Private Examination candidate

I am looking to apply for 2 AS level exams to be done privately as I am 30+ years old. Can anyone shed some light on the exact process and cost? I am in kent and would appreciate any information and help you could provide as I would like to sit the June 2021 AS exam

Reply 1

Compost

You need to find an exam centre (=any secondary school or college plus some private concerns) willing to accept you as a private candidate. Any exam centre can but in practice very few will because they're busy enough without the extra work. The entry deadline for this Summer is 21 February at the exam board (after which entries can be made but the prices doubles on 22 feb and gets worse after that) but the centre will set an earlier deadline to candidates as they need to make sure they've done and checked everything before they submit by 21 Feb.

If you've ever taken GCSEs or A levels in the UK, the centre will want to know your UCI (unique candidate identifier) which can be found on most GCSE/A level exam certificates. It's a 12 digit, single letter code of the form 11111 006 2222B (first 5 digits are the centre no. that gave you the UCI, next 3 indicate the year (2006 in this case) they gave it to you, the next 4 are your candidate number from the school that gave you a UCI and the letter is a data check. If you tell me what exam board certificates you have I might be able to tell you where to look.

What subjects are you doing and which which exam board(s)?

Reply 2

Fortitude_1

I have never done AS biology and physics before but i would like to which is what i want to do privately. I have however, done A levels in the past (years ago).

Reply 3

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Original post by Fortitude_1

I have never done AS biology and physics before but i would like to which is what i want to do privately. I have however, done A levels in the past (years ago).

Ok, AS Biology and Physics are 100% exam so that makes them relatively straightforward. Have you any intention of taking the full A level? If you have then there is no need to take the AS - for the full A level you need to know the AS content but the AS exam results do not contribute to the A level grade any more.

Have you chosen an exam board yet? Assuming you're in England then you have a choice from AQA, OCR, Pearson Edexcel or Eduqas. Some boards offer more than one specification (e.g. Biology A or Biology B). None of them varies massively as they all have to satisfy the requiremenst laid doen by Ofqual.

You will have a UCI. It would make life simpler if you could fine it.

Reply 4

Fortitude_1

I would like to do the full A level but the whole thing is quite confusing to me. I didnt even know the AS doesnt contribute anymore. How long will it take to complete the A level, what will happen on the day and what are the costs.

Reply 5

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Original post by Fortitude_1

How long it takes you to complete the A level depends on how hard you work, but it won't be by Summer 2021. Whilst the AS is 100% exam, the A level comes with a requirement to complete 12 practicals. They don't directly affect your grade but you get a Pass/Fail for them in addition to an overall grade. If you're aiming to go to university, many of them will make passing the practicals a condition of your offer.

The costs to enter as a private candidate vary a lot between centres, but it's normally around £250-300 per A level. Taking the assessed practicals is likely to cost another £500-1000 per A level.

I'm not sure what you mean by what will happen on the day? If you mean a day when you have an exam then it's not that different to when you take an exam in school. You turn up, they escort you to an exam room, you sit at a wobbly desk in a room that is too hot or too cold and after the desgnated time you leave.

Private Examination candidate

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