28 A Levels

[miniaturepixieonacid]

I was reading about the girl in this BBC article with 34 GCSEs now doing 28 A Levels. The tone is, I feel, relatively negative (cost, no university needs more than 4 etc) and I do agree that doing that many is pointless and would be a huge pressure. But the other side of me thinks that it actually sounds really fulfilling and exciting, not stifling and unnecessary. Imagine how well rounded and extensive your knowledge base would be. I bet she's a fascinating young woman to talk to. 17 year old me would 100% have cracked under the pressure but nearly 40 year old me is almost inspired to start building on my own collection.

What do you think?
YABU - it's crazy, no one needs that many qualifications.
YANBU - worthwhile, exciting use of time for someone who can cope with and enjoy it.

28 A Levels

I listened to her being interviewed on R4 and she came across as a very well rounded and likeable person. Her mum sounded like a fabulous parent and role model too.
What struck me was that she was learning for pleasure, much of it in her own time and I wondered why this isn't more commonplace. What's to stop me as a grown woman deciding to study GCSEs and a levels I didn't choose to study at school? Much more productive than scrolling on social media in the evenings.

This girl is phenomenally intelligent and seems to have good balance in her life. I think it is great that her mum is being so supportive. I don't think there is any pushiness, this case is completely a special needs scenario. The girl is a genius and needs a high degree of intellectual stimulation.

For the rest of us mere mortals, the prospect of 28 A Levels is quite silly.

80skid Yes, 100%. I'm sitting here on the first day of my half term, becoming one with my sofa and thinking I should be taking life lessons from this teenager. I always say I'd love to study psychology or anthropology or Spanish - so why don't I? Laziness, I guess! 🤔😆

Mahnoor's mum Tayyaba has since given BBC News an insight into the military-precision logistical plan they will have to deploy this summer to allow Mahnoor, from Slough, to sit all her exams.

Sounds utterly miserable. She can't possibly have anything else in her life (friends, hobbies, boyfriend, travel, whatever).

Even at genius IQ level and with a photographic memory you'd still need to read/study the course content which would take every spare minute of your life.

The parents should be ashamed of themselves for allowing her to do it.

I didn't even know there were 28 subjects to do an A Level each in 😂

But she does, SomethingDifferentt It says she plays the piano and chess and goes out with her friends.

On the one hand good for her, on the other why isn't she doing what other extraordinarily smart kids do, which is go to university? She already has multiple A* A-levels, what's a few more going to do for her? She could be at Cambridge already!

I hope she's happy, whatever her choices.

If she enjoys it, and Is able to, then why not!? She seems happy.

She is clearly extraordinary. One concern about a child taking so many academic qualifications is that it might be at the expense of other activities.

No idea if she does anything other than take exams. Things like having a part time job, social activities, learning to drive/cook etc so that they can live independently are all quite important things for sixth formers to be doing in addition to studying.

She needs a time turner like Hermione.
There I am doing some Duolingo and a bit of cross stitch and being happy with my extracurricular activities 😅 most of my additional learning at this point is art courses.

I think we should definitely make it a more normal thing, maybe not that many at once but there are a couple of A levels I would like to do in adulthood and certainly would if I had the time! Hell, maybe even a degree one day, why not

When interviewed she said she wanted more academic challenge. I guess she's decided to go broader rather than faster. I think that's a better use of intelligence though I agree that you more often see clever students accelerated, not stretched sideways. But I don't like seeing that - they often don't have the emotional or social maturity to move ahead earlier. This way she can still be with her own peer group.

I did Art A level as an adult in evening class but the option is not available as much these days You can find adult gcse English and maths but that seems to be it. Unless you do distance learning options.

Agree though learning for pleasure is great.

Why restrict yourself to GCSE's?
Most major universities have free short courses online, textbooks are free online. Harvard, MIT, Oxford, Cambridge. If you insist on 'proving your knowledge' you can pay for an audited course, and write a short essay. Or take modules at the OU, or many other unis that offer standalone modules.

Standardised exams are more about technique than knowledge. Having been very good at them (straight A's all the way through). I also loved learning for pleasure but that meant reading a lot, having my own projects and genuine exploration.

