Just to confirm... (about GCSE's)

When a Uni says 5 Gcse's A*-C does this count the gcse equivalents too like the btecs? Of course i have more than the 5 gcse's in this bracket i was just wandering does it include extra btecs too as the ICT i did was not a GCSE

When a Uni says 5 Gcse's A*-C does this count the gcse equivalents too like the btecs? Of course i have more than the 5 gcse's in this bracket i was just wandering does it include extra btecs too as the ICT i did was not a GCSE

No, usually their GCSE requirements are for GCSE courses only unless otherwise stated and not Level 2 BTEC or vocational Level 2 qualifications, but since you have more than five you're fine anyway.

Usually the website will say GCSE 5 A*-C, that means GCSE only. Some will say Level 2 in which case both GCSE and BTEC are considered as equivalent, and some will accept alternatives only for certain subjects e.g. GCSE A*-C including GCSE Double Science at CC or alternatively BTEC Level 2 Science with Distinction.

No, usually their GCSE requirements are for GCSE courses only unless otherwise stated and not Level 2 BTEC or vocational Level 2 qualifications, but since you have more than five you're fine anyway.

Usually the website will say GCSE 5 A*-C, that means GCSE only. Some will say Level 2 in which case both GCSE and BTEC are considered as equivalent, and some will accept alternatives only for certain subjects e.g. GCSE A*-C including GCSE Double Science at CC or alternatively BTEC Level 2 Science with Distinction.

When it says pass QAA accredited AHE course with at least 15 level 3 credits at merit what does that mean? I've just been looking through my certificates and am starting to panic... I only have 4 A-C and the rest are Btecs or Level 2 award in IT. The uni i want to go to is de montford and they say 5 GCSE's a*-c... This is what the uni says below:

[*]Five GCSEs grades A–C including English Language and Maths
[*]Pass QAA Accredited AHE course with at least 15 level 3 credits at Merit, and GCSE Maths and English grade C (Language or Literature) or recognised equivalent

Have you already applied there and received an offer? If yes then do not worry, they are aware and fine with it. If not, do not worry, sometimes the university may accept your BTECs even if the website might state GCSE 5 A*-C. Contact them and see if they accept BTEC Level 2 also. I'm presuming you have a C pass in English and Maths or equivalent Level 1/2 Maths and English.

As for accredited AHE course that means any Access to HE course accredited by an awarding body. 15 Level 3 credits means that you must have 15 Merits in your Access course units at Level 3 or higher. I've not done Access courses so can't give you any further information, unfortunately.

http://www.dmu.ac.uk/documents/study-documents/entry-and-admissions-criteria/entry-and-admissions-criteria-2015.pdf If you have any time please read this as it does say the requirments in full but i'm just having difficulty understanding. Yeah i have a GCSE A in English and Maths. I have contacted them via email but if you could help in the mean time that would be great.
I'm just starting my A2 so i haven't applied yet but we will be starting very soon when we go back to school in september.
Overall i have A* to C in :
English (A)
Maths (A)
History (B)
Geography (B)
but the rest which are not gcse but still A* to C are:
1) BTEC Level 1/Level 2 in Applied Science (Pass) Equivelent to 2 GCSe's
2) OCR Level 2 National first award in ICT (Merit) Equivelent to 1 GCSE
3) OCR Level 2 national award in ICT Media (Merit) Equivelent to 2 GCSE's

I think i may be in luck after reading the website but it would be very helpful if you could confirm or i won't be able to sleep now :/

After reading through the document you linked me to, yes your BTEC Applied Science, OCR Award in ICT and OCR Award in Media all count towards the 5 A*-C requirement. So don't worry, you're fine!

As for the Access to HE thing, you said you're starting A2 soon so I assume you do A-Levels? If so, do not worry about that, as Access to HE is an alternative to A-Levels that some people study. You don't study it so yeah, nothing for you to worry about.

Best of luck.

