enerting exams as a private candiate.

[DidEinsteinsMum]

Ds is not primarily home schooled atm but has already expressed an opinion about taking exams early, actually much earlier then he would at school. It would be beneficial as i would prefer him to do the igcse syallabus as it is rated higher with a large proportion of unis then the basic gcse and diplomas and btecs that most schools done.

I suspect that he will be home schooled for the exams he chooses to take early as this is unlikely to fit into what the school does.

So words of wisdome about finding information out about this and any storys with success in doing this would be greatly beneficial.

bugger, its late and i am dyslexic. A very bad combo for creating threads.

Have a look at the National Extension College website; www.nec.ac.uk they run distance learning courses, some are based on the IGCSE specs and they give advice on finding exam centres for private candidates.

(I used to work for them. NEC are a non-profit organisation, originally founded by Sir Michael Young, who went on to start the Open University.)

Who in my opinion needs a pat on thehead for the ou concept I love their short courses which can be done for fun!

Thank you will do.

Look at www.home-education-exams.org.uk/ - lots of info about EHE and exams (inc OU - have you thought of that for your son?). It includes a link to a Yahoo group which is an excellent source of practical info.

Most EHEers do not pay for courses - they get the books and past papers and do it themselves.

Am not worried about the teaching side so much as have done most of a pgce course in science at secondary level. (another story) SO it is more the route in to taking and how to go about arranging exams i think that is the info i really need. iyswim.

Thank you for the help and advice and pointing. will read when i have boiled 10lb jam up and stuck in jars. Tis manic here.

Hi, if you look at the CIE or edexcel websites they will tell you where the centres are which take private candidates.

It may be that local schools will also take private candidates but that will be a case of ringing round. Are you doing IGCSE? That's what I'm looking into. There are private tutoring centres which I found by googling. They allow private candidates, as well as candidates who've been tutored by them.

for example

Ds wants to be a scientist and having studied the various options this is going to be the best version for what he wants to do long term. However, ds is still young and it is more a case of staying one jump ahead of him and researching options in my own time rather then in a hurry. I dont think he is emotionally ready to be doing exams before he is ten so have said i will discuss the option of homeschooling for early exam entrance when he is 10. It gives me a few years to fully research and investigate.

He will be factually ready by this time but it will be his emotional development that will be an issue. Plus as he will be in state school system it will have an impact on what he does in school. I can image a school not being to impressed that a child has their gcse science by the time they are 12 and be studying for it when they are starting. It will be a balancing act. But then it might work in our favour and he can do the exam at the school. will have to see it is a long way off yet. He is a very focus child with a wish to grow up quickly. he needs slowing down so that he can be a child sometimes.

Hi there, my daughter just did IGCSEs in Biology and Geography this year. All we did was download the syllabus, buy a relevant textbook, and study it. I contacted about 60 private schools to ask if they would take DD1 as a private candidate and 3 said yes (a low percentage but you only need one!).

We are planning on doing Physics next year and I am hoping my DD2, currently 10, will also be able to take it.

But we have hit two possible issues you should be aware of.

First is that, although 3 schools out of the 60 in this area (by area I mean within a 50 mile radius) agreed to take DD1 at 14, I cannot find anyone who will agree to take DD2. Every single school has said it will raise child protection issues for them and to contact them again when she is older. I'm not going to give up, but you might have extra difficulty getting a private centre to agree.

Secondly, IGCSEs are hard. Much, much harder than a science GCSE. We used lots of A level websites for the Biology revision because the GCSE sites like bitesize didn't come close in terms of depth of understanding. I've heard other people say they are closer to AS level and I can quite believe it - I guess this is why they are well thought of.

Also, there were 3 long exams, all very tight to time. My DD1 is a really quick, really fluent writer, and she had terrible trouble getting finished in the allowed timescale. Thirdly, she knew it all factually, but you need more than that. Lots of the questions relied on applying your knowledge to unknown or hypothetical situations - it was quite a test of logical and lateral thinking. Just knowing it wasn't enough. It definitely needed an emotional maturity that I suspect my DD2, bright though she is, may not have yet.

I'm not trying to put you off - children can and do achieve them young - but it isn't without pitfalls. I hope this is helpful.

That's an interesting PoV which I haven't heard before, Musicposy.

The OP did not give the age info before. If I were you, DidEinsteinsMum, I'd be watching out for other problems that are likely to arise. How old is he? 7? Even if it is only his science knowledge that you are looking at at the moment, he may well either 'slow down' or get out of step in other areas as well. If he is already really different, I'd be inclined to consider home education as a route to enable him to follow his interests without feeling a freak.

If he goes into secondary with an IGCSE in a science, then attending those classes at school will be a waste of time. Even if it has a 6th form, will he be emotionally ready at 12 to work on A-levels?

I guess my main question would be why do you want him to start doing IGCSEs at 10? Even if he is capable (taking into account what Musicposy says), what would be the goal? If he is going to follow a normal timetable of university at 18, taking exams early is likely to disqualify him (there are reports of colleges not taking people for A-level unless the exams are taken within a couple of years).

If he is bright enough to do exams at 10, IMO, they are a waste of his creative energies. If you do not want him to grow up too soon, why not do interesting things out of school and let him develop his interests? After all, he may discover an even greater passion than science as he grows older. School is likely to push him into the area in which he shows early promise.

I would absolutely agree.

Lots of sixth forms and unis insist that GCSEs are current, so you lose rather than gain by doing them too early. The only reason we are doing any early is to spread them out a bit, so we don't have 10 in one go. Also, when DD1 learns, DD2 is interested and wants to know it too. If it wasn't for that I wouldn't be doing it with her just yet, I don't think.

Also, DD1 has now maths GCSE at 14, which I would say probably renders her unable to return to school. We're not planning to, so it doesn't matter, but if she were at school, what would she do? Maths is a compulsory subject in school until 16. So she'd either have to sit through hours of work she's already done, or go into an A level class with 17 year olds. Neither would be ideal. As we're at home, it doesn't matter, but it would be tricky in a school situation.

If I were you, I'd strectch him in other areas that school won't cover. How about something like an astronomy GCSE? It's maths and science realated and won't clash with school. Or how about getting a really good electronics set, or a good weather station and branching out that way? We've done these things with DD2 (not taken the GCSE yet but studied loads of astronomy). She loves this kind of thing, learns lots, and best of all, thinks she's playing!

Ds is very young and too young to be even really considering this. His application of knowledge rivals most y9 students as does his understand of abstract concepts. My request of information is so that the best long term discission can be made and discussed. the child in question is a mear 5yo and thus it is really academic at this stage as I will not even consider discussing it with him until he is 10 despite his requests and attempts at discussions.

What is important is I am aware of the currentness of exams wrt unis. The reason for the IGCSE over the gcse syallabus is that it is a much better preparation for the A levels and having seen the effect on students who go to study A levels from both types of gcse and those that go from gcse struggle and achieve lower grades then those from the IGCSE.

I will consider the astronomy type GCSE as this would be a good route to take but whatever happens I suspect that there is a lot to be considered and researched before I allow the boy into the thought process.

BTW anyone want to borrow a very precocious scientis that writes experiment proposals and conducts experiments in a scientific manor and complains about being bored at school, I have 5 weeks of summer holiday in which to fill not kill him

Musicposy - a lot of schools are getting y9 and y10 students taking their maths exams so just because she has her maths exam does not mean that she would be precluded. if they have the top grade in the subject they do an extention maths course (higher maths GCSE, statistics maths GCSE) so it depends on the school.