Jonnyboy Posted 19 August, 2011 Share Posted 19 August, 2011 I remember an officer in the RN who was utterly clueless (and dangerous) but was academically brilliant. he thought he was better than most as he had a degree in the history of art...what use is that in the armed forces, I have no idea.. he never got his first commission renewed and was effectively sacked ffs, how interesting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Verbal Posted 19 August, 2011 Share Posted 19 August, 2011 I remember an officer in the RN who was utterly clueless (and dangerous) but was academically brilliant. he thought he was better than most as he had a degree in the history of art...what use is that in the armed forces, I have no idea.. he never got his first commission renewed and was effectively sacked What does that mean though? I've met someone who said to be the cleverest man alive, Ed Whitten. He's virtually impossible to communicate with, and I'm sure would be rubbish at an awful lot of things. Still a genius. Maybe the only difference is he found a way to deal with it all by becoming a mathematician - probably good that he didn't get his hands on a submarine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Verbal Posted 19 August, 2011 Share Posted 19 August, 2011 Has anyone on here done this? It sounds like a good option I just wanted to get the A-level under my belt first really. Maybe I could do both at the same time. I haven't - but I do know the government were recently paying people to do the conversion because of the shortage of maths and science teachers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
View From The Top Posted 19 August, 2011 Share Posted 19 August, 2011 I haven't - but I do know the government were recently paying people to do the conversion because of the shortage of maths and science teachers. They still are. Some Academies are so desperate for maths and science staff they are offering golden handshakes north of £20k! Been offered one myself but the thought of working with spotty oiks again leaves me cold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorpe-le-Saint Posted 19 August, 2011 Share Posted 19 August, 2011 Turkish, have you managed to do that maths A2 paper yet? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OttawaSaint Posted 19 August, 2011 Share Posted 19 August, 2011 What a shame. What should be a fun thread where we congratulate a young lad who has worked hard and got some excellent results, it is full of bitter sods looking to cheapen it for the sake of their egos. Pathetic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CB Saint Posted 19 August, 2011 Share Posted 19 August, 2011 *sigh* Piece of **** ain't they! http://www.mathsrevision.net/alevel/ocrspecimen.pdf This has just reminded me why maths and I parted company after A level Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonnyboy Posted 19 August, 2011 Share Posted 19 August, 2011 They still are. Some Academies are so desperate for maths and science staff they are offering golden handshakes north of £20k! Been offered one myself but the thought of working with spotty oiks again leaves me cold. My old buddy is starting his Science PGCE next month in Bristol. He is getting a 10k bursary or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
um pahars Posted 20 August, 2011 Share Posted 20 August, 2011 Has anyone on here done this? It sounds like a good option I just wanted to get the A-level under my belt first really. Maybe I could do both at the same time. I've done one of the Maths versions of this. My degree was Business, Accountancy & Economics etc and University of Southampton weren't very forthcoming about allowing me to do a GTP in Maths with it (or PGCE - not that I wanted to go that way). Can sort of understand their "snobbishness", but think they're also limiting the pool of talent out there with this attitude. So after a bit of research I enrolled on the Mathematics Enhancement Course at Chichester University - (it was a pilot at that time, but rolled out nationally since). 6 months full time starting Jan each year. Completed that and then did a GTP in Maths. Not sure of the exact Physics equivalent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Verbal Posted 20 August, 2011 Share Posted 20 August, 2011 My old buddy is starting his Science PGCE next month in Bristol. He is getting a 10k bursary or something. There are many good places to do a PGCE. Oxford University's Education Department is one of the best in the country and has a very large PGCE programme. Frankly it's one of the easiest ways both of getting in, and of having a lovely time at the best (or one of two) university in the country. And you can supplement a bursary with tutorial college teaching - which pays quite well and is all kind of a virtuous circle... Take a look... http://www.education.ox.ac.uk/courses/pgce/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonnyboy Posted 21 August, 2011 Share Posted 21 August, 2011 Do you know what's needed to do this? Do they already have a-levels or a degree in the sciences? Cheers He had science A-levels and an anatomy degree, worked in finance til recently and is 33, so I guess if you interview well they will consider anyone... