Any mature students on here who have gone back to study A-levels??

Hey everyone.

I'm 25, currently considering taking up AS Biology, Chemistry and Physics next year.
I already have three A-Levels from 2010 (Business (A), French (A) and Politics (C)), and a degree from 2014 in BA French (2:1), but have now decided to take my life on a different trajectory after a bit of life experience.

It's surprising and reassuring to see so many other people taking A-Levels later in life.
For all those of you studying Sciences, are any of you entirely self-teaching? I've considered this option but I don't quite understand how it would work with the practical elements you need to get signed off.

If possible I'd prefer to self-teach so that I can work part-time at the same time (to pay rent), but if this isn't an option I will begrudgingly go back to college full-time.

Also, I thought the option of doing both AS & A2 in the same year was no longer possible due to the elimination of the January exam sitting, is this not the case?

hows chemistry

Hey everyone.

I'm 25, currently considering taking up AS Biology, Chemistry and Physics next year.
I already have three A-Levels from 2010 (Business (A), French (A) and Politics (C)), and a degree from 2014 in BA French (2:1), but have now decided to take my life on a different trajectory after a bit of life experience.

It's surprising and reassuring to see so many other people taking A-Levels later in life.
For all those of you studying Sciences, are any of you entirely self-teaching? I've considered this option but I don't quite understand how it would work with the practical elements you need to get signed off.

If possible I'd prefer to self-teach so that I can work part-time at the same time (to pay rent), but if this isn't an option I will begrudgingly go back to college full-time.

Also, I thought the option of doing both AS & A2 in the same year was no longer possible due to the elimination of the January exam sitting, is this not the case?

hows chemistry

Hey everyone.

I'm 25, currently considering taking up AS Biology, Chemistry and Physics next year.
I already have three A-Levels from 2010 (Business (A), French (A) and Politics (C)), and a degree from 2014 in BA French (2:1), but have now decided to take my life on a different trajectory after a bit of life experience.

It's surprising and reassuring to see so many other people taking A-Levels later in life.
For all those of you studying Sciences, are any of you entirely self-teaching? I've considered this option but I don't quite understand how it would work with the practical elements you need to get signed off.

If possible I'd prefer to self-teach so that I can work part-time at the same time (to pay rent), but if this isn't an option I will begrudgingly go back to college full-time.

Also, I thought the option of doing both AS & A2 in the same year was no longer possible due to the elimination of the January exam sitting, is this not the case?

If you plan to do something with those A-levels is best to do the practicals as well, since most universities require them as it became a thing as part of the linear science A-levels. Also it will help you be able to answer exam questions about them.

Yeah I'd definitely do the practicals.
I just wish colleges offered evening or weekend classes so I could be more flexible with having to work alongside doing them! I'd gladly go back to college and do normal AS/A2 levels alongside working.

Biology, Chemistry and Physics are all under the new linear A levels which means any exams you sit at AS won't count towards your final grade at A2. Theoretically this means you are still able to sit the full A-level in one year but that'll mean a lot of hard work! Also the practicals don't affect your overall grade either, but it will be noted on your certificate whether you are awarded the full practical-endorsement or not (depending on if you physically sit the practicals at an exam centre/learning provider). If you choose to do the practicals as an external candidate then expect huge costs to be involved. I wouldn't suggest doing practicals for all 3 science subjects as this will cost a ridiculous amount.

I'm self-teaching A level Biology and will be sitting my exams this June. I've opted against doing the practicals so I won't be awarded the full endorsement. The downside to this is that some universities won't accept me if I choose to go ahead and apply to STEM subjects or health related degrees. But as I'm doing A-levels "casually" it's not a huge concern for me at the moment. I just want to see what grades I'm capable of achieving first.

I hope this helps! If you have any further questions then please don't hesitate to post of this thread!



I think you may have misread midlandic_boy 's comment. He is considering taking A-levels.

sorry?

Biology, Chemistry and Physics are all under the new linear A levels which means any exams you sit at AS won't count towards your final grade at A2. Theoretically this means you are still able to sit the full A-level in one year but that'll mean a lot of hard work! Also the practicals don't affect your overall grade either, but it will be noted on your certificate whether you are awarded the full practical-endorsement or not (depending on if you physically sit the practicals at an exam centre/learning provider). If you choose to do the practicals as an external candidate then expect huge costs to be involved. I wouldn't suggest doing practicals for all 3 science subjects as this will cost a ridiculous amount.

I'm self-teaching A level Biology and will be sitting my exams this June. I've opted against doing the practicals so I won't be awarded the full endorsement. The downside to this is that some universities won't accept me if I choose to go ahead and apply to STEM subjects or health related degrees. But as I'm doing A-levels "casually" it's not a huge concern for me at the moment. I just want to see what grades I'm capable of achieving first.

I hope this helps! If you have any further questions then please don't hesitate to post of this thread!



I think you may have misread midlandic_boy 's comment. He is considering taking A-levels.

i do want to ask do russell group universities prefer practical endorsement

I want to. I want to go back and do Maths and Physics but I feel like I need a private tutor, or a friend that's done them to help me through

If not whilst at uni, most likely

Wait, you're thinking of doing two A-levels either whilst you're at university or whilst working?

I plan to at least start them whilst I'm at uni. The upside of doing it outside of Sixth Form is that I can take my time learning the information instead of the two years I would have had at sixth form

So you're going to spread your A-levels out longer than 2 years?

Most likely. I'm in no rush so the longer I can spend on them, especially since I've been out of the maths game for 4 or 5 years, the better I'll do

I'm studying A Level history. Started at the beginning of this year so overall I'll have a few months less than normal. The workload doesn't seem horrendous so far and it's very interesting but I'm doing a distance course and getting frustrated that the turnaround for marking essays is so far a month and waiting which is not ideal since I'll be submitting them every 2-3 weeks. If I were to do it again I think I'd feel inclined to buy the text books and just hire a local tutor but I can't change that now.

I'm 38. I already have a degree but my university experience was pretty negative. I wasn't at somewhere that was particularly good and I was young and naive and I've had an urge to return to uni to push myself because I've spent the last decade or so learning anything that interests me which turns out to be quite a lot. I plan to do access after the A level by which time my kids (who I home educate) will hopefully be old enough that it's practical for me to return to uni part time. The A level was more just to get myself back into learning and because I did very little history at school.