07/09/2026
It's September, it's the beginning of a new school year. Some are starting brand new courses, some are continuing to the next stage of their courses and some are thinking of returning to education to complete exams they've always wanted to achieve for career/personal reasons.
For those wanting to get their GCSE Maths in particular there comes the big dilemma: how?!
If you can commit to one evening a week I would highly recommend going to the local tech (SERC or Belfast MET). It's fun (yes, fun!), there are tutors to support you and the cost includes all resources and the exam at the end.
Online is another option if you can't get to the tech. Open Study College is a fantastic online learning website and you can pay for your course with monthly installments and opt for the course resources to be posted out to you with online tutor support. Their centres unfortunately are all in England but you can sit the exams here at an extra cost (it's quite cheap to sit the exam) but you have to find a centre that will offer this service to a private candidate.
DIY option: teach yourself with online videos, occasional lessons with private tutors (like me), help from friends and family and print your own past papers (thanks to YouTube videos of answered papers!!). But then you still have to find a school that will allow you to sit the exam at the end of the year.
For those needing to find exam centres, I've included a screenshot of exam centres and their phone numbers for CCEA exams across Northern Ireland. If you study for AQA you can still sit a CCEA exam. The content is almost an exact replica, but I recommend practicing the CCEA past papers which are free online.
Hope this helps all those out there thinking: new school year, new ambitions, new challenges. Now all you have to do...is the work 🙈😂
Good luck!!!
