To do chemistry GCSE as an adult

Good luck, OP, if you find a course, please report back, I'd love to do A level chemistry, having got an A at GCSE eons ago, and regretting not taking the subject further back then.

I don't know about Chemistry, but I have studied an academic subject to GCSE and then A level as an older adult, and it is very motivating and satisfying. I enjoyed the discipline it requires. I sat the exam through a private college in London which was able to make the entry for me and provide the exam accommodation (the exam board may be able to suggest somewhere for you). Good luck!

I did a maths A Level in my mid 20s. I really enjoyed it! I was lucky enough to have a friend who was a maths teacher who tutored me.

Also my son did on-line physics gcse at about 22 and was given a 0900 slot in Birmingham for his exam which meant travelling overnight. The closest other exam site was on the outskirts of London, which would have also been a less problematic overnight but would cost £250 on top of the course.
So it’s worth asking where the exam will be before signing up for a course.

@Marshbird it's really not the case with GCSE level though, most reasonably clever adults don't need to do experiments to understand the eight required practicals thought experiments and YouTube's videos are fine, and in most cases you can carry them out at home anyway with a few adaptations ie Rates of reaction with bath bombs, water and vinegar etc

Making salts
Temperature changes
Rates of reaction
Chromatography
Water purification
Electrolysis
Neutralisation
Identifying ions

I work in FE. We offer Science GCSE as an evening class. It's two evenings per week (as opposed to Maths & English, which are one evening).
It's a popular course.

Instead of a GCSE do the first unit with the OU S111 as it covers GCSE and some A level Biology, physics and chemistry. You don't need to do practicals as it's designed to be done from home.

I did a combined Chemistry and physics course at our local college. I was one of the oldest students there but we were all adults. It was two hours a week and an hour or so homework.
The practicals were great fun and made me glad I took a course rather than home study.

Couldn’t you just read some books/ watch some videos? I bet you could learn most of the concepts in a few hours as an adult.

I really like Nile Red on YouTube he does lots of interesting experiments

I think it’s recommended that there should be approximately 130 hours of teaching per GCSE so I guess, in theory, you could do it in less than a month if you had nothing else to do! TBH, I would expect someone educated to PhD level (depending on the field) could possibly do it in a lot less than 130 hours. Based on my experience, and my DC’s experience, undergraduates often learn statistics from scratch to a higher level than GCSE statistics in about 30 hours teaching.

My son did Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry as there no practicals. You can buy the textbook and self study along with online resources. That spec can be sat in the summer and autumn, exam centres such as Tutors & Exams accept adults.
https://he-exams.fandom.com/wiki/Chemistry
https://he-exams.fandom.com/wiki/Finding_an_exam_centre

Chemistry graduate here. You won’t get full benefit of learning chemistry without practicals. The point about science is doing experiments to back up theories. A lot of people don’t get that chemistry required an element of physical engagement and not just book learning.
only exception is theoretical physics really, and maths.

I'm not sure I totally agree. Of course the experimental basis is crucial to the field but I'm not convinced my grasp of the field was much enhanced by all the hours in the undergrad labs, especially organic synthesis. Unless you're planning on a career involving practical lab work, reading, understanding and doing the calculations (especially stats) are likely to be far more valuable.
Then again, my PhD was crystallography (experimental but limited practical skill required, mostly number-crunching) and my career in chemistry software development so I've got a different perspective

If you want to do chemiastey GCSE there is definitely a practical element. If you look on line you can find courses where they send you the kit and you can do the practical side too. Open Study College do it for example https://www.openstudycollege.com/courses/gcse-chemistry-higher-tier

Have done chemistry IGCSE’s with my home ed kids. I really enjoyed it - more than they did I think although they did quite like it. If you want a video course which is complete and shows the practicals Southwest Science school does a good one (with questions for every topic). I think you’d definitely get a 9 if you worked through it all. The lessons might be a bit slow for you but there are lots of practice questions and they mark a couple of practice papers.
Would also be totally possible of course with the text book but less engaging.

When the students do the practicals at school , it's quite haphazard. 30 secondary kids all doing it at the same time and rarely goes well. My daughter learnt the practicals much better just using an exam bank and watching them. She certainly learnt them quite well enough to get a very high grade GCSE. For Alevel or degree I'm sure you really need to do the practicals, but for you at GCSE with a PHD already, honestly you can just learn them easily.

AQA chemistry you need to be able to write about the practicals and understand them, but it's 100 percent written examination so you don't need to have ever actually carried out the practicals your self.
You can just watch them on YouTube or a revision site and it's easy to properly understand them

I can see the appeal of doing the exam. Taking a particular course keeps you focused and gives structure to your study, plus there's the challenge of getting a good exam mark.
Why do people time their runs, enter races, climb to the top of high mountains or any number of other things? It's about being able to reach a measurable goal surely.

