Access to Engineering Help!

Cardiff and Nottingham both look as if they will accept Access - the other two are less clear. You might have to do a foundation year after Access if you want to go to a highly-ranked university. You should contact the admissions tutors at your preferred universities to find out for certain though.

http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/applying/admissions-criteria/engineering
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/ugstudy/applying/access-btec-entryrequirements.aspx
http://www.exeter.ac.uk/undergraduate/degrees/engineering/mechanical/#Entry-requirements
http://www.engineering.leeds.ac.uk/mechanical/undergraduate/degree-mechanical-engineering/index.shtml

I did Access to Engineering a couple of years ago (now in 2nd year of a physics degree). It's hard to say how hard 30 distinctions will be for you - it depends on your ability and commitment - but it can certainly be done if you put the hours in. To do well on Access right from the start, you need to be comfortable working at higher tier GCSE maths as a minimum. If you can spend some time between now and September working through an AS level maths textbook, that will put you in a very strong position.

Thanks so much for the reply! you've clarified a lot! may i ask what uni you went to? did you have any Alevels? or did you do a foundation? what uni did you apply for?Thanks again!

I'm at Royal Holloway. I have A levels in humanities subjects from many years ago, and I didn't have to do a foundation year. I also had an offer from Southampton (foundation year) and from Portsmouth for regular year 1 entry.

To finish answering your first post (I got interrupted before I'd finished) the ratio of exams to coursework can vary from college to college. On my course, we had 6 exams and 6 pieces of coursework in maths, 2 exams in chemistry with a variety of coursework, and physics was a real mishmash of tests, reports, and essays. Study skills and English were all essays and exercises in note-taking, etc.

Oh Sweet! What where the exams like? if you remember, The maths ones, Eg amount of questions and difficulty ?

Really don't wanna be caught out next year!

The maths exams were each 2 hours long. They were scattered throughout the year, rather than all at the end, and they were open book - i.e. we were allowed to take hand-written notes in with us. That was good, in as much as we didn't have to memorise formulae and identities, but to be honest, it wasn't great preparation for uni. You may or may not get open book exams - it's up to the college how they want to organise exams.

The difficulty level was similar to A level standard. We mostly used A level books during the course, along with a university level Maths for Engineering textbook. I don't really have time now, because I have exams starting in a few days, but if you drop me a pm after the end of May I can send you more details, as I still have all my work from the Access course.

Hey man, Thank you so much for everything! You've enlightened me massively!
Thank you! and best of luck in you exams bro!