These two books, giant tomes both of them, are dominating Jack's life at the moment.{g}
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Having left him to revise for the recent RS exams more or less unhindered and been shocked by how poorly he did in the practice papers in the final week, I've resorted to a strategy of coercion to get him through the 4 Physics and Maths exams he has in the next week.
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Up at dawn, well, 8.00am and pressing on throughout the day until Jamie gets home. A brief break for dinner and social networking {g} and then Jamie goes through his work/past papers, to teach points not understood. Finish at 9.00pm, then bed. He'll thank us one day. We keep telling ourselves.
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On Saturday, David, a Maths teacher friend of ours, whom we know primarily as an excellent guitarist, came over to go through some exam technique with him. Brilliant. I would never have asked, but he offered. He gave two hours of his valuable time and we really appreciated it.
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We're hoping for the same miracle that occurred with the Chemistry IGCSE in the summer. A 'C' grade pass in each of these Higher Tier national exams would be fantastic and just what he needs to add to his collection of qualifications so that he can progress to an A Level course at FE College next September.
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I never planned to home educate this long and certainly had no intention of ever teaching exam level, but two things happened which led us here. Times have changed and it is becoming far harder to progress to further and higher education without these exams, so they had to be done somewhere. We considered school for Jack at age 13 to begins exam courses there, but decided he would be happier continuing to be home educated for the next couple of years for various reasons.
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Jack himself had no real view at the time. He would have been fine with school or home, and trusted us to make the decision for him. He's looking forward to moving on to college next autumn, though. If we can just get Grace sorted with something for that time too, we'll all be very happy.
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11 comments:
So does college begin before 18 yrs old? Do students take the US standard of 15 credits - meaning about 5 full courses during a semester (usually runs sept-dec)?
Renee,
The situation is really complicated and simple comparisons between the two systems are not easy to make. 'College' here is usually for aged 16-18, but also has options for older students too, to catch up on missed education or to do vocational courses. In our area, the Further Education Colleges also provide A Level courses because there are few 6th Forms in the secondary schools in Oxfordshire.
Jack will be doing A Level courses at age 16-18 (God willing). Most students start off doing 4-5 subjects, in depth, dropping 1 or 2 after the first year in order to focus on 2 or 3 subjects in preparation for a degree course in a Higher Education establishment (university).
What you refer to as college in the US, we would know as university. Universities require a minimum of 2 but often 3 or 4 A Levels for a candidate to be accepted to study at hons degree level.
Remember, our A Levels (exams sat at age 18 usually) are equivalent to your first year at college, which is why our univeristies' hons degree courses are almost all only 3 year courses.
I've tried to explain this sort of thing before on my blog, but it is very complicated. And whatever statement I make, I am always aware that there is usually some sort of exception to the rule which makes it even more difficult to understand.
But them I don't understand your highschool/college credit system - that seems horribly complicated to me! {g} I guess it depends what you've grown up with!
So, Jack is not a prodigy. {g} Just doing the normal course of study for an average or above average student of his age.
Hope that helps!
Dorothy,
It is confusing, but I understand it so much more after having spent more time with our student from Germany...
Cindy,
Are you working on the assumption that there is a Pan-European education system? Because there isn't. The German system is totally different to the UK one, as I think I've mentioned previously. And the French system is different again with the Bacc etc etc. Education is not affected by membership of the EU. Each country retains juristiction over its own education system.
I wish Jack every success in his forthcoming exams and hope he achieves everything he needs for college. If things do fall apart, you might want to consider a three year foundation and then BTEC course which is the equivalent of three A levels which most universities will accept. My daughter's boyfriend dropped out of school at 14 after being bullied and has Aspergers Syndrome. When my daughter started her BTEC in music performance, he took the plunge at 19 to do the foundation route for a fine art BTEC and was able to complete the course. She took a year off so they could start university at the same time. She's doing music composition and he's doing fine art specialising in animation. I've recommended this route to several other young people who have not been through secondary school for whatever reason.
Hi Sarah, w
We've known people do those BTECs they do seem very good. The only problem that I could see is that they can tie you down to something quite specific and narrow your choices for university courses.
For eg, a friend did the Music Performance one, but then had to apply for a Music Performance degree. Which was GREAT for him, because he wants a career in the music industry so it will be good preparation for him.
Unfortunately, Jack does not yet know what he wants to do at 19/21 etc yet so we are trying to keep all the options open, and prevent any doors from closing at this stage.
It's a stuggle though. And it's frustrating for me because Maths and Physics are just not my subjects! LOL! So we have to wait for Jamie to be home to ask questions, or use BBC Bitesize.
Praying for Jack as he finishes up these last hurdles before college.
Wow - still stunned at the "last year of homeschooling" comment I read earlier in the day.
Hi Dorothy - so is Jack just doing one maths module next week ? I have 11 taking module 1 and 2 doing module 2 (although actually 5 of the module 1 candidates are complete strangers I have entered on bloc from the Isle of Wight - the joys of the HE exams list! Have to remember to meet them off the Hovercraft before the exam!
If you are short of Edexcel practice papers (since they are mingy with them) do the AQA modular ones instead!
Hi Julie,
Yes just Module 1. The idea is to get the Physics and RS out of the way so that he has a clear run at English and the rest of the Maths as of after next week's papers.
Unfortunately, if he doesn't do well enough at Phys and RS, (results end of Jan?) then he will need to rit those in the summer too....aaargh. Thank gooness we did the Drama, Chem, Bio and Art last year. I can't imagine us doing all 8 in one sitting!!!
That's really good of you to be helping other families through this minefield, Julie. I hope you'll get a really good reward for that in heaven! LOL!
Thanks for the offer of past papers. The friend I mentioned has left us a couple, but we'll see how we get on.
A US college only offers BS/BA degrees while a university offers graduate degrees as well.... but some schools maintain 'college' in their name even though they are university status because they don't want to change a historical name.
I think it's so great what you're doing with the homeschooling, in that your son can focus on the subjects he really needs to lot more than if he were in school.
I wish him all the best with it.
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