The Student Room Group

Re-start with A-Levels instead of a mixture of vocational courses and AS

I am currently studying a certificate Level 3 in food science and nutrition, a certificate in level 3 business and AS level psychology. After consideration and talking to various people they have said it is unlikely I would get onto a psychology degree course as the first two are A-Level equivalent, more coursework based but I would need to have distinction or higher as they are both marked pass, merit, distinction and distinction* and do not have much relevance to the degree. I therefore am unsure whether starting again completely from scratch would be the best option as from my mock results I only got a pass in food, the teaching is poor currently and nobody seems to understand the course. As well as this there is no textbook so the whole thing is really unclear and then had an A in psychology and a merit in business. Therefore, would you recommend starting again with 4 A levels. If I do I would choose psychology, sociology, business studies (actual A-Level) and English language at a college where they do A-Levels. I am happy to start again and even though I want to do a psychology degree I am unsure about doing it alongside business or sociology so I would study a joint honours degree and doing an actual A-Level in business and sociology will help me choose as my current business course is very much coursework based and very little theory so I think it is unclear whether I would want to study this in the future at the moment from doing just this course. Thanks for reading ! If you can give me any advice that would be great, thank you :smile:
(edited 6 years ago)
Sorry you've not had any responses about this. :frown: Are you sure you've posted in the right place? :smile: Here's a link to our subject forum which should help get you more responses if you post there. :redface:
Reply 2
Original post by emma.williams
I am currently studying a certificate Level 3 in food science and nutrition, a certificate in level 3 business and AS level psychology. After consideration and talking to various people they have said it is unlikely I would get onto a psychology degree course as the first two are A-Level equivalent, more coursework based but I would need to have distinction or higher as they are both marked pass, merit, distinction and distinction* and do not have much relevance to the degree. I therefore am unsure whether starting again completely from scratch would be the best option as from my mock results I only got a pass in food, the teaching is poor currently and nobody seems to understand the course. As well as this there is no textbook so the whole thing is really unclear and then had an A in psychology and a merit in business. Therefore, would you recommend starting again with 4 A levels. If I do I would choose psychology, sociology, business studies (actual A-Level) and English language at a college where they do A-Levels. I am happy to start again and even though I want to do a psychology degree I am unsure about doing it alongside business or sociology so I would study a joint honours degree and doing an actual A-Level in business and sociology will help me choose as my current business course is very much coursework based and very little theory so I think it is unclear whether I would want to study this in the future at the moment from doing just this course. Thanks for reading ! If you can give me any advice that would be great, thank you :smile:


If you want to start again, maybe go for only three subjects, the three that you feel the most comfortable at, four is an awful lot, and there's just too much stress.
I feel like its not to late to start again at college, if you do go ahead and apply for Unis they might not consider your subjects. it is highly UNLIKELY though. its all up to you at the end of the day.:smile:
Thank you. I am already studying AS-level psychology this year. Would it be advised to start from the beginning with this course again at college so I am in the same place with other people in the class? This is why I thought I would do 4 to AS-Levels as I would be doing year 1 of psychology again. However, would this limit my chance with studying psychology at university as I'll be studying AS for two years and then doing the A-Level in the final year. I will have done psychology for 3-years in total, not sure if that is an issue with uni?. Many thanks :smile:
Original post by emma.williams
I am currently studying a certificate Level 3 in food science and nutrition, a certificate in level 3 business and AS level psychology. After consideration and talking to various people they have said it is unlikely I would get onto a psychology degree course as the first two are A-Level equivalent, more coursework based but I would need to have distinction or higher as they are both marked pass, merit, distinction and distinction* and do not have much relevance to the degree. I therefore am unsure whether starting again completely from scratch would be the best option as from my mock results I only got a pass in food, the teaching is poor currently and nobody seems to understand the course. As well as this there is no textbook so the whole thing is really unclear and then had an A in psychology and a merit in business. Therefore, would you recommend starting again with 4 A levels. If I do I would choose psychology, sociology, business studies (actual A-Level) and English language at a college where they do A-Levels. I am happy to start again and even though I want to do a psychology degree I am unsure about doing it alongside business or sociology so I would study a joint honours degree and doing an actual A-Level in business and sociology will help me choose as my current business course is very much coursework based and very little theory so I think it is unclear whether I would want to study this in the future at the moment from doing just this course. Thanks for reading ! If you can give me any advice that would be great, thank you :smile:


I would try contacting Admissions at universities you may be interested in to get an idea of whether they would consider your current courses for a psychology degree. However, I do think starting again doing A Levels is the best choice (I'm in my final year of a psychology degree right now). You could finish up AS Psychology this year, and continue A2 Psychology next September alongside 3 other AS subjects, then carry those 3 subjects onto A2 the year after (some universities require at least 2 science subjects out of psychology, maths, biology, chemistry and physics so check up on that).

Just picking up on the joint honours part, I would think about this quite a lot. If you want to study a psychology degree that is accredited by the BPS (you need this if you want to pursue any career within psychology), then it's very unlikely a joint honours course wouldn't be accredited unless it's related e.g. psychology & counselling.

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