Taking A2 at a different institution?

You could re-take it privately? I had an awful Philosophy teacher for A2 and was wasting my time in his lessons. I simply stopped going but then my college refused to let me take the last A2 exams. I just paid to take the exams (around £60) at a private college and then cashed that grade in with my AS grade from my previous college

It is sad when teachers become a burden rather than help.

I meant, I have finished AS and need to continue onto A2.

Would I be able to take A2 privately? Just to sit the exams. Also, what about coursework?

Yeah loads of colleges or exam centres let you take the exam privately without attending any lessons as long as you pay. (That's what I did). I went to Campbell Harris in London and paid about £60 for each exam, then they just send you the results on results day.

Coursework subjects are a little tricky, I'm not entirely sure as I didn't have any. When you send in your applications to take exams privately though they ask you if you have coursework subjects, so I do think they try their best to try accommodate it, but obviously it is more difficult.

Campell Harris is only an hour away from me on the train, so that's convenient.

I am not sure if I should continue onto A2 as I have essentially messed up again, I only have decent grades in 2 subjects ... and retaking anything in English will be tricky because of coursework. So I will only have 2 a-levels, so no point carrying on.

Well you must have some ambition to carry on or why did you ask the original question. You've still got so many options so don't give up and loose faith completely.

- Ditch english and do an intensive A-Level? If you work hard good grades can be achieved. (need to pick a subject you like though)

- Just carry on with english and contact campbell harris about whether they can make arrangements for your coursework.. i'm sure they can

- Go to a specialist A-Level re-take college where they can help people in your situation? (these are often private though)

- Retake the whole year?

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I have already retaken the AS year.. so that's out of the question.

The intensive A-level sounds interesting, how would that work?

Would I be able to attend university with only 3 A-levels?

Intensive A-Levels are where you take the AS alongside the A2 exams, essentially completing an A Level in a year. In my year, people often took both AS exams in Jan then both A2 exams in June. Obviously, this option isn't available to you anymore as January exams have been removed, and you'd have to take all four AS & A2 exams in June. However, if you really focus and dive deeply into a subject I don't really think it's impossible at all. Some state colleges offer it, but you can also just do it yourself by paying to take all four exams at a private college. Or some private re-take colleges offer proper courses so that they help you do it all in a year.

And yes, you certainly can attend uni with only 3!! I know, because I do haha!! I took law, politics and philosophy and received offers from Sheffield, Exeter, Bristol, Reading and Queen Mary. :-)

I have worked it out; depending on the intensive a-level (rounded it to 4 exams max) I will have a total of 9 exams next year, 4 exams in May and 5 in June. A hefty amount of exams, not to mention the coursework piece that will need to be completed as well.

How did you find Philosophy?

Cracking results, glad your hard work payed off

I did 8 in January with re-takes, it was so much work but definitely worth it if you are determined to go to University.

Philosophy is the most interesting but awful A-level ever. I think what makes it worse is that AQA seems to have no idea about the a level as a whole. Marking is seriously inconsistent and no-one seems to ever know what the exam board wants.

E.G. I got a B in AS Jan then a D in AS June. Sent the D back for re-marking and it came back a B - ridiculous. This year, I got an A in one exam and a D in another. It's just seriously hit and miss. Overall i've ended up with b,b,a,d which thankfully equalled out at a B Grade.

I actually self-taught the A2 anyway as my teacher was awful as previously mentioned. But saying that, if you were looking at it as an intensive A-Level it's probably do-able as no prior knowledge is really needed for the A2 section anyway. Also, the content is repetitive. The AS exams are also small amounts of AO1 compared to other topics. Philosophy seems to really be about exam technique rather than knowledge.

Soooo yeah, probs wouldn't recommend it, however, the topics studied have lead me to open my mind to a lot more ideas then I would have ever thought about without studying Philosophy.

It is a shame to read how inconsistent the exam board is in its marking. But hey, that is the nature of examination marking in humanity subjects since it all seems to depend on who marks the exam paper.

Would you agree an intense a-level in philosophy would be a no-go? if so, what else would you recommend... i would consider law but i have heard it can sometimes be regarded as a soft subject by universities.

If your prepared to do a LOT of past papers and pay people to mark them, then philosophy intensive could be good. I personally wouldn't recommend it just because grades are so inconsistent and you've only got one shot in June. It's a shame because otherwise it's quite easy to learn by yourself.

Law; I'm not really sure about the 'soft' subject thing, I heard that to but I think it depends on which universities you apply to. I've personally found no problem getting offers from Russell Groups, however, I suppose if you were to do Law, Sociology and Media or something then maybe that's not the best combination. I would recommend Law, as it's simple, there is only one answer. You learn the law, then you answer the questions.

The AS level is a complete memory game, no exam technique needed. Just repeat the textbook and you get an A, literally. I just stayed up all night before the AS exam and memorised everything and came out with 100UMS. The A2 on the other hand is much more complicated and does require pre-knowledge gained from the AS. I think if you were to do this intensive you'd need some sort of tuition or help with the A2. But apart from that, it's definitely doable because in the exam you know 100% whether you know the right answer or not.

Philosophy piques my interest more than law.. that said, would it be foolish of me to take an intensive course of philosophy? if i was a private candidate i would have 10 months to prepare for the 9 upcoming exams.. so i essentially would have nearly a month in time for each exam to prepare, but of course i would have to first learn it.. yet if i learned it myself then it would very easy to revise for. although you mentioned it is more to do with exam technique and that.. that's the only downside. would you recommend any revision book?

and how how did you find out the cost for each exam?