Quote:
Originally Posted by N.T  It's a shame someone with your intelligence and enthusism is facing these setbacks.
But, I may be missing something here, why don't you do A-levels by distance learning? |
Unfortunately there are some problems with doing suitable A-levels via distance/correspondence learning:
Firstly; the cost is enormous; no grants or Government help is avaliable as you are either expected to be young enough to do A-levels at a college/school etc or old enough to enter onto an Access course. The fact your chosen career path has sporadic acceptance for Access qualifications is not taken into consideration.
Apart from the course fees from the learning provider; you have to take into account the enormous cost of booking a private place at a suitable local exam centre as well as the entry fees. A single GCSE can cost over £100 to take privately; more if you need exam concessions that involve extra time as an invigilator has to be paid for.
Secondly; you have to find a centre that offers the exact same exam-board and syllabus for the qualification as you are taking from the distance provider. You then have to ascertain as to whether they are willing to go through the hassle of taking on a private candidate. In the entire county of Staffordshire; 9 centres were offering the right board and specification when I inquired (This is for a GCSE in Maths.)
Only one was willing to take on a private candidate however; they would only do this if I did not apply for exam concessions and sat the exam with everyone else. I have partial Dyspraxia which means I cannot write very fast and keep it legible, extensive amounts of writing tires me out and severely impairs my mental ability and jepordises my exam mark. Therefore in exams I have either: Extra time, separate room and scribe or do the exam on a word processor. As you can probably ascertain; my typing ability is not impaired whatsoever.
Finally; As Chemistry and Biology (to a slightly lesser extent) are essential for getting a place in Pharmacy: You would needs access to your own Science lab in order to perform the mandatory practicals. You are not allowed to use simulation software such as Crocodile Chemistry to perform these. Evidence that you have actually performed the experiments must be produced. I am yet to find a college that would permit lab hire to an individual Student given the supervision requirement for health and safety liability. I expect if somewhere did then the hourly cost would be astronomical.
So distance learning is out of the window for the Sciences really; I should add to this post that "Pharm-assist" has told me De Montford do in fact accept Access provisionally depending on the outcome of an interview and assessment test. Perhaps the information I received from the DMU enquiry centre last year was wrong? I am yet to determine how far leaned towards Chemistry the Access qualification from a particular college must be for De Montford to accept it. Course content and depth in the different modules does vary between colleges.
Whew! sorry for the very long and complex post but inevitably this is a complex subject.
mr_colt