Official Alevel Courses i have taken for FD

[HolyNougat]

C) Whilst a brain/common sense may not be a requirement to becoming a deck officer, some good academics will help

Generally it is the engineers I find dragging their knuckles along the deck making grunting sounds not generally consistent with higher cognitive capabilities....

[Hatchorder]

Generally it is the engineers I find dragging their knuckles along the deck making grunting sounds not generally consistent with higher cognitive capabilities....

Want me to be your second?

Carnations or roses?

[linnez]

Yerhh this year if i stay to do my As i planned for about 160 ucas points which is already enough for FD course but ive applied for HND for january intakes as i feel Alevels arent my interest at the moment :/

[HarmlessWeasel]

if you do AS then I'd advise doing A levels too. Otherwise Companies will be wanting to know why you didn't complete them

[linnez]

Yerhh thats what i was wondering :') read my mind but im more interested doing the HND course but if i have to go by Alevels im aiming for around 300 which i think isnt too bad

[Hatchorder]

I have not commented in this thread for a number of reasons but I feel I now need to put across my point of view for you to consider Sam.

First of all if you drop your A levels at the end of AS's, whatever your reason, you will never be able to explain it without people thinking anything other than "you quit". You may have valid reasons, not enjoying how they are taught, how you work, the teachers, how you study, lack of self discipline etc. but it will all boil down to how people perceive it - you quit because it was too hard.

Personally I think the GCSE's have got a little too easy so that when kids get their GCSE's they think A levels are a small step up. I don't agree. I think the gap between GCSE and A level is HUGE these days and therefore many students get the shock of their lives half way through their first term or at the first set of exams at A level. When I did A levels you did 2 years work and one set of exams at the end - you had to retain knowledge. These days you work to a module - revise - exam and forget it to move onto the next.

Students in the first year of AS's - will you start revising for your AS exams 3 months or more before them - probably not. This is where so many of you struggle. The school gives you the choice about independent study and many students talk about "free" periods. Think of them as "study" periods and your perception changes. How many sixth forms have huge numbers of students sitting around chatting in the sixth form common room during their free periods? You are not alone in thinking this is the hardest thing you have ever done. Just start the revision early, waste no periods and work hard. My son got 3 A levels in Maths, Physics and Chemistry. Not because he was a natural academic - but because he slogged it out for 2 years and made it happen.

Moving onto your next set of questions and queries.

An employer is sat opposite a number of potential cadets. One got A Levels in Maths, Physics and Chemistry with a D,E,E. (140 UCAS points), one got A levels in Media Studies, English and Psychology with B,B,C. (280 UCAS points) One has AS levels in Geography, Media Studies and Economics with A,B,B (160 UCAS points). He has one job offer. If everything else was the same who do you think they would offer the job to? I feel the first one - why? Because they have grades in core subjects which make up the majority of the technical aspects of the job - Maths and Physics. The others are unknowns - they may have done well but the interviewer will be asking - can they do the maths and physics side of the course?

Ask yourself this - if I don't like it and quit, what can I do then? If you only have AS's then you will not be going to Uni for an academic degree for a start. You may only want to do the HND because you think that the style of study suits you - fine. That is a perfectly valid argument and well reasoned and thought out. But go into your interview saying "I have 3 A levels" rather than "I have 3 AS's" and you will have more chance of getting the job or the offer of the HND. What if they say we are only recruiting FD? You then have lost most of your chances because they will take cadets who have completed A levels over you.

Just because the benchmark is 120 UCAS points that does not mean you will automatically get a job offer if you have that. You are in competition with other potential cadets. Last year Maersk recruited 55 cadets from over 1000 applicants ( I don't know the figure for this year) and I will bet that some potential cadets got dropped, even though they had 120 UCAS points because there were others who had better grades in more relevant subjects that got the job offers. I know of one interviewee who had A level predicted grades of B, B, B in Maths, Applied Maths and Physics not get a job offer......

