It comes to getting a job? Or would the degree just override the A-level anyway?

I have been doing a lot of online courses in psychology and I have the AQA psychology A-level books which I have been reading for a while anyway just out of interest as I find the subject so interesting and enjoy learning about it.

Any help would be very much appreciated :smile:


A levels aren't really going to be of much use to you. Once you have a degree, no one really cares what you did for GCSE or A Level (some exceptions).

The only way having A levels might help is to show that you've got a relatively rounded education. So for psychology doing something like biology or statistics a levels would be useful (or maths GCSE).

I would just do the OU degree if that's what your interested in doing, doing the psychology A Level wont add anything.
As someone who tutors A level Psychology and has studied Psychology through the OU, I'd say go for the degree! There will be coursework as well as exams, which may be less stressful for you, given that A level is 100% exam based, and the OU tutors are very supportive. You could sign up for just one Level 1 module, so you're not committed to studying the whole degree unless you want to. Good luck

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