is it worth it?
So i did two btecs and one a level, and I've been accepted into a really good uni! Woo! Right, so now that's out of the way, I could use some advice. And I mean actual advice, not just mindless bullying. You know what I mean, 'cause I know we've got some academic snobs here who just like putting people who put people down simply because they took BTECs. You know who you are.
Anyway, moving on. So I technically haven't finished college yet, but I'll be starting uni in October. My original plan was this:
At AS I got an Distinction in Business, B in Drama, A in Psychology and A in Philosophy. It was a horrid year and like many of us, I ended up bursting into tears many a time. Unwilling to put myself through all that again, I decided to take Double business and Drama so i could get all the coursework out of the way and focus on getting an A in Drama. With this in mind I planned to take on Philosophy and Psychology during uni (as another A level) so that I have a nice range of academic and practical skills whilst working alongside my degree.
Still with me? Cookie for you!
But recently I was talking to people in college and they've been saying that A levels are useful only to get into uni, and that's it. Not to mention I won't have time to work on A levels if I want a good degree. You would think I would have considered that wouldn't you?
But what about after graduate schemes? Don't they ask for UCAS points from 3 A levels? Not 2 BTECs and one A level? Or would the UCAS points still count? And what about employers as well? I recently read that people with BTECs are more employable, but are paid less (don't ask for the link, I can't fookin remember where I read it) so thus by having 3 A levels and 2 BTECs, it'll look awesome for potential 'high paying jobs' in the future.
I'm predicted Distinction* Distinction* A currently, plus the extra little courses I've taken means that in total I will have 550 UCAS points.
Another cookie for taking the time to read all that.
So in summery my question to you is:
-Should I stick with the original plan of taking the 2 A levels during the first year of uni? Or should I just leave it with 2 distinction*s and an A? basically, SHOULD I JUST FORGET IT?
-Do graduate schemes (I plan to get Masters later) accept the UCAS points from 2 BTECs and A levels?
-Are the importance of A levels over-rated after you get a degree?/Do they matter at all? Or are they merely the 'entrance exam' into uni?
-I plan to take up a lot of student societies, so....am I going to have time to do these student societies, get a good degree, and get the two A levels?
I do appreciate honesty, but not bullying, so please be constructive (<---keyword there) in your feedback!
Love you guys!
Anyway, moving on. So I technically haven't finished college yet, but I'll be starting uni in October. My original plan was this:
At AS I got an Distinction in Business, B in Drama, A in Psychology and A in Philosophy. It was a horrid year and like many of us, I ended up bursting into tears many a time. Unwilling to put myself through all that again, I decided to take Double business and Drama so i could get all the coursework out of the way and focus on getting an A in Drama. With this in mind I planned to take on Philosophy and Psychology during uni (as another A level) so that I have a nice range of academic and practical skills whilst working alongside my degree.
Still with me? Cookie for you!
But recently I was talking to people in college and they've been saying that A levels are useful only to get into uni, and that's it. Not to mention I won't have time to work on A levels if I want a good degree. You would think I would have considered that wouldn't you?
But what about after graduate schemes? Don't they ask for UCAS points from 3 A levels? Not 2 BTECs and one A level? Or would the UCAS points still count? And what about employers as well? I recently read that people with BTECs are more employable, but are paid less (don't ask for the link, I can't fookin remember where I read it) so thus by having 3 A levels and 2 BTECs, it'll look awesome for potential 'high paying jobs' in the future.
I'm predicted Distinction* Distinction* A currently, plus the extra little courses I've taken means that in total I will have 550 UCAS points.
Another cookie for taking the time to read all that.
So in summery my question to you is:
-Should I stick with the original plan of taking the 2 A levels during the first year of uni? Or should I just leave it with 2 distinction*s and an A? basically, SHOULD I JUST FORGET IT?
-Do graduate schemes (I plan to get Masters later) accept the UCAS points from 2 BTECs and A levels?
