Anyone self taught themselves a GCSE as an adult

[Hairyfairy01]

For various reasons I didn’t attend much of secondary school and whilst I eventually managed to go to college where I took some GCSEs and later A- levels, I feel I have some massive gaps in my general education.

I’ve been looking at doing a gcse in human biology as it is related to my line of work and interests me. Local colleges only offer normal biology and the times do not suit me anyway. I’ve noticed there are a few companies offering IGCSEs for about £300. However i’m not sure if I really need an online tutor, marked papers etc?

Am I being totally naive to think I can get hold of the syllabus, the recommended text book and teach myself? I could then book into a centre to take the exam as a private, external candidat, which I would have to do anyway with one of these online companies?

I literally haven’t been in a science lesson since I was 12 years old (now in my 40’s). I don’t need the gcse for anything, although it would be useful. It would be more for my own satisfaction.

Has anyone self taught themselves to gcse level or should I just pay one of these companies that provide tutor support? Or am I kidding myself in even thinking passing a science based gcse is possible with so little secondary education?

Anyone?

Bumping for you – I wondered this. Wanted to take my Spanish GCSE as I'm self-taught to a good level, but the only places that I could find to sit the exams were really far away (I'm rural) and not many places offered it due to the need to sit an oral exam as well as papers.

My children, who have done GCSEs say that it should be possible to teach yourself a science GCSE. They suggest it would be helpful to get the workbook along with the textbook.

No harm in trying to do it yourself with resources. My son did a lot of his that way as their teaching was so poor in the final year.

I am going back to French this year but Im going to do it as a evening class and no exam as its not really necessary. Im just doing it as a fun hobby.

My daughter just did it and got a B in old money .

Yes, I did a gcse in accountancy in my twenties. It was for the job I was doing at the time.

It is possible to teach yourself most things I think. I have a degree and to be honest, I taught myself the degree - tutors/lecturers had a very little input in my university education.

I’m not sure if you can just enter yourself for the GCSE exam though or if you have to have an organisation to do that for you? Perhaps that would be worth finding out.

You can enter yourself as a private candidate, you don't need an organisation.
You can get details of exam centres near to you from your LEA or exam board. Your entry will need to be in around January of the year you sit the exam (if you are sitting in May/June)

My daughter got an A in GCSE Japanese, which she taught herself pre-internet.
I think she was 19 or 20 at the time.

Why not give it a go, and if it doesn't work out you can consider doing a course next year.

I dont see why not! If you have the exam specification and the textbook, you can get practise papers and mark schemes online to practise. The science GCSEs assume quite little prior knowledge, starting at the basics, so the fact you havent studied it before shouldnt be a problem. The main thing is you're interested and keen - that's the reason why many kids do badly, because they're not interested.

If you wanted you could get a real life tutor to go through a few papers with you to check you're ready before going into the exams.

Yep. Did maths when I wanted to do a pgce. Went through a text book with answers in the back, did them then worked out why they were wrong ifswym. Make sure you get the appropriate curriculum for the exam board. Best of luck

I don't see why not. There is so much information online, mainly to help teachers of the subject - I found loads when my DC weren't "getting" what the teachers were trying to explain, marking criteria and so on, which gave them more insight, get yourself the text books, the work books, and see what you can find online for the exam board you're using.

There’s a chap online who does fantastic science revision lessons.

From memory, he’s freesciencelessons.com

My sons used him for their triple/double science GCSEs.

I wouldn't bother babes. Skip to A level. Better recognition.

I have a friend who does this quite frequently for fun. She crams the topic a week or so before then takes the exam and passes.

As a pp suggests , an A level would be more impressive.

A level far moe difficult as you have practicals to do under exam conditions. Gcse ones are written up in revision guides so you don’t actually need to do them.

I took an A-Level at night school.

The teacher was rubbish so I gave up after half a term.

When I got the exam date through I decided to give it a go. Bought the revision guide and crammed for a week.

I got an A!

When I started teaching I taught myself all the content before I taught it to the classes!

It might be worth finding a teacher/private tutor just so they can mark some exam questions and help you with exam technique.

Biology A level now has a practical element which you will be paying upwards of £1k to sit on top of everything else.

AS Biology doesn't have the practical element. You could do that?

I'd be happy to mark questions for you if you did OCR AS Biology.

There’s a website called seneca learning with lots of free content (as well as subscribing).
It’s definitely possible

Thank you all. I’m going to give it a go. If I fail, I fail. I don’t think A - level biology would be for me, I definitely need the basics first and with this igcse human biology it takes away the need to conduct experiments etc. Have ordered the recommended textbook online. Just need to crack on with it now.

Best of luck!

Try Twinkl, you can pay monthly and that gives you access to the curriculum, worksheets and resources that most schools use. Its around £5 a month iirc.

www.twinkl.co.uk/premium/individual