GCSEs in six months, is this possible??

I recently started studying for my GCSEs through an open learning course; at the moment I only have the study packs for six of them, though I plan to do 8/9 all together.

I study one subject a day (12hrs with breaks) and then 8hrs on both Saturday and Sunday, plus I work through all holidays. My subjects are English Language, English lit, mathematics, biology, history and sociology. Also plan to do Chemistry and geography, and I'm considering Physics OR Business studies.

A while ago I plotted out a timetable for when I plan to finish each course, most courses are 18-28 lessons long, including activities and assignments. I worked out that I should have finished the six subjects by mid December, though some courses (sociology and Biology) should be done earlier.

So, taking all this in to consideration I decided to discuss the possibility of doing GCSEs slightly early with my parents. They thought that I should consider it as a possibility, after all, what's the point of having information swimming around in your head for the best part of eighteen months and not being able to apply it to anything?

Though as I thought more about this I began to wonder... is this possible? It would mean I'd be sitting the GCSEs in 7/8 months- and I haven't even done coursework yet!!

Am I crazy for even considering this? If so, is there any chance I could still do them slightly early? I remember hearing a while back that GCSEs can also be sat in January and November; is this true?

Any advice much appreciated! Feel free to shout me down. :redface:

Reply 1

icantdance

I would say its possible! The two years one is given in school is very overstretched in my opinion. If you take a GCSE in college along with your AS it only takes a year and the work load you appear to be putting in is much more than college hours totalled up, so I would say go for it.!

Reply 2

icantdance

One more thing, what open learning website are you using? I want to pull in a few more GCSE's and dont want to use another college year for it.

Reply 3

Hell Boy

2

I want to study some GCSEs too. What is this open learning thing? can i apply for it and sit the GCSEs in June/July? :confused:

If so, I really want to apply and get some GCSEs! Also, how is it assessed? online!?

Reply 4

naddles

1

Is it something like this?

Reply 5

Eternity Forever

12

I would say that it is possible especially if your putting as much effor in as you claim to be. I did GCSE statistics in five months with four 50 minute lessons a week and still managed an A, so it is possible.

Reply 6

calcium878

18

Possibly possible. :smile:

Reply 7

Eternity Forever

12

calcium878

Possibly possible. :smile:

oui

Reply 8

kellywood_5

17

You seem to be putting in an immense amount of work compared to the time you'd be putting in at school and you seem really disciplined with your timetable and everything, so I don't see why not. I'd never done any Spanish before, but I did the GCSE by distance learning in 9 months and got an A*, so as Madémoisélle Charlotté said, it is possible. All GCSE resit courses last a year as opposed to 2 and lots of schools offer a couple of GCSEs early to the most able students, so it's not unheard of.

Reply 9

Cataclysm

2

It's not wrong to consider it, if you feel confident, go for it! It is your choice after all!

There are some GCSEs that can be done in January but these are mostly "applied or double" awards GCSEs, where you have modules, not all GCSEs are offered in November either. Summer is when you get all the exams being offered.

Reply 10

calcium878

18

It's a shame you couldn't have got Maths and English out of the way in this November exam session.

Reply 11

Hell Boy

2

You can get English and Maths @ my college (as long as its with AQA). Same with OCR (but exams are in January) so re-sit at a college!!! It will save you a couple of hundred pounds. lol

Reply 12

PaulaTwouble

Yeah, it's more than possible, people do GCSEs in a year all the time and take exams in May time so that's doing it September > May, what's that, eight months? And they don't work through holidays and they've got about six weeks off between September and May.

Reply 13

The Nightingale

OP

15

Thanks for all the replies. :smile:

For those who asked, this is the distance-learning course I'm using:

http://www.oxfordhomeschooling.co.uk/index.htm

The service is very good; you can apply on line or ring OOL and ask for an application form. The teachers are friendly and you have a different tutor for each subject, they contact you every 2/3 weeks to check on your progress, and you can contact them whenever you need help or advice.

Assessment is done in the usual way. Sadly OOL can only advise you on exam centres, though you yourself must write off to exam centres, they can help a little, though otherwise your on your own. Coursework is sent off via post and marked by the exam board (AQA).

There are also tutor marked assignments, these must be completed every 4-6 weeks, depends which course your doing. NOTE: These do NOT go towards the exam; they're just to see how you're doing.

As I said thanks for all the replies, it's good to hear other people’s opinions, as I was unsure of how realistic I was being. I'll see how I'm doing in Dec/January and decide from there. :biggrin:

Reply 14

AisAis

13

I think it's very do-able. (Is that a word?)

My mum took a GCSE intermediate paper after having had 30 one-hour lessons over about a year and got a grade B, the highest you can. That was with her job and children ect too! She hadn't done any maths for about forty years, either.

