The Student Room Group

I've got two options; which should I pursue?

I'm in a bit of an unusual circumstance which makes me hard to place in a school so I was considering going into private, home education. However, there will be little or no guided tuition, due to my parent's inability to pay the high prices; so, I would be mostly teaching the material to myself with books and the internet. I am in year 11 and will have only one GCSE in August: Maths. I have two options:

Option 1:Work towards one A - Level next year alongside 5 GCSEs:
A - Level Maths
GCSE English
GCSE Science
GCSE Additional Science
GCSE History
GCSE French
And then, 2 A - Levels the following year to finally result with 6 GCSEs and 3 A - Levels.
Option 2:The same, except, I will result with 8 GCSEs and 3 A - Levels.
Next year:A - level Maths
GCSE English Language
GCSE English Literature
GCSE Biology
GCSE Chemistry
GCSE Physics
GCSE History
GCSE French
Following year:2 A - Levels.
The point of this is so that I can still go to Uni at 18 and not have to go back any years. The difference between the options is that in option 1, I do single English and double Science, option 2 I do double English and Triple Science. So that's an extra 2 GCSEs. I want to go to Oxford Uni to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics so will they favor 8 GCSEs more than 6? Or will they be understanding of my difficult circumstance?BTW, my circumstance is that I went into hospital in November and was discharged in march. To this day, I'm still waiting to hear from the local education authority. During my time in hospital, I had to drop most of my subjects due to no work sent from my school.Thanks.Any advice will be much appreciated :smile:
Hi

I think it would probably be best if you contacted Oxford and any other universities you'd be interested in applying to, and ask for their opinion on your situation.

If I were in your situation, I would probably re-sit year 11 next year so that you have a full set of GCSE's, and then do 4 A levels over the following 2 years, so that you are able to go to uni at 19 with a full set of grades. Although it would involve re-sitting year 11, Oxford sift through applications by GCSE grades, so only having 6 would likely set you at a disadvantage. This way Oxford would be able to see you have the ability to get high grades over many subjects at GCSE, and not just be taking your word for it, like they would be in options 1 & 2.

I am currently re-sitting year 12 from home, and its a lot of work maintaining discipline. Oxford expect applicants to have all A*/A grades, so you'll have to be honest with yourself whether you think you will be able to manage 8 GCSE's alongside a whole maths A level, and get straight As. From personal experience, A Level Maths seems easy to start with, but without a tutor you may find yourself out of depth by C3/ C4.

Ultimately though do what the universities say they would prefer, as at the end of the day they're the ones judging you. Whatever you choose, I hope it works out well!
Reply 2
As the person above says, resitting the year for a full set of GCSEs and continuing from there is probably your best option and likely will result in the best grades (but definitely contact the unis if you're set on not doing this). Universities also tend to like to see that you've done three A levels at once to show that you can cope with the workload - although self studying everything may balance out not having done this?
When you say 'a-level' do you mean an as, a2 or both? A-levels are HARD so i'm not sure you would be able to self teach as and a2 in one year to make a full a-level

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