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyNorthernSaints Posted 21 August, 2011 Share Posted 21 August, 2011 What a shame. What should be a fun thread where we congratulate a young lad who has worked hard and got some excellent results, it is full of bitter sods looking to cheapen it for the sake of their egos. Pathetic. To be the fair it's only the three forum trolls who are bitter. I expect they haven't got a degree between them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thedelldays Posted 21 August, 2011 Share Posted 21 August, 2011 To be the fair it's only the three forum trolls who are bitter. I expect they haven't got a degree between them. so what if they dont..? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Tone Posted 21 August, 2011 Share Posted 21 August, 2011 It's not a risk in the slightest, especially if it's taken for reasons that it's better suited to the candidate. Frankly there so many alternatives to A-Levels now that admissions tutors have developed almost into a science the ability to translate from one set of grades in one type of qualification to those of another. For example, the new hot alternative to A-Levels (or sometimes a supplement) is Cambridge Pre-U. It's much tougher than A-Level, but its grading structure is well understood and equivalences well worked out. Practically-oriented courses like BTEC are also well integrated, although do not stretch to the highest level (a DDD, the best you can get, is equivalent to AAB). Then the are Scottish Highers, Advanced Highers, European Bacc's, and other European qualifications like the German Arbiter (which marks backwards), and so on, and so on. The IB is the least of an admissions tutor's worries - and is actually the most easily translatable into A Level equivalents. Don't know how much you have to do with UCAS as opposed to reading Cambridge International Board's propaganda, but if you look at the most recent official figures some 250,000 went through UCAS into uni, 45,000 BTEC National or similar, only 2500, the IB and 680 .. yes 680... the pre-U. It's another place for weak independent schools to hide from competition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Verbal Posted 21 August, 2011 Share Posted 21 August, 2011 Don't know how much you have to do with UCAS as opposed to reading Cambridge International Board's propaganda, but if you look at the most recent official figures some 250,000 went through UCAS into uni, 45,000 BTEC National or similar, only 2500, the IB and 680 .. yes 680... the pre-U. It's another place for weak independent schools to hide from competition. I have a lot more to do with UCAS than you might imagine. And again, Ken, you're wrong I'm afraid. The Pre-U isn't for 'weak independent schools'. Among those who offer it are Westminster School, probably the best independent school in London. Your numbers for the IB unfortunately miss out the high numbers of students who sit for this in the EU and overseas. Trust me, any competent university admissions tutor dealing with IB results knows exactly how to assess them. And IBs are, as I've said, better qualifications for certain in-demand subjects than BTEC because the highest you can score in BTEC is only equivalent to AAB, whereas Pre_U and IB scores, for example, go all the way to A*A*A*. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwig Posted 21 August, 2011 Share Posted 21 August, 2011 Don't know how much you have to do with UCAS as opposed to reading Cambridge International Board's propaganda, but if you look at the most recent official figures some 250,000 went through UCAS into uni, 45,000 BTEC National or similar, only 2500, the IB and 680 .. yes 680... the pre-U. It's another place for weak independent schools to hide from competition. 6 people in the year below me (the year having just got their final results - at a state comprehensive school) did the Economics pre-U, two of those are going to Oxford, one to Cambridge, one to LSE, one to Bristol and another to medical school at UCL. On top of doing 3 (or 3 and a half) A Levels, it's hardly a way of 'hiding' for weak independent schools, based on the people I know who've taken it and the way in which it's packaged to schools like my old one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben05 Posted 21 August, 2011 Share Posted 21 August, 2011 Well, I applied for medicine and didn't get in so I will reapply for that this year. And yes, Chemistry is a little ***** at times, especially the A2 year. It's meant to be the hardest one with