Warning! Rant ahead!

LisaB85

My college don't know their !!!! from their elbow when it comes to courses which is hugely inconvenient x

jonnyd281

OP What is a GCSE Mathematics(2), I'm assuming that it is grade 2, is that not equivalent to a B?

Gingernutty

Gingernutty wrote: »

I've since been told that my GCSE would be the rough equivalent of an O Level D (fail) but the ONC was supposed to be instead of A Levels and the HNC used to be thought of as between A Level and a degree.

This would have been back in the 80s and early 90s. Showing my age........

I hope this explains it.

Gingernutty

Update:

I have signed up for the GCSE Mathematics course, but I'm so depressed that I really don't feel up to it.

I've agreed to pay £74.50 for the next four months and I'm going for the higher course.

What's keeping me going right now, is the fact that one day I'll be able to hand my notice in and my current job will be a distant memory, recalled in the years to come with a shudder.

mysk_girl

Rubbish, isn't it. I do have GCSE Maths (A) but have lost the certificate. I have to pay £30 for a new one, despite the fact I have Maths (A) and Further Maths (A) at A-Level, and a 1st class engineering masters degree, for which I can produce the certificates. Ho humm. Good luck with your course!

TeaForOne

Gingernutty, not sure what you're doing now or how well it pays, but if you want to get a student tech post you could do much worse than apply for a Pharmacy Support Worker Higher Level post within the hospital where you want to study.

You can then not only pass your maths (which you'll obviously do with no trouble) but be in a really good position with lots of directly relevant experience when they are taking students on next year. Student tech posts in my part of the world are massively oversubscribed and you need to beat all the internal candidates.

And you get to escape your current job, which sounds like you really need to do.

Good luck.

Gingernutty

Thanks TeaForOne - The trouble I'm having is that any entry level pharmacy jobs are as rare as hen's teeth and if they are advertised they are for other hospital trusts and internal applicants only - suggesting that they have a few candidates in mind...........*sigh*

TeaForOne

It's not that we have internal candidates in mind - it's the current NHS cuts situation. We have first to consider people being redeployed from other parts of the Trust to avoid them being made redundant, and then internal candidates. But if no-one is suitable we then go to external advert. As far as I can tell this happens everywhere.

Just keep on looking & keep your fingers crossed. Something will come up eventually!

Gingernutty

I'm taking the first of two Mathematics GCSE exams tomorrow.

At the beginning of February, when the College had to send the entries for the exam, it was decided, that with all the extra work I was having to do for my job (including revision for the two 3 hour exams at the end of March) it would be better if I was entered for the Foundation level papers.

Then my Dad died at the beginning of March.

The huge job exams have been postponed until next year.

If I pass the GCSE Maths Foundation this year, I'll still be in the same position next year as I was when this all started.

I'll still be underqualified for the Pharmacy post I actually want - if it's ever advertised again.

And the revision for the huge career exams is starting all over again with those exams still looming.

I feel awful. I don't want to sit the exams this week - they're useless for what I want to do.

At the same time, I feel as if I should sit them as I've come this far I might as well.

Pupnik

Sorry to hear that - a foundation means you can't get higher than a C no matter how well you do, right? Seems like a waste of time although I suppose it is all practice but it must be very disheartening. I'm really surprised that it is so hard to find somewhere to retake a GCSE, I would have thought there would be loads of people in similar positions as you!

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

Correct - I have CSE English lang and lit, A level English and a degree in English - but couldn't get onto a PGCE as I didn't have GCSE English.

This really surprises me, when I worked as a programme administrator in a teacher training department of a university it was very common to get all kinds of examinations from all over the world and different points in time. It was easy to work out the common ones but sometimes there would be unusual ones and it was down to the discretion of the university. In your case one of the tutors running the training would have written a formal letter saying they accept your other qualifications instead of a GCSE and it would go on file with your certificates. If there was ever any doubt there was a very quick exam to take which would test people's abilities and passing it would do instead of a GCSE. Perhaps things are stricter now but this was only 3 years ago. It seems absurd to limit requirements to specific generations who happened to have 'normal' GCSEs.