Potential mature student anxieties!
Hi everyone,
I've been wanting to go back to my studies for years and years but have always found myself without enough time or in the right situation to do it. I'm a 29 year old stay at home mum with a preschooler and a new baby and I'll be moving from London to Malaysia for the next two years. It occurred to me that perhaps I finally have a couple of years where I could indeed go on and study via an online distance course.
I did fairly well in my GCSEs at school and I'm thinking to do 3 a levels in Maths, English literature and psychology. Afterwards I'd like to do an education degree and train to be a teacher.
Are there any mature students in here who have done something like this who can talk to me in more details about juggling studies and parenthood? Also, I'm not expecting it to be easy, I know it'll be hard work but is it realistic to get good grades at a level when you've been out of education for around 13 years?
Also, I've been looking at studying with ICS Learn, has anyone studied with them?
Thanks a lot for reading!
I've been wanting to go back to my studies for years and years but have always found myself without enough time or in the right situation to do it. I'm a 29 year old stay at home mum with a preschooler and a new baby and I'll be moving from London to Malaysia for the next two years. It occurred to me that perhaps I finally have a couple of years where I could indeed go on and study via an online distance course.
I did fairly well in my GCSEs at school and I'm thinking to do 3 a levels in Maths, English literature and psychology. Afterwards I'd like to do an education degree and train to be a teacher.
Are there any mature students in here who have done something like this who can talk to me in more details about juggling studies and parenthood? Also, I'm not expecting it to be easy, I know it'll be hard work but is it realistic to get good grades at a level when you've been out of education for around 13 years?
Also, I've been looking at studying with ICS Learn, has anyone studied with them?
Thanks a lot for reading!
Original post by Rebecca787
Hi everyone,
I've been wanting to go back to my studies for years and years but have always found myself without enough time or in the right situation to do it. I'm a 29 year old stay at home mum with a preschooler and a new baby and I'll be moving from London to Malaysia for the next two years. It occurred to me that perhaps I finally have a couple of years where I could indeed go on and study via an online distance course.
I did fairly well in my GCSEs at school and I'm thinking to do 3 a levels in Maths, English literature and psychology. Afterwards I'd like to do an education degree and train to be a teacher.
Are there any mature students in here who have done something like this who can talk to me in more details about juggling studies and parenthood? Also, I'm not expecting it to be easy, I know it'll be hard work but is it realistic to get good grades at a level when you've been out of education for around 13 years?
Also, I've been looking at studying with ICS Learn, has anyone studied with them?
Thanks a lot for reading!
I've been wanting to go back to my studies for years and years but have always found myself without enough time or in the right situation to do it. I'm a 29 year old stay at home mum with a preschooler and a new baby and I'll be moving from London to Malaysia for the next two years. It occurred to me that perhaps I finally have a couple of years where I could indeed go on and study via an online distance course.
I did fairly well in my GCSEs at school and I'm thinking to do 3 a levels in Maths, English literature and psychology. Afterwards I'd like to do an education degree and train to be a teacher.
Are there any mature students in here who have done something like this who can talk to me in more details about juggling studies and parenthood? Also, I'm not expecting it to be easy, I know it'll be hard work but is it realistic to get good grades at a level when you've been out of education for around 13 years?
Also, I've been looking at studying with ICS Learn, has anyone studied with them?
Thanks a lot for reading!
Hey!
Not exactly the same situation however I'm 31, have been out of study since leaving school and have recently just started a distance learning course. My top tips for starting off would be:
- Identify what you want to do
- Identify the best way to do that
- Clarify it can be done
You will more than likely find that if you want to be a teacher and you want to go to Uni, an Access to HE Course may be suitable in which case - this only takes a year! This is assuming that you have the pre-requisite GCSE results required for Teaching (I honestly have no clue, I think there are some requirements though).
In terms of workload, you will find a lot of people on here find the workload very heavy. I've mentioned this a few times in different threads, I haven't found the work overly taxing but it just takes a considerable amount of time to do. For me, its simply the fact I have never had to produce proper "academic" structured essays before and this has been a steep learning curve.
The running theme for all of the distance learning courses are that its very much a self-motivated thing. You must be proactive in doing your research and work as you wont have your hand held. As a mature student, we pay for these courses and therefore there isn't really the option to drop out however you will hear many stories of college courses starting with 30 people and by the time June comes around.. there's 10 of them!
What i'd say overall is this - if you want it enough, do it. I'm 31 and have had a 10 year professional career. I probably still have another 30 years of work left in me so there's loads of time left!
Thank you so much for your reply, it's much appreciated.
The main problem that I have is location and that in two years I won't know where I'll be. I will definitely be going to Malaysia for the next two years but after that I could be coming home to the UK, going to America, Singapore, Hong Kong.....it really does depend on the opportunities available in two years time.
I don't want to sit in Malaysia raising my kids and doing nothing else, I want to use my time productively and least bring myself one step closer to doing my degree, wherever that may be. I choose a levels because although the access course is one year, it would mean that I'd be sitting around for one year also as I can't study my degree in Malaysia because I'd be leaving anyway. It's so hard to travel and study!
I'm definitely anxious about juggling everything considering we could have another arrival during our stay in Malaysia. My head is telling me that I should wait and not bite off more than I can chew but I'm so depressed just being a stay at home mum and I've already put this off for 12 years! I don't want to wait any longer.
Many thanks once again for replying, I want to follow my heart and do something for myself for a change.
The main problem that I have is location and that in two years I won't know where I'll be. I will definitely be going to Malaysia for the next two years but after that I could be coming home to the UK, going to America, Singapore, Hong Kong.....it really does depend on the opportunities available in two years time.
I don't want to sit in Malaysia raising my kids and doing nothing else, I want to use my time productively and least bring myself one step closer to doing my degree, wherever that may be. I choose a levels because although the access course is one year, it would mean that I'd be sitting around for one year also as I can't study my degree in Malaysia because I'd be leaving anyway. It's so hard to travel and study!
I'm definitely anxious about juggling everything considering we could have another arrival during our stay in Malaysia. My head is telling me that I should wait and not bite off more than I can chew but I'm so depressed just being a stay at home mum and I've already put this off for 12 years! I don't want to wait any longer.
Many thanks once again for replying, I want to follow my heart and do something for myself for a change.
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