Help, Self-studying 6 A-level in one year

Hello Guys,

I’m from overseas and I finished high school in my home country. I am planning to study 6 A-levels (science, maths, German and psychology) in one year (maybe 1.5 year).

The thing is I want to sign as private candidate but because I’m not very familiar with UK system idk how and when to take the tests and where do I find materials.

And is it okay if I just set for the exams ? Do I need to do assignments, lab work,etc ? And will it affect my grades or university admission?

I know it’s tough to do 6 A-levels but I want to give it a try

Please help and I will much appreciate it

Hello Guys,

I’m from overseas and I finished high school in my home country. I am planning to study 6 A-levels (science, maths, German and psychology) in one year (maybe 1.5 year).

The thing is I want to sign as private candidate but because I’m not very familiar with UK system idk how and when to take the tests and where do I find materials.

And is it okay if I just set for the exams ? Do I need to do assignments, lab work,etc ? And will it affect my grades or university admission?

I know it’s tough to do 6 A-levels but I want to give it a try

Please help and I will much appreciate it

Hello Guys,

I’m from overseas and I finished high school in my home country. I am planning to study 6 A-levels (science, maths, German and psychology) in one year (maybe 1.5 year).

The thing is I want to sign as private candidate but because I’m not very familiar with UK system idk how and when to take the tests and where do I find materials.

And is it okay if I just set for the exams ? Do I need to do assignments, lab work,etc ? And will it affect my grades or university admission?

I know it’s tough to do 6 A-levels but I want to give it a try

Please help and I will much appreciate it

Hello Guys,

I’m from overseas and I finished high school in my home country. I am planning to study 6 A-levels (science, maths, German and psychology) in one year (maybe 1.5 year).

The thing is I want to sign as private candidate but because I’m not very familiar with UK system idk how and when to take the tests and where do I find materials.

And is it okay if I just set for the exams ? Do I need to do assignments, lab work,etc ? And will it affect my grades or university admission?

I know it’s tough to do 6 A-levels but I want to give it a try

Please help and I will much appreciate it

Super humans who revise like 6-8 hours a day for 2 years straight do 4 a levels ( and most of them still don't feel 100% confident before the exams), now you wanna do 6 in 1 year GL!
For science a level there is a practical 'exam' which you have to pass to get into good uni for my exam board I have to do around 12 experiments(per a level) which are externally assessed. You will basically have to do 36 practicals with full detailed report in 1 year.

Where are you planning to sit for these exams? Different parts of the world have different specifications and different times of the year to take the exams.

“Exam board” do yo mean AQA, Edecxel, etc? Cause I always see these organizations names but didn’t really understand what do they stand for lol
And I guess I have to register in an exam board to be taken as a private candidate ?

So for Physics, biology and chemistry As and A2 that’s a total of 36 experiments with the reports ? Gosh that’s a lot of work

I know it’s gonna be tough but I have plenty of free time and I have some background on these subjects so hopefully I will be able to do them, if not in one year I will still have additional 6 months

Where are you planning to sit for these exams? Different parts of the world have different specifications and different times of the year to take the exams.

Most universities don't care if you are a private candidate (Even though this may vary for certain subjects. Be sure to contact your universities).

Make sure you plan on how you are going to obtain a reference

Do you mean a reference for university? Cause I got that covered
I hope you don’t mean that I will need a reference to become a private candidate, because that’s gonna be a bit troublesome

I came to UK 2 months ago and I will be free for nearly 18 months before getting into a university

I'll answer your question anyway, even though I think you're crazy.

First of all, if you're studying privately then you can either get a tutor, do an online course or just simply teach yourself. Materials can be found online and on the various awarding bodies websites. You can also buy textbooks.

For the exams you can take them at a private examination centre, these centres will accomodate your exams only, they will not teach you anything. For the sciences you will have to take practicals, these may/may not be offered by centres so you should contact them and ask them - I believe they may charge extra fees which could be very high. As for the German I believe there is a speaking exam involved, once again this should be discussed with the centre.

You can search for and find exam centres all over the UK by using this tool: https://cloudlearn.co.uk/ExamCentres

My advice to you is to think about whether you want to get tutor or learn yourself. Also, choose which boards you would like to take the subjects with and check their specifications for the exam details. Once you are familiar with the layout of the course and how it is assessed, contact exam centres and check if they accomodate the subjects you are doing and also ask them whether they will accomodate for any practical elements.

Remember exam centres charge different fees so it's good to shop around to get a good deal.

Good luck

As someone who has done self study for one subject. Let me tell you, unless you have great contacts - it’s extremely hard and 6 subjects probably is impossible.