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>> No. 6167 Anonymous
8th July 2016
Friday 1:55 am
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I completely wasted the opportunities given to me aged 16-19 and, despite attending numerous colleges, ended up with one BTEC. I'm not stupid, I was just preoccupied at that point in my life, lacked direction, kept changing subjects and colleges, and ended up with nothing.

Now I want to get back into education, studying sciences at level 3 so I can do a biochemistry Bsc. On researching this, however, it seems that if you graduate from a number of significant universities, the likelihood of you getting a job in that field can be 80% or more. But those universities won't accept access courses from paupers and losers such as myself, and it seems there are no colleges offering A-level courses to adults in my area, just access courses and BTECs.

I really want to give this the best shot I can and come out with the grades that I have earned and so deserve, this time round - they do say that education is wasted on the young. So it would seem that my options are to do either take a loan to pay the extortion fees charged for a distance learning course in maths, physics, biology and chemistry, or do the access to HE combined science course but end up at a university I wouldn't have chosen and lower my career prospects. If I was to do the distance learning courses, I'm told the curriculum has changed 2016/17, which means there may be some problems with the updated courses that might need ironing out. I've read that it is possible to just do the studying yourself based off the curriculum you can view online and pay for the exam when you feel ready, but if this has changed, then this becomes a risky choice. I always said I didn't want to do a university level course in a creative subject, but I'm now starting to feel that all this motivating myself and preparation for a new path in my life is not going to be fruitful, and my alternative would be to do either English or creative writing, and just give that everything I've got - and I am very passionate about writing, but I feel like if I was ever good enough to make a living from it, then my work should speak for itself. As a creative subject (at least the way I'm looking at it and what I hope to take from it), surely it won't teach me much more than what I would discover myself through practice, or would be able to learn online. The benefit would be an on-paper qualification that would allow me to become a teacher or tutor if my own efforts didn't work out.

So, I have a bit of a dilemma in which path to take - do I do the distance learning course, maths I imagine would be fairly straightforward, but the sciences, especially with this change, might fall short of the mark in this context, and it'll be fucking expensive. Or do I pursue my hobby and passion at an academic level and see where that takes me? I have a feeling that if I did that, I wouldn't even have that happy feeling people sometimes describe when they're 'following their dream' or whatever, because I really have prepared myself to do a big science, and I would perhaps feel like I've bailed on that, even if I did receive some success.

An access course is not really an option because it won't take me to the universities I want to go to, so for that route it really only leaves distance learning A-levels. Does anyone have any experience with these?
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>> No. 6168 Anonymous
8th July 2016
Friday 2:49 am
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Loads of excellent universities accept access students, including most of the Russell Group. Off the top of my head, only ICL absolutely refuse access students. I'd be curious to know where it is you'd like to study and why the alternatives are so unappealing.

Your age is a factor - if you're over 23, most universities will treat you as a mature student and you'll be subject to more liberal admissions criteria.

Many institutions prefer Access to HE students applying for science courses to have an A level in maths, so that's an option worth considering.

It is possible (though difficult) to take A level exams without taking a course. You should only consider it if you're a very confident autodidact. Contact the exam boards for details.
>> No. 6169 Anonymous
8th July 2016
Friday 7:19 am
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>>6168

I absolutely do not want to find myself in a situation in which I've spent a year, possibly two, doing tertiary education, four years at university, possibly another year on a masters, ending up with £60-90k of debt, only to find that all of the available jobs are filled by people head-hunted from the select universities, leaving me working in an unrelated field - that's my fear in a nutshell. But you make some interesting points, and I'm aware that a lot of universities will make exceptions to the entry requirements of a course, given given the right circumstances. Also, I have a plan of things that I can do whilst on the course that will give me an edge when I do graduate and begin looking for work, as I'll be a bit older and won't be about gettin' crunk urr day or whatever it is 18 year olds do on their first year of uni. So that's the best thing about the situation.

I hear what you're saying, I suppose I'll call around and see what the various admissions teams have to say themselves rather than depending wholly on hearsay.
>> No. 6170 Anonymous
8th July 2016
Friday 2:31 pm
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>>6169
Stop worrying. We shouldn't have to repost why student debt isn't real debt on here. Also don't bother with a masters, they do little except to prove you're flexible. They barely make you any more employable. If you don't get in the industry you want that's tough shit and is the same for most people through most of their careers,all you can do is work out a strategy of getting there should you not find a job in it straight off the bat. You'll inevitably leave anyway, research says most people have nine separate 'careers' over their working lives today versus two fifty years ago.
>> No. 6171 Anonymous
8th July 2016
Friday 3:22 pm
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Starting from next year a lot of NHS trusts will be doing what they're calling "practitioner apprenticeships" in healthcare science. In short if you manage to get one you get paid £15,000 a year and do a BSc degree to become something like a biomedical scientist, radiologist or what have you. Sounds like it could be what you're after. It's better than having tonnes of debt at least.

