Access to HE-credits

I did Access to Humanities & Social Sciences last year. Access course is 60 credits total, breakdown was:

Study Skills 6 credits graded pass or fail.
Dissertation of 3000 words and a 10 minute presentation 9 credits graded Distinction, Merit or pass.
History 15 credits, first unit of 3 credits graded pass or fail, second & third units graded Distinction, Merit or Pass.
Sociology 15 credits, first unit of 3 credits graded pass or fail, second & third units graded Distinction, Merit or Pass.
Psychology 15 credits, first unit of 3 credits graded pass or fail, second, third & fourth units graded Distinction, Merit or Pass.

Depending on which awarding body your college uses, you might do 4 subjects instead of 3.


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My course (Access to HE in Science) is also 60 credits at Level 3 however 15 credits are from Study Skills and can only be graded as a pass/fail.
The other 45 are split between Maths/Physics/Chem/Bio and can be graded as D/M/P.

I think it's different for every college so my advice would be to contact the college, or if you're currently attending college ask your Personal Tutor or course leader.

Hi! Could you please explain how a student is assessed with: credits and distinction/merit/pass? How are they awarded and graded exactly, in both subject and 'Study Skills'? Exams, essays, assignments? Also, if you could also perhaps look at my previous post, it would help a huge deal!

The easiest way to describe the grading is with entry requirements. If a university is asking for 30 distinctions, they require 10 (of the 20) of your assignments to be at a distinction. 3 credits x 10 assignments = 30. 30 distinctions.

Okay, that makes sense, thank you! And your previous post, where is that information lifted from exactly? Some numbered points were skipped too btw! Are all assignments essays or what forms may they also come in? And a Distinction = 3 credits? And in Access courses, they talk a lot about research, do we not just work/learn from textbooks as in A-Levels?

That information is from my own assignment briefs and those are the 4 grade descriptors my college picked, I think they can choose from 7.
You can do essays and controlled assignments in my college.
And no, all assignments have 3 credits. They are just graded to pass, merit and distinction.
They give you minimal information in college and you go out and find other resources for more information to get a merit or distinction, this can be from text books, journals, the internet.

Ah thanks a bunch for clearing that stuff up! Would it be okay if i could poke you if more QS propped up? Waiting for a Uni. to reply to my question of which A2HE diplomas they recommend to study Psychology with them..

Yeah, that's fine. I have 5/5 offers for Psychology too.

Oh are you applying for Psychology too? Ah that's perfect. And congrats too!! Could I please ask which unis you applied to for Psychology and with which Diploma? It is very worrying because there doesn't seem to be A2HE Diploma in Psychology offered in my area ( I live in London - https://gyazo.com/f3b84655b9ced478e38e78966de86ed6). What am I to do? I'm sure they'll want me to take the Psychology diploma.

I'm doing a social science access course, there's no straight psychology ones because there has to be other units to make up the sixty credits. I'm doing sociology, social work and psychology. So you need to check if the access courses in the picture have Psychology units. Most uni's take access courses as long as you have GCSEs as well! I've applied for Uni of Liverpool(insurance), Uni of Sheffield(firm) Liverpool John Moores and two at Anglia Ruskin.

Oh that's so amazing! That's very odd as the access website does show Psychology Diplomas in search results but none in my area. Also odd is that a college that also offers Psychology in my area doesn't show up in Access search results (please see edited post ) For example this ( http://www.candi.ac.uk/courses/psychology-access-higher-education-diploma) offers 3 core modules, which is how many credits?

Probably 60 credits! So like before assignments are all 3 credits. so 20 assignments = 3 credits each (no matter what grade pass/merit/distinc) = 60 credits. All you have to do is get most of your assignments at merit or distinction.

Just extra information, I'm aiming for 30 distinctions for Psychology at Sheffield. So this equates to 10 assignments at distinction because 10 x 3 = 30.

Hahah, sorry I am trying my best to explain but when you start they will explain all of this anyway.

Oh that's so amazing! That's very odd as the access website does show Psychology Diplomas in search results but none in my area. Also odd is that a college that also offers Psychology in my area doesn't show up in Access search results (please see edited post ) For example this ( http://www.candi.ac.uk/courses/psychology-access-higher-education-diploma) offers 3 core modules, which is how many credits?