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

It’s ridiculous - she’s complaining that a school can’t support her doing 28 A-Levels, well no shit? That’s the amount that 7-8 pupils will be taking so of course they can’t support you doing them. You also only need 3-4 A-Levels to apply for university. Learn for the sake of learning by all means but she’s going to burn out trying to do that much. It would be a much better use of her time to get some work experience or volunteer. Booksmart but not streetsmart I suspect.

@keirakilaney67 there's a LOT of admin work in the first few placements

That wasn’t the point though was it - junior doctors are not confined to admin.

Actually, how do Scottish universities deal with having legal children as students? I presume that means all student facing staff need an enhanced DBS check (or Scottish equivalent)?

@OnGoldenPond I don't think so. 16 year olds who are on apprenticeships or our working don't need their colleagues/bosses to be DBS checked (PVG in Scotland) so Uni is treated the same. The 16-18 category is a grey area between adult and minor.

It does throw up some weird situations though, DD is in her first year at uni (and was 18 before she started), is in a flat with 9 other students in uni accommodation. One of her flat mates is almost a year younger than her and was 17 just before uni started. One of her other flatmates is a 32 year old man, also a first year student. I'm not sure how i'd feel about my 17 year old sharing with someone almost twice her age. She could have asked for single sex accommodation though I suppose. (The 32 year old is by all accounts very nice, I can't imagine anything worse at 32 than sharing with a bunch of teenagers though).

Not sure why posters who haven't even seen the interview feel the need to be so scathing. The girl comes over as quite normal and balanced and has other interests. She seems quite relaxed and just happens to be extraordinarily intelligent and needs (much) more intellectual challenge than the run of the mill teenager. She is stretching herself in a way she is comfortable with and her family are supporting that. I think it is a much better scenario than pushing ahead and delving deeply into one subject and going to university early and having all the social challenges that come from being at odds with her academic peer group. Who knows she may change her mind and decide that Medicine and/or Neuroscience are not for her. And for those saying she will struggle at Oxbridge, what nonsense. I speak from personal experience there and she will clearly be in the top stratum. It is usually around the top 10% that are extraordinarily gifted and the rest are just quite bright to be honest, although this can of course vary a bit by subject. Regarding her A-Level burden getting in the way of her Medicine application, nonsense again. I would bet my house she will smash the clinical entrance exam and, for an academically focused Medicine course like those at Oxbridge, much more emphasis is put on the academics in interview selection than volunteering etc. Why can't posters just be gracious and accept that the girl and her family are dealing with her very unusual intellect in a way that seems to fit best at this stage. Good luck to her.

I used to take a GCSE every year when I started having kids. I got so bored and needed something to stretch me. I was on GCSE 18 (Geography) when one of the tutors suggested maybe doing an access course and going to Uni. So I did lol, English Degree.

Then I got the internet. Whole new world! Anything that aroused my curiosity could be researched and learned about. I still love to learn at 51. I watch a lot of documentaries and then look up more information about what I’ve watched lol. Abandoned Engineering is my go to at the moment lol.

I used to take a GCSE every year when I started having kids. I got so bored and needed something to stretch me. I was on GCSE 18

How many kids do you have? 😮

When did this change? I knew two 17 year olds when I went. Bit different as they turned 18 during first year but still. Blanket ban would have been a shame for them.

I went to University at 17. A friend of mine did too. It’s fairly common for children to be moved up a year.

A-levels are taken over 2 years. Taking 3-4 usually means it is full time, when you take into account attending classes, homework, coursework, revision etc. How on earth does this girl have enough hours in the day to do even more?
It is seems rather pointless to have your selling point to a uni to have all these A-levels... to be it would be a red flag that she could not make her mind up and lacks a focus.

Most doctors need to understand business nowadays so no bad thing!

It hasn’t changed.

The previous poster is incorrect, as a simple google will show.

She has already done some A Levels since September. She's not sitting them all at the end of Year 13. I don't think she is doing them for a selling point, or needs one for that matter. It's pretty obvious already that she is as close to a dead cert as can be for a an Oxford Medicine place. For most there is a bit of a lottery aspect but not for someone like that. She seems to be simply doing the A-Levels to stop herself from being bored academically. A kind of hobby. Why is that so difficult to understand? And why is it perceived as being negative, particularly as it doesn't seem to be taxing her that much?

to be fair, I haven’t read the article. But how is it even possible to have the time to study for 28 A levels ? It would be challenging enough dedicating the time to study for 3 a levels, never mind 28 of them!

She could be academically gifted, but could be rubbish with people skills and not even get into medicine.
Good luck to her anyway.

What do you call the doctor who got the lowest grades? Doctor.

She could be academically gifted, but could be rubbish with people skills

You mean a surgeon?

Well, they still see the patients when they are awake, before and after ops.

I get your point though. I trained (and failed) as an ODP. I would extend the lack of people skills to most of the surgical team tbh.

@XenoBitch the two are far from mutually exclusive. Many people have both sides of the coin. FWIW she didn't seem to be lacking in people skills in interview. She seemed mature, engaging and modest and from my own experience of Oxford interviews, I think she would come over rather well. In any case, there are many specialities and routes within Medicine. Not every doctor needs a brilliant bedside manner. We need brilliant minds in the areas of research Medicine as well.

I did 6 including general studies, and I thought I had a lot. I did English Literature, History, Psychology, Sociology, Business Studies and General Studies. I did the Business Studies in one year before setting up a business.

They don’t have to be taken over two years. If you’re good at studying you won’t need as much class time or homework time, revision time, etc. as most. the 6th form is about learning to study for most people, but if you’ve already got that down you won’t need nearly as much time to cover an A level subject.

I was surprised in my first year at uni on a civil engineering course to discover that each of my courses was, basically, an A level taken over one year. The maths course, for instance, was almost exactly the A level further maths curriculum. We were expected to pick things up faster with less hand holding and direction. And we did. I had 7 courses and two large projects. It left a lot of time to join societies, hang out with friends, do a part time job and party. I had a friend at Cambridge who was doing engineering and he covered all the work I did, plus chemical engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and harder maths. I doubt Oxbridge will sneer at the idea of a broad education.

I expect quite a lot of people would be capable of this sort of studying if they wanted to put the effort in. Most don’t and that’s fine, but why knock someone who does?

I think it's great! I often think we have to give up subjects far too early in this country and actually a lot of Uni is about seeing the subject chosen through multiple lens. She will be very well placed to come up with innovative connections across disciplines. I bet her papers will be thought provoking and I'd love to hear her contributions to lectures.

They clearly have a system that works. I don't think any of us with kids with an average/above average IQ can imagine what it takes to keep someone with such an exceedingly high IQ from climbing the walls in school.

Unless you have a similar IQ or cognitive profile like her (IQ 162 is soooooo rare) , there isn't much to take away from her experience. People should just relax. Taking 3 or 4 A levels is far more realistic and appropriate for most.