Are GCSEs important later on in life?

[SideWinder]

Right, story time!

Right, my girlfriend was in Colombia for 3 and a half years when she was growing up. She joined into Year 9 halfway through the year and her teachers decided it would be best to repeat the year to ensure she fully understood it. She then took exams in Year 10 but those exams aren't anything like SATS, just simply exams to pass the year. She moved to England and went to college. They let her in after interviewing her etc. and achieved 3 A-Levels (ABB) in Music, Spanish and Psychology. She's now at University and expected to get a high 2.1 in Psychology.

Anywho, graduate schemes and the majority of jobs say that to apply, you need 5 A-C GCSEs but does she actually need them? Surely not as she has the A-Levels? But then again, Maths and English GCSEs are always meant to be...well, there as they are the basics? And she'll have a degree?

Any advice?

 

[SideWinder]

I can honestly say i have never used ANY of my exam grades (gcse & a-level) to get a job in the last 15 years.

Not really my question. I am asking whether she needs them to qualify for jobs/graduate schemes. Unless i've misunderstood your post.

 

[SideWinder]

She's finishing her 2nd year at University at the moment so i guess she does have time to take GCSEs in Maths and English if it helps but i'm sure she'd rather avoid the extra work.

Greenlizard0: Makes sense.

gurdas: She should be okay on the UCAS front due to her high grades but get what you mean about the filtering, hmm.

Raymond Lin: Again, makes sense. Probably the best thing to do when she comes to applying.

 

[SideWinder]

Pointless degree, my girlfriend got a high 2.1 in Psychology and you can't do bugger all with it (related to Psychology) you need a masters or phd!

She should have known that when she studied it...to get far into Psychology, you need a Masters or PHD. Its common knowledge for the majority of students because there is so much to learn. Statistical anaylsis (Google 'SPSS'...ANOVA, Chi-squared and other tests that measure statistics), cognitive behaviour, autism and then there's the biological side. Also modules relating to Freud and the conscious mind. The list is endless because its so large.
You HAVE to specialise to get anywhere.

Foreign language is useful but psychology is NOT as academic as you can get!

Depends but see what you mean, kinda related to above.

Back on topic now!

 

[SideWinder]

Nearly all jobs ask for C grade or above in English and maths or equivalent. so very important.

C+ in English and maths are about the only important ones.

Yeah, what i thought. Ah.
Wonder how much it'll cost for her to do it...and at the end of the day, she can explain she got the GCSEs after University to help her get a job and so on.

 

[SideWinder]

But surely she'll have to study for 5 GCSEs? Not just the English and Maths? Or is it different because she's going backwards a bit?

University is quite new so not very high up the ranks - good college joined together - Roehampton. BPS recognised though.

 

[SideWinder]

So the basic advice is that is may vary from job to job...graduate schemes certainly want them though, at least the 2 GCSEs. Will pass this information on.

Any ideas about the cost of taking a GCSE course?

Very helpful replies as per always.

 

[SideWinder]

I would have thought it depends what her a-levels are in. A psychology degree doesn't prove she has basic maths skills, which is what most companies are looking for, however if she has a c in maths for a level then the gcse becomes redundant.

Does involve maths, just for the record. And a lot of maths at that. Not all of it can be done using the SPSS software and we have to learn how to do it by hand as well.