Exam centres for private candidates?

I am retaking my alevels which are bio, chem and maths. Which exam centre are good? If exams get cancelled they would be responsible for assessing me and giving me grades. I’ve heard a lot of bad things about how some of these centres assessed private candidates and how they only want to scam you and take as much money as possible. Does anyone know which exam centre is good in London?

Hello, frobel learning was the exam centre I went to. Another good one i considered was Ealing independent college, AEC tutors is another however they’re more expensive. Best of luck x

Hey! Ive considered frobel learning as a private exam centre and I live like 5 minutes away. I was originally going to sit with my school but they are really messing with my grades and I dont want to take the risk. Are Frobel good? They seem to be genuine and I am really happy theyre quite close to me and the fees arent as extortionate as other exam centres.

Hey, they are lovely. Slow to respond at times but you live right there so you could just pop in if you have to. I was very satisfied

Thats so great to hear! I honestly dont trust my school anymore so its great to hear Frobel are good. Its the cheapest as well for me which is good. Can i ask when did you sit your exams and how did they award you TAGs if exams had been cancelled in your year? They said they will let me do exams as late as I possibly want but my school are making me do them now ughhh. How were their exams generally, hard or medium? Thank youuuu

I am retaking my alevels which are bio, chem and maths. Which exam centre are good? If exams get cancelled they would be responsible for assessing me and giving me grades. I’ve heard a lot of bad things about how some of these centres assessed private candidates and how they only want to scam you and take as much money as possible. Does anyone know which exam centre is good in London?

I sat my exams in june/July. They gave us the latest dates possible which was great. They gave us locked past papers so essentially it was like an official full exam x they didn’t make up their own thank goodness, quite straight forward

That is just such fantastic news to hearrr!!! thank you so so much! Just to confirm, its the Frobel in Barking right? How were the official full exams? As in do you think, they were Autumn exams or something?? Im actually resitting two subjects and I just wanted to ask how much time do you think is needed to get good grades as in months or weeks? Thanks!! I think Im going to start now. Why did you choose Frobel over any other centre?

Hey, that’s correct it’s the one in barking. The official exams were the 2020 and 2018 papers, they were ok to be honest. I used Seneca, the cgp books and then practiced with past papers from my exam boards site. I did 3, started studying in feb so a few months and ended up with A*A*A. I would say start studying now and do as many past papers as you can get a hold of. I chose frobel because of their evidence which was official papers as opposed to course work, mini exams or their own exams. Also the fact that they were best price wise was great. Which subjects are you retaking and what were your original grades? That will better indicate how much time you’d need to spend on revision x

Im just retaking bio and chem and my original grades were two B's. Im hoping for at least one A* but its great to hear you achieved those grades. Very happy for you! I plan to start studying now and finish the syllabus soon. I just wanted to ask how long did it take you to go over the syllabus and revision because I finished all my revision resources last year but its just going over the content as a final recap. Can I ask when you did your exams, do you remember the rough date timeline you had them in because I was happy to hear that they would push it back as far as possible for resit students.

Ok that’s great, you can definitely manage A/A* if you use your time to revise efficiently. Thank you, I did bio chem and maths. I was a private candidate so it was my first time taking them, thank goodness not ever again! I’d say spend the first month or two revising using spaced repetition and then once you’re comfortable do past papers. My exams were the last two weeks of June and the first week of July x

Ah! Thats great to hear! Can you adjust the papers because I am going away right at the end of June (30th). How many papers did you have per subject, was it the standard 3? Thanks a lot for your help! How long did it take you to finish the content of the exams?

I’m not sure about that but I would think if you give enough notice once you get your exam schedule they’d accommodate. It was the standard three papers per subject and it took me about 1-1.5 hrs to finish each exam. Paper 3 took me the full 2 hrs for each subject, those were tough but overall it was ok.

Thanks so so much!! How many hours did you study for the exam overall and what would you recommend for Paper 3, seeing as they have most of the Practical work. Im also a little confused because you were able to take exams at the beginning of July but I thought centres last year had to submit results to the government when exams were cancelled by the 10 June? Our school made us take exams in March/April and this year, they want to take them even earlier ughhh

So sorry I just had a look back and it was end of may first week of June. Last exam was 4th June. I spent many many hours, prob 3-4 hrs most days but that was for three subjects. For paper 3 go over the practicals really well. I must say I put most of my focus on the coursework over the practical stuff which is why I found it harder.