Further Maths and Physics so to do well in that stands you in good stead for the future. And I guess you are off to uni now? No im not! was off to southampton to study maths however i now have a job in london with a company who will pay for my qualifications. So i get work experience, a salary and a degree. Reapply??? not phased by the fee's then ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saintandy666 Posted 21 August, 2011 Author Share Posted 21 August, 2011 No im not! was off to southampton to study maths however i now have a job in london with a company who will pay for my qualifications. So i get work experience, a salary and a degree. Reapply??? not phased by the fee's then ? Well, I am annoyed by the rise in fees. But I hardly have a choice. I want to go to university and now its 9k. There's no alternative for me, especially in the kind of jobs I would want to do. My 2 passions are science and politics and with AAA, the Unis I'll be applying to will all be 9k a year. I'll have to put a 5th choice down this year though, I'm thinking along the lines of a philosophy degree or a politics degree from somewhere as a back up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Diamond Posted 21 August, 2011 Share Posted 21 August, 2011 Congratulations to all those who succeeded. I failed my A levels first time around and taught myself my three subjects again from home and eventually got the grades for uni. I finished uni this year and can say that it's not all it's cracked up to be at all. Third year in particular was a massive let down. I got a 2:2 - would have been higher I dare say but I was involved in a car accident that had severe consequences for some of my work. But as I soon found out with A levels and GCSE's before that, no one really cares what you got. All the job interviews I went to said the fact I got a 2:2 didn't matter one jot. So well done, but be warned its soon forgotten and its all about getting the next bit of paper with a letter and some numbers on it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Tone Posted 22 August, 2011 Share Posted 22 August, 2011 (edited) 6 people in the year below me (the year having just got their final results - at a state comprehensive school) did the Economics pre-U, two of those are going to Oxford, one to Cambridge, one to LSE, one to Bristol and another to medical school at UCL. On top of doing 3 (or 3 and a half) A Levels, it's hardly a way of 'hiding' for weak independent schools, based on the people I know who've taken it and the way in which it's packaged to schools like my old one. 'On top of A levels' ..exactly. They are not a sensible or credible alternative to A levels Edited 22 August, 2011 by Ken Tone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Verbal Posted 22 August, 2011 Share Posted 22 August, 2011 (edited) 'On top of A levels' ..exactly. They are not a sensible or credible alternative to A levels But they ARE, and they are actually very highly thought of by university admissions tutors Since you quite wrongly told a poster earlier that his daughter was essentially making a mistake by sitting for IB, I'm concerned that you are so determined in your misguided view. It sounds like you have an axe to grind. Do you? Your point, by the way, about numbers taking Pre-U is hard to understand. Regardless of the numbers taking it - because it's relatively new - university admissions tutors know exactly how to do deal with it (a D3 for example being equivalent to a scraped A and an M1 a B, etc) Edited 22 August, 2011 by Verbal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwig Posted 22 August, 2011 Share Posted 22 August, 2011 'On top of A levels' ..exactly. They are not a sensible or credible alternative to A levels It was a course offered by the school to only the most gifted pupils, purely because they were a lot more demanding than A Levels, both in the sense that the summative assessment was on one exam (taken at the end of two years) and one piece of coursework (more like a mini-dissertation, than usual courseworks) and because the course was much harder. More than a credible alternative to A levels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonnyboy Posted 22 August, 2011 Share Posted 22 August, 2011 Well, I am annoyed by the rise in fees. But I hardly have a choice. I want to go to university and now its 9k. There's no alternative for me, especially in the kind of jobs I would want to do. My 2 passions are science and politics and with AAA, the Unis I'll be applying to will all be 9k a year. I'll have to put a 5th choice down this year though, I'm thinking along the lines of a philosophy degree or a politics degree from somewhere as a back up. Stick with medicine route - once you're earning 120k that debt will vanish quick smart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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