Retired but thinking of doing a couple of A' levels externally.

I am retired but I need to set some goals rather than letting my interests drift from one thing to another.
I was thinking of doing a Maths and Economics A level - maybe one at a time. I have a degree in Biochemistry.
My lifestyle is such that I physically move around, so I will want to do them externally and not be tied to clasroom attendance.
I am in need of advice about exam boards, learning material and the practicalities of learning solo.

Mike

(edited 9 months ago)

Reply 1

helpfindmybeans

9

Original post by Mike6666

I am retired but I need to set some goals rather than letting my interests drift from one thing to another.
I was thinking of doing a Maths and Economics A level - maybe one at a time. I have a degree in Biochemistry.
My lifestyle is such that I physically move around, so I will want to do them externally and not be tied to clasroom attendance.
I am in need of advice about exam boards, learning material and the practicalities of learning solo.

Mike

Hi, I've just finished a Maths A-Level so I can tell you a bit about that. My sixth form used the Edexcel exam board so I can mainly talk about that, the A-Level was split into 2 pure maths papers and 1 applied maths paper, which contains statistics and mechanics. I found the textbooks we used very helpful, with the pure textbook having a blue shell design on the front and the applied one having an image of a red human sprinting on it. Regardless of which exam board you use, my best advice would be to constantly attempt practice questions and not rely on learning fixed solutions for questions since the A-Level exams can throw a lot of curveballs at you. As a general rule of thumb, I would aim to learn 5 hours of new content per week per A-Level and spend a further 5 hours a week revising content for each A-Level but if that isn't something you have time for then it may be worth spending longer than the average 2 years on the A-Level. I personally don't have much experience of learning solo but I hope some of the information I've provided has been useful and feel free to ask any further questions.

Reply 2

Mike6666

OP

2

Thank you very much for your response. You followed the Edexcel exam board, was this because your 6th Form teaching staff think it is better ?
I now have enough judge the amount of work required for the Maths A' level.
Good luck with the results

Reply 3

helpfindmybeans

9

Original post by Mike6666

Thank you very much for your response. You followed the Edexcel exam board, was this because your 6th Form teaching staff think it is better ?
I now have enough judge the amount of work required for the Maths A' level.
Good luck with the results

As far as I'm aware Edexcel is the more popular exam board for A-Level Maths so they may have just picked that due to having access to more resources or because they thought the content was laid out better in that specification. No exam board is better than any other so I'd recommend looking into each exam boards specification for A-Level Maths and deciding which one seems better for you personally. You may also be able to rent or buy second hand copies of textbooks or workbooks for different exam boards to see how the content is laid out and the structure of the course for a better insight. Thanks for wishing me good luck, hope your academic journey goes well!

Retired but thinking of doing a couple of A' levels externally.

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