CFS and A-Levels for 19 year olds.

Dar1916

Hi,

I am currently 19 and on the road to recovering from CFS/M.E. I have every ambition to enter university - as was my ambition before and whilst I was sick. However my GCSE's and A-Level results were drastically impacted upon due to my CFS - my predicted grades were A*-A but despite passing with B-C grades I wasn't able to ascertain the grades necessary to enter my choice universities.

I was wondering if anybody had any experience/advice for pathways into higher education for those who are no longer eligible for admittance to Sixth Form due to their age. I am open to private tuition - I've recently heard about NEC and independent study but I'd rather have a second opinion from people who have been through the same or similar experience as I.

Thanks for reading.

Access course?

I'm pretty sure to access courses you need to be out of education for 2 years before applying as they are aimed at mature students who have already left education.

Find your local Further Education College and see what they offer. Many offer A levels and BTEC's, both of which will allow you to apply for university. I took the BTEC route as I had no fee's to pay for the course, was given a Further Education Grant to help with living costs and I liked that it had a lot of practical work. I am now going into my second year of university and had no problems securing interviews and offers with my BTEC. The other advantage is while all the A level students were waiting to find out their results and see if they had gotten into university, I had already got told my results months earlier and know I had made the grades.

Reply 3

username1342947

You could do an access course, but it would cost a fair amount. im talking around £2500-£3000 due to you already having A levels, the government won't pay for the course for you. Plus you would also have to wait until you turn 19 to be able to apply to take the course due to it being aimed at the mature student level who have been out of education for a number of years. If i were you, i'd try to get somewhere you can get in with your current grades, as it'll be the quickest way to get to uni with the minimal amount of money spent.