ezzie

How possible is it to go from Yr 10 (will actually be end of Yr 11) to studying A levels in the UK? I can't seem to find past papers of A levels, but understand that A levels are at a much higher level than the NSW HSC (Yr 12) exams.

Anyone done it...or done it in reverse by bringing A level students to Oz and have an idea of the levels.

NickyC

I don't believe that A levels are regarded as being at a 'higher level' than the HSC - they're usually said to be equivalent.

You have to take into account that if you're studying 3 subjects (as for most A levels) you're obviously going to go into much more depth in each subject compared to when you're studying 5-6 subjects as in the HSC.

There is a A Level/UAI conversion that's used for entry to Australian Universities - whether the same conversion applies in the other direction, only British Universities could tell you.

There's usually a list of foreign qualifications and their local Australian equivalents in the UAC Handbook which comes out each year. The only online reference that I can find for the conversion is detailed here: http://www.anu.edu.au/cabs/ucep/Minu...mtg2/1143a.pdf.

This, of course, is the A Level to UAI conversion - not necessarily the other way round - but it should give an indication of what results are regarded as equivalent.

quoll

Only thing in reverse that I could find was Sussex saying that they would consider UAI (or whatever they are called) of 90+ but they didnt say what courses they would be considered for.

Reports from folk who have come in the opposite direction indicate that they had lower A level grade requirements for equivalent courses here but that there are sometimes difficulties with pre-requisites eg if they dont have English somewhere amongst their course choices.

It isnt only the depth of study which would make them harder but the fact that the school system in UK has an extra year of study in it - so 7 years of HS rather than 6 here. It all evens out by the end of honours though.

ezzie

Thanks Quoll, they certainly rank the A levels high compared to HSC don't they. But rather than finding equivalents, I was more looking at how hard it would be for my son who has just finished his Preliminary year of HSC to go into A levels. I quickly showed him an example of HSC Physics and an A level Physics paper and he said they had very different content. NSW curriculum seems to have a heavy space and time content, UK is more electrical (which kind of makes sense to me).

So I was wondering if anyone had kids who'd come from the UK half way through A levels or at end of GCSE's who'd commented on how they found the study....or anyone who'd got teens leaving their HSC studies to do A levels in the UK?