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Welcome to the Home-Ed Exams Wiki, a site about qualifications for home-educated students.

1. Completely new to exams? Look at our Quick Start Guide.
2. Then, to answer your initial questions, see the Frequently Asked Questions - FAQ .
3. Find out about the subjects you are interested in. Scroll down this page to find links to subject pages. (On some mobile devices, you can use the menu button at the top) The subject pages are very important and will give an overview of your options and available resources.
4. Grab a cup of tea and have a read! Our Jargon Buster will help with any terms you don't understand.
5. Join the HE Exams community to get support from fellow home-educators. There is a Facebook group: Home Education UK Exams & Alternatives, and an email group, the HE Exams Yahoogroup. (Note: these groups are for parents/carers, not tutors or business owners).

If there is something you need to know which you can't find, please use the search function, and / or leave a comment on this page.

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General Exams Info for Home Educators

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) including, but not only: Where do I start? Can my child go to college to do GCSEs? How many should I do? etc.

Subjects - which subjects and qualifications are available to external (private) candidates?

Distance Learning Course Providers - you don't need to use correspondence courses to do exams, but they can be useful.

Finding an exam centre - centres already in use by home educators, and how to find others, or approach potential centres.

Making entries, preparing for exams and sitting exams - how do you DO all this? See also Study Skills for self-study techniques.

Past Papers - where do you find past exam papers?

Exam Changes - how does the change to new GCSEs graded 9-1 affect home educators?

Groups - home educators often study for exams in groups. Please list local or online groups here.

College for home-educated children: part-time college at 14-16, through a special scheme funded direct from the government.

Qualification Types:

• IGCSEs - What are they? How do they compare to GCSEs?
• Functional Skills
• A-levels
• Open University
• Alternative Qualifications - Open University, Btecs, American SATs, and gaining recognition for other achievements, sports, volunteering, conservation work etc. (For short vocational courses for CV-building, see our University Summer courses page)

Post-16 - what happens next?

16+ - What do home-ed teenagers do at 16+? At what age does home education officially finish? Do you still have Local Authority involvement? Can you claim Child benefit?

Personal experiences of home educators - exam results and case studies. University offers and routes to Further- and Higher- Education and employment from home-ed.

Studying A-levels from home and alternatives to the Extended Project Qualification.

Adult Education - it's never too late to gain qualifications.

Apprenticeships - get a qualification while you work.

Higher Education - applying to uni from home education, or if you were home educated previously. How to fill in UCAS forms.

• Veterinary Medicine - pointers for those aiming at vet school.

Subjects

• Accounting
• Art
• Astronomy
• Business Studies
• Classics:
  • Classical Civilization
  • Classical Greek
  • Latin
  • Sanskrit
  • Biblical Hebrew
• Computer Science
• Dance
• Development Studies
• Drama
• Economics
• English
• Environmental Management
• Geography
• Geology
• Global Citizenship
• Greek (Classical)
• Hebrew, Biblical
• History
• IT (and separate page on ECDL (European Computer Driving Licence)
• Latin
• Law
• Maths and Further / Additional Maths, plus a separate page on Maths Resources.
• Modern Foreign Languages :-
  • Arabic
  • French
  • German
  • Greek (Modern)
  • Japanese
  • Russian
  • Spanish
• Music
• PE and Sports - see Alternative_Qualifications
• Psychology
• Religious Studies
• Sanskrit
• Science - single, combined or triple? See also separate pages for single sciences:-
  • Biology and Human_Biology ; also Biology Practicals
  • Chemistry and Chemistry Practicals
  • Physics and Physics_Practicals
  • Science A-Levels
  • Vocational/non-GCSE options for science see Alternative Qualifications: science
• Sociology
• Statistics
• Travel and Tourism
• Veterinary Medicine

Describe your topic

Qualifications for UK home-educated students; subjects, syllabuses, resources, ideas. Home education is also known as Homeschooling or home schooling in some countries. This wiki is dedicated to UK qualifications and how home educators can access them.

This site has been put together by people on the HE-Exams Yahoo! email group and the Home Education UK Exams & Alternatives Facebook group which discuss the practicalities of gaining formal qualifications as a home-educated young person. Home educators share their experience and recommendations. Please do add your own suggestions to this wiki, either as a comment or by clicking the 'edit' button on any page.

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