Applying for uni without required grades

So basically I had a pretty sticky few teen years and early adult life, kicked the can around a little bit in regards as to what direction I've taken career and education wise. I did pretty miserably at school, I failed maths (GCSE E) just about got my english (GCSE C) did moderately at other subjects (GCSE C in DT/GCSE B in RE) (BTEC merit in ICT) and D in history/E in graphics. I then went on to college to study media at A level and dropped out midway through my first year due to social anxiety I was under and not feeling comfortable at the college I was at despite being on top of my work bar one or two missed assignments and failing my maths resit. After dropping out I went from crappy temp warehouse job one to the next and felt unfufilled and always wanted more, so since being the age of 6 I've dreamed of joining the Army and again when I was 19 renewed my interest, unfortunately when I applied recently I got rejected medically due to previous mental health issues as a teen/child after managing to get my fitness at a correct standard. Now I'm here, jobless, careerless, no higher education, clock ticking away (turned 22 in April) and I have no way of getting into uni or a desired job as I pretty much threw away everything at the age of 17 without realising what I was doing. I will say for years (from the age of 16) I've been deeply interested in geopolitics/religion/conflicts/history/Arabic and Middle eastern culture/photography/hiking/military equipment and history/music and have in the last few years been thinking of going to uni, infact I often dream of it. I kind of want to pursue learning arabic and studying politics and maybe travelling the Middle East as I'm simply fascinated by its culture and history. And I was just wondering is there a way in my circumstances I can apply to study this or what I would need to study this, any advice would be hugely appreciated!

Reply 1

Anonymous #1

Have you tried looking into taking maths and English gcse to get onto an access course or foundation year. Also because I think you need 5 GCSEs a BTEC counts as 4 as there were people at my college that didn’t have enough GCSEs so they did a BTEC alongside maths or English to get onto a level 3 course which would allow you to progress to your uni course.

University of Manchester

Manchester

Reply 2

LukeStroud

Original post by Anonymous

Forgot to mention that I'm going to resit GCSE maths starting in September at a local college.

Reply 3

username4899406

talk to careers asap - you'd be pleasantly surprised!
you may have to go back and finish your A levels potentially though
in terms of learning Arabic and continuing study - take a look on your local council page etc, see if there are any adult education classes etc

all the best and do keep us updated!