Yeah I do A levels in Maths, History, economics and Lit ( Hence thought that other guy was talking crap saying lit was piss easy lol
So relived now after that, I shouldn't be in that position anyway as I was more than intelligent to do double or even triple science GCSEs but school didn't let me- would have been painful if I couldn't get in due to that 1 less. Thanks for all your help. Have you got any tips for writing a personal statement as I want to start getting some stuff down on paper today

The main point of your personal statement is to explain why you want to study your chosen subject, but you should also think about adding details about study outside the A-level syllabus, courses, work experience and (briefly) hobbies and achievements, all tailored so that you are explaining how these would be relevant to your subject. The best place to look for guidance is on the webpage for the department; and then have a look on TSR to see what other people wrote on their statements, but be careful of plagiarism - every personal statement submitted to UCAS is checked to see if it matches similar content elsewhere.

What subject are you thinking of applying for?

Yeah I do A levels in Maths, History, economics and Lit ( Hence thought that other guy was talking crap saying lit was piss easy lol
So relived now after that, I shouldn't be in that position anyway as I was more than intelligent to do double or even tripple science GCSEs but school didn't let me- would have been painful if I couldn't get in due to that 1 less. Thanks for all your help. Have you got any tips for writing a personal statement as I want to start getting some tuff down on paper today

Good A-Level options, and thought I recognised your username! He really didn't know what he was talking about, so I just gave up on reply to him.

I feel that, my secondary school was the same, luckily I did 10 GCSEs but they really limited me, e.g. wanted to do GCSE Computing but instead they made me do Level 2 ICT. Also couldn't do a language and certain GCSE options e.g. Economics as I wanted to. Ah well, GCSEs are the past anyway.

It's no problem and hope you get in, good luck for A2 exams. I'm resitting AS next year (left AS early because of bad college/A Level options) so unfortunately I can't give many tips for personal statement, but the poster above me made great points.

Best of luck with your AS next year again! Do you know which course you want to do at Uni yet?

Thank you. I'm dead set on doing Computer Science, doing AS Computer Science, Maths, History and Graphics. What do you plan on doing at uni?

Very nice, I wanted to do computer science at first but then narrowed it down to economics or accounting and finance and have finally decided to choose the latter! I just hope my AS results go ok. If i need 300 points to get in what would be a good benchmark to achieve this year in AS? (Bearing in mind im going to take an extra general studies a level for points too which they accept.)
Ae you at a different college now then? It's good you could do the year again at least as i don't think we can if we fail due to the new linear changes

Ew Economics, each to their own I guess. For 300 UCAS points just aim for anything above BCCC-ish for AS and you'll be perfectly fine.

No I just left my AS college recently without doing exams since my college was so bad I thought it'd be better to just not even do exams, and my AS subjects were just too irrelevant, I thought might as well just have no qualification this year and have a blank slate of GCSEs only. In September I will be starting at a new college doing AS again.

I have no regrets in leaving at all, since I've been through the experience so I'll know not to make the same mistakes and get better grades, and now I can study what I want to do with more facilitating subjects. I find it weird when people are like to me it's better if I still sat AS, it's not like those extra AS quals would even be of any use!

Exactly and it'll just be like you've took a gap year and then are going to Uni- it's not like you'll be the odd one out or anything so essenitally it's a win, win situation for you as your gaining the qualifications you want and will learn from all your mistakes from AS. What tips would you give for revising History? I just forget the content so easily :/

Finally someone sees it from my perspective. Ah I just absolutely love History. I found the best way for me was to do short and sweet spider diagrams and tables/revision cards summarising each small part of the content. E.g. one of our units were Women's Rights in Victorian Britain for AS Unit 2 (done the same for Unit 1 too) so I'd do a diagram for each section of that unit or each period. Starting with the position of women in mid-century, then moving on to diagrams for each of the early campaigns, different case studies and significant figures and organisations and so forth. Basically diagraming each stage of movement. This method works for me and most students in my class might be of help to you. The Edexcel books (or AQA books are good too if you do that board) and Access to History books were perfect to make these diagrams, and I also used my class notes in co-operation cause there were some things the books didn't mention or have that I had learnt in class.

Ahh ok thanks, I'll try some spider diagrammes. I'm with OCR unfortunately :/ One unit is the Russian revoloution which will be 40% coursework and the other is German nationalism which will be one exam