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Physics foundation course at manchester uni?

I was rejected by manchester but then rung up and they offered me a foundation course. I still got accepted in liverpool but I've always wanted to go to manchester. Not really sure what a foundation course consists of, anyone have any advice? Do you think it's worth doing?
Original post by lucyjane_x
I was rejected by manchester but then rung up and they offered me a foundation course. I still got accepted in liverpool but I've always wanted to go to manchester. Not really sure what a foundation course consists of, anyone have any advice? Do you think it's worth doing?


A foundation year will cover the relevant bits of A-level physics, maths and further maths + a bit more (my foundation year did anyway)

imo I would take the liverpool offer as its a years less debt and in your case you wouldnt have to repeat the same content

Though the above is assuming you actually like liverpool uni, though most people I knew who went to uni ended up loving where they went, even if it wasnt their first choice
Original post by lucyjane_x
I was rejected by manchester but then rung up and they offered me a foundation course. I still got accepted in liverpool but I've always wanted to go to manchester. Not really sure what a foundation course consists of, anyone have any advice? Do you think it's worth doing?


Hey, I completed the Manchester Foundation Year in 2013. It's often touted as just being a repeat of A-levels but it goes a bit beyond secondary school material and the style of learning is quite different (it's much more like other degree courses, with regular assessments and tutorials etc.)

The most important thing to bear in mind is that you have to actually pass the year - this may sound obvious but you'd be surprised how little this seemed to register with a lot of students. You need to average* 75% to pass the year, compared to 40% for the average degree course in first year, so the students who assumed they could put in as little effort as their flatmates doing other courses and skip most of the lectures made up the majority of those who didn't pass.

It's also quite stressful, in that most weeks you'll be sitting at least one mini-test which might make up a couple of percentage points of your mark in a given unit. This doesn't sound like much but when you need 75% you don't have many marks to spare.

This may sound frightening but it is very possible to pass the year, as long as you take it seriously (I somewhat overcompensated and got 92%, and that was after taking things a bit easier in the second semester after I got 94% in the first). Just be aware of what you'd be getting into. Way too many people just seemed to assume that the foundation year was an easy "back door" into a course which usually requires A*A*A. It's important to know that this isn't the case.

It's up to you to decide whether you want to go for the extra year or play it safe and go to Liverpool :smile: Feel free to ask any other questions :smile:

*It's actually a bit more complicated - when I was on the course there were four blocks, made up of three units each, and you had to average 75% in three of the blocks and 70% in the fourth. They may have changed it, so I'd recommend getting in touch to find out.

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