Home Educated, Exams next year, and totally lost.

You have only yourself to blame. I don't know who it is that decided you were better off being tutored at home but it was a really bad call from them.
You can have as much time as you want in order to get your grades and move to higher education but it counts for absolutely nothing if you don't learn from past mistakes.

Hi,

I have been struggling with social anxiety for a few years now, causing me to jump from school to school due to the uncooperative headteachers refusing to shorten my school hours so that I could partially study at home. My self esteem and confidence is non-existent. I really wish to succeed and study hard.

I went to see a Vet Nursing college, and they told me I need 5 GCSE's/IGCSE's grade C and above, with English Language, Maths and a Science needed. I really hope I can get into this college.

I cannot get myself to study as my mind wanders and I waste time. Months and months of no studying and now here I am in November, with a few of my exams (even this not yet decided) in May, and I basically have some of year 10 and all of year 11 work to do.

I am panicking and time is running out, I have a few books but most only one book out of two that makes up a course. Please do help me I am begging, anyone who has a time table from when they home educated or a list of books for these subjects:

Edexcel: Maths, English Language
AQA: Biology, Geography
And I need to pick one more subject to make up the 5 for me to get into the college, any suggestions on something more simple?

I have no more motivation, and I feel depressed and lost as everyone else is rushing through life and actually DOING things, and Im sat at home on my phone in my room with no will to carry on.

Please help me.
-Emese

Oh dear - I'm sorry to hear this. Do you have any tutors who come in during your homeschooling?

I do not, I just need to find the right study books.

Ah there it is, your social anxiety is because you talked your schools down even after they tried their absolute hardest to accommodate you. What an absolute shame that you didn't make a single friendship. It's always their fault isn't it

Emashay, where are you writing your GCSEs - at school or are these to be written as a private candidate (usually iGCSEs in that case) at an exam centre? Usually when you're home educated someone (a parent) takes a lead role in your education, where is this person and why are they not helping with tutoring you or arranging for a tutor to help you?

The reason I ask if you're writing as a private candidate is because you might be able to write the exams a year later if you need to, assuming it's not all booked already. That would give you time to get yourself organised with tuition so that you are well prepared and exam ready. I'm not sure about the vet nurse college though, if would they enrol you a year later, you'd need to speak with them to find out the details but I can't see why not.

Ok. Well of course it's up to you, and I don't know your individual circumstances, but I'd strongly advise you get a personal tutor to help you devise a study plan, pace out the work and generally support you. It's a very big ask to try to do all this yourself, and I cannot recommend it. Do you think getting yourself a tutor is a possibility?

Hi,

I have been struggling with social anxiety for a few years now, causing me to jump from school to school due to the uncooperative headteachers refusing to shorten my school hours so that I could partially study at home. My self esteem and confidence is non-existent. I really wish to succeed and study hard.

I went to see a Vet Nursing college, and they told me I need 5 GCSE's/IGCSE's grade C and above, with English Language, Maths and a Science needed. I really hope I can get into this college.

I cannot get myself to study as my mind wanders and I waste time. Months and months of no studying and now here I am in November, with a few of my exams (even this not yet decided) in May, and I basically have some of year 10 and all of year 11 work to do.

I am panicking and time is running out, I have a few books but most only one book out of two that makes up a course. Please do help me I am begging, anyone who has a time table from when they home educated or a list of books for these subjects:

Edexcel: Maths, English Language
AQA: Biology, Geography
And I need to pick one more subject to make up the 5 for me to get into the college, any suggestions on something more simple?

I have no more motivation, and I feel depressed and lost as everyone else is rushing through life and actually DOING things, and Im sat at home on my phone in my room with no will to carry on.

Please help me.
-Emese

Hi, I'm really sorry to hear about your situation. Given your social anxiety and the fact that your school was so unhelpful, being home schooled is a perfectly legitimate way to do your GCSEs so don't worry. If you don't think you can get all the work done to sit your exams in May 2017 then you could decide to sit them in May 2018 instead which would be better than sitting them now and not doing as well.

If you look on the exam board websites they will have the specifications for the GCSEs you are taking along with past papers and mark schemes. The AQA website also tells you which textbooks you need and if you google it you'll find the edexcel textbooks. Make sure you get the actual official textbooks that have the name of the exam board on them so that you can be certain that they have all the information you need to know for the exams. Make sure you get the textbooks for the version of the course you're studying - it looks like there are different ones for if you're doing the A*-U grading version or the 9-1 version.
http://www.aqa.org.uk/
https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/home.htm

Given you're doing Biology you might need to go into a school to do assessed practicals. For another GCSE, in terms of going with the other subjects you've chosen and being good for Vet Nursing, I would say chemistry but that's obviously not easy. Personally, I would suggest taking more than five because although they say five you'll be more likely to get in if you have closer to the number of GCSEs that you would normally take at school. It's toally up to you though so probably look at a list of the GCSEs you can do wherever you're sitting them and choose one(s) that you think you'll enjoy and do well at.