Source: currently a health science apprentice and hoping my boss will put me on one of those next year.
>> No. 6172 Anonymous
8th July 2016
Friday 3:28 pm
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>>6171
That sounds good, but my cynical mind imagines they'll end up going to whoever's in charge's children. Do you have any idea how widespread they'll be?
>> No. 6173 Anonymous
8th July 2016
Friday 3:49 pm
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I'm in a similar situation mate. I'm currently in my later twenties and I spent most of my secondary school years trying to impress girls and smoking weed whenever I could scrape together a tenner.

After working in a bar, as a cleaner, in retail, fast food etc. I've decided that this kind of life Isn't for me. I took GCSE Maths and English last year and have just sat the exams.

In my practice papers I bought online I hit A and A* grades so the exams were a breeze. As aforementioned, if you're comfortable with home study after work and for a few hours on your days off, I'd jump right into online learning mate.

I'm doing it with this website: https://www.icslearn.co.uk/

It's going to cost a couple grand to do my A Levels, but It's worth it mate. Unless you're happy performing a physical job requiring very little thought your whole life, pull yourself up that greasy pole and put the time in.

The primary motivation for me was talking to people who had worked in those jobs for 15 years or so. They can barely string together a coherent sentence, and all the excitement in their lives comes from television or indulgence.

Fuck that. The remarks I got when I read a bit on the kindle on my break and the twisted faces I'd see while speaking because I'd accidently used a niche word. I don't want to spend my life around that forever. I don't think It's healthy for the thinking mind.

All power to you mate.
>> No. 6174 Anonymous
8th July 2016
Friday 4:01 pm
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The fact that you start off saying you want to study biochemistry, then veer off talking about creative writing suggests you've not fully lost the aimlessness and mind-changing tendencies you mention from your youth. A bit of uncertainty is natural, but most students instinctively know if they fall on the arts or sciences side at least.

Personally, if you want to give yourself the widest possible options post-graduation I'd look into how to apply for a four-year integrated masters in Chemistry (BA/BSc and MSci/MChem). Within Chemistry you can specialise to organic and biochemistry if that's what interests you, and most if not all such integrated Master's degrees give you the option of graduating after three years with the Bachelor's degree if you decide against continuing your studies.

Changing from a four-year to three-year course is far easier than trying to go in the other direction if you discover a passion for your subject and decide you'd like a career in it, and a Master's is necessary for most career paths in science (besides teaching or basic lab technician work). On the other hand, having either a Bachelor's or Master's in science gives you arguably the widest choice of career paths post-graduation that have nothing to do with your subject due to the perceived 'hardness' of the degree and large number of transferable skills.

Another option would be to look into degrees in Natural Sciences, these are typically broader in scope and allow you to put together a course of study including aspects of chemistry, biology, and other sciences should you wish. Which is handy as you actually get a proper taste for each science before specialising.

I'm probably biased as a scientist but I wouldn't recommend degrees in Creative Writing. If you're passionate about writing then an English degree will be far more useful. Neither will give you the as large a scope of career options that studying science would, but really you have to decide for yourself which type of student you can see yourself as.
>> No. 6175 Anonymous
8th July 2016
Friday 8:17 pm
6175 OP
>>6174

As I mentioned, I never had any intention of studying a creative subject at university, as I believe the resources are there online for you to teach yourself technique, the only shortcoming is that you might not make as many contacts, but if you involve yourself in local scenes you can make just as many. Living in a city, this is why I take this view, but of course I understand people from smaller towns wanting to study a creative subject for precisely these reasons. I wanted to do science because I have developed a large passion for it's various areas, biochemistry appealing to me in particular because I want to focus on neuroscience. I feel that having an understanding of the processes that occur in the brain on a chemical level will give me the knowledge I need to pursue some of the things I'd like to research, given the opportunity, as well as investigate and develop some ideas and theories I have for my dissertation. Almost every branch interests me, and from what I gather, biology will be this centuries physics. But as well as all that, I like the idea of having a career that I enjoy, but a creative hobby that I then don't have to depend on for an income, and so will be able to enjoy it more, take my time with projects, and if appropriate, release any work to the world on my own terms, when it's ready.

The past decade has been pretty rough, and it's put a lot of things in perspective. I believe that if I spent my time as I've described above, with a career in science and my spare time on my writing, I would be much happier than I am right now. I'm seeking long term gratification rather than the instant variety that so many youngsters get fooled by.

Applying for the four year is an option that I will look into. I've just now briefly looked at some Natural Science courses around the country, I'll have to explore it in more detail at some point - it's something I hadn't considered, so thanks for the tip.

>>6173
Yeah, this is a worry of mine. I've done plenty of those jobs, and I think if I had a crystal ball and saw that I'd be doing them for the next 40 years, I'd probably pull out all of my teeth and fingernails and stuff down my throat to choke myself to death. Y'know, just to make a point.
>> No. 6176 Anonymous
8th July 2016
Friday 8:27 pm
6176 OP
>>6171
Is this what you're referring to?

