More GCSES to get into college

Hi I only done 3 GCSEs and I need to do 2 more to get into college. Does anyone know places or websites that offer GCSEs in Psychology and Chemistry. Chemistry isn’t mandatory but Psychology is. Thanks

Reply 1

MindMax2000

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by em.707

Typically, you should be able to do Chemistry GCSE at your local adult college or community college. You might be able to do this for free, but you will need to check.

For psychology though, it's not likely that you would be able to do this offline. Good news is that GCSE Psychology is 100% exam, so it's relatively straightforward to do as a private candidate. If you google "GCSE Psychology online", you should see a whole host of courses that you can do.
Thing to beware about the course though is that not all of them will arrange your exam for you (usually you do this yourself). If they do, the cost of the course tends to be significantly higher.
Do also note that each online course is specific for an exam board. You will need to be sure which exam board you want to do your GCSE with before you enrol. The main exam boards for online courses are AQA, Edexcel, and OCR. (There are also Eduqas and WJEC, but they aren't usually taught as online courses and they are usually more common for Welsh students.)

Should you need to arrange your exams yourself, you should contact the exam centres who are approved by the specific exam board (not all of them are approved by all of them, even though most are). As I don't know which exam board you will be with, I can't tell you where to go.
Bear in mind of the following:

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You would need to book your exam between November and February

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If you book it later than February, you would incur late fees and anything after April means you will be cut off from the academic year i.e. you will need to do it next year

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The fees to book exams include admin and exam fees; admin fees are set by the exam centre and the exam fees by the exam board.

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The closer you are to city locations or locations with high property prices and tax bands, the more likely you will get higher admin fees

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You would need to contact 4-5 exam centres and try to liaise with their exam officers before you get through as many don't really reply back to you.

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Prioritise going to exam centres closest to you, but aren't expensive

Since you intend to go to college next year, you would only have 1 year to get this right should you still want to study A Levels/IB/etc. at a sixth form college. If you don't get in by the September that you turn 17, you would not likely be able to get into sixth form college at all and would need alternative means to do your NVQ Level 3s.

My recommendation is to do 3 subjects instead of just 2, since if you have issues with one you would still have another one to back you up. Ideally, the subject you choose is 100% exam, otherwise you can pay up to £1200 for subjects that include coursework and exams e.g. art, English lit.

I recommend you do your research now and do it fast. If you need a full list of possible GCSEs to do, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GCSE#Subjects