In terms of motivation, just think how great it'll be once you get to do what you want to do and study maybe for short periods of time with breaks so that you don't get overwhelmed. If you have medically diagnosed anxiety then you might be able to get extra time in exams so you should look into that now if you think you might be eligible because you'll need to apply for that in advance. Don't worry about what other people are doing, just focus on doing the best for YOU.

In terms of studying at home, personally I like to read the text books to study cause I remember it that way but I know that doesn't work for most people so most likely you'll want to make notes on the textbook and then revise those. Also, it's useful to go through the textbok and answer all the questions in it (the answers are usually at the back of the book). Draw up a study timetable for between now and the exams (allowing for time off in the holidays obviously). This might take a while to do but will be really worth it in the end, honestly. I wasn't home schooled but my school weren't exactly great haha so I did a lot of studying at home. Once you've revised the textbooks, you should do past papers to make sure you know the format of the exams, how the questions are asked and the key points the examiners will be looking for in the answers.

Sorry for the essay haha! Good luck!

Thank you so much. I will buy a calendar so maybe I could draw up tables in that and put my different subjects? I have a few books and they are very good so I just need to get the rest. You are very helpful and I do need to just motivate myself. I am doing IGCSE's which are different from GCSE's and require no coursework or practicles so I can do 2 Biology papers and thats all I need for it which does make things easier.
Thank you very much for the help and the much needed motivation!

Hi,

I have been struggling with social anxiety for a few years now, causing me to jump from school to school due to the uncooperative headteachers refusing to shorten my school hours so that I could partially study at home. My self esteem and confidence is non-existent. I really wish to succeed and study hard.

I went to see a Vet Nursing college, and they told me I need 5 GCSE's/IGCSE's grade C and above, with English Language, Maths and a Science needed. I really hope I can get into this college.

I cannot get myself to study as my mind wanders and I waste time. Months and months of no studying and now here I am in November, with a few of my exams (even this not yet decided) in May, and I basically have some of year 10 and all of year 11 work to do.

I am panicking and time is running out, I have a few books but most only one book out of two that makes up a course. Please do help me I am begging, anyone who has a time table from when they home educated or a list of books for these subjects:

Edexcel: Maths, English Language
AQA: Biology, Geography
And I need to pick one more subject to make up the 5 for me to get into the college, any suggestions on something more simple?

I have no more motivation, and I feel depressed and lost as everyone else is rushing through life and actually DOING things, and Im sat at home on my phone in my room with no will to carry on.

Please help me.
-Emese

Hi,

I have been struggling with social anxiety for a few years now, causing me to jump from school to school due to the uncooperative headteachers refusing to shorten my school hours so that I could partially study at home. My self esteem and confidence is non-existent. I really wish to succeed and study hard.

I went to see a Vet Nursing college, and they told me I need 5 GCSE's/IGCSE's grade C and above, with English Language, Maths and a Science needed. I really hope I can get into this college.

I cannot get myself to study as my mind wanders and I waste time. Months and months of no studying and now here I am in November, with a few of my exams (even this not yet decided) in May, and I basically have some of year 10 and all of year 11 work to do.

I am panicking and time is running out, I have a few books but most only one book out of two that makes up a course. Please do help me I am begging, anyone who has a time table from when they home educated or a list of books for these subjects:

Edexcel: Maths, English Language
AQA: Biology, Geography
And I need to pick one more subject to make up the 5 for me to get into the college, any suggestions on something more simple?

I have no more motivation, and I feel depressed and lost as everyone else is rushing through life and actually DOING things, and Im sat at home on my phone in my room with no will to carry on.

Please help me.
-Emese

Oh so you were there? When we went to talk to my headteacher and he was so uneducated that he was totally unaware of what home education was and he said it was ''illegal'' and my parents had to actually show him that it was totally legal? You were there when he said that he doesn't care about my anxiety and I should study as everyone else and refused to give me a pass to use in classes when I was hyperventilating and panicking? He refused to help me. He also made snark racist remarks about me and the fact that I am not British.

So, were you there to witness him ''trying his absolute hardest to accommodate me''? Nooo, you weren't, because all you do is come on here to hate on people who have relaised their mistakes and try to gather what is left to move on and succeed. My headteacher didn't care that teachers weren't teaching, and 2 girls bullied to suicide. He did nothing to ''accommodate'' anyone.

I came here to ask for help, and you are not giving any so you can get over yourself. I don't know who you are but you are disgusting.