Sociology you could definitely do. Once you have the technique right it's easy - I did a past paper for my mock in year ten and go an A*. I know that's only on the part of the course we'd covered, and easy because the school make it up, but still!

Don't worry about the coursework, it's not very hard, there's just a lot of it. I did my sociology in one day, last week. I have no idea what my mark is yet, but I did do it lol.

Biology is all about remembering things, so if you've been studying so extensively and have finished the course that could be done. The coursework is only about 3-6 pages hand written and you just jump the hoops. I'm not sure how you'd do the practical at home though...

Good luck!

Reply 15

LadyEnglish

2

I guess it's possible, pushing yourself a bit hard though arn't you :confused:

but if you think you're up to it and can achieve good grades in all the subs in 6 months, go for it, i wouldn't myself to be honest x

Reply 16

lunchbox

The Nightingale

Thanks for all the replies. :smile:

For those who asked, this is the distance-learning course I'm using:

http://www.oxfordhomeschooling.co.uk/index.htm

The service is very good; you can apply on line or ring OOL and ask for an application form. The teachers are friendly and you have a different tutor for each subject, they contact you every 2/3 weeks to check on your progress, and you can contact them whenever you need help or advice.

Assessment is done in the usual way. Sadly OOL can only advise you on exam centres, though you yourself must write off to exam centres, they can help a little, though otherwise your on your own. Coursework is sent off via post and marked by the exam board (AQA).

There are also tutor marked assignments, these must be completed every 4-6 weeks, depends which course your doing. NOTE: These do NOT go towards the exam; they're just to see how you're doing.

As I said thanks for all the replies, it's good to hear other people’s opinions, as I was unsure of how realistic I was being. I'll see how I'm doing in Dec/January and decide from there. :biggrin:

Why do you use OOL when referring to Oxford Home Schooling. Wouldn't it be OHS? Or is Oxford Home Schooling somehow a part of OOL?

Edit: LOL, found out Oxford Home Schooling is a division of OOL. I get it now. =P

Reply 17

Burnin_Heart

The Nightingale

I recently started studying for my GCSEs through an open learning course; at the moment I only have the study packs for six of them, though I plan to do 8/9 all together.

I study one subject a day (12hrs with breaks) and then 8hrs on both Saturday and Sunday, plus I work through all holidays. My subjects are English Language, English lit, mathematics, biology, history and sociology. Also plan to do Chemistry and geography, and I'm considering Physics OR Business studies.

A while ago I plotted out a timetable for when I plan to finish each course, most courses are 18-28 lessons long, including activities and assignments. I worked out that I should have finished the six subjects by mid December, though some courses (sociology and Biology) should be done earlier.

So, taking all this in to consideration I decided to discuss the possibility of doing GCSEs slightly early with my parents. They thought that I should consider it as a possibility, after all, what's the point of having information swimming around in your head for the best part of eighteen months and not being able to apply it to anything?

Though as I thought more about this I began to wonder... is this possible? It would mean I'd be sitting the GCSEs in 7/8 months- and I haven't even done coursework yet!!

Am I crazy for even considering this? If so, is there any chance I could still do them slightly early? I remember hearing a while back that GCSEs can also be sat in January and November; is this true?

Any advice much appreciated! Feel free to shout me down. :redface:

Firstly, IGCSEs can be sat in November, not January. But the Nov exams are usually harder than the May/ June ones. Not by heaps, but they are more challenging as many people sit them in May/ June.

Okay, now about your proposal. It does sound quite crazy actually. I did three subjects in less than a year and one in six months, but the rest I did in about 18 months.

I don't know how much work you'd be forcing on yourself, but within 7-8months, I reckon it may be possible, but boy, you'll have to really go for it and it probably won't be easy. One of my mates did his in ten months and although he was a very bright kid, he didn't get great grades cuz he'd tried to do too much in too little of a time.

Coursework for English Literature and Language can be done in like 2 months (1 month each), which is what I had to do because I got exempted from a year. Maths and Geography aren't too hard either, but I don't know what the coursework's like. But Chemistry especially isn't the easiest subject on earth.

And the other thing you have to remember is that by using that much of your time studying and stuff, you won't have much time to have fun in your life and there won't be much time to do that later.

But it's your choice. Good luck. Tell me what you decide to do, hey. :biggrin:

Reply 18

butterfly_girl_5

8

the amount of time I spent on my spanish GCSE is equivalent to about 7hrs a day for 3 weeks- and i got an A*. for the two years i did GCSEs i spent probably about 3-4 months of that actually working and the rest dossing- so 7-8 months is more than enough!
make sure you learn exactly what is needed for the A/A*- that helps. maybe see if you can not do coursework for most of the courses- it sounds like your good at learning things and remembering them so youd stand a better chance without coursework

GCSEs in six months, is this possible??

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