The Student Room Group

Access course or Fast track A levels?

Hello!
I’m 23 and I’ve been out of schools since 18.
It’s now time for me to go back and get a degree.
I didn’t complete my A levels as I moved to Sweden. I didn’t finish my education there either!
So now I’m in a bit of a pickle. I can either choose an online based Access to engineering course through LearnDirect, or a Access to combined science course through a local-ish college. I want to pursue a degree in either computer science or engineering.
Any help would be appreciated.
Hi @Lucasdahlin,


I’m hoping I can help a little bit with this as I completed an access course in social sciences at CU Scarborough in 2019. I had been out of education for a while like yourself and wanted to get back into education after leaving straight after my GCSEs at 16.

A fast track access course can be a very intense year. There is a lot of work to get through and you have to make sure you dedicate enough time to the course. If you keep on top of your assignments and research you’ll be absolutely fine but try not get behind as there’s a lot to catch up on. Whilst it is a fairly difficult year, what I will say is that it gives you an amazing head start when it comes to starting on your degree. As my course was taught at the university, I learnt properly how to reference, research, write essays, reports and present. By the time I’d completed the access course my confidence had grown so much and when I started my degree I felt so prepared and made up for all the time I had previously missed.

Compared to classmates who had come straight from college, I felt like I had more awareness of how university life really was and how to handle assessments in my first year. Like I said my main tip would be just to keep on top of it, make sure you’re giving yourself sufficient time to do the work, but also make sure as you have some down time too. You’ll deserve it!

Mel - CU Scarborough Student Ambassador (Primary Education and Teaching Studies)
Reply 2
Hi, thanks for the reply, would you recommend doing the fast track a levels or the access course?
Original post by Lucasdahlin
Hello!
I’m 23 and I’ve been out of schools since 18.
It’s now time for me to go back and get a degree.
I didn’t complete my A levels as I moved to Sweden. I didn’t finish my education there either!
So now I’m in a bit of a pickle. I can either choose an online based Access to engineering course through LearnDirect, or a Access to combined science course through a local-ish college. I want to pursue a degree in either computer science or engineering.
Any help would be appreciated.

I would do the Access to combined science course through your local college - online based may not offer the support you need plus fast track A levels are very intense.
Reply 4
Original post by harrysbar
I would do the Access to combined science course through your local college - online based may not offer the support you need plus fast track A levels are very intense.


Sweet dude that’s what I was thinking, thanks.
Some Access courses can get you an advanced learner loan.
Reply 6
Please check university requirements. In general I would recommend access courses. Its not the same for engineering and to a slightly lesser extent for computer science. Universities - and certainly the more competitive ones - seem more reluctant to take them. I think this is because the maths covered isn't as rigorous as A level maths. Some will allow you onto a foundation year with an access course though which might attract?
Reply 7
Original post by ajj2000
Please check university requirements. In general I would recommend access courses. Its not the same for engineering and to a slightly lesser extent for computer science. Universities - and certainly the more competitive ones - seem more reluctant to take them. I think this is because the maths covered isn't as rigorous as A level maths. Some will allow you onto a foundation year with an access course though which might attract?


Do you think it would be possible to do a combined science access course and fast track a level maths? I’m looking at working 2 days a week so I’ll have 4-5 days of being able to focus on studying
Reply 8
Original post by Lucasdahlin
Do you think it would be possible to do a combined science access course and fast track a level maths? I’m looking at working 2 days a week so I’ll have 4-5 days of being able to focus on studying

What was your previous level of maths? Had you studied some of the A level syllabus before and then moved countries?

First thing to do is to think of a number of universities you might be interested in, then check their websites for requirements and then email to check if they would accept this. I would also make sure that the access course you are doing is acceptable to them. Most universities state the number of credits you need overall and at level 3 and how many of these need to be in maths - therefore you need a course which covers enough maths.

Personally I think it would be hard to do maths A level in one year from a standing start and get a good grade. Depends if you have some specific talent for it / have covered the material previously.
Reply 9
Original post by ajj2000
What was your previous level of maths? Had you studied some of the A level syllabus before and then moved countries?

First thing to do is to think of a number of universities you might be interested in, then check their websites for requirements and then email to check if they would accept this. I would also make sure that the access course you are doing is acceptable to them. Most universities state the number of credits you need overall and at level 3 and how many of these need to be in maths - therefore you need a course which covers enough maths.

Personally I think it would be hard to do maths A level in one year from a standing start and get a good grade. Depends if you have some specific talent for it / have covered the material previously.


Yeah so I’ve done around a year of a level maths, but this was 4-5 years ago and I’ve not retained much of it. There’s a college about 1.5 hours away that offers a science and math access course which I believe the uni I’ve looked at accepts. But I’m trying to save having to have to travel 3 hours a day.
Original post by Lucasdahlin
Yeah so I’ve done around a year of a level maths, but this was 4-5 years ago and I’ve not retained much of it. There’s a college about 1.5 hours away that offers a science and math access course which I believe the uni I’ve looked at accepts. But I’m trying to save having to have to travel 3 hours a day.

Which is the university and is this for cs or an engineering degree.
Original post by Lucasdahlin
Hi, thanks for the reply, would you recommend doing the fast track a levels or the access course?

Hi again,

Both options are going to be intense and require a lot of work. If you know which degree course you would like to study and some possible university choices, I would get in touch with them and ask them which one would be the best to get on the course. Some may prefer one over the other and the grade boundaries could differ too.

I have to admit, I am slightly biased towards an Access Course but that is because it simply worked so well for me, got me onto the course I wanted to be on, and gave me a head start academically. I understand that not everyone may have had the same experiences as me, but if I was to go back, I would definitely have done the Access Course again. However, there are benefits to fast track A-Levels which is why I would say to contact the university providers about their requirements.

If you do have any more questions, please let me know :smile:

Mel - CU Scarborough Student Ambassador (Primary Education and Teaching Studies)