Chemistry graduate here. You won’t get full benefit of learning chemistry without practicals. The point about science is doing experiments to back up theories. A lot of people don’t get that chemistry required an element of physical engagement and not just book learning.
only exception is theoretical physics really, and maths.
also to really do well in chemistry and make sense you need at least gcse in physics or be doing both at same time. Maths as well. Fundamental to all science

so college course only way really. Unless you set up lab in your house🫣🤭 . Not a good idea with small kids, but entirely possible . Have good extractor and fire extinguisher 🤣🤣🤣

perosnally, if you’re not going*p to do a job or degree in chemistry, or other science , or degree where science is needed, I’d go for a much wider self taught approach on physical and natural sciences from a theoretical perspective. Devise your own curriculum. Explore how chemistry and physics are linked . Hone your maths skills to learn how it fits into physics . Learn about biochemistry . There is so much material available on line. Fantastic lectures and videos of experiments high explain stuff way better than average school and college lecturer. Start with back catalogues of Christmas lectures- so,e are bloody brilliant. Without a curriculum to stick to you can follow your nose and interests, be completely unihibited by the this is chemistry and this is physics. Let’s face it that’s what Marie Curie did , she ended up with noble prize in both physics and chemistry.

it’s wonderful you’re interested. Don’t let anyone crush your curiosity becuase thst curiousity is at the heart of every good scientist (or any intelligent perosnally for thst matter) . But I think doing academic exams at this stage of your life with other committents isn’t going to work, doing your self learning, then whizz through a course in a year later in life when you have time to do the evening practicals needed.

had a very quick search, maybe do more searching , came up with this as first return,.must be loads other you could look into
https://brilliant.org/s/sem/science/?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=search&utm_term=166423271274_science%20lessons_CTG_Science_Science_Learn&utm_content=702018199907_&utm_campaign=21373697719_Mixed_Search_Category_AllNonMath_RoW&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADwPohX78Rj8D8mgE542e-e6qLzeS&gclid=Cj0KCQiA7NO7BhDsARIsADg_hIYCd_MnlxoMJR3EUgnRFyWMNazg_nk0YhjVqCAlkQONFSMNDP9JAtkaAoztEALw_wcB

Pearson IGCSE doesn't need the practicals to be completed and can be sat as an external candidate at registered centres. Go for it!

That's boring. And not everyone can learn by just reading a text book.

I forgot to say - the practicals for IGCSE (certainly with CIE board) have the option of being assessed as an 'alternative to practical' extra exam paper - that's what I mean by easier - the course isn't easier! Been a while since I taught that but have taught both versions.

You can absolutely do this self-taught, learning the content won't be an issue for your level of academia and whilst it's obviously preferable to be able to do the GCSE required practicals in person, to fully understand and develop the skills involved, for a mature student with a good understanding of the world you can learn the theory of those skills just fine from virtual labs and videos of which there are now many of high quality (one great side effect of lockdown and subsequent investment and development in online learning). For GCSE the practicals are assessed within the examinations there is no separate internal assessment. The only problem with this is the GCSE exam boards require your centre to sign a declaration that you've 'done' them (that doesn't necessarily have to be physically but that you have practiced the skills and theory for them) but it's unlikely any centre will do that for an external candidate that hasn't studied with them.

IGCSE would be easier and the content is broadly similar - so long as you can find a centre where you will be able to sit the exam - usually a private school that accepts external candidates. Or you could approach an online school that offers individual courses as an option. Quite a few are now accredited by CIE and/or the DfE. I suspect you would be limited in those too, as the ones that run live lessons won't want an adult in the class, so look for the ones that do self taught/flipped learning models. It might be possible to negotiate what you need as it's quite unusual. 'Oxbridge' is one company that do self-taught with tutor marked assessments for A level - I think maybe also GCSE.

If I were you I would self-teach the IGCSE and research quality resources, get a few subscriptions (there's also a lot of rubbish out there) then find a school to pay to sit the papers as an external candidate.

College/night school would probably be ideal because of the practicals but as others have mentioned this may be easier said than done. I decided to do maths A level when I retired but I couldn't find anywhere near me that taught it to adults. I would have had to hire a 1:1 tutor, which given I was only doing it for fun was a bit too much of an extravagance. I was surprised and a bit disappointed as I had assumed I would just be able to sign up at the local FE college for night classes.
I would think GCSEs would be quite easy to teach yourself though, if you can find a way around the practical requirements.