Disadvantage cause i dont have general studies/key skills?

I go to school in Nortehrn Ireland and most school consider genral studies and key skills a waste of time so it isn't offered.

It means when I go to apply to uni I'll only have 3 A levels.
I know most unis dont use the grades but will i be at a disadvantage because some applicants will have AAAA as their results and i'll only have AAA. ( hypothetical results. I havent sat my exams yet)

Will I be at a disadvantage?

P.S People who think I should do it outside school - Not possible. No where offers it.

Reply 1

Jhawkins

10

No not at all! As long as the universities who you've applied to stipulate that they are not required.
I will only have it as an AS (if I do well)

Reply 2

FunkyIguana

No! It will rarely be included in any offer anyway, and I know from actual application experience (my friend's complete app last year) that Oxford, LSE, UCL, Newcastle, Bristol, Nottingham and Leeds do not consider it necessary (though Leeds may include it as part of any offer if you do have it).

Don't worry at all :smile:

Reply 3

Blackwater

If you get AAA in the end not at all, General Studies is just a safety net because a few unis accept it so it can help you meet your offer if you drop a grade in another subject. Apart from that it's completely useless though, and it won't influence the success of your application at all if it isn't listed on your UCAS form.

Reply 4

Fuzzy_Hamster

I agree with other people here. I think other academic achivements with an excellent personal statement outways not having general studies.

I dont have it or key skills and it has not been a problem for me so dont worry and get them A grades :biggrin:

.

Reply 5

Witness23

No, key skills and all that crap are rubbish imo

Reply 6

bright_eyes

i wouldnt say u were at any kind of disadvantage cz loads of uni's dont even accept it (or so i've heard)...i guess its kind of "if u have it gr8...if u dont, no worries"

Reply 7

icapturethecastle

16

omg...u are so lucky ur school doesn't do these subjects...it's such a waste of time, and most unis don't really even look at them
u don't even learn anything from these 'lessons'...seriously, my 10 year old brother could get an A in it

Reply 8

Number6

9

They are both completely pointless and a giant waste of time.

Reply 9

Blackwater

Number6

They are both completely pointless and a giant waste of time.

Not really. You don't actually learn anything so the only time you 'waste' is in actually sitting the exams, and if your unis accept it then it can mean the difference between getting into your first/second choice and going through clearing.

Reply 10

Taemon

12

If you want a fourth A level, just take another proper subject. Then you'll be above all those that only have three A levels + General Studies/Key Skills.

Reply 11

Number6

9

Blackwater

Not really. You don't actually learn anything so the only time you 'waste' is in actually sitting the exams, and if your unis accept it then it can mean the difference between getting into your first/second choice and going through clearing.

Actually, some of my friends have scheduled lessons for GS which just waste valuable lesson time they could be using to actually learn something :rolleyes:

Reply 12

Blackwater

So do I but I don't bother going to them. :p:

Also I know someone who didn't have a single GS lesson timetabled because she took an extra AS and got 300/300, so yeah they are pretty much pointless. Even so they don't eat up a huge amount of time at all, we have three hours a fortnight.

Reply 13

tommorris

17

I actually have a Key Skills Qualification or two, I think. Compared to my A-levels and my degree, it's pretty useless. It's not so useless that I use it to line my bin or wipe my behind with, but still - having a piece of paper proving that I can write a business letter, use PowerPoint (but have the wisdom not to) and calculate the area of a square proves precisely nothing.

If you have the option of whether or not to do a Key Skills Qualification, it's worth avoiding. It's a complete waste of time, and as ways of wasting your time go, there are far better ways than this - picking your nose, taking up smoking, sex, reading or getting drunk on cheap wine.

Reply 14

keimcd

1

I'm pretty sure that no schools in Northern Ireland even run a General Studies A-Level, so don't worry.

Reply 15

Stealth-Mode

13

I did General Studies and it was a complete wast of my time. I didn't even bother to put in on my UCAS application form- I knew it would add nothing to it.

Reply 16

Juno

20

Get your school to write a sentence in your reference saying that you were unable to take them because they're not offered. That way, you will definitely not be disadvantaged.

Whilst most unis don't consider it, some do and you might be applying to those. And even the ones that don't need some way of deciding between very similar applicants, so may look at it but not give offers on it.

Reply 17

Blackwater

having a piece of paper proving that I can write a business letter, use PowerPoint (but have the wisdom not to) and calculate the area of a square proves precisely nothing.

Seriously?

Reply 18

tommorris

17

Blackwater

Seriously?

I am not kidding. I did A-levels four years ago, in either the first or second year after they had introduced Key Skills. At the time, they worked out which Key Skills you took on the following basis:

Taking 'Application of Number' or 'Communication' was tied to the grade one achieved at GCSE Maths and English and whether you were continuing with those subjects at AS level. If you got a grade C or lower you took the Key Skills at level two, if you got a B, you took it at level three and if you got an A or A*, you took it at level four, unless you were taking the subject at AS in which case you did not take that Key Skill. Which meant that if you were like myself and got a 'B' at GCSE Maths but did not take Maths at AS level, you would have to do a Level 3 'Application of Number' key skill.

This meant going to the most mind-numbingly dull classes you could imagine where they taught us the sort of maths we already knew from primary school - fractions, area and volume, the difference between positive and negative numbers, percentages and other trivially simple subjects. This culminated in having to take an exam in these topics. Even though we were good students getting good grades, we just sat back and laughed at this. We were university-bound people who, having chosen not to study maths, were being given remedial maths. In the exam, a few of us (myself included) actually did the exam and passed it while the others took it all as a bit of a joke - writing on the paper that the whole thing was a waste of time and, in one case, drawing a medieval battle scene on the centre pages of the answer booklet. In about the February after finishing my A-levels, when I was already at university, my old school actually sent me these Key Skills Certificates. Better late than never.

The stupid thing about it was that if the government wants to beef up basic skills provision, the people they need to be targeting it at are precisely not the people who are getting good and above-average grades and applying for university - they need to be getting the people who dropped out of school, failed their GCSEs and aren't going to university - and stop wasting the time of otherwise able students with this redundant qualification which says less to employers than simply having the required GCSE grades. Perhaps I'm wrong. Perhaps my Key Skills Qualification really is important, but I think the high 2.1 from London may be slightly more useful in the long run. :biggrin:

Reply 19