I think A levels are the toughest two years of your life because it is harder study at a period where you have to make your own decisions about independent study and you are not mature enough to make all the right decisions. You need to ask yourself "If the job is a lot of maths and physics why am I not doing A levels in those subjects. If you think it is because you will not get high grades in them - it does not matter - 3 E's in the right subjects will probably still get you across the finishing line. If you say to yourself "I hate maths and physics" then why this career? You know that stability, navigation, chartwork etc are all maths and physics based - same with engineering.

If you have just started sixth form and need to change - do it now - before it is too late. Aim higher than you thought and if that means all out "balls to the wall" study for 2 years to get what you want - so be it. If you are not prepared to do that then you don't want it enough....

I am helping a young lady locally who has just started her A levels. She has beat herself up with extra lessons etc to get a pass in her Maths GCSE and I am so proud of her. If I turned around and told her - "don't worry find something else to do" she would kill me - she can think of nothing else other than being a Navigation Officer in the Merchant Navy and I will do all I can to help her get there - but she really is putting 100 percent into her studies every week. Before her GCSE's she came to me for a revision timetable, which we built up in Excel, starting in February with 300 hours of revision in it. She did more than we timetabled according to her mum. I cannot fault that.

I have been helping a potential cadet with his CV who is predicted a B, B, C in Maths, Physics and Chemistry this year. Do you think they would offer you a job over him?

Do you want it?

DO YOU REALLY WANT IT?

Because nobody can make you do the work if you don't want to do it......

Ian

[Midge]

This is just a general reply.
A levels have changed. The January exams don't exist anymore. AS is examined in June. A2 the following June. If the AS results are poor then students have to consider a resit at the same time as the A2 exams, which can make the workload heavy.
Gone are the days for the shock they used to get after the first AS exam where they realised GSCE is not an A level. If a student who got an A at GCSE works at the same rate for A level will ,most likely get a C at A level. So if they want a B or A at A level much more effort is required.
I think they are going to make AS a stand alone qualification, but as Mr. Gove changes his mind so frequently who knows!
Hatchorder is bang on the money, revision is the key, if you have a busy social life you may need to give something up, spend hours on gaming, watching TV? What's worth more to you achieving the best you can and a bit of sacrifice. Or achieving the top level on an Xbox, and hanging around with friends doing 'not much'. Those questions only the student can answer.
No doubt everyone is told this at school and college countless times, but its the wise ones which listen and do!

[linnez]

Hey Cheers for the great advice i can see where your coming from , wow that was long , from this now for the FD course i am now going to complete all my Alevels in the 2 years to get as many ucas points as possible , Im going to do the ocean youth trust course in october also to make my cv stand out but im going to see my maths teacher tomorrow and see if theres any mathematic courses i can do in my own time to give me a boost with my other courses , I really appreciate what you've said its an eye opener , Thank you

[linnez]

Set myself new targets in Alevels now i want atleast a B/C in Everything , A in Geography B in Business , Distinction * in Btec Science and a B/c in Media with this i will achieve 420 ucas points im going to stay in and study now instead of going out as much and cut down on the xbox , i obviously need abit of enterntainment time on it but i will cut down to achieve

[GuinnessMan]

Set myself new targets in Alevels now i want atleast a B/C in Everything , A in Geography B in Business , Distinction * in Btec Science and a B/c in Media with this i will achieve 420 ucas points im going to stay in and study now instead of going out as much and cut down on the xbox , i obviously need abit of enterntainment time on it but i will cut down to achieve

Sorry to be a bit blunt here, but stop focusing on UCAS points! They are more interested in what subjects you studied and the grades you got for them than how many UCAS points you have...

Sent from the Batcave via carrier pigeon....

[Midge]

Good! What GM means to say is companies look at grades and subjects, UCAS and colleges look at points.
Now stop posting and go and create a revision timetable

[linnez]

working on it Midge ;')