Competition - post a photo you've taken of nature >>

Calling All Private Candidates!

Scroll to see replies

The late fee for my centre is £140/exam lol

And maate, you're basically a carbon copy of me, I had to save up the full amount (which included sacrificing my bonus to pay exam fees off) in about 4-ish months as well.

Posted from TSR Mobile

I had to chase my store manager to give me my payslip for the month I worked so I could make the exam fee payment on time before the deadline. He ended up giving it at the last minute, 2 days right before that center for resits broke off so I had to instantly go the next day.

The amount of :rant:

you have to put up at work to just get your pay slip makes me want to :shot:

... so far I'm deciding on self employment from my part-time job experience :lol:

Reply 21

username738914

Original post by XxKingSniprxX

you have to put up at work to just get your pay slip makes me want to :shot:

... so far I'm deciding on self employment from my part-time job experience :lol:

WHAT?! That's ridiculous on their part, how unorganized can someone be?!

The company I worked for are pretty simple about things, they give you a breakdown of your paycheck on an online platform and then it goes straight into your account. Looool, self-employment has its own struggles too.

Reply 22

XxKingSniprxX

Original post by Princepieman

I worked for boots & they did the same by giving a broken down version of my payslip i.e hours/pay rate etc,

:sigh:

Ik there is no easy way out. :frown:

Reply 23

Protesin

Thanks for the responses all. Now I'm worked up over cost.

I saw that most AQA courses were around £80 and thought that'd be the end of that. Will I also have to pay for each paper on top of that?
That'll get me into four digits, but I suppose that's doable with a weekend job... what a ****ing rip though. I'm having another look at apprenticeships.

@Princepieman @XxKingSniprxX ?

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 24

username1539513

Original post by Protesin

Hi all,

Anyone else doing any courses privately? I'll be doing all of mine privately having dropped out of school for a long list of reasons. If worst comes to worst I'll consider enrolling back in to Year 12 (and having a watermelon-sized headstart). Have not decided on courses yet, but including a couple soft subjects I'm looking to shoulder 5 or 6.

Will I be on a backfoot at all when I'm applying to university, against a hypothetical someone with the same grades and profile but schooled? I'm still shooting for Oxbridge, but will they inquire about my circumstances?

Why would it be a disadvantage for you? If anything it would be an advantage for you considering it demonstrates you have gumption to learn and still do well without actually going to a physical learning centre and still balance it around your work or whatever else you do

Reply 25

Zacken

No, Cambridge for one doesn't care about this. It doesn't give you any sort of an advantage, nor a disadvantage.

Reply 26

Protesin

Can anyone say whether you have to pay for individual papers on top of the course fee? It seems weird that this isn't mentioned on AQA's site, so is that just for resits or sumpin?

Reply 27

undine_monty

Original post by Protesin

Can anyone say whether you have to pay for individual papers on top of the course fee? It seems weird that this isn't mentioned on AQA's site, so is that just for resits or sumpin?

You should look at the prices from exam centres close to you for a more accurate figure of how much you would have to pay because you have to register at an exam centre to take your exams.

Unless it says otherwise, the papers will be part of the course fee.

You would normally pay a set amount for each unit of your course separately, for example, Psychology unit 1 = £95 and Psychology unit 2 =£95 paid individually for the overall Psychology AS. This only really applies for non science and non mfl courses. The science and language courses tend to be grouped up with all the practicals, speaking, listening things necessary, plus the written papers from the multiple units, all in one price, paid together.

Reply 28

Asda9001

Original post by undine_monty

Thanks

Yeah, one teacher is enough.

You can't skip AS. An A-level is made up of AS in year 12 and A2 in year 13 typically. With the new system, your AS grade doesn't count towards your final A-level grade but you still have to do it to move onto A2. Basically an A-Level is a 2 year course.

I never did a science but if you were to do it as a private candidate, you would have to register at an exam centre that has the facilities to do science practicals and all the equipment you need would be sorted out for you. You would have to do the ISAs and practical exams at a set time before the deadline.

This is not true, you don't have to take the AS exams to take the A level exams because of the new linear system, this was confirmed to me by AQAs science support team.