This girls seems to be some sort of rare genius, she has lots of 'extracurriculars' alongside A-levels, good for her. But if someone said they were doing A-levels for the pleasure of learning I wouldn't be very impressed, given the abundance of other options we have in 2024. The difference is, those are more self-directed and don't have past papers/mark schemes/syllabuses you can blindly memorise.

Sounds like it's a way of keeping both of them from going crazy from lack of challenge that has been going on since early childhood - there's no interest in the media about what Mum did/does for a living (as usual), but it sounds like she's studying each subject as well, just not taking the exams - maybe she's a highly educated professional, maybe she used to be until becoming a parent, maybe she found as part of parenting that she also thrives on intellectual challenge and it became something that fulfilled both their needs?

It surprises me that A level boards don't market to individuals though. Why don't we have a more widespread culture of learning for pleasure? People slog away to further their careers, but less so just personal satisfaction. I know a couple of retired people who have done art degrees for pleasure, but I've never heard of A levels or GCSEs regarded the same way.

Pretty much everyone would know how to download Duolingo and learn a language that way, but I have no idea how I would go about studying A level physics (very unlikely), A level English Literature (very unlikely) or A level Music (id genuinely love to)

I did Art A-level a few years ago too! How did you find it? My kids thought it was hilarious that I consistently left my 'homework' till the day before .

Better than sitting there with fish lips and slug eyebrows posting TikTok videos all day, hoping for 15 mins of fame

It seems a bit showing off to me. She wants to study medicine and be a neurosurgeon there is so much learning she could do around that which would help her confirm her choices and would be much more useful to her than a business studies alevel or 34 GCSEs. She claims she’s just keeping her options open but that’s not true because she’s taking alevels in lots of subjects you don’t need to do a degree in Like economics and business studies. If she was actually interested in those subjects she would just read in her own time and not get a certificate to show the world.

She is exactly the kind of student I would imagine will stumble in further education if she does medicine at oxbridge because she will have the shock of no longer being the smartest person in class.

I don't know what circles you mix in but in mine, everyone's taking online courses on places like Udemy or Coursera. There are also lots of free online courses from places like Harvard.
Why this obsession with secondary school exams?
https://www.coursera.org/learn/how-things-work

Also... you know how you have 'no idea' how you would go about studying this.. well... if you just Google 'take A level privately'... there are loads of options. Private tutors for example. You just have to pay. There are step by step guides for everything, forums.
https://studymind.co.uk/ucas-guide/private-candidate-a-levels-how-to-book-and-succeed/

You seem to just want everything signposted and handed to you on a plate? We're so lucky in 2024 that we have options coming out of our ears that weren't available even 10 years ago.

Fair play to her if that's what makes her happy. I don't like the criticism of British schools and teachers though. There is no way a school could support her through so many a levels

It's an absurdity, like learning obscure languages or pi to thousands of places.

She's being poorly advised, as such a bright girl. She'd be a lot better off reading widely and doing 2 or 3 EPQs along side no more than 4/5 a levels.

Ds was pressured to do 5 but did 3 and 2 EPQs and is excelling at uni.

I think it’s fantastic that she’s getting support to study all these additional A levels. We absolutely should allow special treatment for this kind of neuro-diversity - her mind is different to an average person’s, so why shouldn’t she get a different education? Maybe she doesn’t want boyfriends and netball trophies and baking skills. Maybe she is just happy doing her thing. She clearly wants to do it and is proud of her achievements. There will always be Young Sheldons who whizz off to university age 12. This is a different approach. I think it’s fab.

i guess you could argue she could simply have obtained this knowledge by broad reading - but if she prefers the structure and goal of an A level grade then why not?

Some people are just so clever it’s no effort!
Years ago, one of my friends went to Cambridge for an interview and they said they’d love to have her, but shame she hadn’t done a particular A level…can’t recall what one. So she just did it over the holidays in her spare time, 4-6 weeks maybe. She’s also a talented artist and very sporty. Not fair how some people hog all the talent!

I don't understand how the logistics of taking all the exams will work. It's bad enough with students taking 3 or 4 if there's a timetable clash, how will that even work?