Strong Demand for Easter Revision Courses

For the second year running, private colleges who offer structured A level revision courses are reporting a big increase in demand. Such courses run during the Easter holidays and help boost grades. The director or MPW College, Steve Boyes, said yesterday: “Parents and students, and for that matter schools, are becoming increasingly anxious about the growing competition for places at top flight universities. Marginal misses on conditional offers now frequently mean rejection, whereas in the past admissions tutors were in a position to be more flexible. Students who find themselves in Clearing in August 2010 will face the unpalatable choice of either dramatically lowering their university aspirations or taking a ‘gap year’ and embarking on retakes. So a very structured, high-octane revision course often gives students the extra impetus they need to transform their aspirations into reality.”

There are a few reasons why demand for Easter revision courses is on the increase. David Lowe, Principal of Davies Laing & Dick College, feels that students are getting more savvy about getting the grades they need, as it gets ever harder to secure that place on the course at university. Add to this the fact that parents are more keen than ever to invest their hard-earned cash into their children’s education as well as the fear factor associated with exam results, and you can see why one-week intensive courses are so popular. Chris Kraft, Principal of Duff Miller College, comments: “Although the recession has hit the country pretty hard in many sectors across the U.K., it would appear that private education is still thriving. I believe this is due to parents putting their children’s education before anything else. More and more parents are prepared to pay for intensive revision courses in April which can provide a vital boost just before the examinations in June.”

According to a survey of tutorial colleges, it is the A2 exams that students are most wanting to revise for, although courses are also available for AS and GCSEs. ‘High tariff’ subjects such as maths, the three sciences and economics are most popular, and it seems that revision courses for these subjects are now highly tailored to each of the three exam boards with their differing styles and specifications. Mike Kirby is the Principal of Ashbourne College, and adds that another factor which makes these courses beneficial is the wealth of material that students can take away and continue to use for their private revision right up until the exam. “Each course is accompanied by a wealth of past paper questions sorted by topic,” he says. “In addition, students receive incisive summaries for each topic and an outline of all elements of the syllabus. The course materials for each course can extend to over 100 pages!” He also believes the fact that students are facing new A2 syllabuses this year is fuelling demand.

All the colleges mentioned above and many more that offer specialist Easter Revision courses are members of the Council for Independent Education (CIFE), which is a national organisation of independent colleges which specialise in preparing students, home and international, for university entrance. 

 

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