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/411716/HEALTHCARE_-_Healthcare_Assistant_Practitioner.pdf

It seems like a valid alternative, I'm just reading some more into this now. Hospitals that offer this are local to me and there are some in the are I may be moving to in a couple of years (I probably should have mentioned that this was also a pretty important factor in my wanting attend specific universities). The mental health aspect is a part of where I would have wanted to end up through studying biochemistry, so it does appeal to me. I'll look into this some more, as well. Cheers.
>> No. 6177 Anonymous
8th July 2016
Friday 11:32 pm
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>>6176

Yea that's it. Essentially they've changed it from tailoring specific apprenticeships for a certain job role to this "apprenticeship standard" where it will be as uniform as possible across the board, but with the department and job title filled in for each vacancy. All I can say is keep your eye on the NHS jobs website like a hawk, and trawl through it manually page by page. The search options are intentionally horrible so that they can bury jobs they secretly just want to give to someone internally. Also, not all of them will get you straight into a job; I'm lucky enough to have a position reserved for me once I've finished my apprenticeship, but a lot of them are essentially temporary posts.

If you want a good rate of vacancies biochemistry is as good a place to start as any, if you want to get straight into something with more long term career potential think about the more under appreciated specialisations like histopathology. Keep in mind that what they are pushing here is essentially a more practical, hands on approach intended to get people just like you and me (i.e people who aren't thick but screwed it all up when we were a bit younger) into hard to fill skilled roles, so there's very little time for the academic poncey stuff you here unilads going on about on here- It's all very focussed.
>> No. 6180 Anonymous
12th September 2016
Monday 6:23 pm
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I am in pretty much the same boat, thankfully though not only does the university and course I am interested in offer a foundation year, they also accept access so long as you have the 3 basics to C and above (which luckily enough I'm going to re-sit 2 of them next year and run 1 next year alongside my access)

I did speak to this particular university and they said they treated distance learned subjects with the same eye as they would a taught subject. I think it's worth reaching out to the course leaders and seeing what they have to say and then get it in writing from them.
>> No. 6181 Anonymous
12th September 2016
Monday 6:28 pm
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>>6180

OP here. I start my access course this week. I didn't make a decision, I just ignored the options until I didn't have a choice, which felt pretty good. I also remembered that I have a criminal record for drugs, which will probably mean that, although I might get into university, there's almost no chance I'll get a job in the industry. Which made me chuckle at first, because that's so like me, and now that I'm getting into science it will make for a great absent-minded-professor kind of character. But then I remembered that I have a criminal record for drugs, which will probably mean that, although I might get into university, there's almost no chance I'll get a job in the industry.

Fuck it, I can always do engineering and go and work on an oil rig somewhere. Or learn chemistry and be a radical, perspective-changing chef like Blumenthal. We need more Hestons on this little island of ours. Also chefs fucking love drugs.
>> No. 6182 Anonymous
12th September 2016
Monday 6:29 pm
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>>6181
You're definitely absent-minded.
>> No. 6183 Anonymous
12th September 2016
Monday 6:38 pm
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>>6181
I wish fracking kicked off so that I could just fuck off to some rig in the middle of nowhere.
>> No. 6184 Anonymous
12th September 2016
Monday 7:03 pm
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>>6181

>side effects may include short-term memory loss
>side effects may include short-term memory loss
>> No. 6185 Anonymous
20th September 2016
Tuesday 9:12 pm
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Currently living in Cyprus, 19 years, working in the restaurant, wasting my life. As far as I know, my russian school leaving certificate doesn't qualify the entry requirements to the university (reason: in ex-USSR countries students spend in school 1 year less). The only one option for me is to sit 3 A-levels (Math, Physics and English) as an independent student, or to take Foundation Level for which I don't have money, but I suddenly found, that British Council center in Cyprus charges around 200 pounds per unit, is it really so expensive and is there any other cheap centers within Europe excl UK where I can take International A level's as an independent student? Should I sit all 3 exams in one academic year or I can combine them from different years to get entry points? I'm getting upset thinking that I may never go to the university and won't become an engineer. Sorry for my english, bratya.
>> No. 6186 Anonymous
20th September 2016
Tuesday 9:23 pm
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>>6185
Depends on how clever you are - for most 19 year olds, taking 3 A Levels in a year is a bit of a push. You can usually combine them and take them whenever you want, it doesn't matter which year you get them in, you just need the points.
>> No. 6187 Anonymous
20th September 2016
Tuesday 10:15 pm
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>>6186
No university worth its salt cares about UCAS points, but you're right that you don't have to take A levels all at once either.

Have you looked into IB? I'd have thought that would be easier to take abroad given that it is, ya know, international and all.
>> No. 6188 Anonymous
21st September 2016
Wednesday 1:38 pm
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>>6183

They've been fracking in the North Sea for years, and no-one complained.

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