Advice from parents whose child has done exams whilst being home educated

[loumum3]

Hi

We HE our youngest 2 but are thinking seriously of taking our eldest son who is 14 out of school (long story)

The only thing that is stopping us at the moment is his exams...he wants to do exams and go on to Uni. I have read things that say you can go to Uni without any exams but he is not convinced. I know we can do IGCSE's and then he could go to college for an IB or A levels, or he could start the OU.

I would love to hear from anyone whose child has taken exams - What ones did your child take? Were they necessary? What would you change? Any advice or thoughts would be most welcome.

Thanks

Mine have done OU and no school-type exams, so I cannot help. However, you might find it useful to read www.home-education-exams.org.uk/.

There is also a Yahoo! group for people involved in exams. Subscribe by sending an email to [email protected]. People post on it to say how to find an exam centre (if the school are friendly and will let him sit them there, that is probably your best bet) and where to get past papers for practice.

Thank you, I will join the group and keep reading different sites for info.
Do you mind me asking...did yours go onto Uni?

DD1 is 14 and we're doing a mixture of GCSEs and IGCSEs, mainly the latter as it's easier to organise. This year she's taking AQA GCSE maths at foundation level, we'll do higher next year. She's also doing Biology and Geography IGCSE.She's Y9, so we've looked at next year's possible IGCSEs and the year after. Her plan is next year she'd like to take History and German, and Psychology at a local college that runs accelerated learning courses for 14-16s. Year 11 we will devote to English (People have said it's best to leave it as you get better naturally with age!), Chemistry which she will do with DD2 (currently 10 but will be 12 by then)and hopefully Latin if she can get there in time.

We know she needs 5 for some of what she wants to do. I figure that if she doesn't have as many as schooled children, it doesn't matter. If all goes well she should end up with 6 - 9 ish. The lovely thing we're finding is, at home, they only take a year to do at most, especially if you cut the number of subjects down. Our aim is do do around 3 a year maximum over the 3 years, so she never gets the hard work and stress that goes with school. I think DD2 will have life even easier because I think she will start earlier.

DD1 hopes to go on to college/ 6th form/ dance school - so something at 16 to do A levels, so that's why we are doing them. But they are so flexible about age nowadays that if we waited an extra year I think it wouldn't matter a bit. I think you have plenty of time to get the exams your son wants. But first I'd get him to approach the places he might want to go to and see exactly what they want. My daughter did this and the replies we got back were all more interested in what she had been doing as a whole than her qualifications, of which they wanted surprisingly little!

@loumum3: My DD is looking for work for a year, with the intention of going to Uni next year. We'll see how it pans out.

Thanks both of you for answering.

I suppose IGCSE looks like a good way for him to go and when I looked at the past exams, they look as though he would be ok with them. As well as 6th forms, we also have a couple of good colleges here and so I will ask them exactly what they will expect from him exam wise and go from there.

Any more thoughts welcome...

Thanks

@SDeuchars: Some of the OU courses look very interesting, my 9 year old is really excited by the short science ones ! ( I have told him he can't do them yet and he's not impressed )
Have you had any experience with how colleges/Unis view them with regards to admissions ?

Thanks

Get him to email or write to them himself - you'll get a very much more positive response than if you do it. That way they can see he is keen and articulate (you can always check it over before he sends it). A couple of DD's places said they were so impressed she had contacted them in this manner they would keep her name on record. Colleges and employers seem to be looking for people who stand out from the normal run of the mill, more than anything else. I think it makes home educated kids quite an attractive proposition.

Good idea musicposy, thanks

@loumum3: My DS started on short science courses when he was 13.5yo. He has now done 5 (mammals, fossils, planets, forensics and drugs) and will start a 6th in May, with a view to completing the Cert in Contemporary Science before his 16th birthday. He is currently doing his first full-length course, MU120 (maths).

The good thing about full-length courses is that the student's own income is assessed for funding, so they do not cost anything. Funding is not usually available for courses under 30 points, so you have to pay for the short courses yourself.

You have to be careful with the short courses - they are not all the same in terms of difficulty or assessment. The mammals course (no longer available) was a good intro, based on Attenborough's Life of Mammals and with a nice mix of questions in the assessment. The forensics course was interesting, but the assessment involved writing an essay that inferred information about the running of the forensic service in the US from a report. The planets course was mostly multiple choice in the assessment, which meant that it was easier to complete for someone who understands the material but is unused to writing essays.

The Blue Planet is also a good starting course (accessible material that most young students would already know something about), but I see that is starting its final presentation in May.

Thanks very much for the info, there are some courses in there that my 14 year old would be interested in but as you say we will have to pay.We will look at 30 point courses too.

My 9 year old is now sulking in the dining room moaning that I won't let him "go to Open University" all because I said he's not old enough to do the fossils course !

Do you know how OU courses are seen by Uni/Colleges regarding admissions ?

Thanks

Some universities (such as Reading) state that 30 OU points are taken as equivalent to an A level for general entry requirements.

For specific subjects (e.g. science), an entrant might need specific A levels to ensure that they have covered the correct syllabus. However, as IB and various other qualifications are acceptable, this should not really be an issue - most "technical" courses at university will spend some time in the first year ensuring that all students have covered the same stuff (so they will essentially recap everything required to be at a base level). Most university courses start from scratch (e.g. a history course will not assume pre-knowledge about the subject matter but will assume ability to write an essay).

For me (and I must declare an interest as an OU tutor), one of the good things about the OU is that L1 courses explicitly teach essay writing and study skills. There are no assumptions that you know how to construct an essay and help is given at all stages. IME, this is much better than in school or "normal" university.

BTW, the language courses are also very good. They include a variety of accents, etc. on DVD and deal with adult subjects (such as finance, work, childcare). The L1 courses get you to about the same level as AS level. I found (doing L130 alongside my DD) the assessments to be much more realistic and challenging than school exams (from almost 20 years ago). I also finished an Institute of Linguists Advanced cert (French) about 13 years ago and the OU oral was much better than it (a prepared presentation and group discussion with 3 other students).

Thank you for your help, I appreciate it.

It would be good for someone to teach essay writing (other than me) as the school certainly doesn't. He gets more essay help from his History teacher than his English teacher which I find rather strange. Even though I think the levels the school use are BS a lot of the time it does make we wonder how he can be 2 levels higher in History and RE than in English when he has written the same type of essays for all 3 lessons.

When you say 30 OU points are taken as equivalent to an A level, do you mean 3 short courses or a 30 point course ? Sorry I am all questions but you are so helpful. I seem to just get to grips which admissions etc on a website and the baby starts crying !

I was home-educated, and got three GCSEs and three A-Levels through the National Extension College. My brothers and sisters also used this college, and all of us found the tutoring and course materials to be excellent. We also had no problem finding a centre to do the exams, even in Scotland.

The universities don't seem to specify whether 3x10 is the same as 1x30. In terms of general qualifications, what they are looking for is proof that the YP is able to work at university level. As OU courses are already that level, it is clear that the YP can if they have passed OU courses.

Thank you TeenyTinyToria, I will look at their website.

SDeuchars, We may see if we can get him started on a 10 point course as a taster and see what he thinks and how we find it. Is there one in particular that you have found to be a good starting point ? He enjoys science and I see there are a few short science courses.

Thanks again.