Taking A-Levels after a gap year.

I did a BTEC course in a subject I no longer want to pursue as a career. I took a year out to work full-time but now I want to get back into education. I found a website (OpenStudyCollege) which offer A-Levels but I'm worried I will struggle to study independently. Other colleges offering A-levels are too expensive. Did anyone do anything similar or have any advice that would help? I can't even remember much from GCSE. I am hoping to go to Uni after taking A-levels

A-levels online will be quite expensive.

What is it you want to do?

Seeing as you have a BTEC (if it is level 3)
You should be eligible to do most degrees that aren't relevant to your BTEC with a foundation year.
E.g. if you did a BTEC in computing you could do say a French degree with a foundation year.

Also what are you GCSE grades like.


My opinion on self-teaching A-levels is don't do it. Most people who attempt it crash and burn. Get people on here all the time saying how they have planned to self-study 8 hours a day for like 9 months and that I am an idiot for saying it is not practical and you will struggle with motivation etc. etc.

You can self-teach some things easily. But generally speaking with A-levels is that they are stepping stones and the content is not very interesting. For example, if you are want to do a CompSci degree you might want to do A-level maths. A-level maths is a boring subject. It is extremely tedious to self-study it. Especially if you have very little love for mathematics other than getting the grades so you can got to university. In this example, it is so easy to lose motivation.

So, unless you are doing a degree that requires A-levels (can't think of any). I would not bother. I would recommened either an Access Course or Degree with Foundation year.

There is an argument that it is harder to go to top top universities with Access course. This may be true. But it is also true that universities like Oxford and Cambridge look down on people who retake A-levels or do them later in life so something to bear in mind. That being said, 99% of universities will happily accept Access students.

Bear in mind that OpenStudyCollege only offer you help with your studies, by way of tutor support, materials etc, and that you have to arrange the examinations yourself.

Are you aware if it is a difficult process? Because this is the only college I've seen that will allow me to work along side it and the courses are not expensive for me so its currently my first choice of what to do, though I need a little more research into everything.

I did a BTEC course in a subject I no longer want to pursue as a career. I took a year out to work full-time but now I want to get back into education. I found a website (OpenStudyCollege) which offer A-Levels but I'm worried I will struggle to study independently. Other colleges offering A-levels are too expensive. Did anyone do anything similar or have any advice that would help? I can't even remember much from GCSE. I am hoping to go to Uni after taking A-levels

Whereabouts in the UK are you based?

https://www.ukrlp.co.uk/
https://www.learnyay.co.uk/
https://cloudlearn.co.uk/ExamCentres
https://he-exams.wikia.org/wiki/Finding_an_exam_centre
https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/

These are useful sites in terms of finding nearby schools that you could ask to sit your exams at.

I haven't gone through a distance learning provider such as OpenStudyCollege, so cannot comment - I am self studying, though.

Hi @Kaylee20,

I think to start off the first thing you should do is determine which degree you would like to study and at which possible universities. Different universities have different entry requirements so it’s best to base it off of that.

Before starting on my degree I had no A-Levels but my GCSEs. In order to get onto the Primary Education and Teaching Studies degree at CU Scarborough I completed a one year Access to Higher Education course in Social Sciences there. The university determined that as long as I completed the access course I would be able to start on my degree in the September. Obviously this differs at each university which is why it’s importance to double check at the universities you are most interested in.

Hope this helps,
Mel - CU Scarborough Student Ambassador

Thank you, I will look into this. Coventry is one of the few places I was considering, so this advice is very helpful!

Thank you, I will look into this. Coventry is one of the few places I was considering, so this advice is very helpful!