Learning a subject your school doesn't teach

I want to take politics next year but learning it by myself, how would I go about this? Where would I sit the exam? Would it be possible to take the exam in another school? Any help would be appreciated😊


Posted from TSR Mobile

There are schools which allow you to enter as an external candidate. (ie, you're not being taught by them) There's a deadline for them registering you for the exams.

Thank you for replying, so would I have to contact the school directly and ask then how I could apply?


Posted from TSR Mobile

Yes. I'm in the situation where I'm having to do this (can't go to the local college) and am currently having to do research into this.

I went on the AQA website and they give a list of colleges in your area who accept external candidates. There's some information here

I want to take politics next year but learning it by myself, how would I go about this? Where would I sit the exam? Would it be possible to take the exam in another school? Any help would be appreciated������


Posted from TSR Mobile

1. I did this for further maths (very different from Politics obviously). Just found the textbooks and learnt it.
2. Go onto your exam boards website. For me it was Edexcel. There's a map of centres which accept external candidates, I just sent a generic email to all of the nearby ones.
3. Your grades are collated by your UCI number which is on the bottom of one your old certificates. The new school uses this number and the exam board does the rest.

It's not too much fuss but make sure that you enter for the exams by latest November, to make sure the centre has enough time and to avoid any late fees.

Good Luck!

Thank you for the help! I think I'm edging towards self teaching myself psychology, as I've heard it isn't a hard one to learn by yourself! One question, what would happen if one of my exams at the school I'm currently attending clashed with the exam I'm taking at the new school? Thank you ������


Posted from TSR Mobile

Ahh okay, the same thing happened with two of my maths exams. It all depends on how flexible your school is. If they're quite nice, you can either take both exams at your school and just pay your school to enter you for the exam, or you could sit both exams at another centre and tell your school to just transfer the entry over to the other centre.

What I had to do (because my school are pricks) is find a centre which was willing to let me do the exam in quarantine. So, I had to sit the exam at my school, be escorted of the premises, be driven to the other school and sit the exam there all under supervision. Luckily, the school I found had the NICEST head examiner who basically just said, turn up when you can and you can do the exam. He didn't even charge me to sit the exam, he said 'the government pay the school anyway' so I don't need to

Aw okay, I see thank you!
So would I have to wait till I get my exam timetable and if I notice a clash, I have to go see the exam officer?

Wow, who drove you over to the other school? I didn't even know that was allowed!

Thank you for your help

Posted from TSR Mobile

You can see the timetables online now, I would say look now and then give the other school enough notice because a lot of them don't like this quarantine stuff.

Welll, it's meant to be someone from that centre but because the guy was really nice he just said try to get here by this time. So my dad ended up driving me :P

You can see the timetables online now, I would say look now and then give the other school enough notice because a lot of them don't like this quarantine stuff.

Welll, it's meant to be someone from that centre but because the guy was really nice he just said try to get here by this time. So my dad ended up driving me :P

I want to take politics next year but learning it by myself, how would I go about this? Where would I sit the exam? Would it be possible to take the exam in another school? Any help would be appreciated

When would you say i have to let my school know?

The best option would be to sit the exams at your current centre as this saves a lot of trouble. If they won't let you do that then you have to find another exam centre (any secondary school or college) willing to let you sit the exam there. Any of them could but you'll find very few are prepared to accept private candidates as there are a lot of work so you have to ring round. All the exam board websites have advice for private candidates on them with lists of centres that might accept you. Centres do not care how much of little a private candidate knows about the subject - anyone who pays the money can enter. They are just providing a paper and a desk to sit at.

Entries have to be made with the exam board by 21 March but centres normally have earlier internal deadlines (anything from end of Jan onwards) for entries so they have time to process everything. You are likely to have to pay the exam fee (£17-£24 depending on exam board) plus an admin fee - anything from £0 to £150 so it pays to shop around. You need to give them your name, date of birth, UCI, ULN (should both be on exam bumf you already have) and the entry codes of the units you want to take.

If you land up with 2 exams in the same session then you either have to get one transferred (There is a deadline for transferring and a fee for some exam boards so check the dates before you pay for entries and don't enter for 2 exams at the same time in different places - sort it all out before 21 March.) to the other centre or be escorted by a member of centre staff between one centre and the other. If you are caught doing anything else your 2nd paper would be cancelled. Hence it is much simpler if you just enter for them all at your main centre. If you do enter at 2 centres then they cannot see what entries are made, what the results are etc for the entries elsewhere. The only way they would find out (and it happens a lot) is that the 2 centres land up entering the candidate with slightly different details - wrong UCI, missing ULN, middle initial instead of middle name etc and a query gets thrown up. Even then the centres can't see what the other is doing so you have to check carefully for clashes.

Tell them early and then remind them closer to the time

Thank you so much for replying! i'm gonna phone around this week, to see if they will accept me onto next year exams, although it's a bit early now but i just need to see if it looks promising. What about if i can't find a school / college near me that'll accept me? I have to pay an admin fee of £150?! Wow, that's a lot! I've noticed that the psychology AS exam which i want to take as an external candidate, clashes with an exam that i'm learning at my current school, so i will need to sort out the clashes!

Don't ring round until July at the earliest - they are in the thick of running exams at the moment and will not be best pleased by an enquiry. It isn't possible to make entries until November so nothing could be settled before then anyway.