-Are the importance of A levels over-rated after you get a degree?/Do they matter at all? Or are they merely the 'entrance exam' into uni?
-I plan to take up a lot of student societies, so....am I going to have time to do these student societies, get a good degree, and get the two A levels?
I do appreciate honesty, but not bullying, so please be constructive (<---keyword there) in your feedback!
Love you guys!
Employers don't care about A levels, the majority of grad schemes say X amount of UCAS points from 3 A levels or equivalent and even if they did say X amount of UCAS points from 3 A levels they would most probably take your BTEC as 2 A levels as that is what it is equal to.
Don't waste your time and risk your university grades on getting 2 more A levels which you don't need, if you actually needed them for a particular job then yes I would say do them but I'm almost certain there isn't a grad job that specifically requires philosophy and psychology A levels.
Just enjoy uni, don't needlessly over stress yourself in your first year, its not worth it
Also the BTEC in Business is a good qualification to have if you are looking to go into a managerial role once you graduate, it looks better than the A levels anyway, especially to an employer
Don't waste your time and risk your university grades on getting 2 more A levels which you don't need, if you actually needed them for a particular job then yes I would say do them but I'm almost certain there isn't a grad job that specifically requires philosophy and psychology A levels.
Just enjoy uni, don't needlessly over stress yourself in your first year, its not worth it
Also the BTEC in Business is a good qualification to have if you are looking to go into a managerial role once you graduate, it looks better than the A levels anyway, especially to an employer
Original post by yt7777
Employers don't care about A levels, the majority of grad schemes say X amount of UCAS points from 3 A levels or equivalent and even if they did say X amount of UCAS points from 3 A levels they would most probably take your BTEC as 2 A levels as that is what it is equal to.
Don't waste your time and risk your university grades on getting 2 more A levels which you don't need, if you actually needed them for a particular job then yes I would say do them but I'm almost certain there isn't a grad job that specifically requires philosophy and psychology A levels.
Just enjoy uni, don't needlessly over stress yourself in your first year, its not worth it
Also the BTEC in Business is a good qualification to have if you are looking to go into a managerial role once you graduate, it looks better than the A levels anyway, especially to an employer
Don't waste your time and risk your university grades on getting 2 more A levels which you don't need, if you actually needed them for a particular job then yes I would say do them but I'm almost certain there isn't a grad job that specifically requires philosophy and psychology A levels.
Just enjoy uni, don't needlessly over stress yourself in your first year, its not worth it
Also the BTEC in Business is a good qualification to have if you are looking to go into a managerial role once you graduate, it looks better than the A levels anyway, especially to an employer
Okay, right, so you're saying I should just forget it? But isn't it going to make me look stupid to others if I only have 2 BTECs and 1 A level?
Original post by Cookies4623
Okay, right, so you're saying I should just forget it? But isn't it going to make me look stupid to others if I only have 2 BTECs and 1 A level?
Btecs only stop you from doing some uni courses at some very good unis.
Since you have your uni place there is no need to do anymore a levels.
Once you have your degree (once you have a uni place even) alevels/btecs dont matter much to employers.
Original post by Cookies4623
Okay, right, so you're saying I should just forget it? But isn't it going to make me look stupid to others if I only have 2 BTECs and 1 A level?
why on earth would it?
I have no idea so I'm afraid I can't anwer any of your questions; nevertheless thank you for the cookies 
Original post by yt7777
why on earth would it?
Eh, you know how snobbish some people can be. Even people who arn't considered snobbish generally don't have a high opionion of BTEC. I mean, my only kinda comfort here is that BTECs like business, ict and engineering are some of the more respected btecs, but just in general...
you're in uni arn't you? Have people looked down at you at all? Or does no one care? Do tthey even ask?
Original post by whydoidothis?
Btecs only stop you from doing some uni courses at some very good unis.
Since you have your uni place there is no need to do anymore a levels.
