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Are those who self teach a-levels better candidates?

Are people who have self-taught a-levels better candidates for university than those who went to sixth form? If so how much better is it?
Reply 1
Avatar for Juno
Juno
20
Not necessarily. Usually, it's the better candidates who are motivated enough to attempt self teaching, but it's very hard and a lot of people who do attempt will either drop it or not do as well as they hoped. Even so, you can't say that someone is an excellent candidate just because they self taught - other similarly motivated people will travel to a far away college, or do extra study in their own time, or somehow overcome the problems that could lead to being tempted to self teach.
Reply 2
Avatar for Hyde
Hyde
Personally, I think they are. My academic excellence means I'm capable of self-teaching myself a-levels whereas most people lack the motivation to do it.
Reply 3
Avatar for Clip
Clip
19
Kidding yourselves.

I've self-taught a law degree, and not for one second can you pretend that there are any tangible advantages. You can misunderstand key concepts or miss whole sections of the syllabus and never really know.
I doubt it. If they are actually self-teaching then I guess it shows they are motivated and organised etc. but pretty much everyone I know who is 'self-teaching' additional A levels is just being private-tutored outside of college, either by their parents or a paid tutor. Therefore, I personally don't think someone is better for having 'self-taught' something unless I know that they actually did and they still got good grades.
No. Whilst it does show that you are very self-motivated and can learn independently, tutoring yourself is extremely dangerous because whilst you can teach yourself the specification, you run the danger of not getting a full understanding of topics. That's not to say that you're a bad candidate if you self-teach, but I definitely wouldn't say that it's a huge advantage, especially given the huge amount of extra effort you'd have to put in and the fact that you are potentially jeopardizing your grades. Most Universities at the top have academic excellence as their number one importance, so unless you haven't got another option, I'd avoid self teaching your A Levels if possible.
(edited 10 years ago)

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