My experiance in self teaching A-levels

At age 32 I decided I could with some qualifications after dropping out of college at 17. (for ref I had 5 GCSEs B-C)

The first question was Access or A-levels. The problems with access was it was full time meaning I could not work any day job. Also it was 3k unless you get a degree which I couldn't be sure off.

So I looked at the A-levels which did not require any coursework or practicals and based on my own interests and knowledge narrowed it down to these four:

Politics
Economics
Maths
Environmental Science

Needing three I decided not to do enviro science as I did not feel very relevant for my own future choices and probably not highly regarded by unis.

I ordered a few of the books second hand of ebay/amazon for very cheap prices. After couple of months I had not made a lot of progress so I reduced my hours to part time in November so I could give myself every chance of success.

I was making some good headway and by Jan I was looking for exams to book, this was not as easy I'd hoped. Some people had success with local colleges however everyone I tried could not help me.

Through extensive searching and a few phone calls I found a place in Coventry who could do it for £75 an exam so £900 in total and I booked it with them. Quite disappointing considering some people on here have managed £30 an exam.

These days there are excellent resources online, videos made by teachers on youtube and all the available past papers meant I was confident I did not need any extra help.

In the run up to the exams I was putting in a lot more hours, probably 25 a week compared to previously about 10-12 (not inc time spent reading pop economics and politics books which I do anyway)

The exams came and went pretty fast the place in cov (tutorandexams) was very good and I recommend them for anyone in the area.

I got my results through of BCB which I'm happy with, could I have done better with tutor help? maybe but I'm not sure it's worth the extra £1200 it would have cost through these websites.

It's a shame edexcel don't let UK students take their international a level exams as this could make life a lot easier. Cambridge do though they are not so open with their past papers and grade boundaries.

Reply 1

HayThereMardyBum

My hats off to you sir. Well done. I, for one can't imagine myself doing A Levels without any tuition or guide.

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Reply 2

skeptical_john

Original post by HayThereMardyBum

My hats off to you sir. Well done. I, for one can't imagine myself doing A Levels without any tuition or guide.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Many thanks, It's not so much the tutor and guidance I would've liked to have but more the social and competitive interaction you get from a classroom.

Books like this
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Edexcel-Economics-Student-Unit-Guide/dp/144414782X
Give really detailed breakdown of where the marks were achieved for example answers.
To help with the social side of things I followed some teachers who tweet about the subject and had some good interactions with them.

My experiance in self teaching A-levels

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