Once you have your degree (once you have a uni place even) alevels/btecs dont matter much to employers.
Since you have your uni place there is no need to do anymore a levels.
Once you have your degree (once you have a uni place even) alevels/btecs dont matter much to employers.
Right, so what you're saying is that A levels/Btecs are only useful to get into uni? I would say that I got into a pretty good uni, one of the top 30. So that mean there is literally zero point in me sticking with the original plan?
( this is Cookies4623, but I'm just using my back up account)
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by Yoru
Eh, you know how snobbish some people can be. Even people who arn't considered snobbish generally don't have a high opionion of BTEC. I mean, my only kinda comfort here is that BTECs like business, ict and engineering are some of the more respected btecs, but just in general...
you're in uni arn't you? Have people looked down at you at all? Or does no one care? Do tthey even ask?
you're in uni arn't you? Have people looked down at you at all? Or does no one care? Do tthey even ask?
Yeah I'm at Royal Holloway studying Computer Science, I previously did the BTEC in IT.
No they really dont and tbh I am performing well on my degree and a lot better than certain people who did A levels in Maths and 2 others,
I think the practical experience and how relevant the content is makes them really good preparation for uni or work, also some of my degree modules have been very similar to my BTEC units and I have found myself referring to my old BTEC coursework and I have achieved firsts in all of the work that has been similar to what I did on my BTEC.
Original post by yt7777
Yeah I'm at Royal Holloway studying Computer Science, I previously did the BTEC in IT.
No they really dont and tbh I am performing well on my degree and a lot better than certain people who did A levels in Maths and 2 others,
I think the practical experience and how relevant the content is makes them really good preparation for uni or work, also some of my degree modules have been very similar to my BTEC units and I have found myself referring to my old BTEC coursework and I have achieved firsts in all of the work that has been similar to what I did on my BTEC.
No they really dont and tbh I am performing well on my degree and a lot better than certain people who did A levels in Maths and 2 others,
I think the practical experience and how relevant the content is makes them really good preparation for uni or work, also some of my degree modules have been very similar to my BTEC units and I have found myself referring to my old BTEC coursework and I have achieved firsts in all of the work that has been similar to what I did on my BTEC.
Oh hey man, that's pretty cool! Congrats on the firsts, I heard they're pretty difficult to get :P
Besides, I think (from what I understand) A levels/BTECs are useful only get into uni, and then after that their only use is the amount of UCAS points that are asked for on grad schemes (but those are equal in ucas points anyway). They are basically the entrance exam into uni (is that right?? Thats what I'm getting from this anyway).
Original post by Yoru
Oh hey man, that's pretty cool! Congrats on the firsts, I heard they're pretty difficult to get :P
Besides, I think (from what I understand) A levels/BTECs are useful only get into uni, and then after that their only use is the amount of UCAS points that are asked for on grad schemes (but those are equal in ucas points anyway). They are basically the entrance exam into uni (is that right?? Thats what I'm getting from this anyway).
Besides, I think (from what I understand) A levels/BTECs are useful only get into uni, and then after that their only use is the amount of UCAS points that are asked for on grad schemes (but those are equal in ucas points anyway). They are basically the entrance exam into uni (is that right?? Thats what I'm getting from this anyway).
Thank you, first are 70%+ and they weren't too hard to obtain, but like I said I did pretty much the same module on my BTEC so I already knew it.
I wouldn't say entrance exams because they're all independent qualifications.
A levels are souly just to get to uni and BTECs also get you to uni but are vocational qualifications and are preferred in industry over A levels for employment. Coming out of sixth form and working you are more likely to get a professional or managerial role if you have done BTEC and coming out of uni there is a higher employability rate for people who have a BTEC and a degree over people who have A levels and a degree.
But essentially yes most grad schemes that require UCAS points will say 'X amount from 3 A levels or equivalent' BTEC is a direct equivalent.
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